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[quote]QUOTE: Originally posted by icmr I'm VERY MAD about all of this. Here's an idea. Someone starts a national Railfan club and if you are a member you get a card that says you can legally be around the tracks, take pictures, and viedo tape the trains. That way you can be there and no problems. [/quote] Would that it was that simple! When a train sounds audible warning at you do you know the correct response? I'm not knocking Railfans... I've just known way too many bodies picked out from under... You want to be the police officer (one of those BIG BAD Police officers) who goes round to tell your wife and kids that your parts are down the morgue? Oh Yeah... and the Coyotes will be snacking on the bits they didn't find... after the fire crew finished hosing your blood,guts and brains off the neighbourhood. Got the idea...? I was taking a train up to London with a girlfriend. As we walked across an invisible line at the station entrance she laughed. (By the way, that's the same line where the commuters turn their brains off automatically and expect to be ejected gently at the other end on time to the nanosecond)... So,anyway... I asked her what was funny. Her chuckle was because she'd noticed other rail workers come out of an office/mess room as her train pulled in the day before. She said that she saw a magic transformation as they crossed some other invisible line. Both they and I apparently changed "mode". her observation was correct... we do... I don't know how... it gets in the blood... Rail workers still get killed and maimed... When I have new staff I give them this example... Do you play football/American football/cricket/baseball/basketball/... ? Okay... so, when you are playing you need to have a strong awareness of where your team members are around you, where the opposition are, what's happening, what APPEARS to be developing and several more likely alternates that could happen. Okay... so you play on Sundays and when you can fit it in... You need to have the PROFESSIONAL SKILLS that would get you into Manchester United , the Red Sox or whoever... This isn't a hobby ... it's a job. That's Exactly the sort of awareness you need to develop when "on or about the track"... which means from about ten foot before you cross the boundary. You need to have that "radar" scanning every second you are there. I've come so close to being spread thin by a Class 47 doing 70 that my colleague watching past out. (Which put him at risk of injury). I've known a Station Master who was a good guy and red hot on safety get spread the length of West Croydon Station. What chance do you expect someone wandering about with :- no proper training, no mentoring, no proper experience, probably little or no proper equipment... to have? Do you know how far back you should stand from a train doing 70? Do you understand "turbulance"? We had a very nice young lad, a vicar's son, no vandal or trouble maker, wanted to get some really good pictures... so he climbed onto a car... got away with it until he tried to climb over the catenary... They wouldn't let his parents see what was left. They'd had to chip molten flesh off the car roof. You could (in this country) do a "Track Environment" course... £1,100... after you've paid for your "Personal track Safety" course.... and, as someone that started 25 + years ago I don't reckon either is worth zip.... The way I was trained... I went out with a steam man who'd worked on the track during WWII. He told me what NOT to do, then what to do. If I started to move the wrong way I got a smack in the ear on that side... barbaric?... a train ... doing 1 mph... doesn't know anything about culture... doesn't care... it's pieces of metal... moving. I got the message... and the above time is still not the only time I've had to stand back fast and take a shuddering breath. I WANT RAILFANS TO ENJOY RAILROADS. I DON'T WANT THEM TO END UP IN BODY BAGS. There is one thing that I tell all new staff is THE MOST DANGEROUS THING ON THE TRACK... IT'S YOU. YOU ARE WHAT WILL PUT YOU IN DANGER... NOT THE RAILROAD NOT THE MANAGEMENT NOT A FRIEND NOT YOUR WIFE NOT YOUR HUSBAND NOT YOUR KIDS YOU Which do you reckon is the more likely to get you into danger? ... Drugs in your blood? Alcohol? Fatigue? The row you had with your parther? The letter from the IRS? Concentrating on what you are doing? HEY! (As they used to say on Hill Street Blues) "Let's be careful out there". ENJOY YOUR RAILROADING
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