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Pere Marquette 1225 near miss

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Posted by dogbert617 on Tuesday, December 17, 2019 5:54 AM

zardoz

While all of the FRN's in this video are candidates for an award, the imbicile shown at the 0:25 mark wins.

 

 

That video was scary to watch! And to me, it made it disappointed and annoyed that people are that stupid and careless, near railroad tracks. And that they aren't paying better attention, to look for oncoming trains at all times! I guess you can't fix stupid in some limited cases, sigh. :(

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Posted by Overmod on Tuesday, December 10, 2019 1:53 AM

SD70Dude
At least the parents were holding their kids instead of letting them run onto the track

Or stand on their feet ... head to toe in the steam plume.

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Tuesday, December 10, 2019 12:53 AM

I just uploaded the video to Vimeo dot com:

 

https://vimeo.com/378470360

 

The video starts with the train going west, past the Wye at the Amanas (Iowa).  It backs into the west leg of the wye and then exits out the east leg.  It is there that the crowd get the show and free steam cleaning.  I had my radio scanner in the same hand as the video camera so you can hear the radio chatter.  It is a long video (over 10 minutes) but I did a lot of editing to remove the really (REALLY) boring parts!  The bush gets cleaned at about 8:40-8:45 and the socks are washed at around 9:12.

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Posted by SD70Dude on Monday, December 9, 2019 11:31 PM

Semper Vaporo
SD70Dude

So do it a few hundred feet from the photographer line.  I guarantee it'll scare 'em off!

Sorry, I have video of the IAIS steam locos being turned on the Wye south of the Amanas on their inagural run a few years ago.  The lead loco engineer put on quite a show with lots of steam belching out everywhere, including steam cleaning a bush (blow down) a hundred feet from the photo line as it pulled onto the main.  The cylinder cocks were open the whole time and they also steam cleaned the socks of a few people that were holding CHILDREN close to the tracks.  One fellow with a 1 or 2 year old did a bit of a dance as he turned to get away.

Sigh.  I should have learned by now to never misunderestimate the stupidity of people.

At least the parents were holding their kids instead of letting them run onto the track.

Greetings from Alberta

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Monday, December 9, 2019 11:19 PM

SD70Dude

So do it a few hundred feet from the photographer line.  I guarantee it'll scare 'em off!

Sorry, I have video of the IAIS steam locos being turned on the Wye south of the Amanas on their inagural run a few years ago.  The lead loco engineer put on quite a show with lots of steam belching out everywhere, including steam cleaning a bush (blow down) a hundred feet from the photo line as it pulled onto the main.  The cylinder cocks were open the whole time and they also steam cleaned the socks of a few people that were holding CHILDREN close to the tracks.  One fellow with a 1 or 2 year old did a bit of a dance as he turned to get away.

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Posted by SD70Dude on Monday, December 9, 2019 10:10 PM

So do it a few hundred feet from the photographer line.  I guarantee it'll scare 'em off!

Greetings from Alberta

-an Articulate Malcontent

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Monday, December 9, 2019 10:01 PM

Blowdown could scald innocent people.

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Posted by SD70Dude on Monday, December 9, 2019 8:27 PM

tree68

Opening up the cylinder_cocks is amazingly effective...

One word:  Blowdown.

(Go big or go home!)

Greetings from Alberta

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Posted by Overmod on Monday, December 9, 2019 8:18 PM

Bar with spray nozzles on the ends, hinged like a folding ruler for storage and transport, laid across the pilot beam as you back down for a runby, spraying chalk with a tap from brake air?

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Posted by tree68 on Monday, December 9, 2019 7:27 PM

Overmod
What is needed, perhaps, is some group acceptance of how to get people standing too close to move back.  If photorailfans could agree on this half as well as they complain about jumping photo lines, we could easily get self-policing to work well in advance of one step too close to the danger line.

Opening up the cylinder_cocks is amazingly effective...

During this thread, I've wondered about a hi-rail or speeder with poles sticking out both sides.  Add to that an ongoing announcement that the train won't be through until the pole doesn't touch anyone...

Or maybe, in areas with a high number of photographers, painting a line with marking paint (like surveyors, etc, use) at the safe distance.  

LarryWhistling
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Posted by Overmod on Monday, December 9, 2019 6:22 PM

Flintlock76
That being said, I'd drag the zombie and risk the suit.

It's not that easy.

