The article on page 8 entitled “Rail Fans in Deadly Light” and the accompanying article “Crash’s Train Engineer Was Text-Messaging” gives the hobby a little unwanted attention.
So, expect just a little bit of security issues out there.
ed
I can’t remember a week more filled with negative railfan articles than this one…Wall Street Journal, AP and LA Times all ran them.
Well, I found it on page A-11, but the WSJ prints different editions around the country so that can be expected.
It’s a fairly decent article about us in the Wall Street Journal, although it does indicate there is a possible strong connection between some teenage fans and the LA wreck. (The title is “RAIL FANS in Deadly Light.”) Fred Frailey is quoted: “As a kid, I would wait all Saturday for the freight train to come to my little podunk town in Texas.” Substitute the word “Illinois” for the word “Texas” and that’s me instead of Frailey.
Now here I go off the cliff and in to the abyss. The article goes on to say that the Metrolink engineer, Robert Sanchez, “spent time” with six local teenage rail fans. (The WSJ uses “rail fan” instead of “railfan”.) Now these teenagers were around 14, not 18. From the reports I’ve read, Mr. Sanchez (who was 46) was gay.
I’m not saying he did anything wrong. And I don’t care what another person’s orientation is. But in this case, where 25 people died and others were very seriously injured, the relationship between Sanchez and those boys can’t be ignored. Unfortunately, the Wall Street Journal chose to ignore it.
I know I’ve got to say this again. I do not judge people by their orientation. I do not believe people should suffer discrimination because of their orientation.
But if a straight 46 year old engineer had been spending time with 14 year old girls there would be red flags all over the place. I don’t see any difference he