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mahatmakanejeeves

(56,906 posts)
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 11:01 AM Oct 2015

Taking photos on train tracks: ‘A mistake you can’t undo.’

Taking photos on train tracks: ‘A mistake you can’t undo.’

Local

By Dan Morse October 2 at 7:00 AM
@morsedan

Sarah and Natalie Crim had just taken 35 photographs on the train tracks. The 16-year-old twins stepped off and looked at the screen on Sarah’s 35mm camera. ... Behind the teenagers, less than a mile away, Amtrak’s Capitol Limited was heading toward them at 76 miles per hour.

What happened moments later — a train looming, startled people who had been taking photos — has become a deadly phenomenon nationwide. John, a well-liked high school junior in Maryland, became the fifth person this year killed while taking photos or videos on train tracks in the United States.

It’s not just kids taking photos. Professional photographers like to pose high school seniors on tracks to evoke moving on in life. Brides and grooms seek similar shots. Parents even take photos of their toddlers on the rails. ... “People always think they have time to get away. That’s a mistake you can’t undo,” says Marc Orton, director of visual communications for the Norfolk Southern Railway.
....



Natalie Crim and John DeReggi, both 16, walking on train tracks in Boyds, Md., on Sept. 14, 2014, moments before an Amtrak came up behind them. John was struck and killed shortly after this photo was made. (Crim family photo)
....

This month, Operation Lifesaver, a railroad group, will host a Web-based seminar with the Professional Photographers of America to discuss the dangers of track photography and explore safer alternatives. Operation Lifesaver regularly mails letters to professional photographers whose track pictures show up on the Internet. The group will roll out its own public service announcements this year.

This photographer's site was mentioned in the article:

Seniors: Makenzie
Posted in Portraits on September 29th, 2015

You can’t go wrong with classic Boise locations Kathryn Albertson Park and the Train Depot! Combine that with great light, the best smile, and a really cute shoe idea, and it’s a stellar Class of 2016 senior session!

38 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Taking photos on train tracks: ‘A mistake you can’t undo.’ (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Oct 2015 OP
Really sad. stage left Oct 2015 #1
See tracks, think train. It's not hard. Brickbat Oct 2015 #2
Trains don't exactly come up on you silently. hobbit709 Oct 2015 #3
That is what I am wondering sarisataka Oct 2015 #7
Headphones? Fumesucker Oct 2015 #10
Maybe... sarisataka Oct 2015 #12
Every time we've gone up to Dallas, we've seen people wait for cars to clear, ScreamingMeemie Oct 2015 #19
The photo shows no headphones. That boy was killed. WinkyDink Oct 2015 #15
People misjudge distance and speed Gormy Cuss Oct 2015 #21
The speed of a train is sufficient that it's often almost on top of you before you hear it. Chan790 Oct 2015 #38
Along the Northeast Corridor, they do jberryhill Oct 2015 #8
Yeah, the Amtrak Acela is scary enough when it zooms through a station without stopping. Nye Bevan Oct 2015 #11
Sort of like this: mahatmakanejeeves Oct 2015 #14
Metra and Amtrak trains share lines in Chicago, and it's exactly the same way bullwinkle428 Oct 2015 #24
Actually they can Populist_Prole Oct 2015 #13
That's what is in place at Boyds. mahatmakanejeeves Oct 2015 #20
I used to do a fair amount of "trainspotting" which involved LeftinOH Oct 2015 #4
I am familiar with the practice of which you speak. mahatmakanejeeves Oct 2015 #6
I've never understood it either. Marr Oct 2015 #9
I was thinking the same thing. What I suspect: Maybe people are taking pictures of the approaching.. BlueJazz Oct 2015 #28
I was almost hit at an unmarked crossing in rural OK. PeoViejo Oct 2015 #29
The SO's father was killed by a train in 1946 while doing maintenance on ballast HereSince1628 Oct 2015 #27
Someone shoot themselves in face- darwin award, idiots get killed by train- then it's "sad" snooper2 Oct 2015 #5
Thats highly insensitive of you darkangel218 Oct 2015 #22
Train tracks are emotionally powerful symbols, especially in America. Bucky Oct 2015 #16
Our entertainment media doesn't help, either. Archae Oct 2015 #25
Here is the original article in the Washington Post about the incident: mahatmakanejeeves Oct 2015 #17
a friend was killed in high school in 1970ish shooting photos on train tracks uppityperson Oct 2015 #18
Woman Arrested After Doing Yoga On Metro Tracks mahatmakanejeeves Oct 2015 #23
I'll bet taking photos in the bathroom is more dangerous Android3.14 Oct 2015 #26
I have a friend who did that and wound up feeling rather flushed. Orrex Oct 2015 #33
That's a crappy pun. Android3.14 Oct 2015 #34
People who do this have some loco motives. Orrex Oct 2015 #30
. ohnoyoudidnt Oct 2015 #31
:) pinboy3niner Oct 2015 #32
The problem with train puns... Android3.14 Oct 2015 #35
A Train, a Trestle and 60 Seconds to Escape: How 'Midnight Rider' Victim Sarah Jones Lost Her Life mahatmakanejeeves Oct 2015 #36
They really need a symposium about the dangers of track photography? Initech Oct 2015 #37

