[goatwgn]

On Cobrabill's original post of "do's and dont's he mentioned the railroad "cops" patrolling the tracks and such. We actually need more of those in this area (Hampton Roads, Va.) as on a couple of occasions in the last 5 years or so, there has been drunks that have fallen asleep on the track, the train has come by and ran over them. I see morons walking contantly on the tracks behind the shop I work at. I beleive they use it as a shortcut. All these people are idiots. Some even walk across a short bridge on the tracks. I thought about reporting this, but the engineers see it for themselves while playing "Chicken" with the pedestrians. The trains in town here don't move as fast as the ones out in the country that I have seen moving up to about 65 mph, but they will still beat a person across that narrow span of bridge (which is about 200 feet across). And staying back 30 to 40 feet from the crossing is definently a good idea. Years ago I saw a place where a couple of containers had fallen off some flat cars. Wasn't at a crossing (just about a block from it) but if it would have been at one, someone would have gotten hurt or killed. It boils down to people must use common sense, which seems a little lacking in a lot of arenas these days. Thanks for posting this thread.