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There's an active RR bridge I go to. I've posted this picture elsewhere with a warning because trains cross this bridge at some serious speeds (60mph+) There's a crossing 1 mile west of the bridge where you can hear them blowing the horn, 60 seconds elapse before they hit the bridge. Simple math can help figure that one out...
Anyway, I 'railfan' a lot, pretty hard core at times. BUT I also respect the tracks I'm around. I've also pretty much developed a schedule after massive recon in the areas I frequent - which I know doesn't mean something can come unannounced. I also have time tables and the smaller rail companies here do post schedules for long haul trains on the main line. I can concur that messing around on the rails is a serious risk! Fortunately, knock on wood, I haven't had nor seen any seriously accidents, can definitely see how they happen though!
1. The warning is VERY accurate about this track!
Damn the man, save the empire! |
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Posted by mookster
In the UK it's drilled into us from an early age starting in school that railway tracks = serious danger of death.
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Yeah I guess it's different over here because not a single person i've talked to about that around here knew it was illegal. I don't really see a lot of trains, so i always had the slow moving, loud, you have to be a drunk man on a wheelchair, to be hit by one of these, image in my head.... actually one time i heard one in the distance with some friends and we definitely had the conversation "lets go jump on it!"
So i guess I was just really oblivious my whole life lol. Later after that train incident i looked up pics of people hit by trains...
I won't be fucking around on train tracks anymore...
AAAAAAAAAAAADVENTURE TIME!!!! |
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Posted by AdventureDan
So i guess I was just really oblivious my whole life lol. Later after that train incident i looked up pics of people hit by trains...
I won't be fucking around on train tracks anymore...
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I can remember going on a school trip to a Police safety activity camp kind of thing when I was ten or eleven and one of the talks was on railway safety, and we had described to us in great detail by police officers what happened when a couple of teenagers decided to play on some railway tracks and what the resulting mess was like, if anyone had been considering playing on tracks before that they definitely weren't afterwards!
Of course I am helped in the explore side of things by having absolutely zero interest in trains as a photographic subject so I tend to not be involved with railway lines in general terms anyway!
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I kind of wonder why we don't have train track safety awareness in this country. Maybe it is just common sense. I used lots of train tracks to cut through the woods as a kid and thought nothing of it.I never considered how many people are killed on them or how quickly they can come.
"First rule of space travel, kids, is always answer distress beacons. 9 out of 10 times it's a ship full of dead bodies and free shit." |
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Missed the framing by that much!
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Posted by Granuaile
or how quickly they can come. |
Another thing people don't realize is how quiet a train can be. I railfan in quiet zones sometimes and since they don't use the horn I've had a couple pass me before I even knew it....
https://www.flickr...otos/97792661@N03/ |
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My buddy was being an idiot and got trapped in between a tunnel and this train as it blew by him. The conductor was pissed, I thought for sure we were going to be met by police after this. Having respect for the rails and the conductors is an absolute must, if you hear train coming and have the time to maneuver off the tracks there is no excuse not to.
http://www.flickr....rescueme1060/sets/
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That is terrifying. I'm not sure how I would react if a situation like that happened to me. Very quick thinking on their part.
Youtube.com/JKuhnss |
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I was Urban exploring with another person in broad daylight on a set of train tracks off of a major highway downtown.
We had just found this beautiful abandoned bridge filled with graffiti from another era.
The area was covered with the signs of disuse, weeds growing in between the rusted tracks, squatters hunkered by in tents eying us curiously, while a man practiced his scales on the saxophone. (I couldn't make that last part up if I tried...)
We were just about to leave, when suddenly I spot a large Green and White train in front of us.
I turn to my partner and say casually, "Hey, is that a train?" She shrugged and replied, "Yeah, but these tracks aren't used are they?"
So we waited...And it got closer.
I looked to my left and saw another set of tracks, newer, but not by much, less then a stones throw away from where we were standing.
"It's probably going to take those tracks." I thought, trying to convince myself of my security.
It got closer.
And closer.
Until we both realized with a start, that it was coming right at us.
Panicking, with less than a few meters between us and it, we dove off the side of the tracks into a fence and waited for it to pass with less than a few feet between us and Green death...
But to our surprise--It merely hopped onto the other set of tracks on the other side from where we were standing...Literally 5m away from us...
We laughed off our stupid luck and got off the tracks further down the way.
Tracks are dangerous, but the lesson learned here is, if you're going to go Tracking, then you should know your train routes and train schedules inside out...
If we were any further down there would have been no where to run to.
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Posted by mooksterOf course I am helped in the explore side of things by having absolutely zero interest in trains as a photographic subject
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I wish I was like that. I have given up on or said the hell with an explore to shoot trains many times. Trains win out every time. *sigh*
https://www.flickr...otos/97792661@N03/ |
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Posted by Cherokee
What about hitting the ground? Freight trains usually have a few feet of ground clearance on either side of the tracks.
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Unless it has a plow or some other crap like a tree limb dragging underneath. Clearance can depend on how heavy the rail is as well.
Exploring the distance between points A & B. |
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Has anyone on this forum actually been forced to lay on the tracks to avoid getting hit?
"First rule of space travel, kids, is always answer distress beacons. 9 out of 10 times it's a ship full of dead bodies and free shit." |
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more railfan safety tips via abuserfriendly.tumblr.com:
Distances from Moving Trains While Trainwatching and Their Implications
4 feet or less: you’re dead. Wide, solid stuff overhangs the sides of freight trains and it’s not exactly cushy stuff. Trains going over 80 mph can suck you under them.