sarisataka

(18,222 posts)
12. Maybe...
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 12:15 PM
Oct 2015

it is just puzzling.

If people were to take pictures in the middle of a street they would automatically watch for cars. Yet it seems people assume a train will not come down the tracks when they are standing on them.

ScreamingMeemie

(68,918 posts)
19. Every time we've gone up to Dallas, we've seen people wait for cars to clear,
Sat Oct 3, 2015, 02:54 PM
Oct 2015

run out to get their picture taken on the X mark and run back. I think people forget what train tracks are actually for.

Gormy Cuss

(30,884 posts)
21. People misjudge distance and speed
Sat Oct 3, 2015, 03:42 PM
Oct 2015

and trains traveling round a bend can seem farther a way because of the way sound travels.

My father was a railroader. I learned at an early age that the first rule is to stay at least ten feet away from tracks if at all possible. Second rule was if I had to cross tracks to look and listen before starting out, then walk across watching each step because running increased the chances of falling, twisting an ankle, or getting caught in some part of the rails. But the first rule was preferable.

 

Chan790

(20,176 posts)
38. The speed of a train is sufficient that it's often almost on top of you before you hear it.
Fri Oct 9, 2015, 03:37 PM
Oct 2015

Combine that with a stopping distance that can be as much as a mile or more for a freight train weighing a few 100T and you've got a recipe for disaster. Generally you can hear a train a 1/4mi. away...a train moves that distance in seconds. They're not as loud as you'd think...most of the noise is perpendicular to the tracks and localized.

 

jberryhill

(62,444 posts)
8. Along the Northeast Corridor, they do
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 12:11 PM
Oct 2015

Along a lot of stretches of the Northeast Corridor, there is enough ambient background/highway noise nearby that a very fast moving train can be there before you know it.

Nye Bevan

(25,406 posts)
11. Yeah, the Amtrak Acela is scary enough when it zooms through a station without stopping.
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 12:14 PM
Oct 2015

You have to stand well back from the track.

mahatmakanejeeves

(56,906 posts)
14. Sort of like this:
Sat Oct 3, 2015, 02:27 PM
Oct 2015


Boyds is at the top of an eastbound grade. In fact, it is the stiffest eastbound grade on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad mainline east of Chicago. Trains coming up off the Monocacy River make a lot of noise.

Metropolitan Subdivision

This train, though, was the westbound Capitol Limited, and it would have been headed downhill through Boyds. Here is the westbound Capitol Limited at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, several miles west of Boyds, on the Cumberland Subdivision:



Typical power is a pair of P42 diesels. It needs the power to get over the Alleghenies west of Cumberland:

Eastbound Capitol Limited at Mance, Pennsylvania

I can attest from spending a fair amount of time adjacent to railroad tracks that trains can sneak up on you.

As the rule book says, "Always expect a train; any time, any track, any direction."

bullwinkle428

(20,627 posts)
24. Metra and Amtrak trains share lines in Chicago, and it's exactly the same way
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 09:14 AM
Oct 2015

there as well. They will absolutely FLY through the station zone if they're not making a stop, and there really isn't a lot of noise until it's practically on top of you.

