https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...Flying-Scotsman.html
Darn young'uns,they have no respect for the law,kids these days.....
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That isn't too too bad if you are ready for the windy vacuums that might suck at you.
I used to fish off of bridges like that a lot as a kid before there were hand rails etc on them. (but mostly down on the ledge, just in case). If you look they are a few feet from being parrel to the cement tunnel cap/portal header, "half a body past the handrail, tops".
Closer than I'd be, but I've been that close before too.
"Subway distance"? 🤔
Safer than a flat tire on a highway shoulder is all I can say 
The US/Can Christmas train, though slower, had plenty of less aware folks/young kids only three feet/1m further off that for a passby. Loitering on rails and coins and coin stacking that was 1-2 coins per yard, for 200 yards. I hide at the tunnel portal, "up range of flying coin".
That crowd had me worried. Likely why they changed routes, rural common sense respect vs the near clueless suburbanites is safer.
It's the age we live in. People in general have a reduced amount of social restraint, and their own ambition often is allowed to override the appropriate, sensible, behavior. Obviously, the photographers in the photo have not clearly thought this out. While it's true that the risk of being struck by an object disturbed by, or falling from, a passing train is quite small, standing that close to trackside with trains passing at 125 MPH certainly puts them into the target zone of unplanned events. The greater risk is that a train might approach them from the rear, and they might inadvertently be struck. They have good cameras and tripods, and could stand further away and use wireless remote control to fire the shutters if they are bound and determined to get a photo of the train from a close angle.
Judging from the size of the uproar as reported by the news, somebody has just discovered that there are railroad enthusiasts photographing trains while on railroad property, and the reaction is something of an overreaction.
Personally, I think that the photo that would result from such a close angle would not be very exciting. So, IMHO, they're in the wrong place for more than one reason.
bigkid posted:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ne...Flying-Scotsman.html
Darn young'uns,they have no respect for the law,kids these days.....
Remember the woman who was struck and killed by 844?
Rusty
Doesn't appear to be close at all. The people on the platform are considerably closer. Much ado about nothing.
Pete
They do not appear to be any closer than a highway crossing gate would permit. Even a typical solid yellow platform line is closer than their position.
Commuters routinely stand much closer to the platform edge when a non stopping subway express train wises by at high speed.
Not saying their position is a wise move, just more of a non event, IMO.
Tom - I think he point is they are standing where members of the public are not allowed - in effect trespassing.
It will only take one idiot to be injured and it could impact the whole steam program - which is pretty big in the Uk
MIKE
The old couple with the tripod looked like a real dangerous Bonnie and Clyde duo, they were several yards away from the tracks.
English police are a bunch of wankers.
I have collected a few images from CB&Q railfan trips circa 1960. No captions are really necessary. It was just a different age. There was no such thing as helicopter parenting. Kids were expected to obey and got spanked if they deserved it. People were trusted to use their heads and not be stupid. 
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Craignor posted:The old couple with the tripod were a real Bonnie and Clyde team, they were several yards away from the tracks.
English police are a bunch of wankers.
Wankers cracking down on Anoraks.
Pete
Maybe the OGR forum should be expanded to include Public Safety. That could easily reduce this problem as well as people driving past the crossing gates. I didn't see any foam but I didn't study the picture in that much detail.
The mods could be parachuted in to help police the Anoraks and scofflaws over there.
Maybe I missed something, but did anyone actually look at the people in the photos? Doesn't look like young people to me. 
I agree that safety around railroads is an important topic. I spent my early teen years getting into way too much trouble on railroad property. Was it wrong then. Absolutely! How many of us can say the same thing though? I suspect most of us.
Yes a different era where personal responsibility meant something, but in the photos shown in the article, other than trespassing on railroad property as Tom mentions, I don't see anything particularly out of line. The platforms along the regional stops on the NE corridor are fairly narrow and the yellow stripe / truncated domes are about the same distance from the track as the closest people shown in these photos. Trains blow by at 100 mph plus all the time.
Perhaps it is a Monday at the office and I missed some obvious sarcasm in the thread?
GG1 4877 posted:Maybe I missed something, but did anyone actually look at the people in the photos? Doesn't look like young people to me.
I agree that safety around railroads is an important topic. I spent my early teen years getting into way too much trouble on railroad property. Was it wrong then. Absolutely! How many of us can say the same thing though? I suspect most of us.
Yes a different era where personal responsibility meant something, but in the photos shown in the article, other than trespassing on railroad property as Tom mentions, I don't see anything particularly out of line. The platforms along the regional stops on the NE corridor are fairly narrow and the yellow stripe / truncated domes are about the same distance from the track as the closest people shown in these photos. Trains blow by at 100 mph plus all the time.
Perhaps it is a Monday at the office and I missed some obvious sarcasm in the thread?
My original was tongue in cheek, both that the UK made such a big deal out of this , and also that usually we hear from voices on here about how the young of today are no good, back in the day we were all angels, our parents were gods, etc...with the obvious reference that the 'miscreants' in the picture were a product of those 'better times" *lol*...my post was not meant to be serious, in other words. My comment on people and times is that times change, but people end up reacting the same way, I am sure when Guttenberg invented moving type that allowed for cheaper books, people complained of the young people reading books rather than doing their chores, when they re-invented the indoor privy there were those decrying 'weakening' people by not having to go outdoors, the telephone was (sometimes literally) the "Devil's electronic Trumpet", etc, etc, etc......not to mention that over the current roughly 7,000 years of written language we have access to, almost every one of those has (then current) accounts saying newer generations were lax, a disaster area, spoiled, blasphemous, disrespectful to their elders, only caring about (you name it), etc.