4 to 12 feet: you’re called in to the dispatcher or photographed by the train crew, the cops come and hassle or arrest you if they choose to be mean about it. Run all you want, they’ve got pictures.
12 to 16 feet on railroad property: see above.
16 feet or more on railroad property: still trespassing, will be called in unless the train crew is really busy and its the middle of nowhere. Best be moving on quickly unless “nightstick sandwich” is one of your favorite dishes.
16 feet or more off railroad property: should be OK, but you will still be inhaling diesel exhaust, carcinogenic coal dust, and getting sprayed with raw sewage if retention toilets are not being used in your country. If you’re cool with all of the above, rock on! Make sure you get a nice shot.
"First rule of space travel, kids, is always answer distress beacons. 9 out of 10 times it's a ship full of dead bodies and free shit." |
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I have a strong distaste for lightrail/trolley/subway system here in Pittsburgh. I could go on forever about how much I hate it, but I mostly do for the fact when I was in 6th grade I lived in a duplex that was 25ft from the tracks. Being a 6th grader, having a 15ft fence and trolley tracks for a backyard is pretty shitty. Not to mention the fact I was the midst of a phase of struggling to sleep regardless of te circumstances, so having my room be the closest one to the tracks made things even better...
Wait what were we talking about? Oh yeah, close calls with trains...none that I recall really other than than the everyday scattering off the tracks when a T came in to view, that came with walking home along the tracks with my friends when I was in middle school.
An elderly couple in their car did get struck by a train a few weeks ago.
http://pittsburgh....in-castle-shannon/
Don't you just hate how those big flashing warning lights and arms just come out of nowhere and give you no warning that a trains coming?!
That was actually just about a half mile up the tracks from where I used to live and I occasionally take that road on my way to work.
Back in '89 a recent ex-girlfriend of my best friend's father was brutally murdered while taking a short cut across the tracks about a quarter mile down the other direction down the tracks.
http://crimesandtr...rnal.com/2393.html
Also an ex-boyfriend of an older sister of one of my classmates, was hitting by a train in that same 1 mile stretch of track, attempting suicide after attempting to murder of her.
http://triblive.co...html#axzz39CWLqnE6
Moral of the story stay the fuck away from trolley tracks, unless you planning on getting murdered, failing to commit suicide after an attempted murder, or getting into a literal traffic jam.
The Artisan Pizza Blood Line
http://www.flickr....yathomedefenseman/ |
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RR tracks are nothing more than Darwin plying his craft.
R.I.P. NickSan | R.I.P. Don Corleyone |
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Posted by Benched_it
I wish I was like that. I have given up on or said the hell with an explore to shoot trains many times. Trains win out every time. *sigh*
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Oh me too! 
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I used to play on the tracks all the time when the trucks used to come by and check out the rails we used to say hi to them ad continue walking on the rails as they go by never been told to leave or get off i still walk through train tunnels all the time as it isn't hard to know when a train is coming
http://www.flickr.com/photos/510ue/
https://www.facebook.com/FFPUrbex |
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Posted by Granuaile
I kind of wonder why we don't have train track safety awareness in this country.
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It was certainly drilled into my brain, but there's a fuckton of rails in Denver. I'm not much of a railfan so I gladly stay away from the tracks, but it's pretty easy to not get hit by trains in this town (lest you count Commerce City). It takes a certain level of carelessness, recklessness, or just plain stupidity. People get splattered all the time nonetheless. Had some buddies back in the day that would go to the yards to hop trains purely for recreation. That sport came to an abrupt end one night when one of them shot a bit short and miraculously avoided a mangling. Any less agile a fellow would have lost a foot at the least. An inch or two lower and the dude would've been dead regardless of his agility.
Clarksdale, MS is a town divided by two trains that obviously haven't moved a smidgen in decades. The townspeople cross the couplings all the time. I knew those trains weren't going anywhere but it still made me a little nervous, like sticking my finger in an electrical socket I know has no juice. It's just something I was taught never to do.
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Posted by skrimace
Clarksdale, MS is a town divided by two trains that obviously haven't moved a smidgen in decades. The townspeople cross the couplings all the time. I knew those trains weren't going anywhere but it still made me a little nervous, like sticking my finger in an electrical socket I know has no juice. It's just something I was taught never to do.
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That sounded interesting so I just had to look it up... on the Southwest end of town it looks like they just pushed old cars until they ran out of track, and then pushed a little farther...
Turn off the internet and go play outside.
http://spamusement...hp/comics/view/137 |
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Posted by Cherokee
What about hitting the ground? Freight trains usually have a few feet of ground clearance on either side of the tracks.
I love trains. I love everything about trains. But I also deeply respect them. I'll never get closer than twenty feet from a moving train, farther if I'm down hill.
A few years ago a teen committed suicide by putting his neck on the rail waiting for a commuter to come by. One of my favorite locations on my list of the Goat Canyon Trestle, a long-abandoned rail trestle in the California Desert, recently has been seeing renewed use by a small rail company starting up. I'm scared to go there now, freight trains don't release schedules so It's impossible to know when one might be coming.
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more like 4 - 5 inches at the front of the locomotive, at the cars your looking at maybe 6 - 8 inches. either way... your fucked if you play around the tracks.
[last edit 10/31/2014 3:49 PM by thetrainguru - edited 1 times]
Create don`t destroy.
http://www.flickr....tos/104842213@N04/ |
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