Western Railroad Discussion > Dumbest and Most Dangerous Railfanning You've Done

I'm referring to my own, not someone else's.
As a college student in 1964, I took my female "date" to Englewood Yard in Houston AT NIGHT!
I thought that would be a cool thing, and would make her like me for my "different" date idea.
We stayed not long, it didn't feel good.
She was a lovely and smart woman. I married another woman in 1980. 42 years. All is well.

Mark
Austin TX


 

I'm sure I speak for a lot of posters when I say I am certainly not going to share that type of information on an internet forum.  BSB

One time at Hill 582 a buddy and I were checking things out. Knowing there were changes coming (new track) he went down to the signal to have me get his photo. BNSF cop spotted us from afar and came rushing down in a whirlwind of dust. We figured he wanted to talk so mosied down to the bottom of the hill. We got the usual stay away from the track, can I see your ID.  Then he sez, I am also from (my home town in WA). He was on a 3 mo reassignment and soon to head back north...then he was off like Santa in a cloud of dust chaseing bikers jumping the tracks.  Stay off the ROW.
RB

In June of 2005, while in Waterbury, Ct, I walked across the tracks in the afternoon to get a picture of a Metro North shuttle train with one of the FL9s on the north end. Nobody said anything to me but I would never do that now. Waterbury isn't the safest place to be railfanning. Plus the better spots along the Waterbury Line are in the other communities along the branch.

One time many years ago the Zephyr was detouring across Wyoming, and I was some distance ahead of it.

Somewhere between Medicine Bow and Laramie I stopped, and ran across the tracks to get the train in better light.

After the train passed and I was walking back to my car, a guy in a UP truck pulls up and admonishes me.

I told him I was sorry, what I did was foolish, and I wouldn’t do it again. And I haven’t done it since.

Posted from iPhone

I invoke my right against self-incrimination!

> ...what I did was foolish, and I wouldn’t do it again.

So you've never "ran across railroad tracks" since then? Why?

Let’s just say I haven’t been so blatant about it.

Posted from iPhone

In the late 60's-early 70's, always walked across the Lehigh River bridge in Bethlehem. Never had a train come, which is good because it is a bit tight.

TJY

Back in the late 40's we used to walk on the catwalk under the rails on the trestle across the river in Capitola and if a train came we  would lie down on the boards and the ballast  etc dropped on us---talk about stupid!! jeeeez----

Carol Voss
Bakersfield, CA

This isn’t a railfanning-specific thing, but it was common practice to use the Southern Pacific San Francisquito Creek bridge to cross between Menlo Park and Palo Alto when I was a kid. Either as a pedestrian, or a pedestrian carrying a bike.

Everyone did it, and I don’t remember anyone getting hit doing it.

It was many years later when the built a parallel bike-pedestrian bridge across the creek.

We lived on the east side of El Camino Real, and my parents had a rule that I was not allowed to cross it. That put downtown Menlo Park off limits, so we used the railroad bridge to get to downtown Palo Alto instead.

I’m sure my parents would have been horrified if they knew.

Posted from iPhone

The dumbest thing ive ever done is respond to some of the nonsense on this site...

pdt Wrote:
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> The dumbest thing ive ever done is respond to some
> of the nonsense on this site...

Boys and girls, we have us a wiener.

Doug Wetherhold
Macungie, PA

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......nothing that I'm going to admit to.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

markmcal Wrote:
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> I thought that would be a cool thing, and would
> make her like me for my "different" date idea.

My math teacher told a story about a local man who would take his dates down to a place where the railroad tracks curved. he would sit there and wait for a train to arrive and scare his date. He knew the train would follow the curve and not hit the car ... the date didn't have time to apply logic. Fortunately no one jumped out of the car and got hit by the train. Not sure if that would be a "while railfanning" incident or not.


There are times I have been where I shouldn't have been. I have not put myself in harms way (other than the normal risk of being robbed in a bad neighborhood). But they were places where I am glad no authorities were present during my visit. Ironically the only personal contact I had in a bad neighborhood was with a local person who I helped since I knew the train schedule. All other contacts were just walking past people with no interference to my fanning. (I did have someone offer me weed at one station. But I declined and didn't have a lighter to help him out.)

I have stayed 30ft from the rails if a train was going to pass and do not cross the rails except at a marked public crossing. A couple of times when I wanted a video from closer than 30ft I set up the camera and walked away. (In one place there was a tree line obstructing the view. Another time it was at a public crossing with limited site down the tracks.) I have been closer than 30ft on platforms and public parking lots and felt uneasy enough not to want to repeat that experience unless boarding a passenger train. I always have an escape route planned and watch for any sign of trouble such as loose straps or cargo and there is always the option of starting the video and walking away from the camera.

So the most dangerous railfanning I have done is tame. Which is why I am here to post about it instead of having a loved one writing a "he died doing what he loved" message.

Probably the most dangerous part of any of my railfanning trips is driving on the interstates and highways to get somewhere.

If you guys knew you'd throw me in the clink and toss the key. 

Chuck

Put a quarter on a track at the east glacier park stop after it fell off. Was too close lol

Posted from Android

pass

> ...do not cross the rails except at a marked public crossing...

So if you were railfanning in the Black Rock Desert and wanted to hang out under a shade tree on the other side of the tracks, you'd walk all the way to Winemucca before you could "cross the tracks", then head back?

NBF Wrote:
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> > ...do not cross the rails except at a marked
> public crossing...
>
> So if you were railfanning in the Black Rock
> Desert and wanted to hang out under a shade tree
> on the other side of the tracks, you'd walk all
> the way to Winemucca before you could "cross the
> tracks", then head back?

I never understood why big a deal is made when crossing tracks on foot. Yes, there are some places where there are multiple tracks, limited sight distance, etc. But I just don't get how crossing a single track on foot using the same common sense you would use crossing a street, could be so much more dangerous. I'm not talking walking down the center, or allowing situational awareness to be compromised by personal electronics, just three steps across the gauge at a right angle is treated like a cardinal sin by some.

Desmond Praetzel, "4451 Puff"