Like, I kinda like to sit on the tracks and sip my skinny latte, ya know...

[bikkuri bahn]

See the picture at the top of the article:

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/3574312-181/after-a-series-of-recent?page=1

[katoftw]

They are SMART.

[Davo Dentetsu]

What a strange picture, says I

[kvp]

The fact that those lines were inactive in the past 50 years and mostly used as public parks or running trails means most people don't expect a train on the line. The fact that the tracks are reactivated doesn't mean everyone knows or cares about it. Also many people grow up without seeing a real train or living around one, so they don't know that they have a different stop distance than cars or buses. The article mentions these problems.

[HantuBlauLOL]

Its a daily routines here guys.

 

[Mudkip Orange]

They are SMART.

 

These are the same people who don't vaccinate their kids, because reasons (Marin County has the highest % of vaccination opt-outs of any school district in the country).

[marknewton]

Surely that photo was posed? There's some hand-held MoW tools visible on the ballast behind the two organ donors, and an employee riding the hopper car. Whatever the explanation, these two people must have little or no desire to see their next birthday.

 

Mark.

[ozman2009]

Organ donors? Do you think there'd be any organs left?

[spacecadet]

Also many people grow up without seeing a real train or living around one,

Or the exact opposite. When I was a kid, I had trains running practically through my back yard. (I still do within audible range, but not quite as close.) We kids would collectively get to know exactly when the trains were coming and we'd learn how to hear it way in advance. When the trains were coming, we'd go out and wait and wave at them and watch as they went by. I'm sure we were dangerously close, but of course not on the rails as they approached.

 

Once the train left, we'd often walk or stand on the rails. I'm sure we were overconfident because we thought no train would be immediately following (I knew where the blocks were at that age), and anyway we thought we'd hear it if one was.

 

Anyway my point is not that this is not dangerous, just that both a lack of knowledge and the opposite can induce people to act just as stupidly, for opposite reasons.

[bikkuri bahn]

I have to agree with Mark, that this is likely posed hopefully with permission from the authorities, given the trackwork going on in the background. Otherwise, some people (including the newspaper) have some explaining to do.

[marknewton]

Organ donors? Do you think there'd be any organs left?

 

Based on bitter experience I'd say probably not.

 

Mark.

[westfalen]

I have to agree with Mark, that this is likely posed hopefully with permission from the authorities, given the trackwork going on in the background. Otherwise, some people (including the newspaper) have some explaining to do.

I would hope no one in authority would allow such a photo to be posed and published, at least not without requiring some disclaimer in the caption telling you how stupid such actions are.

 

Safety aspects aside, I find the track they are sitting on interesting.  Why four rails, some sort of gantlet arragement?

[kvp]

I just checked and the photo was taken around the end of 4th street in Santa Rosa, near the Flying Goat Coffe in the Railroad Square Historical District at Depot Park. It's (was) a disused station and depot with a few pieces of old rolling stock. A little while ago, the whole thing looked like this: (look at the tracks!)

So i think you can expect a few problems when you convert an open air railroad museum and public park back into passenger service. Most people in the area expect this line to be out of service and calling the right of way 'smart multi use path' does not really sound the same as 'train track in use, do not walk on it'. Also there are people sitting on the tracks even on the google satelite photo, so it must be a local custom to sit down in front of the coffe house in the park.

 

The gauntlet looks like a loading gauge adjustment for the platform. This is done on some US railway lines with freight traffic passing through and european loading gauge passenger trains in use, so the smaller train can stop at the platform edge without the larger freight cars hitting it. I don't know if this is really needed at this station as a bypass track is available right behind it.

 

Anyway, here is another station on the smart route:

 

By the way, does anyone know what happened to the old railway cars when then converted the old depot into a mov site?

[Mudkip Orange]

The gauntlet looks like a loading gauge adjustment for the platform. This is done on some US railway lines with freight traffic passing through and european loading gauge passenger trains in use, so the smaller train can stop at the platform edge without the larger freight cars hitting it. I don't know if this is really needed at this station as a bypass track is available right behind it.

 

The Nippon Sharyo DMU is Plate C, so clearance isn't the issue.

 

Rather, there's a California Public Utilities Commission rule from 1948 that requires high platforms to be set back from the mainline, to allow room for railroad workers riding on the sides of freight cars. On most of the commuter rail lines, that leads to low 8" platforms with wheelchair ramps or "mini high" platforms, as shown in this image. The San Diego sprinter, which runs Desiros, uses retractable bridge plates to comply with the CPUC clearance rule.

 

SMART has apparently gone the gantlet track route. I believe they're the first.

[kvp]

So nobody has tought of the trivial solution of having retractable boarding plates on the trains, like on the mini shinkansen and some european emus?

[Nick_Burman]

The Nippon Sharyo DMU is Plate C, so clearance isn't the issue.

 

Rather, there's a California Public Utilities Commission rule from 1948 that requires high platforms to be set back from the mainline, to allow room for railroad workers riding on the sides of freight cars. On most of the commuter rail lines, that leads to low 8" platforms with wheelchair ramps or "mini high" platforms, as shown in this image. The San Diego sprinter, which runs Desiros, uses retractable bridge plates to comply with the CPUC clearance rule.

 

SMART has apparently gone the gantlet track route. I believe they're the first.

 

Not quite, there are gauntlets on the South Shore in Gary, Indiana.

 

The CTA used to have gauntlets on parts of the El to get railroad freight cars around El clearances.

 

Cheers NB

[Mudkip Orange]

Not quite, there are gauntlets on the South Shore in Gary, Indiana.

 

I was thinking in the context of California, but that's interesting about the SS. Does Indiana have a similar requirement RE: clearances for railroad workers?

[Nick_Burman]

I was thinking in the context of California, but that's interesting about the SS. Does Indiana have a similar requirement RE: clearances for railroad workers?

 

Not there I know thereof. The gauntlet at Gary was installed out of the necessity of clearing wide cars around a high-level platform, AFAIK.

 

Cheers NB

[westfalen]

So nobody has tought of the trivial solution of having retractable boarding plates on the trains, like on the mini shinkansen and some european emus?

You're confusing the USA with countries where they can actually get such things to work reliably. :)