Overzealous Railfan Gets Busted and Misses 4449 at Pasco, WA

[c6rocks]

Oh no, is that man watching the train? Could it be? I've heard of these guys. YES a criminal train watcher. Get him!

[phehrachii1]

The engineer should have given dipshit a blast of steam

[rukkosurfo]

jeepers2655 I was reading comments to this video and realized nobody answered your question. The info I have is: There are two main reasons for the Diesel. Steam locomotives do not provide enough electricity to keep things running in modern trains so they use it as an electric power plant. The second one is that Diesels are used to pull the train in certain sections were the excess of smoke is prohibited, so they take over until they clear the zone.

[c182SkylaneRG]

I'm curious to know what is the "legal" distance. I don't do actual railfanning, myself, and am primarily curious. It seems like a minimum safe distance is 10 feet from the nearest rail, because providing the train doesn't derail, you won't get hit, but that looks like where this so-called "idiot" was, and thus my assumption's wrong. Thanks for educating the ignorant! :)

[potlatcher]

@c182SkylaneRG The only "legal" distance is OFF of railroad property. Otherwise you are trespassing, unless you have some sort of written permission from the railroad in question to be on its property. At this particular location, there are plenty of "legal" locations to photograph from, including the walking path seen in the video. These guys just thought the trespassing laws, and the unwritten rules of railfan decorum, applied to everyone but themselves.

[Boss302fan]

@potlatcher As a lifetime railroader you summed it up well. Of course at times it is hard to tell where property ends or begins, but if you are trackside please try to stay back 20 or so feet. I promise it makes all of us running when anyone is too close to the tracks. In this day and age....you just do not know.

[c182SkylaneRG]

@potlatcher How do you know where the property lines are, though? I'd happily stand right on the property line, but I'd hate to be two feet over it and get in trouble.

[jeepers2655]

why the diesel?......backup?

[rukkosurfo]

@jeepers2655 I posted an answer for you at the wrong place. Please look for it somewhere around here. Your id is written at the beginning. Sorry about the mistake.

[mikes47jeep]

railfans are one thing, but those choo choo coo coo's.... what a pain

[DardanellesBy108]

That is a great shot, a beautiful slow pass with some cool cars. It is a shame about railfans such as these. They do make the rest of us look bad.

[trainmasta227]

Dear video idiot next time u wanna photo 4449 go to a curve

[deloreanman14]

In local news, a foamer was run down by a freight train while attempting to get a shot of an oncoming steam locomotive. Upon inspection of the camera's memory card, it seems the shot wasn't all that great and certainly nothing worth losing your life over.

This guy is a putz....plain and simple.

[modelrailroader4157]

And some people wonder why Classs 1's don't do this that often. You got idiots like this who want to ruin it for everyone and tresspass on RR property! Nice video man. 4449 looks great!

[LaFiebreDelPacifico]

what is that train for?

[papabugs71]

That's not a railfan. That's a FOAMER. It's idiots like that guy that make my job nerveracking as hell.

[modelrailroader4157]

@papabugs71 Yeah your right that is a major foamer doing something as dumb ad this. If you get the time check out my video "railfan VS. Train engineer" it is a video I made to show what foamers can be like.

[omgwhatafag]

The engineer should of put the rugulator on high.

either that or the officer should of throun his camera a few feet off the ground or in frount of the Daylight.

[voiceofelijah2012]

Actually, I think it's time for another train robbery these days.

[Xantec]

if you want to get "that close", use a zoom lens and do it from 100 yards away instead of 10 feet

[youlldietrying]

Clickty Clack! Clickity Clack! Who's that numb skull on the Tracks! Throw the timetable at em!

[moonwalker5058]

That dude gets screwed with by the BNSF police. What a stupid idiot!

[rayman4449]

Seeing that sort of behavior ticks me off. It's hard enough to convince the major railroads to let them run big steam on their rails. The last thing we railfans should be doing is pissing off the RR.

[rayman4449]

And great video by the way, thanks for posting. : )

[ThomasRivette]

I don't understand what's happening here.

[potlatcher]

The BNSF cop in the white SUV has been yelling at the two guys up by the bridge to get away from the tracks. They have ignored him so they can get their precious photo. He finally has to get out of his rig, go up to the tracks, and stand right in front of the one photographer in order to finally get him to move! No wonder railfans get a bad rap among the real railroaders.

[MattBNSF1991]

that is too funny....yet too bad

[deathstarmygnr]

These are the people that make us railfans look bad.

[Toedrip]

@deathstarmygnr well we are "bad" aren't we?

[streetcarbrad]

Love the slow roll past as you pan! Congrats on an excellent video! Well done and and great pick on location.

[mtskidmark]

nice catch...on both counts!!

[CoasterFan2105]

Oh my god, I was there too! That guy was an IDIOT!! First he wouldn't shut up, and then he nearly gets hit by the train!

[potlatcher]

Not sure who you think was the idiot. The railfan (yellow shirt) was clearly too close to the ROW and was ignoring the BNSF officer. The officer (dark uniform) was the one yelling at the railfan, and when the railfan kept ignoring him, he had to go up and very directly order him to get off the property. The officer did hesitate for a moment near the tracks, but he was never in danger of getting hit by the train. The officer was clearly doing his job. Only a real idiot ignores the police!

[CoasterFan2105]

Yup, that was the guy I was talking about. While he was waiting for the train, he decided to take a nap under the bridge!!

[CoasterFan2105]

(The railfan standing up near the tracks)

[generationll]

One bad apple.............

[deloreanman14]

Frickin' idiot. Foamers like these ruin it for the rest of us who obey the laws and don't do stupid shit like this. Hope he got slapped with a big fine although people like this usually don't learn.

[CoasterFan2105]

These are the same kind of people who jump in front of your shot 30 seconds before the the train comes when you have been set up for 30 minutes!

[mafarnz]

The steam specials bring out the absolute WORST of the ___ hole foamers. Glad he got busted.

[Squawk7600]

Exactly where was this idiot-- looks almost like he was right on the tracks at the very end of the bridge??? Damn, this is a prime example too of how just one really "bad" railfan can give the rest of us that respect the laws and all a bad reputation. And, btw, great shot of the Daylight exiting the bridge!! (c:

[Squawk7600]

The idiot no doubt ruined things for lots of other railfans there too because I'm sure they didn't appreciate the BNSF police car suddenly there in their videos and pictures!!

[Squawk7600]

You could clearly see a bunch of the other railfans scrambling and running up closer at the last second to try and get shots without the BNSF police car in them!!