More people That just don't get it..

[ocalicreek]

A Related Rant

Just this morning I watched a train-related segment on a Discovery Channel show, "Really Big Things". It was all about GE's Evolution Series Locos. It's an entertaining show - due to the technical aspects, of course, but also the antics of the show's host (Matt Rogers, of American Idol infamy - actually a childhood friend of my wife, btw).

Anyway, it was something that host did which got my hackles up...the intro to the segment showed him walking and talking...guess where...right down the middle of the tracks! I was taught at a very early age to NEVER EVER walk down the tracks. I don't care what stupid things kids might do that we can chalk up to the naivete of youth, but this should never be one of them.

I've seen kids around here walking along the tracks of our local shortline - a railroad with a most unpredictable schedule, and one that uses cabeese due to the number of backing moves that must be performed. With the caboose leading the train, the train doesn't make as much noise! Much easier to be caught unawares that way.

And yesterday when I was out railfanning with my son on my shoulders (2-1/2) I had to stop and think twice about crossing the tracks. One, it would be trespassing - not that I've never done that before to pick up a souvenir (stealing RR property like tie plates or spikes), and two, it would be teaching him that it's okay because Daddy does it. I chose not to trespass, nor pick up any souvenirs that day. The kid is a sponge and would certainly pay more attention to my behavior than I give him credit.

When our kids see news reporters, perhaps the most often guilty of walking right down the middle of the track during a story, strolling along casually, calmly talking into the camera as if the tracks were a sidewalk, not a place where limbs or lives are lost, what message are they really receiving?

Perhaps one of the most effective 'stay-off-the-tracks' posters I've ever seen comes from Metrolink. It shows a young adult walking down the middle of the tracks wearing a walkman (probably would be an ipod these days...although the photo couldn't have been that old) with an F59PH coming up behind him in the haze. Gives me chills thinking about it. I guess that's the idea.

Thanks for listening to the rant. I'll step off my soapbox...for now.

 

[doctorwayne]

Of course you're right about the trespassing and stealing, but there's a saying used by those that work around trains, and it's a good one for everybody to know, especially if you're out railfanning: Expect a train at any time, on any track, and in any direction. You'd also be surprised, given the proper conditions, how easy it is for something as big and noisy as a train to sneak up on you.

Wayne

 

[ocalicreek]

Indeed! The Amtrak Cascades train we saw yesterday had the unit in the rear doing the pushing, so the train was nearly silent pulling away from the station, except for the sound of airconditioners, the bell and the horn of course. It's nice to hear that gentle sssss of the steel on steel on smooth welded rail.

The one I remember was "Any time is train time". I've been 'caught' by a train while railfanning (a safe distance from the tracks, btw) by a train coming around a hill. By the time I heard it (drifting downgrade) the units were past me. I couldn't even get the camera up to my face in time, let alone turning it on! So that spot wasn't so great for trains coming from that direction. Got some nice shots the other way, however.

 

[Ralph]

Funny Wayne! Hmmmmm, some where I might still have that penny I put on the tracks when the Freedom Train went through my town in the 1970s.
Ralph

 

[Play-Doh]

I had a close call myself...much similiar to the scenario that was described with the headphones.

Last year I would take the train everywhere, it was a max style train and would run from one end of town to another. But the thing is damn near silent. Standing at the stop, jamming to my tunes, the train came so fast, and so silently that it actually struck my back pack when it came through the stop. The train was screaming fast and easily would have killed me. My railfanning of the freight trains took a step back with that wake up call.

 

[Cannonball]

Ah dear me, what a pity the old days are gone when we could just physically abuse children and get away with it. They'll be complaining about wife-beating next, dam' pinko liberal-commies, eh?
Of course those young kids are terrorists, let's round 'em up, beat them for a while and then send 'em to Guantanamo where, thank goodness, that writ of that bleeding heart habeas corpus nonsense doesn't run.....

Like I said in my last post- There is a difference between punnishment and abuse.
Breaking bones, leaving welts and bruises is abuse. Swatting them with a belt or other foriegn object would be abuse. Smacking them on the butt when they're behaving like animals is not abuse.

