CSX Tragedy & Railfan implications

Initial report sounds like a person taking pictures of CSX trains got killed , brings up a lot of railfan issues. Why would ANYONE be on a main line with a camera with those fast trains. Sad all the way around sorry for the loss but also sorry for the engineer & conductor who will have that vision to deal with for the rest of their lives.

https://www.uticaod.com/story/news/2023 ... 484287007/

afleetcommand wrote:Initial report sounds like a person taking pictures of CSX trains got killed , brings up a lot of railfan issues. Why would ANYONE be on a main line with a camera with those fast trains. Sad all the way around sorry for the loss but also sorry for the engineer & conductor who will have that vision to deal with for the rest of their lives.

https://www.uticaod.com/story/news/2023 ... 484287007/

When I worked on the railroad I had to chase foamers off the property!


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Sad all the way around. No identification on him? Strange.

Conjecture on my part - perhaps there's a backpack around there somewhere with ID or other items that could be used to identify him. Or a vehicle, now abandoned.

Or perhaps he's one of the new crop of bindlestiffs who like to ride trains and happened to hop off to get a few pictures.

One would think that if he's local, someone would have missed him by now.

As the saying goes, always expect a train.

Update
The Oneida County Sheriff's Office has identified the victim as 25-year-old Dakota Williams of Whitesboro

(News Channel 2, Utica NY)

Article from the UK that ran two years ago. Also saw mention of similar in China while googling the topic.

Photographers being stupid between the rails on active rail lines seems to be a worldwide issue.

https://www.insider.com/parents-toddler ... end-2021-7

My Pop was fortunate that he never was involved in a fatal incident while he was a Loco Engineer for NYCRR / PC / Conrail for 40 plus years.

One of his coworkers was running a passenger train during the NYC years and came around a curve to see someone get out of an automobile parked next to the tracks and walk to the middle of the tracks, make a sign of the cross and sit down in the middle of the tracks.... That's gonna stick in your memory for a while.

RIP to the young fellow involved in this latest incident. Condolences to his family and friends.

Everybody wants the "perfect" shot and they are willing to do anything to get it. I have seen folks stand in the middle of the gauge, other track, grade crossing, even hang off a cliff side all in pursuit of one picture. I can still see the gentleman at the Brass Anchor crossing who was not happy with me because I made extra noise going through the crossing while he stood in the middle of it the get a picture of the Hickory Creek on her maiden voyage up the river after being restored.

Expect a train in any direction at any time. Just because you think you know what goes by here at this time doesn't mean there is not something else out there.

Railjunkie wrote: ↑Mon Jul 31, 2023 8:26 am Expect a train in any direction at any time. Just because you think you know what goes by here at this time doesn't mean there is not something else out there.

Exactly! Not gonna speculate on what happened but this is a growing problem. These kids and adults(or you'd think they'd be) do some pretty stupid things to get that "perfect shot" for their social media views. This's the society that we're living in where people take dangerous risks for something as meaningless as a picture. Doesn't help having Hollywood glorify trespassing on the rr either. How many band covers or prom pictures are out there where these people just standing in the gauge or a rr track.

Part of the problem is the general decline of personal responsibility in a society that grows increasing stupid over time. I was watching the Fairport NY railcam over the weekend and saw a couple of "old enough to know better" types walking on the railhead itself. If we can't stop criminals from lifting hundreds of dollars of merchandise from stores without fear of a lawsuit, if the police are not supported and can't enforce laws, if people are so stupid they would walk in front of a train to grab a most excellent picture, we should just relax, watch the show and be thankful when the worse genes are eliminated from the pool.

FL92020 wrote: ↑Mon Jul 31, 2023 10:59 am Part of the problem is the general decline of personal responsibility in a society that grows increasing stupid over time. I was watching the Fairport NY railcam over the weekend and saw a couple of "old enough to know better" types walking on the railhead itself. If we can't stop criminals from lifting hundreds of dollars of merchandise from stores without fear of a lawsuit, if the police are not supported and can't enforce laws, if people are so stupid they would walk in front of a train to grab a most excellent picture, we should just relax, watch the show and be thankful when the worse genes are eliminated from the pool.

PERFECTLY SAID.

AceMacSD wrote: ↑Mon Jul 31, 2023 9:45 am

Railjunkie wrote: ↑Mon Jul 31, 2023 8:26 am Expect a train in any direction at any time. Just because you think you know what goes by here at this time doesn't mean there is not something else out there.

Exactly! Not gonna speculate on what happened but this is a growing problem. These kids and adults(or you'd think they'd be) do some pretty stupid things to get that "perfect shot" for their social media views. This's the society that we're living in where people take dangerous risks for something as meaningless as a picture. Doesn't help having Hollywood glorify trespassing on the rr either. How many band covers or prom pictures are out there where these people just standing in the gauge or a rr track.

Let's not forget the Film crew who got killed filming on an ACTIVE rail line, for a greg allman documentary ..

For those that had not heard or forgot, we had an idiot near Greeley CO several years back taking pictures of the Cheyenne Frontier Days train with the UP Challenger in the lead. The concept that the train is actually wider than the span between the rails never occurred to this fool, nor did they observe it in the viewfinder while snapping pictures of the oncoming train while standing on the ties outside the rails. There used to be video online of the incident, the idiot went flying like a rag doll. A little more chlorine in the Gene pool that day.

Of course as a "rail fan" I hate when the stupid things get folks hurt or killed. Is a bad thing for all involved obviously. It does amaze me the absolute disregard for the physics of these enormous machines I see almost daily. Being retired I get around more. But had an excavation business & worked for a highway dept. for years driving the snow plows, the ones based on tandem axle dumps. Saw just amazing stupidity daily when plowing. Remember one time just coming off a steep hill where it t-bones a road, I would raise the front of my "wing", lower the back side so I could see traffic from the right. As I was about to move, saw a little motion and sure enough some impatient person was trying to get a jump and was UNDER my 12ft long wing right next to the truck. So while that stuff is common I guess, with the trains the consequences are so much more severe. I've always edited out the stupid stuff like folks racing to beat the train. Maybe I won't anymore so folks can see why the rail road employee's aren't a fan of "fans"