I'm Fed Up With This.

As I went out to get some video yesterday that this would have had to have been done. I never really thought that I would have to do but I got fed up today with some trespassers. Right before this eastbound coal train went by, I noticed that a few people were sitting next to the tracks maybe a few hundred feet from where I was at. As this train was passing by, these people did not move as it passed by. All of this happens after a woman got struck and killed by a train here on Tuesday night because she wasn't paying attention and didn't notice the train coming up from behind her. Now, here I have two people apprently oblivious to the hundreds of tons of coal passing behind them while they were sitting on the main opposite the one the train was on.

After about twenty minutes had passed since the train had been done and gone without the crew even making the slightest of notion that they had called these trespassers in. I kept watching these two to see if they would move off the tracks or not. Needless to say they did not move one inch in the thirty minutes that I was watching them without them knowing. By then, I was starting to get fed up with these people and began debating with my friend that was railfanning with me one whether or not we should call them in to the police. After about two or three minutes went by and again without them moving along. So I asked my friend if I could borrow his phone for a few minutes, he knew that I was up to something. Then I decided to call them in and have them "removed" from the railroad property. So after the I put the call into my county's 911 center and told them what was going on. The police showed up not even five minutes later and removed them from the tracks.

Its people like this that absolutely have no regard for their own safety, yet alone the safety of others around them. These two were basically neglecting to realize that what was traveling by behind them makes a lot less noise than it use to. "You can hear a train coming from far away," uh, no you can't. You cannot tell me that you can hear a train coming from a mile away. Nowadays, you may be lucky enough to hear the train coming from about a quarter to a half a mile away. However, there is absolutely no fricking way that you can do that. You may be able to at night when the air is less dense and sound travels further. It is a different story when it comes to the daytime though. Where the air is more dense during the day light hours. It makes it difficult for the sound to travel at a further distance than what it would at night. What gets the majority of people killed is where you think that you can hear the train coming from either behind you or in front of you. The trains of now will sneak up on you like a cottonmouth or a copperhead slithering through grass. If you are not careful, they will come around and bite you. One bite and one bite only from these "snakes" and it will be curtains.

Let this be a warning to you folks that use the railroad tracks as your own "personal sidewalk." There are people out there that will report your ass to the proper authorities. For all you know, it could be the man behind the controls of that 160 car freight train passing you on the other track. It may be the man standing twenty feet from the tracks with a tripod and a camera. If I see any of you doing what I have mentioned above or walking on the tracks. You can guarantee that someone in a blue or black uniform will be talking to you in just a short period of time. You just better hope that it is the city police that gets to you before the railroad police. Reason being is that the railroad cops will not, I repeat, will not be as lenient as to what a city cop is.

On that note, I consider people trespassing on railroad property more of a threat than I do anyone else with a camera around their neck.

reply to post by gimmefootball400


Good info. Do you work for the tracks or live near them? They have always scared me. You can't bring anything to a train fight and win.

I used to know a guy who was an engineer who frequented the bar I worked at years ago.
He came in one night and was in a bad way and I asked what was wrong.
He said he killed a kid, the kid was early 20's, to him though a kid.
I was dumbfounded as I did not know his profession and that he had been released from questioning so quickly.
He then explained that he was an engineer and these things really happen alot as there is no steering wheel to turn away and the brakes....LOL brakes.
He said it was wholly unavoidable on his part and it is an understood thing by authorities.
He also said it doesn't help his feelings on the death as he felt he played a part in the accident.
I say if a person is stupid enough to walk on the tracks let em get squished.
There ought to be a law!
Yes, I know there is, but folks just don't see the danger in millions of tons of steel.
Moral of the story, stupidity on occasion is painful.

Originally posted by gimmefootball400
. "You can hear a train coming from far away," uh, no you can't. You cannot tell me that you can hear a train coming from a mile away. Nowadays, you may be lucky enough to hear the train coming from about a quarter to a half a mile away. However, there is absolutely no fricking way that you can do that. You may be able to at night when the air is less dense and sound travels further. It is a different story when it comes to the daytime though. Where the air is more dense during the day light hours. It makes it difficult for the sound to travel at a further distance than what it would at night. What gets the majority of people killed is where you think that you can hear the train coming from either behind you or in front of you. The trains of now will sneak up on you like a cottonmouth or a copperhead slithering through grass. If you are not careful, they will come around and bite you. One bite and one bite only from these "snakes" and it will be curtains.