What are you gonna do when Junior is sticking a screwdriver into a light socket?
Stand there and say,"Oh no, Junior. We don't do that. Please put the screwdriver down."
Or are ya' gonna grab the kid and smack his hand before he electrocutes himself?
Go with the first option and I'll bet you ten bucks the kid will try it just as soon as your back is turned and find out why "we don't do that" for himself.

 

[hooknlad]

Galen - Your words are extremely inspirational and very well stated. As you mentioned. Reporters, whether it be from the paper or the TV news, will always Be in the center of the tracks. Once a camera man gets waffled, perhaps it will be the last story ever shot on the tracks.

Also, this reminds me of a story in my local news about 3 months ago.

This goes to show the ignorance of more people... In a nutshell.. The residents of a small refinery storage facility ( SHELL OIL ) , are up in arms, why you ask ?? Because when they moved in, there were 2 metal rails behind their homes that, which they believed were abandoned rails. The rails were not in use at the time, because the facility was in an OFF season. Well, These people are protesting that the trains have no right to be running behind their homes, and blowing that annoying horn at the grade crossings... Hmmm lets see, those track were there long before these people were born...They , and the town, are actually attempting to pass a law, that the trains cannot use their horns during certain hours, and train access would be limited to move as well..
What are these people thinking? Isn't that fact exposed when you purchase the home? Especially when you have to cross the grade crossing, bump bump bump bump, with the large white fiberglass bars with the red lights mounted on them and those amazing signs, I don't know whether a lot of you have seen them, RR XING , Very nice signage indeed.
Oh I almost forgot, They want the bells disconnected on the crossings at well, One gentleman works nighs and the bells disturb his nap..
There are definitely some winners out there.. I believe it was in Kindergarten when I learned what modes of transportation was out there and where they traveled.. Boats/ water, cars and trucks/ roads, Planes/sky, and trains/ tracks... I remember that day very well, actually it is probably the only thing that I haven't forgotten. LOL

 

[bigsteel]

kids to day think they are invincible and cannot be punished or hurt,but when my son was 13 he had hit his mother and i was infuriated,and he threatened to call the cops and i said,you really think there going to side with you,they grew up with me! so lets just say he didnt sit the rest of the night.

and i dont know abotu you guys but i respect the traks yet i still love puttin change on them! --josh

 

[hooknlad]

Putting change on the Gauge, merely increases its value

sign1​

 

[Pitchwife]

I have to weigh in on the disciplinarian side of this debate. As a kid I couldn't count the times I got my butt beaten and I can honestly say that it didn't harm me physiologically in the least. I understand the meaning of respect, fair play and humility. Somehow I don't see timeouts accomplishing that.
Yes there IS child abuse, however the powers that be cannot differentiate between abuse and discipline.
We in the US had our lives changed on 9-11. We had been sliding down the slope of over reaction before then, but that day the slope turned into a cliff. On one day you could carry a nail file onto an airplane, the next you couldn't. We have turned from rational to reactionary. My only hope is that enough of us keep our heads and steer this country on a steady course.

 

[ocalicreek]

Let me add this, since the discussion has returned to spanking. My dad used spanking as a last resort. I know he didn't like to do it and neither did Mom like that he had to do it. But what he did use up to that point was a tone of voice and that certain look that said volumes without violence. But I knew that he'd follow through on the threat of paddling if necessary (and it was, occasionally).

Galen - Your words are extremely inspirational and very well stated. As you mentioned. Reporters, whether it be from the paper or the TV news, will always Be in the center of the tracks. Once a camera man gets waffled, perhaps it will be the last story ever shot on the tracks.

Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

ANYWAY, all this penny flattening talk has got me thinking...anybody ever hear about someone getting a half-flattened penny embedded in them or at least shot at them by the train as it sped by? I'd always heard about this but thought it might just be a myth. Seems the train would flatten it before flinging it....could be a good submission for the mythbusters. I bet if we all suggested it they'd test it.

And on that subject, I wonder if the penny presses, like you see around Disneyland and other amusement parks, that make the flattened pennies, were developed around the time a putting-pennies-on-the-tracks craze was sweeping the nation?

