I bought opera glasses to make up for distance. Also if you want, video camera it and then you can get as close as you want over and over again.
Why would one want to get so darn close to it anyways? They are really loud to begin with. Unless you are trying to study its serial numbers which would be interesting to see one do if it is going 60+ mph, it just doesn’t make sense to be so close.
Rule of mine is if the whole car doesn’t show up in the lense, I’m probably too close. I don’t even like railfanning at the station because even being behind the yellow line is too close for a good camera shot.
Thy’re louder with one or more cars having a flat spot . . . then it really tells me to stand well back . . .
The only time I remember being close to a train was I was photographing the locomotives at a power plant doing coal unloading that one was going 1 mph . . .
Then again I would suggest standing well back . . . if a road parallels the track . . . then stand where you won’t get hit by oncoming traffic.
Not personally. In 1973, some vandals threw a switch on the ATSF in Lawndale, CA. The northbound train went into the siding, and the engines continued past the end of track into the adjacent street, pegging autos that were waiting at the crossing gates. IIRC there were one or two people killed. The siding was later relocated to a safer location up the line.
Maybe this might make a little more sense.There were approx. 16 persons all
waiting for the inbound Amtrak to LA.They probably thought the train comming was Amtrak.It was not,It was Metrolink ,who was late and never made a stop there at the Glendale Station.Metrolink does that almost every day,about 50 or 60 mph.There is a yellow line 3’ ,but there is a 1 1/2 'steel rack also thus making it look like that is the bar to stand behind. Thanks, DaveBr
Reading through some of the previous post and this caught my attenion and I would like to add the following. I wittenessed a derailment of a general freight in which 3 tofc cars with trailers went on the cinders in a pattern that duplicated a switch and spur track[267’]. 2 box cars followed this spur to the end of the tofc cars and the trailers ended up off the end of the tofc cars in a pond.Total distance from track about 190’ and this was on 49 mph track. Sooooo 50’ or behind the RoW. fence and a flight path at right angle to track.
Reading through some of the previous post and this caught my attenion and I would like to add the following. I wittenessed a derailment of a general freight in which 3 tofc cars with trailers went on the cinders in a pattern that duplicated a switch and spur track[267’]. 2 box cars followed this spur to the end of the tofc cars and the trailers ended up off the end of the tofc cars in a pond.Total distance from track about 190’ and this was on 49 mph track. Sooooo 50’ or behind the RoW. fence and a flight path at right angle to track.
I think a lot of us–if not most of us on this post–have photography in mind? Yes?
For what it’s worth[:-^], I’ve used (physical) ISO 800 film at the Rochelle, IL trainwatchers’ park from 30 feet to 50 feet away during evening up to twilight and have gotten “makeable” prints, even with UP trains moving at moderate to fast speed. Even twilight will catch the overall works and despite 800-speed film’s normal limitation of sixteen feet, I know I am picking up the reflectorized numbers and letters on UP freights, even at those thirty-plus feet distances mentioned above. As an earlier post indicated, a telephoto can bring the works a lot closer–a zoom too, of course.
If railcars derail and start rolling, well, we have that brick shelter on a hill to help impede movement of wayward freight cars–I hope!
Nothing is completely safe–if you’re the one watching when tankers of anhydrous ammonia or chlorine spill, you won’t be safe–but you will be the first of a lot of people to die.
Nonetheless, these days, railroad cops seem to pose more of a practical problem than derailments or flying debris. [?]
I will confess to having stood 12-15 feet, maybe a little less, maybe a little more, from a double stack moving at a decent amount of speed on the Clovis Subdivision, on the Abo Canyon line. It was on straight track with plenty of light, so I did get good visibility, and an escape route. I’m not stupid–I stay far enough back that I don’t have to worry about the train’s “draft,” and I don’t stand between tracks. The crews there didn’t seem to mind. Then again, think of the Izaak Walton Inn, or even closer to the tracks, La Posada. Ed did make a good point though, that it is especially dangerous to be close at night. Oh and I hate to say it, but a lot of times there is no fence.
In any case probably the best rule here is, “If it doesn’t feel safe, then it probably isn’t safe.” The thing to really watch out for is a car stuck on the tracks or a crossing–when that happens, start running if there’s a train near (think about that Metrolink derailment).
Sincerely,
Daniel Parks
P.S. Railfan deaths this year: 1 (The railfan who died riding the unfortunate Metrolink)
Smoking deaths last year: 5, 000, 000