I totally agree with you on that BidKid. I have two millennial daughters who completely understand responsibility, independence, and have great work ethics. Never did anything special to make them that way other than take an interest in what they were up to and never pushed them to be perfect or get over involved in after school activities. While they still had a very different upbringing than I did, they turned out fine. I'm hoping that my 9 year old turns out the same way.
I teach some courses to younger adults starting in their career and they are there because they want to be. I see a lot of hope in the future generations. They tend to be more collaborative, more likely to be socially responsible, and actually have a good awareness of the world around them.
Then there is my future son-in-law. I won't go there .... 
Point is everyone is different and I'll leave it at that.
uh...…what is a "foamer" and will I recognize one when I see it ??
claw bar posted:uh...…what is a "foamer" and will I recognize one when I see it ??
A foamer is a "rabid fan".
Someone so intensely exuberant they are practically foaming at the mouth.
claw bar posted:uh...…what is a "foamer" and will I recognize one when I see it ??
claw bar posted:uh...…what is a "foamer" and will I recognize one when I see it ??
GG1 4877 posted:
Maybe I missed something, but did anyone actually look at the people in the photos? Doesn't look like young people to me.
I agree that safety around railroads is an important topic. I spent my early teen years getting into way too much trouble on railroad property. Was it wrong then. Absolutely! How many of us can say the same thing though? I suspect most of us.
Yes a different era where personal responsibility meant something, but in the photos shown in the article, other than trespassing on railroad property as Tom mentions, I don't see anything particularly out of line. The platforms along the regional stops on the NE corridor are fairly narrow and the yellow stripe / truncated domes are about the same distance from the track as the closest people shown in these photos. Trains blow by at 100 mph plus all the time.
Perhaps it is a Monday at the office and I missed some obvious sarcasm in the thread?
My original was tongue in cheek, both that the UK made such a big deal out of this , and also that usually we hear from voices on here about how the young of today are no good, back in the day we were all angels, our parents were gods, etc...with the obvious reference that the 'miscreants' in the picture were a product of those 'better times" *lol*...my post was not meant to be serious, in other words. My comment on people and times is that times change, but people end up reacting the same way, I am sure when Guttenberg invented moving type that allowed for cheaper books, people complained of the young people reading books rather than doing their chores, when they re-invented the indoor privy there were those decrying 'weakening' people by not having to go outdoors, the telephone was (sometimes literally) the "Devil's electronic Trumpet", etc, etc, etc......not to mention that over the current roughly 7,000 years of written language we have access to, almost every one of those has (then current) accounts saying newer generations were lax, a disaster area, spoiled, blasphemous, disrespectful to their elders, only caring about (you name it), etc.
claw bar posted:uh...…what is a "foamer" and will I recognize one when I see it ??
A foamer is usually used for really rabid train fans, and as another poster said, has as its likely source the idea they might foam at the mouth over their passion...
As far as seeing one, conventional wisdom is if you see someone who goes around with a baseball hat and/or vest with pins representing all railroads there ever were, butts heads like a mountain goat with a fellow member of its species over what the greatest steam engine ever was, seemingly lacking in most social graces and hygiene, and has clothing with enough food drippings encasing it that could feed a flock of seagulls for a week, it likely is ferrous equis foameritis...*lol*
Phil McCaig posted:People were trusted to use their heads and not be stupid.
Were these same “not be stupid” people the ones not looking for a train on the next track? How about the not stupid up on the signal bridge and dangling from the mast? A different era, yes. Not all the common sense that you might remember.
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Sorry, I was actually trying to be funny. My brand of humor isn't always evident in my posts. I was amazed at these old photos and had to wonder at the guys that climbed the signal bridge AND the mast for the signal atop the signal bridge. There's another similar photo that I didn't post where you can see foamers climbing all over parked boxcars as well as roaming around all over the right-of-way. Just the things you would probably admonish youngsters NOT to do.
Then one wanders why the UP is the only Class 1 with a steam program....
Those fools on the signal bridge are quite a sight.
We all know the Daily Mail wouldn't sensationalize the slightest little thing.....right? Right?
Looks like many would win the Judge Judy Stupid Award!
She hands that out to 90% of people.
These are candidates for the Springer award.
I keep thinkin' it was downhill fast after this
Doing things like climbing up on the signal mast to get that perfect shot was something that appears to have been done quite frequently in years past. I can't find the issue but, if memory serves me right, I believe it was a 1942 Trains article where the author specifically states he and a couple of other railfans climbed the local signal mast to do exactly what those guys in the pictures posted earlier in this thread are doing.
Robert S. Butler posted:Doing things like climbing up on the signal mast to get that perfect shot was something that appears to have been done quite frequently in years past. I can't find the issue but, if memory serves me right, I believe it was a 1942 Trains article where the author specifically states he and a couple of other railfans climbed the local signal mast to do exactly what those guys in the pictures posted earlier in this thread are doing.
It was wrong and dumb to do back then. The difference, however, is if the person was hurt in those days, he/she took full responsibility and did not file a lawsuit. IMHO.
Sam Jumper posted:Were these same “not be stupid” people the ones not looking for a train on the next track? How about the not stupid up on the signal bridge and dangling from the mast? A different era, yes. Not all the common sense that you might remember.
The classic Ron Ziel book, "Twilight of Steam Locomotives" shows people on masts while photographing 5632's excursions in the 60s.
I've been told that Menk shut down the CB&Q excursion program for many reasons, but among them was all the "Loons" (which was what they called Foamers back then apparently) doing silly stuff like in these photos.
This reminds me, and brings to light, the many recent deaths at the Grand Canyon of individuals defying logic while trying to obtain and capture the perfect selfie while hanging off a ledge'. Only to wind up dead after falling hundreds of feet...........