Can't they make the trains a little louder, then? How about line them with gently jangling sleighbells to provide a nice, pleasant sound that is also an audible warning? It doesn't have to be eardrum-shattering loud. I'm being completely serious here. If they can make them so silent they are like deadly snakes than it shouldn't be too hard to turn up the volume just a little/

Let this be a warning to you folks that use the railroad tracks as your own "personal sidewalk." There are people out there that will report your ass to the proper authorities. For all you know, it could be the man behind the controls of that 160 car freight train passing you on the other track. It may be the man standing twenty feet from the tracks with a tripod and a camera. If I see any of you doing what I have mentioned above or walking on the tracks. You can guarantee that someone in a blue or black uniform will be talking to you in just a short period of time. You just better hope that it is the city police that gets to you before the railroad police. Reason being is that the railroad cops will not, I repeat, will not be as lenient as to what a city cop is.

Well I guess your intentions are good, being as you want to save people. But I can't help but feel a little sad...I remember when my friends and I were kids, how much fun we had hanging around the tracks near our place. But yeah, rules is rules.

When trespassers enter my property, and I usually do find them late at night poaching for deer, I go out and fire off a warning shot. Usually they'll take off. I have a railroad track near my land too, and we have caught some train bums jumping off and walking back there or sleeping. My property comes close to the tracks. I don't mind if they sleep there as long as they don't come on the land or disturb anything, but then they need to move on.

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Speaking of which, I was just checking the local news and Guess what?
Seems trains are silent after all!
I guess these things usually do not wound, they play for keeps.

Originally posted by g146541
Speaking of which, I was just checking the local news and Guess what?
Seems trains are silent after all!
I guess these things usually do not wound, they play for keeps.

How quiet the train will depend on what type of train. A high-speed, electric, bullet-type of train is extremely quiet. A track with welded rails rather than the bolted together type of old, will be quieter. A coal train, will not be quiet because not a lot of concern is given to the upkeep of their undercarriages versuses a passinger train..

Not to mention whether there is a grade that the engines is pulling against or or level or coasting downhill.

Regardless, there is no cure for thrill-seekers or stupidity. Mix the two and you get idiots. They tend to weed themselves out.

So... getting someone off the tracks before they are turned into a bag of bones is a bad thing to do?

Hell no I'm not proud of it but then how are you going to convince people not to trespass on railroad property? These weren't teenagers that were sitting there, these were two adults that were sitting there. I'm just sick and tired of the lack of enforcement that the municipal police departments show towards the railroads. Yeah the railroads have their own police department to enforce that laws. Then again, what good is that going to do when your only cop for the entire division is sixty or more miles away from your location? For all I know, he could have been investigating why someone got hit by a train the next state over. To be honest with you, I would much rather see a cop filing a complaint than I would an accident report. Which is the sensible thing to do. Call them in and have them removed from the railroad property by the police or to just let them get hit and leave it to the paramedics to clean up what is left of them? Let me just say this, my father is a paramedic and last Tuesday night he did in fact run a call were a person did get hit by a train. Why she got hit you might ask. It was because she was walking the tracks and would not get off the cell phone.

How should I be the one ticketed if I'm the one looking out for their stupid self? If anyone should have been ticketed with a trespassing, it should have been the two that were setting on the tracks. Did the crew of the coal train both to report them into their dispatcher yesterday when they saw them? I didn't even hear them mention anything to the dispatcher about anyone sitting on or near the tracks. The only reason that I called in was because I was looking out for their own safety as well as the safety of a train crew. Yet, I am the one getting called a "bully" just because I was looking out for their safety. Its people like those who were sitting on the tracks that make us railfans look like a group of morons. When in fact it is either the "brainiac" or the lazy person walking the tracks that gets hit because they thought that the tracks were teh quickest and safest way home.

reply to post by MaxNormal


Yes people have hobbies, one of those hobbies is watching trains other peoples hobby might be trolling people on the internet, will you tell your grandkids about the day you trolled someone on ATS i wonder?

To the OP you did the right thing, nothing to feel guilty about, they are endangering their own lives and if a train hits them then they are putting a pretty big dent in his life too.

Good on you GImme, my friend. You did right. Unfortunately Im so tired of trolls and drama here I rarely post anymore, but I always like a Gimme thread.


Silent trains? Not around here... I can hear the damned thing 1/2 a mile away... yet, we have at least one idiot a year either getting hit by surprise or laying on the tracks to commit suicide. We've had 2 LAYING on the tracks here in the last 6 months. I dont care if the train is silent or not.. are people that incapable of getting through life that they cant figure out if you are on or near tracks a train might happen to come by on those TRAIN tracks and you dont stand a chance against a train? Its really not all that hard to figure out. Sorta like hot coffee just might be hot.

Here's the latest.. I expect a few more this year.
www.bnd.com...


Im okay with folks killing themselves.. have at it.. but dont traumatize others while youre doing it .IE conductor. There should be some sort of suicide etiquette.. I swear.

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Originally posted by MaxNormal
Op your no diff from the old lady that spied on her neighboor and got an award. This forum is trash and heavily controlled to only show one point of view. Go ahead and make some bs excuse to remove this too cause you dont agree with me mod.

