something you won't see in Japan

[Jcarlton]

American shortline railroading:

Old locomotives, 5 MPH top speeds and really really bad track.

[KenS]

I don't think I'd stand as close to that track as the photographer did.  A derailed boxcar falling on you can ruin your whole day.

 

That kind of track is pretty common on U.S. shortlines that bought up abandoned branches and operate them without sufficient budget to do anything more than essential maintenance.  I've seen a number of active lines that bad.  At least they had ballast, in some places anyway.  There was a line near my house that had a freight every week with a dozen boxcars, and in many places the ties were below ground level, and ballast just a memory.  The last shipper on it finally shut down last year and the trains stopped, but it was a miracle they'd kept running up to then.

[bikkuri bahn]

Different type of railway, but it does share the "weed-choked" type of track, though likely a bit better maintained (Choshi Dentetsu, in Chiba):

[Jcarlton]

I don't think I'd stand as close to that track as the photographer did.  A derailed boxcar falling on you can ruin your whole day.

 

That kind of track is pretty common on U.S. shortlines that bought up abandoned branches and operate them without sufficient budget to do anything more than essential maintenance.  I've seen a number of active lines that bad.  At least they had ballast, in some places anyway.  There was a line near my house that had a freight every week with a dozen boxcars, and in many places the ties were below ground level, and ballast just a memory.  The last shipper on it finally shut down last year and the trains stopped, but it was a miracle they'd kept running up to then.

I agree about the camera being so close, then I realised that if the camera was on tridod you could just push the button and stand back.  that's exactly  what I would do in those circumstances.