Man Killed On Railroad Tracks By State Fairgrounds

http://www.syracuse.com/newsflash/regio ... orylist=ny

So close to the start of the fair.

well, in this particular case it very likely was *not* a railfan "sitting directly in the path of the train as it approached around 1:55 a.m."
sounds like maybe a suicide..sad.
Scot

My first guess was a James E. Strates Staff member at first when I heard about the accdent. I'm just trying to figure out how anyone could have driven back there.

The nearest road to the far West is Pottery Road there is a gate and a huge tree blocking the road so there no way to follow the tracks there.

The next location would be off Willis Ave by the former Blue O Cement plant. But the Railroad Road ends just befor the switchback that enters Crucibal Steel about 40 years to the east of the gate that enters the fair grounds NRHS Sideing. There is a tar patch that cross the tracks there at that location depends on if there are any cars blocking it thow.

crew of Q108 reported seeing a person on the tracks. Being he was a local resident of Solvay, NY, I believe he may have been hired by the Carnival show as temp. help for the fair. It is not uncommon for the show to hire local temp. help for setup, operate rides, and general labor. The James E. Strate show cars behind the fairgrounds are utilized by fulltime performers and employees as living quarters, and business office. A very sad situation. I personal think there should be a safety fence between the JES personel cars and the active CSX tracks anyway. That morning I was W bd on q625 at about 11:30am and while passing the JES cars I saw a JES employee doing his laundry in a tub between his car and the active Controled Siding between CP 296 and CP 293. Clearance between the JES cars and the siding isn't more than 10 ft. Not a good situation. Esspecially when the CSX/NYS operation Life Saver car is just a couple hundred feet east.

There is a laundrymat just the outher side of the waste bed off Willis Ave along with a small store. Can't say that they don't know its not there unless nobody wants to walk down there. Its not an easy nabour hood to be in. Heard a few gun shots once while passing threw there a few times a couple of years back.