Have you ever considered train watching.. by laying on the tracks? I hear its a LOT of fun...

Originally posted by MaxNormal
Op your no diff from the old lady that spied on her neighboor and got an award.

How in the world am I no different from an old lady that spies on her neighbors? Did you ever think that there may have been something behind her spying on the neighbors. As in a drug problem that had just started to show up after the new neighbors moved in next door. The only thing I was doing was saving them from their own stuipdity. Besides, how were they to know that there wasn't another train coming up beside the one that was passing by on the track they were sitting on? As far as I know, they did not have a way to know if one was coming or not. How would you like it if you were to see a person get hit by a train. I know quite a few people that have and let me tell you this. It scarred one of them so bad that he cannot stand going back to this one particular place where he saw the person get hit. Think about and come back to me when ever you see it happen in front of your own eyes.

Also............

If you want to complain about how this forum is ran and why it is ran like it is. Then why don't you make a thread about it and see what happens? Besides, there is a reason why your first post was removed in the first place.

oreply to post by MaxNormal


Dude - Why are you so concerned with the OP's actions? I know someone that was hit by a train, and killed because he didn't hear it. It happens, so lay off. Ever have to ID a body that's been mutilated by a train? It isn't fun. This isn't about tattle tailing, it's about people that don't look out for their own well being. I highly doubt the cops were doing anything more important than a coffee run, otherwise they wouldn't have responded so quickly.

Despite sounding like a cranky old man, you might have saved somebody...

Living close enough to Chicago, hearing of suicide-by-train isn't all that uncommon. Every so many months or so you hear about such an incident in the news. Occasionally it's really ignorant people, but more often given what little you may hear from witnesses, it's intentional. (Laying on tracks, car parked at crossing, or walking right towards oncoming train.) In such cases I feel more sorry for the train's engineer than the "victims".

Anyhow, walking down tracks in any case is unwise. Ties aren't really made for walking on, you can trip or get stuck easily. The freight trains go at about 40MPH or so, so if you hear them coming most people can get out of the way. Usually it's the Amtrak or Metra commuter trains hustling along at 70+MPH that often claim any fool walking on the tracks. Those things are moving, and unless they sound the horn, you don't hear them until after they're going by.

reply to post by Advantage


Thanks Advantage.

I still don't get where people say that trains are silent. I mean, yeah they have gotten quieter in the past fifty or so years but absolutely silent. Come on, that's like saying coffee isn't hot when it comes out of the coffee pot. I think what most people don't get is how often a train will or can go by. I've seen days here where one would go by every fifteen to twenty minutes. Most people tend to think that all trains run on a schedule and that they know when a certain train will be through. More often that not, that is not the case when it comes down to the majority of rail traffic. The only trains that run through here that have a set schedule are the manifest freights and passenger service. Sometimes, even they can't keep their schedules due to problems beyond their control. I mean right now, our Amtrak service this morning is running an hour and a half late.

As the late comedian Ron White once said, "You can't fix stupid."

reply to post by pauljs75


That is the occasion down here in West Virginia as well. It is not that common of an occurance and when it happens people usually blame the railroad when the railroad had nothing to do with someone being killed. What most people forget to realize is that when someone gets hit by a train. It's not the train crews fault when someone gets hit. You are correct, most of the people you hear on the news when it comes to someone getting turned into hamburger meat are usually ignorant and don't have a general idea as to how a train moves or how long it takes it to stop. For a loaded train, freight or any bulk cargo, usually takes a little over a mile to stop. In the case here last week, it took this empty grain train about half the distance to stop. I mean we've had three people get hit down here since Janurary 1st this year all because of either having a suicide wish or by just being stupid.

As for the ties, its not really a good idea to try to walk or run across them either. Especially, when it is pouring down the rain and the oil from the creosote in the ties seaps through to the top of the tie. A friend of mine found that out the hard way not to do that. He was running across the tracks to get a photo of a buddy of his coming through on a coal train. Instead of getting a nice photo of a coal train in the rain. He ended up getting about fifteen to twenty stitches in his forehead. All this after he cracked his head off of a siding next to the double track mainline.

Guess what?? It happened again last night!!!

Dispatchers tell Eyewitness News that CSX workers called 911 to report that a man was sitting on the tracks and that the train had hit him. When paramedics arrived on the scene Bentley was conscious. He was taken to a local hospital. No word on his condition or why he was on the tracks.

Man hit by train in Huntington.

This is the second time in a week that something like this has happened on this line. The dumbass that got hit this time was lucky not to have been killed. You can bet now that he will never walk the tracks or walk again. This is why the local law and railroad law enforcement needs to crackdown on individuals that do this. Then again, I forget that the "real" threat is the man standing twenty feet off the property with a camera around his or her neck. Not some moron walking the tracks because, "It's the safe and quick way to get home from work."

I reiterate...................
You can't fix stupid.