Populist_Prole

(5,364 posts)
13. Actually they can
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 12:40 PM
Oct 2015

A drifting freight train with its power operating at a lower throttle position on the continuous welded rail used on almost all mainlines can approach with eerie silence; moreso with the effects of wind and geography/topography masking sounds even further.

mahatmakanejeeves

(56,906 posts)
20. That's what is in place at Boyds.
Sat Oct 3, 2015, 02:58 PM
Oct 2015

CWR, FRA Class IV track. Depending on curves and speed limits, freights are capable of going 55 mph, and passenger trains 79 mph.

Thanks for writing.

LeftinOH

(5,342 posts)
4. I used to do a fair amount of "trainspotting" which involved
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 11:38 AM
Oct 2015

walking on active tracks, taking pictures of tracks, taking pictures of trains (I know..nerdy stuff). But there was NEVER a problem detecting oncoming trains..even from a great distance. I really, really don't understand how people get hit by trains.

mahatmakanejeeves

(56,906 posts)
6. I am familiar with the practice of which you speak.
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 12:08 PM
Oct 2015

Last edited Sat Oct 3, 2015, 02:51 PM - Edit history (1)

The frequency in use at Boyds is 160.230 MHz. I had that figure at the top of my head. I used to go out to that line to photograph (Pentax, Kodachrome 25) the MARC F-units. I notice the article says they were using a 35mm camera.

Related: Right. There have been people hanging out by the railroad tracks, taking pictures

People Almost Getting Hit by a Train

Video shows terrifying seconds before Georgia film crew’s fatal run-in with freight train

Dangerous Fad on NWP/Don Phillips Article

 

Marr

(20,317 posts)
9. I've never understood it either.
Fri Oct 2, 2015, 12:12 PM
Oct 2015

In the city, it's different-- the commuter trains can be fairly quiet and the city is very noisy. It'd almost be like being hit by a car-- very easy to imagine.

But in the countryside, or some small town with a rail line running through it? I don't get it. You can literally hear the train coming a mile off.

 

BlueJazz

(25,348 posts)
28. I was thinking the same thing. What I suspect: Maybe people are taking pictures of the approaching..
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 09:37 AM
Oct 2015

..train by either standing by the tracks (Too Close!) or on the tracks thinking "I'll jump off in time" (Ouch!)

Don't know.

 

PeoViejo

(2,178 posts)
29. I was almost hit at an unmarked crossing in rural OK.
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 09:41 AM
Oct 2015

It was at Night and there was a shed next to the track that blocked the view. I decided to creep and peek. That's when a speeding express flew by. There was no warning. It was scary.

HereSince1628

(36,063 posts)
27. The SO's father was killed by a train in 1946 while doing maintenance on ballast
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 09:31 AM
Oct 2015

just a week before Christmas and just about 3 months before she was born.

She's been trying to understand the event that changed her life for going on 68 years. The newspaper report had no details and spelled his name wrong, any formal investigation records are long lost

From an old family member who also worked for the Rock Island, but who wasn't actually there, she was told that it was snowing lightly, he was part of a small crew working with heavy equipment near a spur going to an industrial area.

He was hit on the side of the head by some part of the on-coming engine. Apparently he either didn't hear the on-coming train over equipment noise or somehow hadn't expected the engine to be as wide as it was.

Bucky

(53,805 posts)
16. Train tracks are emotionally powerful symbols, especially in America.
Sat Oct 3, 2015, 02:42 PM
Oct 2015

Train tracks turned America into a 1st rate world power and are deeply rooted symbols of the genocide on which American abundance was created. Trains made fortunes, united families, offered promises of opportunity in traveling far away, and gave a hint of the hopes on which the American dream was built and attainable for the dawning generations of the modern era.

The subliminal appeal of posing with a railroad track, for both its hopeful and its atavistic power, is irresistible. Under the right auditory circumstances, yes, a train can "sneak up on you" with a deadly velocity. I personally can't drive past the parallel tracks without staring down to the vanishing point and wonderlusting at how big this country is, wondering what potential adventures & differences I am connected to by those tracks. Airports and dockyards have the same appeal, but railroads are all around us all the time.

