Western Railroad Discussion > Further Fullerton Fence-Out

This morning, for the first time in several months, I stopped by the Amtrak Fullerton, CA station. I noticed at the east end of the south platform they have installed a chain-link fence extending to the Lemon Ave. overpass. This takes away a morning photo opportunity I've enjoyed for a few years. From the southeast end of the station, if I saw a headlight of an eastbound freight at least a mile away, I would have time to walk (or run) over to the little maintenance shack near Lemon Ave. and be able to get a picture of the train free of the view-blocking fencing between the tracks at the station. I guess no more shots like the one below, taken in April 2004, unless you happen to be really tall (or have a ladder handy).

When was this fence installed, and do they plan on adding one to the north side of the tracks there?

Rich

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The "temporary" fence went up just before RR Daze, I think... What was that, first week of May ??

. o O (nothing so permenant as a temporary)

-al

You can alway telephoto it from the east side of Lemon.


TCS - such is true a-a.

Although the exact circumstances of the pedestrian getting hit by a train as he crossed the track in that location from the South to North some time ago are sketchy, it was an ever present possibility of it happening again. Ergo, the smart loss prevention types will try to get any or all concerned to mitigate a "known" problem before it happens again, an analogy being the old dog gets one free bite doctrine.

Way too many Metro-link and Amtrak passengers regularly used that route as a shortcut to the parking lots and many local residents also bypassed the bridge there, it was only a matter of time before somebody else ended up decorating a coupler pin lift bar. If I was a betting man, I'ld bet it will stay until replaced by something a little more permanent with a gate for authorized passer-throughs. Although the crossover prevents a longer fence down the middle which would be the best soloution, this arrangement makes it realhard to claim a short-cutter didn't know they were not supposed to cross there.

Don't worry, at the rate BNSF is going, they'll probably have their weekly derailment or washout there in the near future, which will wipe out the fence. In other words, "automatic removal" is imminent. OK, I'll stop being so cynical. Seriously though, I found it interesting how they also installed a temporary gate near the driveway to the maintenance shed. The fence company might have done that on their own, so who knows.

Even so, that fence hasn't stopped the regular commuters and pedestrians from crossing the tracks. All they do is walk onto the platform to go around the temporary fence to cross the tracks.

I wish they'd put a fence up in such a manner that would force anyone crossing the track there to walk all the way to Orangethorpe. There's always some bonehead crossing in front of me before I come to a stop there in the morning. He's always expressing his one fingered appreciation for the placement of the horns on the cabcar. I just smile and wish him good morning. I'm guessing the only thing he's got in that expensive attache case is a baloney sandwich. Somebody'll get nailed there again. If it's him, the first thing I'll do is grab the sandwich and give it to Robby or Bruce.

Bruce dosent like baloney.

Otis might like it.

Clarifying my point a little it would be much harder to sue and win when it can be shown you went out of your way to go around safety fences and signs. They'll still sue but winning would be much tougher.

You're getting way too serious for me. Otis plays a mean air guitar.

My crew and I thinking of getting Otis a real guitar, He really gets going when the Santa fe Cafe has live bands.