This past Thursday, I took my bag lunch down to the Silver Spring, MD MARC station platform on the CSX main, partly to get out of the office and partly to watch any activity.

As I munched, a fella comes on the platform, sits down on the edge of the platform with feet on the ties, spreads out a newspaper, starts to read, and then calls someone on his cell phone!:

http://ladyandtramp.com/images/Image%20Library/20060803/CIMG0922.JPG

After he hung up, I walked over and asked if he knew an Amtrak train would be coming through at anytime running 60+mph and if he was lucky they'd see him in time to blow the horn. He moved to a bench.

Just the day before, I had shot this movie from the same location:

http://ladyandtramp.com/images/Image%20Library/20060802/CIMG0921.AVI

(11Mb AVI movie)

Bob

Greetings:

As in all aspects of life, there of course is the eventual end of life. Some of it, of course is truly not very pleasant, not only for the victim, but the personnel dispatched to scene for the reports and eventual clean up, both on the ground and on the equipment.

If you've never had to deal with this situation, good for you (and I truly mean it).

The photo posted was in black and white, and yes, it had it's amount of gore. There was a warning (at least when I first saw the post).

If you operate any equipment (including an auto, which many of us do), at some point, you'll see the results of or be a witness to, or maybe involved in an accident. Some of the results will not be pretty. This is not a game that you eventually un plug, or shut down to go off and have dinner.

I don't mean to preach. This the real thing, and the real thing can, at times, be pretty un friendly to those who do not respect it or don't want to understand the damage it is possible of inflicting.

Life, it's a pretty precious thing. Be careful.

Karl Johnson

Bob,

I fully support your posting of this picture and RYPN for allowing it and putting the warning.

If you ever needed an example of how a picture was worth a thousand words, this is it.

Jason

I see the validity of this post. We always joke where I work that we're not "the real railroad" meaning that we are not a revenue road like a class 1, but we are standard guage and the equipment can still injure or kill you. I have had some close calls with visitors and the closest near pedestrian collision involved people who did not understand the gravity of the situation that a train was moving right towards the space they were occupying, they think it's just a toy.
My biggest fear is those people who run up at the last second to place a coin on the track (pointless flattened metal) and trip, which would end up similarly like the picture shown.
There was a discussion of using this picture during the next safety class and I fully agree that it should be shown. It isn't pretty, but it is reality.