For you to accomplish that in the 'instant' case, where you have appreciable heifer inertia to overcome, you would have to spring toward the track, with considerable acceleration/acquired velocity and hence momentum.  When you get within grabbing range, transferring any of that would have guaranteed a hard and probably lethal strike -- now with you, too, in the lethal zone; if you had the misfortune to be holding onto her at that moment, as she gets propelled forward by impact you will swing around and into the valve gear.

Assuming you do grab on and can swing her out of danger, you still have that momentum and you will rotate around the mutual center of mass ... howdy,  Mr. Berkshire, we've got to stop meeting like this and after our little OQKBFP I think that'll happen...!

The only alternative likely to 'work' is to tackle right across the main as hard as you can.  Good luck with THAT in court!  And if you tackle even a bit short, let's hope the photo line lets you use their phone charging cords for the tourniquets around where the lower legs used to be.

Beginning to appreciate the inconvenient physics only as you arrive in the arena, so to speak, is not going to be a happy thing.

It's fun to do virtue signaling, but the practical implementation of attempted heroism can be much more difficult and considerably less amenable to smug opinions... and quite possibly more disastrous than the alternative.

What is needed, perhaps, is some group acceptance of how to get people standing too close to move back.  If photorailfans could agree on this half as well as they complain about jumping photo lines, we could easily get self-policing to work well in advance of one step too close to the danger line.

If I recall the UP autistic-kid video, it was in fact a stranger that picked him up by the shoulders and moved him over; at least one other person can be seen 'reasoning' with the kid, of course not being noticed.  That was an example of reasonable action... with inevitable bad ending if not done.

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Posted by tree68 on Monday, December 9, 2019 3:36 PM

Flintlock76
It wouldn't surprise me one damn bit if the person who dragged a "smart-phone zombie" out of the path of an approaching train was sued for assault by the zombie.  

Or got physical because his "perfect shot" was ruined.

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Monday, December 9, 2019 2:51 PM

BigJim

 

 
SD70Dude
One not so smart and very lucky photographer: https://www.facebook.com/scott.shields.31/videos/3169084723118102/

 


What I find disturbing is that no one, in particular the person filming this, attempted to get the lady out of the way! Nobody was yelling at her nor did anyone grab her by the scruff of the neck to jerk her out of the way! 
So, there is more than one "not so smart" person on the scene.

 

 

 

It wouldn't surprise me one damn bit if the person who dragged a "smart-phone zombie" out of the path of an approaching train was sued for assault by the zombie.  

Certainly there'd be plenty of witnesses to back up the "dragger," possibly even video, and maybe a fair-minded judge would throw the case out of his court with a stern admonition to the person doing the suing, but this would be another case of "nobody wins but the lawyers."

That being said, I'd drag the zombie and risk the suit. 

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Posted by BaltACD on Monday, December 9, 2019 1:12 PM

Lithonia Operator
I've often wondered how often people get ensnared in remotely-controlled switches. It has happened, right?

I am not aware of the NTSB getting involved in trespasser incidents - they are much too numerous for their limited staff to investigate and are much too local in nature to be able to establish some form of National directive that would be effective in limiting the incidents.  Don't Trespass is the only possible directive and that directive would not reach the trespasser.

Local investigations and their results only get disseminated in the area of the incident.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

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Posted by MMLDelete on Monday, December 9, 2019 12:48 PM

I've often wondered how often people get ensnared in remotely-controlled switches. It has happened, right?

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Posted by zugmann on Monday, December 9, 2019 12:38 PM

Semper Vaporo
I have often wondered if it would be possible to extracate a child's foot from a closed switch... I am fairly certain an approaching train would get there long before the switch could be moved back remotely (considering the time to place a call, convince someone to contact the dispatcher, reset the advance signal, wait for the timeout and then send the command to move the switch.

You probably won't be able to remove the foot.  But it probably won't be attached to the kid's leg at that point, either.

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Monday, December 9, 2019 12:32 PM

I HAVE confronted people doing dumb things around RR tracks... (allowing a child to "tightrope walk" on the rail at a remotely controlled switch, such that the child slipped a couple of times into the space between the rail and the point; standing IN THE GAUGE to take their photo; etc.).  Each time I was told to "Mind your own business and get away from us!" along with the customary hand sign.

The only way to "save" someone is to convince them that they are about to die, and that sometimes takes a whole lot of convincing!

I have often wondered if it would be possible to extracate a child's foot from a closed switch... I am fairly certain an approaching train would get there long before the switch could be moved back remotely (considering the time to place a call, convince someone to contact the dispatcher, reset the advance signal, wait for the timeout and then send the command to move the switch.

