no trespasing sign's is all that is required, common sense would help but how many families use that old standby.
Fencing in railroad is not required, and would only open up the railroad to lawsuits, cause if you start fencing, you can't stop, every town and house woould want the fencing and if anything happens they would blame the railroad, cause they probably did not maintain the fencing.
Maybe if we shot 80% of lawyers in this country, common sense would return.
Only 80%?
I can think of 3 or 4 that I might expempt.
But the northbound trains do give adequate warning?
Without going into some sarcasm laden post about the idiocy of the parents, I think one of the problems is lack of edcuation. By that I mean, a lack of edcuation about railroad tracks, trains, and the dangers.
In the years I have been railfanning, I have had quite a few conversations with people who are curious about what it is I am doing. Invariably, I get the "how long does it take for a train to stop" question, and when I tell them, I have had quite a few people react with utter disbelief. As in, "No way does it take a train a mile or more to stop" and, in the case of one person. "How could the government allow something so unsafe around people". I shook my head at that one....
Joliet Union station can be an interesting place to be, for one reason. There is a banquet hall in the station, and at least once a weekend, there is an event there, usually a wedding reception..(if me and the ex get remarried, THAT's where I want my reception... ) Anyway the partygoers usually wind up outside on the platform when the trains start coming by, because they are curious, and if there are kids at these events, they are very curious. And since I am there quite often with my camera, I get lots of questions. Last weekend, there was this one woman who was thrilled by the trains... she had no idea they were so big. And, as she put it. "I see them from a distance, and look at them as a waste of time." I can understand that, because most people, in there day to day lives, their exposure to trains and railroading is usually negative. Being the observer of behavior that I am, I watched how everyone that was out there regarded the passing of a train. In one case, a dad was walking up and down the platform with his son and daughter, explaining the dangers of playing on the tracks to them. In another case, this woman and her daughter sat and watched the trains from a bench, because it reminded them of her father. And yet, others after having the basic signals explained to them, would get excited to see a green light. The point I am making is, it doesn't take much to make some people understand. This would be the third time I had been up at Joliet, and was talking to different people from a wedding reception, or other party. But, what was fun to see were the different people, all thrilled, for one reason or another, to watch the trains go by. Also, between myself, and the two or three other railfans that were there, I think we helped give a bunch of people a better understanding.....
Parents, like the ones described by rrnut282, are totally ignorant of their surroundings, and those are the kind of people who get themselves, or others hurt, or killed through their acts of stupidity. I love that line that "it's impossible for a train to come by" that shows complete ignorance on the part of the father. If that were me, I would have been calling the local cops as well as the RR cops, because that begins to border on negligent behavior. I don't know what kind of education it will take, Public Service Announcements from the FRA, or the AAR, or railroads themselves? Commercials? I don't know. But, even a little knowledge might save someone's life.....
RRNut, you did the right thing by calling these people in.... if they can't understand what they are doing, then, perhaps someone had to save them from themselves. I would have done the same thing....
Just now, a westbound BSNF manifest came thundering by my ex's house laying on the horn.....perhaps someone recklessly crossing the tracks without using the pedestrian tunnel a half ablock west of here....
We had a case here some years ago where mom and dad left the kid in a stroller on the ROW while they picked berries. I forget the exact circumstances, but if there was a collision with the stroller by the train that came through, it was minor and the child lived...
I was on the platform at the Rome, NY station one day, shooting some pictures, when a CWR train came through and scared the living daylights out of me.... No crossings for miles, so no warning other than looking...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
The Washington, DC, Metro has chain link fence or concrete wall on all its ROW. Plus, there are plastic boxes on the inside of the fence all connected by a cable. These could be motion detectors, but I'm not sure. And they have the "No Trespassing" signs at the appropriate intervals.
Basically, you can't keep out a determined trespasser, but one would have to cut through or climb over something in order to get on the MetroRail ROW.
Don U. TCA 73-5735
I realize that the OP wrote "short of fencing off the entire dang railway." Of course, fence costs money, but how does the cost of a fence compare to the cost of installing and maintaining the track and roadbed? Probably a small percentage, I think.
I merely wanted to point out that fence happens. In this case the Metro is always coming under fire for costs, with very strong pushing by the people to reduce the tax subsidy. Yet everyone has accepted the cost of the fence.
The OP asked for ideas.
How about a robot about half the size of a compact car to run about a mile ahead of the train (GPS navigation) to warn trespassers? Bonus - It could have a video camera so the crew could see something in time to stop, which would help with other safety issues.
Cheap little radio receivers mounted on utility poles to announce "Train is coming." They would receive a signal from a low power transmitter on the train when the train is about two miles away or closer. Maybe they could use the existing Head-of-Train signal as a trigger.
Volunteers to patrol the ROW (from outside the RR property, of course) to shoo trespassers off.
Bring back Mars lights, but with modern quartz-iodide power levels. Those lights were extremely noticable.
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