Can I just say this folks, as someone that used to work on the railroad..., please stay as far away from railroad tracks, and the ballast, and in general the whole dang right of way!!!
Not only is there the danger of getting hit by a train, debris falling off of, sticking out from, dragging beside, behind on either side of a train, the whole area is just plain nasty. There are chemicals (super strength because they haven't been diluted for home or industrial uses yet that spill or leak out onto the rails and roadbed, body parts of any animals that are unfortunate enough to come in contact with a moving train, broken glass, broken metals, rotting wood, nails, spikes and a whole host of sharp, and splintered items that can puncture things much more substantial than work boots, not to mention walking or running shoes. Not so much now, but in earlier times, and I'm talking about as late as the early eighties and nineties, some toilets on the trains emptied out on to the tracks, oh yeah!!! Ever seen the signs in some of the restrooms of the passenger train cars that asked you not flush the toilet while the train was still in the station? No? Well, apparently a lot of other people didn't see them either! When I was a kid, I used to wonder why so much toilet paper and "stuff" was on the tracks in the stations, then my Dad told me, that's why you don't flush the toilets while the train is in the station, son. No they'd rather have you wait until the train is moving at a pretty good clip, so that when you did flush, the impact zone was tens of yards long and about half as wide. That's just one good reason why you don't want to be standing close to a train that's going by.
I could go on for hours about why you shouldn't be out there, but another reason is that you are considered a trespasser if you are on the right of way, without being an employee on duty or have special permission to be there, and the right of way sometimes extends much farther out than just the track and roadbed.
A simple cut can turn septic very quickly unless treated soon after due to all of the filth and garbage out there, so please do yourself and any loved ones a huge favor, if you like or love trains, but you like or love yourself even more, admire them from a good distance, and STAY OFF OF THE RAILROAD!!!
sidestreet
we are not equal, we will never be equal, but we must be relentless.
Jeremiah 29:11-13
Philippians 1:3
