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About two months ago, a trucker parked a tractor-trailer rig in Topton, PA, on (or close enough to) a Norfolk Southern main line that sees about thirty freights a day, A few minutes later, most of the truck was scattered over a wider expanse of the street. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt, but the trucker, (of course) pleaded his ignorance of the railroad's "schedule" as his excuse.
The unfortunate fact is, that an increasingly diverse general public has a much poorer understanding of how the rail industry operates than it did two generations ago, (when the number or people working for the railroads was about six times what it is today; and if measured on a proportional basis, that disparity doubles again due to the increase in population).
"What we got here is a failure to communicate", but the more-sensitized, feminized, and non-technical focus of our primary classrooms isn't going to do anything to bridge the gap.
"What we got here is a failure to communicate", but the more-sensitized, feminized, and non-technical focus of our primary classrooms isn't going to do anything to bridge the gap.
Hey, that's good! Blame the film crew's appalling and criminal negligence on "feminized" classrooms! Way to go!
I'm sorry if you don't believe that the focus of our education away from basic safety and toward "touchy-feely" isn't extracting a price, but fifty years ago, more people (or their spouses) could differentiate from a heavily used "main line" and a "streak of rust". That is the sort of "street sense" America is losing.
When I was in the primary grades, safety was a staple of our education; we were constantly warned of the dangers of strangers, automobiles, construction sites, etc. In some isnstances, the affected sectors of the private economy furnished additional material:
When the opportunity presents itself, I peruse a number of transportation trade journals, both rail and highway; one "sore point" I've seen raised by several contributors is what happens when technical matters filter down into a gushy, public-relations ordered "blurb" -- usually authored by an "otusider"; when a neophyte asks an industry pro about "saving gas", when anyone from within the industry immediately recognizes that the prime fuel source for all forms of transportation other than air and private auto is Diesel, for example.
I honestly don't know how much the facts have "taken a back seat" in our over-sensitized curriculum. And I don't have a problem with the raising of environmental issues, for example: so long as fact is separated from agenda.
But the fact remains that the public schools are a major point of conflict in our current polarization -- millions of people no longer trust them, and I'm not so naive as to believe that a group as well-organized and closely linked to one side of the controversy as the NEA isn't making every effort to be sure its own views hold center stage -- and probably could not care less about any other point of view.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 09-04-2014 at 03:54 AM..
I just can't imagine carting props, grip equipment, lights, bounce cards, dollies, video assist, c-stands, and a freaking Arriflex out onto a railroad bridge with the notion that you can just bug out if you hear a train coming.
Stupid, stupid, stupid to about the fifteenth power. Either the director and producers were total morons or they were just on drugs. There is no rational explanation for it. To me, the most likely explanation is that an assistant producer was supposed to procure permission, likely had a casual conversation with someone at CSX, and didn't get confirmation in writing. Or didn't get permission and lied that he had it in order to avoid being canned off the shoot. That's happened before.
Wow. Just wow. What an idiot that he failed to obtain permission and jeapordized so many lives. Even children know NOT to play on the railroad tracks!!!
And exactly HOW were they going to get all their gear out of the way. Just pure stupidity and negligence on the part of the Director, if you ask me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth
They didn't check the train schedule (at the very least) before commencing production? How stupid do you have to be? wtf?! Serious negligence. And the train tracks are RR private property, so they were trespassing.
And the victim's family is suing the RR? How could they possibly be to blame for people trespassing onto their tracks? Their lawyer isn't too bright.
I honestly do not think they will get very far with that lawsuit! They should be suing the director or the film company if what I'm reading here is true.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2nd trick op
I'm sorry if you don't believe that the focus of our education away from basic safety and toward "touchy-feely" isn't extracting a price, but fifty years ago, more people (or their spouses) could differentiate from a heavily used "main line" and a "streak of rust". That is the sort of "street sense" America is losing.
I'm sorry if you don't believe that the focus of our education away from basic safety and toward "touchy-feely" isn't extracting a price, but fifty years ago, more people (or their spouses) could differentiate from a heavily used "main line" and a "streak of rust". That is the sort of "street sense" America is losing.
This is a very problematic statement of which I'm going to mostly ignore except for the bolded part. It sounds to me like you would be okay with the film crew trespassing and disobeying CSX if they had just used a more sedate, rural and lesser used line. And that the woman would probably still be alive. But the fact is, they were wrong to do so, no matter what spot they chose and there's a great possibility the director chose that spot because of its cinematic qualities and a "streak of rust" just would not do for the shot he was hoping to obtain.
The problem goes deeper than that, actually; I've already cited an 85% drop in rail employment coupled with a 55% increase in the population (a lot of them immigrants from third-world societies where very little freight moves long distances) since 1945.
To that can be added the point that the industry experiences much less contact with the public; at one time, control of rail traffic was spread over thousands of locations -- the "signal towers" and offices where written orders were copied and passed on to train crews. That figure was down to about 1500 places by 1960 (and the local police almost always knew how to contact them) and is probably less than 100 today. With a few exceptions, the entire CSX system is centrally-controlled and monitored from one complex in Jacksonville, to cite an example.
There has been some discussion of formally recruiting and vetting railroad enthusiasts to act as a sort of auxillary; many of us do know how to recognize and report sticking brakes, overheated axles and malfunctioning grade-crossing protection, and there is a computer program, combined with access to railroad radio, that permits diehards to build their own monitoring system (Google "ATCS"). But most freight moves at odd hours, and in locations not too accessible to public scrutiny.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 09-04-2014 at 12:23 PM..
I'm sorry if you don't believe that the focus of our education away from basic safety and toward "touchy-feely" isn't extracting a price, but fifty years ago, more people (or their spouses) could differentiate from a heavily used "main line" and a "streak of rust". That is the sort of "street sense" America is losing.
This has absolutely nothing to do with schooling. Life is more urban than it was in the first half of the 20th Century, so naturally city kids won't have the kind of familiarity with RR lines that you do. And btw, I grew up in a more rural part of Oakland, CA, that had a train running through the neighborhood twice/day. Us kids were never told by parents to avoid the tracks, not play on the tracks or not walk along the tracks. We did those things frequently, without incident.
I honestly do not think they will get very far with that lawsuit! They should be suing the director or the film company if what I'm reading here is true.
They may be (suing CSX), but from the information so far they don't have a case against the RR. The judge should dismiss the case against CSX, but that doesn't mean he will.
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