Steam & Excursion > CFD Train chasers heads up.

I was talking to a railfan friend whos son is a Colorado State Patrol officer who learned about the wreck. According to them traps will be set alone 85 to weed out any unsafe drivers.
If you are chasing. Keep an eye out.
Personally my idea is coordination with the railroad and state patrol involving a setup similar to a funeral procession. A mile or so ahead of everyone State Patrol Is pulling the non chasers one lane while the chasers pass in the other. Either way, be safe.

Posted from Android

upheritage6 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was talking to a railfan friend whos son is a
> Colorado State Patrol officer who learned about
> the wreck. According to them traps will be set
> alone 85 to weed out any unsafe drivers.
> If you are chasing. Keep an eye out.
> Personally my idea is coordination with the
> railroad and state patrol involving a setup
> similar to a funeral procession. A mile or so
> ahead of everyone State Patrol Is pulling the non
> chasers one lane while the chasers pass in the
> other. Either way, be safe.
>
> Posted from Android

I'm not much for disagreeing with people on this forum, but why? Why waste police resources? Railfans need to simply quit chasing unsafely. With today's technologies with drones you can get far better footage that way anyhow. I love steam locomotives and I haven't been tempted once to pace unsafely.

If you're chasing, keep your HEAD out.

JLW2K Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> upheritage6 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I was talking to a railfan friend whos son is a
> > Colorado State Patrol officer who learned about
> > the wreck. According to them traps will be set
> > alone 85 to weed out any unsafe drivers.
> > If you are chasing. Keep an eye out.
> > Personally my idea is coordination with the
> > railroad and state patrol involving a setup
> > similar to a funeral procession. A mile or so
> > ahead of everyone State Patrol Is pulling the
> non
> > chasers one lane while the chasers pass in the
> > other. Either way, be safe.
> >
> > Posted from Android
>
> I'm not much for disagreeing with people on this
> forum, but why? Why waste police resources?
> Railfans need to simply quit chasing unsafely.
> With today's technologies with drones you can get
> far better footage that way anyhow. I love steam
> locomotives and I haven't been tempted once to
> pace unsafely.

Next we can stop wasting police resources on drunk drivers. People just need to simply quit driving after drinking. After that speeders, violent offenders, scammers, you name it!

There won't be any chasing north of Greeley. Major road construction has closed one side of the road all the way to Ault. 45MPH speed limit, and the locals are following it. Especially the frac sand trucks. Looks like they've planned the work to take all summer.

https://www.codot.gov/projects/us-85-eaton-to-ault
https://www.codot.gov/projects/us-85-and-co-392-road-and-intersection
The website also shows a paving project Platteville to Fort Lupton but I haven't been through there.

The 3 stop lights (Lucerene, Eaton, Ault) are now set to be obnoxiously long.

Bill Kepner

Boy that really helps the cops the there!

Posted from Android

The Colorado State Patrol has decades of familiarity with the problems with train chasers on US85 when UP steam runs. No doubt that the Colorado State Patrol will be out there and they should be. I've seen enough near misses there with railfans--situations that could have easily turned into multiple-fatality wrecks. US85 is plenty dangerous as it is--lots of rural intersections on a heavily traveled multi-lane highway. I gave up trying to do any railfanning there on steam days over a decade ago.

I would add that the Colorado State Patrol heavily uses unmarked patrol vehicles that would easily blend in with the railfan crowd.

JLW2K Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I'm not much for disagreeing with people on this
> forum, but why? Why waste police resources?
> Railfans need to simply quit chasing unsafely.
> With today's technologies with drones you can get
> far better footage that way anyhow. I love steam
> locomotives and I haven't been tempted once to
> pace unsafely.

It's up to the law enforcement to "coordinate" traffic for safety reasons. They can do their job without "coordinating" with railfans.

When the 844 went up Cima Hill between Kelso and Cima on its trip to Las Vegas back in 2011, National Park Rangers staged themselves along the Kelso-Cima Rd. to pick off vehicles to keep the pacing traffic under control. Unfortunately, some of the railfans who (in my opinion) were behaving were pulled over - seems the enforcement was semi-random. I was near the front of the pack, and when I was done with my ~1 minute of footage, I bailed out of the pack so the Rangers didn't target me.

So yeah, I agree with you, some people (railfans included) are too selfish.

Also be aware that there is road construction on US 85 between North Greeley and Ault making it a two lane road with speed restrictions so the CHP can fill their coffers with the double the fines in the work zone.
My suggestion is to pick out a good location and go for a quality shot instead of 75 shots of the same thing.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

Just another case where FOAMERS have given rail fans a bad name.
Just my opinion.
CJV in Illinois

portlander Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> JLW2K Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > upheritage6 Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > I was talking to a railfan friend whos son is
> a
> > > Colorado State Patrol officer who learned
> about
> > > the wreck. According to them traps will be
> set
> > > alone 85 to weed out any unsafe drivers.
> > > If you are chasing. Keep an eye out.
> > > Personally my idea is coordination with the
> > > railroad and state patrol involving a setup
> > > similar to a funeral procession. A mile or
> so
> > > ahead of everyone State Patrol Is pulling the
> > non
> > > chasers one lane while the chasers pass in
> the
> > > other. Either way, be safe.
> > >
> > > Posted from Android
> >
> > I'm not much for disagreeing with people on
> this
> > forum, but why? Why waste police resources?
> > Railfans need to simply quit chasing unsafely.
> > With today's technologies with drones you can
> get
> > far better footage that way anyhow. I love
> steam
> > locomotives and I haven't been tempted once to
> > pace unsafely.
>
> Next we can stop wasting police resources on drunk
> drivers. People just need to simply quit driving
> after drinking. After that speeders, violent
> offenders, scammers, you name it!

Yeah because drunk drivers and idiotic foamers are the same thing. They are breaking laws by behavior but it is sporadic and mass heard behavior. A more appropriate analogy would be to coordinate police escorts to a hoard of drunks home because they all leave the bar at closing time with your line of thinking. Like someone else noted above, if they want to pick off foamers acting idiotically then I am all for that. Coordinating an escort for bad behavior goes to my hoard of drunks example. Do you see a coordination for crotch rocket riders speeding in heards down the highway?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/04/17 13:29 by JLW2K.