In our walks, we see some unusual things, non automotive too. Since I’m feeling a bit unconstrained today, I thought I’d share one of them with you. These shiny and well used rails are the mainline Union Pacific tracks where they run through the heart of Eugene, and numerous freights (as well as the Coast Starlight) roll through here at pretty good clips. Several folks get nipped by them every year. My point-and-shoot camera has a lousy zoom, so this crop is a bit fuzzy. But what is this poor little baby doing here?
Wonder if any child labor laws were broken? I’m hardly a nanny-pamby, but couldn’t you have found a deserted siding to do this? There’s plenty around. It might have looked a bit better.
Just when you think you couldn’t experience anyone more stupid or irresponsible, you encounter this; it’s beyond description. I have been in the railroading business off and on for the last 25 years (currently on) and I can tell you first hand, it’s no place to play; death and injury comes in the blink of an eye.
Even a deserted siding is a bad idea; rail lines are private property and trespassing is forbidden, period. This one needs to go to Operation Lifesaver.
What exactly was the point of this photo shoot? Please tell me it wasn’t a railroad safety PSA. Leaving aside the danger to the baby (assuming it’s an actual child and this isn’t just a very good likeness) from being hit by a train, who would let a kid play in such a dirty environment?
Next up, let’s take him to a construction site! Or maybe a working steel mill!
Oh, I know what should be next! Airport runway! Preferably with a 747 or A380 landing on it, of course!
He was very much alive.
I’ll never forget the dirty look I got from the guy driving a locomotive in the shipyard when I put a penny on the tracks for him to run over. It seems beyond merely obvious that people should not hang around on the railroad tracks, yet several people are killed every year in the Seattle area because they were hit by a train. Some of these were walking across a bridge or a trestle. Darwin award candidates? Suicide-by-train? You tell me….
And as a guy whose father was a dozer operator, logger, and all-around construction dude, and who practically grew up on construction sites, I am glad, @cfclark, that I’m not your kid.
Railside Classic … I like that. Later on, how about a section for Railside Classics.
If you have interesting rail stock or notable cargo rolling through town, how about a few snaps? I’ve seen a few cabooses made into very nice home offices … very appealing.
Coming to the CC station soon!
I find the (justified) consternation here rather ironic, given that it’s coming from a crowd who howl with outrage should one disapprove of daily-driving a toddler in a ’50s-era death trap – a pursuit just as pointless but vastly more dangerous and selfish than this idiocy.
BABY ON RR TRACKS!!!!!
Why was it there?
Find out WHY on News @Elleven!!
Paul, Paul, Paul…..
please keep this
Curbside Classics less we stray intp Jalopnik territory.
50’s death trap ? let’s see, a plastic and tin 2,200 lb. car hits a 50’s, 4,000 lb solid steel American made car, who’s in a death trap ? Ever studied physics ? Common sense will just tell you what happens to those little “green” tin cans.
@ PFSM, I think cfclark was not being serious when he suggested taking a kid to a construction site.