 

[Pitchwife]

ANYWAY, all this penny flattening talk has got me thinking...anybody ever hear about someone getting a half-flattened penny embedded in them or at least shot at them by the train as it sped by? I'd always heard about this but thought it might just be a myth. Seems the train would flatten it before flinging it....could be a good submission for the mythbusters. I bet if we all suggested it they'd test it.

And on that subject, I wonder if the penny presses, like you see around Disneyland and other amusement parks, that make the flattened pennies, were developed around the time a putting-pennies-on-the-tracks craze was sweeping the nation?

I can't speak from experience, but it seems to me that the vibration of the rails caused by the oncoming train would cause any coin to fall off. A coin placed on the rail in front of a stopped train would be more likely to be flattened when it started than one in front of a speeding train.

 

[MadModeler]

Kids will be kids. The stuff that I did between the ages of 12-15, I today would be labelled as a terrorist.:curse: All through American Railroad history, pranks has been play on or along the tracks. Have you ever put a penny on a rail before an on coming train? After 9-11, so much has changed. It's so sad.

Andy

No kidding. When I was 12, some friends of mine and I set off a smoke bomb under someone's car and hid. The guy came out and thought his car was on fire. When he realized it wasn't, he just shook his head and went back into the house. Another time, I put some cray fish in the neighbour's pool. His wife found them after she jumped in. The neighbour (with my parents' permission) asked me about it and I fessed up. (He was a cop). I thought I was dead meat! It never happened again with me.

The problem today is lack of discipline. You get government officials telling the parents they can't discipline their kids, the kids realize they can get away with it and now we're having too many problems. I'm not saying parents should be allowed to take a 2x4 and beat the kid senseless with it but they have to have some leeway in disciplining their kids. When I was growing up, I learned quickly that there are consequences to my actions. There has to be a balance between protecting kids from abuse and teaching them discipline.

 

[Renovo PPR]

Clark I can see you never had any fun on the tracks. The number of coins that I have placed on the tracks as a kid must be in the hundreds and yes I have place a few more on the tracks in recnet years. Not once did I have a speeding train fail to make a nice round piece of sheet metal. They stick like glue, try it once, it still is neat after all these years.

 

[brakie]

Clark I can see you never had any fun on the tracks. The number of coins that I have placed on the tracks as a kid must be in the hundreds and yes I have place a few more on the tracks in recnet years. Not once did I have a speeding train fail to make a nice round piece of sheet metal. They stick like glue, try it once, it still is neat after all these years.

The last coin I had flatten was in 1990 by the 765..I was NOT a kid at the time..sign1
But,I believe there is a unwritten law that says adults should act their age and not do certain things..sign1
But who follows unwritten laws??

 

[ezdays]

The last coin I had flatten was in 1990 by the 765..I was NOT a kid at the time..sign1
But,I believe there is a unwritten law that says adults should act their age and not do certain things..sign1
But who follows unwritten laws??

Don't know about anyone else, but when I was a kid, a penny was hard to come by and could buy a bit of candy. We couldn't afford to waste one. Now that I can afford to lose a penny or two that way, they won't let me near the tracks...

 

[Pitchwife]

Clark I can see you never had any fun on the tracks. The number of coins that I have placed on the tracks as a kid must be in the hundreds and yes I have place a few more on the tracks in recnet years. Not once did I have a speeding train fail to make a nice round piece of sheet metal. They stick like glue, try it once, it still is neat after all these years.

You're right Renovo, except for taking trips on them I was train deprived as a child. What's worse, I lived closer to trains then than I do now.

 

[viperman]

One thing I learned when I used to put coins on tracks, is to put a splash of pop on the track first. When the friction of the closing in train heats up the tracks it cooks the pop, making it sticky. The coin will not fall off the tracks

 

[doctorwayne]

I grew up in a tough neighbourhood, one where, to prevent other kids from swiping it, you had to hold your penny in place while the train flattened it.

Wayne

 

[ezdays]

I grew up in a tough neighbourhood, one where, to prevent other kids from swiping it, you had to hold your penny in place while the train flattened it.

Wayne

We lived in a tougher neighborhood than that, we used to get the smaller kids to hold our pennies in place.sign1 sign1