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Monday, December 9, 2019 10:13 AM

BigJim
 
Overmod

Murphy Siding

Huh?
 

"We should listen, and listen, and listen ... to YOU."

More interesting than I (as a chronic, longwinded, pedantic curmudgeon) really care to admit.

 

Murphy,
In this case it is used to show that forumites care more about ridiculing and calling one person a fool than the fact that someone on scene could have prevented what happened...but DIDN'T!

 

 

  OK. It makes sense now. I fear that's more of an internet thing, as it's all going that way more and more...something about going to hell in a handbasket Sigh

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Posted by tree68 on Monday, December 9, 2019 7:31 AM

BigJim
In this case it is used to show that forumites care more about ridiculing and calling one person a fool than the fact that someone on scene could have prevented what happened...but DIDN'T!

Gee, thanks for the generalization.  

Yes, there were people there who could have, and should have, taken action to prevent the incident.

But that doesn't make the "victim" any less of a fool.

Unfortunately, the fellow probably has framed the coat and tagged it as "torn by 1225..." to show off to his friends.

LarryWhistling
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Posted by BigJim on Monday, December 9, 2019 7:21 AM

Overmod

Murphy Siding

Huh?
 

"We should listen, and listen, and listen ... to YOU."

More interesting than I (as a chronic, longwinded, pedantic curmudgeon) really care to admit.

Murphy,
In this case it is used to show that forumites care more about ridiculing and calling one person a fool than the fact that someone on scene could have prevented what happened...but DIDN'T!

 

.

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Sunday, December 8, 2019 9:32 PM

Overmod

 

 
Murphy Siding
Huh?

 

It's from a book of poetry about children who don't like excessive pedantry or control imposed on them when in mandatory school classes.

"We should listen, and listen, and listen ... to YOU."

More interesting than I (as a chronic, longwinded, pedantic curmudgeon) really care to admit.

 

Wow. In the words of the great philosopher Marty McFly, heavy man, real heavy.

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Posted by Overmod on Sunday, December 8, 2019 1:38 PM

Murphy Siding
Huh?

It's from a book of poetry about children who don't like excessive pedantry or control imposed on them when in mandatory school classes.

"We should listen, and listen, and listen ... to YOU."

More interesting than I (as a chronic, longwinded, pedantic curmudgeon) really care to admit.

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Posted by Murphy Siding on Sunday, December 8, 2019 1:28 PM

BigJim

The geranium on the windowsill just died, but teacher you went right on.

 

Huh?

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Posted by BigJim on Sunday, December 8, 2019 7:52 AM

The geranium on the windowsill just died, but teacher you went right on.

.

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Posted by ROBERT WILLISON on Sunday, December 8, 2019 5:59 AM

Almost a repeat of  the unfortunate  photographer who was struck by  the 844. You have to pray for these people. We all expect to go home to our families. 

I don't know what drive people to get the " perfect " shot. People every day fall off of cruise ship balconies, into the grand canyon and other cliffs. It's not just a steam locomotive that  makes rational people make very poor decisions.

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Posted by Semper Vaporo on Sunday, December 8, 2019 4:22 AM

I am sure the people all thought the whistle was being blown FOR the fans.

Semper Vaporo

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Posted by tree68 on Saturday, December 7, 2019 10:01 PM

BigJim
What I find disturbing is that no one, in particular the person filming this, attempted to get the lady out of the way! Nobody was yelling at her nor did anyone grab her by the scruff of the neck to jerk her out of the way! 

I've seen several videos where the offending photog had to be physically removed from danger.  They don't seem to think that the verbal warnings or sounding of horns/whistles applies to them.

The one I cited in Owosso ignored a number of exhortations to move back.  

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Posted by BigJim on Saturday, December 7, 2019 12:53 PM

SD70Dude
One not so smart and very lucky photographer: https://www.facebook.com/scott.shields.31/videos/3169084723118102/


What I find disturbing is that no one, in particular the person filming this, attempted to get the lady out of the way! Nobody was yelling at her nor did anyone grab her by the scruff of the neck to jerk her out of the way! 
So, there is more than one "not so smart" person on the scene.

 

.

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Posted by SD60MAC9500 on Saturday, December 7, 2019 12:07 PM
 

Years back I witnessed a CSX freight go into a penalty brake application due to a drone in Fostoria who dropped his roller blade on the crossing and doubled back to grab it... 

 
 
Rahhhhhhhhh!!!!

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