In the Know Part 1



For the most part I enjoy photographing trains, as a railfan it is just my nature. But with photographing railroaders and trains comes a often unknown responsibility. The responsibility of helping someone keep their job. For the most part as railfans we can get worked up over a door being open on a locomotive, but is it worth calling it in or posting a picture of it ? At what cost does one have to pay to make someone happy? When we photograph trains or the men and women who operate them we must be vigilant and careful of what we post and how we go about it.  Sadly the relationships between railfans and railroaders is deteriorating at a rapid pace, why? Glad you asked.
Thirty years ago management turned a blind eye to the relationships between railfans and railroaders and life seemed good, but what happened? Well? Railfans began losing common sense and the diligence to be safe and stay out of the way and a few lawsuits later railroads had to begin cracking down on local crews for being too friendly out of fear of another lawsuit. Over the past few years I have looked at both sides of the picture, let's take a case and example from a hypothetical story as this one.

Billy always walked down to the tracks from his house and walked up the right of way a few hundred yards to a trestle, now for the most part Billy could stay clear of the trains and most of the crews had gotten used to him being close to the tracks and usually give a friendly toot on the horn. However one day as the main freight was blowing through town the crew passed Billy, was at his usual spot but what the crew didn't know was a load had shifted 53 cars back and the train had not hit a detector yet to warn the crew and being so far back it was out of the crews sight. Sadly for billy the load was to far out and struck and killed him. Now the freight that had the shifted load found out about 2 miles past where Billy was killed (by the way he didn't die quickly) Now as soon as the train-master and the crew set the car off in a nearby siding to be reloaded right the train-master gets a call on the radio to look for a fatality from a trespasser called in by the train following the freight. Once Billy was found the crew with the shifted load was asked if they saw him not knowing what happened to him the engineer Bob said sure I know the kid we honk and wave at him all the time, the tapes confirm it and Bob and his conductor are given the horrible news. Now Bob has to go home for a extended time and face his wife and kids knowing it was his train that killed the kid a year older than his daughter. While the crew was given the horrible news Billy's Family was given the same news as well. Now as the weeks turn into months Billy was laid to rest Bob and his conductor go back to work while Billy's family gets a lawyer and sues the railroad saying it was negligent in keeping Billy safe. Now Bob and his conductor not only have to live with passing the point where they saw Billy last alive but now have to go to court and live it over and over again. Engineer Bob now can't sleep at night and can't let go of the picture of Billy getting struck in the head and falling to the ground (painted graphically by the families attorney) Now after a year Bob goes out on disability loses his house and family all because he can't deal with the fact of what happened to that kid. The courts find the railroad negligent and the family gets money. 

The above story never happened to my knowledge but it is similar to cases all over our country. Sadly we have a lot of Billy's who do not respect the effort that the railroad now has to make to keep them safe. Now railfans get pissed for getting called in for being in the rail-yards or being in the area marked off limits or no trespassing. Well maybe the crew doesn't want to, they know you and where you are but accidents happen and if they don't call you in and management sees you, the crew risks discipline, Put it like this, "railroaders get taken out of service (kind of like a suspension, until an investigation is conducted) and then terminated if found at fault". Now your Prize Photo just cost a crew their Job and their family a way of supporting themselves. Railroaders are humans to and nobody wants to see anybody hurt or killed nor do I believe you want to see your favorite crew fired. So let's begin to think of our actions as railfans and work together to make this hobby worthy of the greatness it once was.

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