You can't fix stupid...
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| Posted by Dana M. on February 5, 2023 | |
Wow! Another "Darwin Award" nominee waiting for a "win"! When will they learn? I wish lower-intelligent "train spotters" like this perfect example would stop giving cooperative, helpful, law-abiding, respectful railfans a horrible name among railroad crews and the railroad companies. People like this guy are the ones that tarnish ALL railfans and keep giving railroads more "excuses" to hassle all of us while trackside. I can't count how many times I've been trackside, minding my business, not trespassing, being respectful, not causing a problem, and then after a couple of trains pass by, a Railroad Police Agent shows up and starts asking questions, because someone like this prime example of low-intelligent disrespect is a mile marker away causing trouble and doing stupid stuff like this, and by the time the train crews report it to their dispatcher, that person is gone, and so I'm the one who gets questioned because the only person the police find is me, and I get hassled and receive all the attention for "trouble causing" people like this guy!
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Dangerous and illegal.
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That's the kind of thing that gives the rest of us a bad name.
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At First glance I thought Him a Suicide Case !
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| Posted by BUFFIE on February 5, 2023 | |
When I took this photo I initially thought he was going to kill himself. After the train closed 1/2 the distance seen in the photo, he stepped off to the side of the track with his camera. Scared me to death but I was compelled to get the photo....to either document the risky move or to provide evidence to the police had it come to that. ????
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| Posted by FSWood on February 5, 2023 | |
I think you did right getting the documentation. And regarding photography while standing on railroad tracks, a photography website named SLR Lounge has a number of articles across several years discussing how bad a move it is to do that.
Here, have a sample of the content, 4 Reasons You Shouldn’t Take Portraits on Railroad Tracks, Tanya Goodall Smith, 9 years ago. ... "Photographers are notorious for taking safety risks and ignoring laws in order to get the perfect shot. Trespassing onto railroad property to photograph people on tracks seems to be a common action taken by photographers in recent years." ... "4. It has become cliché. We photographers love railroad tracks because they create great leading lines in our images. They can lend a romantic or edgy feel to our portraits. But, let’s be honest, pics of high school seniors sitting or standing on tracks are a little over done. And, now that I think about it, photos of babies or little children sitting in the middle of railroad tracks all alone are quite disturbing… Why are they there? Alone. On tracks…?"
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Dana's comment reminded me of a time back around 2011 when I was taking photos of a then-ICE train heading east over the "Government Bridge" between Davenport, IA and Rock Island, IL. I had snagged a few photos of the engine and a few cars when, sure enough, an agent approached me and asked what I was doing. I said, taking pictures of the train. His reply was something to the effect that he thought I was taking photos of the bridge, but I told him I couldn't care less about the bridge, just the trains. I told him he wouldn't get my camera but I would gladly show him the photos. I think he looked at a few and then left. Now, what may have been the genesis for this was some railfans, I guess, who climbed the embankment and got very close to the tracks themselves. Not me--my late father was a 20-year-plus dispatcher for C&O back in West Virginia and told me to NEVER set foot on railroad property unless I was accompanied or had permission to do so. Sound advice, then as now, and how I wish more people would follow it!
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