Archae

(46,262 posts)
25. Our entertainment media doesn't help, either.
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 09:27 AM
Oct 2015

In the music video for Aerosmith's "Living On The Edge," (just one example,) the guitarist plays his solo on a set of tracks while a train is coming.

He walks off just in time.

mahatmakanejeeves

(56,906 posts)
17. Here is the original article in the Washington Post about the incident:
Sat Oct 3, 2015, 02:47 PM
Oct 2015

Last edited Mon Oct 5, 2015, 08:58 AM - Edit history (1)

While I think this was tragic, it was also preventable.

Public Safety

An adventurous life cut short on the railroad tracks

By Dan Morse and Donna St. George September 15
@danmorse
@donnastgeorge

John DeReggi, 16, and his girlfriend wanted to get their pictures taken at a picturesque spot near their homes in Boyds, Md. It was near railroad tracks. Lots of kids have been getting their photos made there.
....

According to Montgomery County police, a northbound Amtrak train struck John DeReggi just before 5 p.m. Monday {September 14} in the community of Boyds, about 25 miles northwest of the District.

Investigators were still trying to learn precisely what DeReggi did in the moments before he was struck. According to his friends and family members, he went there with his girlfriend, Natalie Crim, and Natalie’s twin sister, who planned to use at least one of the photos as part of a school assignment.

Several factors could have been in play. Trains are quieter than people think; their size makes them look slower; if they’re coming right at you, gauging speed is difficult. ... “There’s very little clicketyclack. They can really sneak up on you,” said Robert Halstead, president of IronWood Technologies, a firm that reconstructs train accidents. ... He likened the deceptive speed of trains to those of planes as they’re landing. Even though planes are going 150 mph, “it kind of looks like they’re just hanging there.”

uppityperson

(115,674 posts)
18. a friend was killed in high school in 1970ish shooting photos on train tracks
Sat Oct 3, 2015, 02:50 PM
Oct 2015

"shooting photos on the tracks is not only dangerous but illegal trespassing."

mahatmakanejeeves

(56,906 posts)
23. Woman Arrested After Doing Yoga On Metro Tracks
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 09:10 AM
Oct 2015

Last edited Thu Oct 8, 2015, 11:40 AM - Edit history (1)

Woman Arrested After Doing Yoga On Metro Tracks

By Emma G. Gallegos in News on Oct. 7, 2015 5:13 p.m.



Don't try this, kids (NBC Washington)

A woman has been arrested and charged with striking a yoga pose on Metrorail tracks late last year.

Metro Transit Police say they've nabbed the Virginia woman who was spotted on surveillance footage doing a handstand on Orange Line tracks at the West Falls Church Station last December. NBC Washington reports that the woman has been arrested and charged with trespassing. Her name hasn't been released, but she is scheduled to appear in court at the end of the month.

A man was also spotted in surveillance footage taking photos of her. This all went down December 12 at 11 a.m. Police didn't say how they managed to track down their suspect. Nor is there any word about the gentleman photographer. However, Yoga Dork did manage to track down a shot from Instagram that appears to have come from the illegal shoot in question:



Screenshot from Instagram via Yoga Dork

Sure, Metro stations can be very un-Zen places, on swampy days they can feel like a Bikram studio and train tracks are a great background for #authentic Instagram shots, but striking a pose near the third rail on live tracks is an excellent way to become a Darwin awards contender.

And now for the video:

Woman arrested for doing yoga on metro track

October 8, 2015 10:52 AM EDT - Video released by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority shows a Virginia woman performing yoga poses on Metro train tracks at the West Falls Church station in 2014. The woman, who remains unnamed, will head to court later this month on trespassing charges. Editor's note: This video contains no audio. (WMATA)

pinboy3niner

(53,339 posts)
32. :)
Thu Oct 8, 2015, 10:01 AM
Oct 2015

Not everyone will appreciate the humor.

But I highly recommend the movie, 'The Station Agent.'

'

Initech

(99,915 posts)
37. They really need a symposium about the dangers of track photography?
Fri Oct 9, 2015, 03:26 PM
Oct 2015

How about this: NO SELFIES ON TRAIN TRACKS PERIOD!!!!! If you have the possibility of, um, dying while taking a selfie, don't fucking take it. It's not worth your life for a damn selfie!

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