This video is making the rounds on Facebook, shot by Jeff and Cindy Turner and shared by Scott Shields of the Steam Railroading Institute:

https://www.facebook.com/scott.shields. ... 723118102/

Pere Marquette 1225, at the noted feed mill photo location, manages to (apparently) rip a piece off the jacket of the person shooting video. The engineer even apparently flips off the person in question.

Yeah, I think the "end times" are nigh now........

EDIT: People with more time and monitor resolution than I had late at night have taken the trouble to present evidence that the engineer did not, as suggested in other venues online by others, "flip off" the person in question. Well and good--had I been in the cab, only not enough time to do so would have kept me from hurling a lump of coal at the offender. (Not gonna happen, of course--but we can fantasize....)

He's raised his hand in a gesture basically asking "what the heck were you thinking". He's not giving her his middle finger.

I grabbed a screenshot - the engineer definitely is not giving the finger. I wish someone would identify her and direct Operation Lifesaver (or the railroad police) her way...

Talk about dodging a bullet. Another few inches and her arm could have been severed by the impact. Unfortunately as I have seen dozens of times, nobody said anything to the several people standing in or near the kill zone. Don't be afraid to yell at them to get back. I also explain to these people who are stubborn to get out of the way, that such a close up photo is a terrible photo as the front of the locomotive takes up the entire photo. There is no scenery, no depth, no side view of the locomotive or cars, very little steam or smoke. In short it looks like a still static shot. Hope this video makes the rounds.

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Your always friendly moderator,

The thing that bugs me is you can't get a good photo that close anyway. And don't get me started on the people who can't find the middle of the viewfinder/screen, or use a $500 camera set on auto.

Standing there taking the video was obviously more damn important then going and grabbing the lady.

These people are 99% NOT railfan photographers, but civilians who are totally clueless, are crappy photographers, and who get exceptionally belligerent when called out on their idiot behavior. Trust me, I know this.....

With everyone having a cellphone, everyone thinks they're a photographer.

Howard P.

I do not believe Great Lakes Central Railroad has a police division. It would be the local authorities that would handle something like this.



Agreed, I have met many....

Spot-on, Howard. I saw this in spades at many of the Big Boy tour locations. One of the problems with using IPADs and cell phones as cameras is that most of them seem to have ultra-wide lenses.....hence the reason why "cell phone guy" always seems to need to be right on top of the train. Unfortunately, ultra-wide lenses also give the impression that the subject is farther away than it really is. Couple a clueless person with a cellphone or IPAD and they will have a tendency to stand too close. Nearly tragically close in this case.

Americans, in general, seem to have lost their wits when it comes to being around trains. Here in Massachusetts, someone seems to get clipped by the MBTA about every 2 weeks.

/Kevin Madore

This is terrible, but I kind of want the original video to be edited with this song playing over it; then used in OLI presentations at schools:

https://youtu.be/Ag1o3koTLWM

Sure would beat the snooze fest OLI videos I had to watch during driver's ed in High School (although that Australian "Dumb Ways to Die" is pretty great in that regard already.)

Also "bingo."

For everyone complaining about how close people got to the train and "why didn't anyone say anything to her?!?", the reality is you have to stay focused on your own safety. The person that's a danger typically slips in behind everyone at the last minute, and then fudges over from questionable turf to dangerous turf in the last few seconds, or runs up behind and beside the "photo line" with seconds to spare. I saw that many, many times with UP 4014 during its visit to Arizona. So did a couple RR employees I spoke with. Ditto 611 on its last few Virginia trips.

Also trust me when I say this: virtually NO ONE out there takes kindly to being "ordered about" for their safety, be it by a civilian, a railroad employee, or even a law enforcement officer (RR, local, sheriff, whoever). Railfans are, in this respect, seemingly more "obedient" than civilians, if only to not end up on the RR police's "prior offender" list for future railfan exploits. During 4014, I came right out and told some fools, "You're standing on a track where a train is coming up right behind you--the signal up there just cleared for it, I can hear him on my radio, and you're endangering yourself!!" and they simply blew me off with "if it comes I'll step aside, okay?" At another location, someone actually called in to the UP emergency number to report some people setting up gear between the two tracks--and only then, when told the agents were en route, were those guys persuaded to retreat. Then the squashed penny fiends...........

The problem is that 99.5% or better of the people in question really DO have enough common sense to get out of harm's way when the train shows up, and measures like the UP trying to tell everyone to "stay back at least 25 feet from the track!" ultimately comes off as overbearing, condescending and "nanny-state" as a 55 mph speed limit in Wyoming, the "Caution: Coffee Is Hot" labels on coffee cups, and the like. It ultimately erodes your credibility and authority among the folks that still have common sense.

And I know damned well that if I take physical action to remove the person or persons from an outright danger zone, I'm most likely going to end up in a fistfight, or have the cops called on me for assault. So #@^% 'em. Not my circus, not my monkeys.

And shoot it while you can. Because it's going away any minute now, thanks to these 0.5% folks.

The person did not just run up. She was standing there the entire time the video was being shot. I would even go as far as to give the guys on the photo line - who are also WAY too damn close a little bit of a benefit if she walked in behind them.

But you can not tell me, the guy that shot this video, did not have plenty of time to yell something, walk up, do anything to prevent this situation.

I dont care if he was an employee, railfan, or whatever. Something should have been said if nothing else.

Fine, I'll play devil's advocate here, because something similar happened to me and a few other railfans a few years ago. NKP 765 was on the return leg of a round trip between Allentown, PA and Pittston, PA - myself and a few other railfans were stationed at the former depot in the town of Northampton, PA (Siegfried is on the sign at the station). 765 is approaching, and there are a lot, and I mean a LOT of people in the area. Daisy-pickers are trackside and some are standing way too closely to the track, eyes glued to their phones or cameras. The train is getting closer and we start yelling at the people to back up, they're too close, look out, etc etc. Nothing. The whistle then starts blowing - there is a grade crossing right behind us - rather similar to what happened in the above photo, people aren't moving. We're too far away to make a dash to grab people and they're on both sides of the tracks - we'd then be putting ourselves in danger trying to help. People moved out of the way in plenty of time, but we still were upset about what had just happened. I haven't released my footage of that incident, although I've occasionally thought that I should - as an example of what not to do.

That being said, "yell something, walk up, do anything" sometimes just won't work. Especially if the train is getting close, their focus is on their lens, and the train is getting louder and louder. At other stops, either RR police (this was Norfolk Southern trackage) were there to keep people away, or local LEOs were there. Not at this particular area. Fortunately nothing bad happened - but sometimes there is no safe action to take aside from yelling, and that doesn't even work sometimes.

Touching a woman in public these days?

"How dare you!"...

Mike