I’m sure he thought he was doing the railfan community a service. But he was an idiot.
We’ve been hearing more and more about this engineer at the controls of the Chatsworth Metrolink. He was sending text messages to railfans. He was letting them ride in the cab. He was letting them operate the controls.
Everytime I hear them, I go “Idiot!”
He wasn’t doing the community a service, he was doing it a disservice. Further, the railfans should have known better. Only by abiding by the safety rules can this hobby be viewed positively. When a fan permits safety rules to be violated, even for their own benefit, they hurt the entire community. And the engineer who permits it, when carrying paying customers, is equally stupid — for he knows the rules and puts lives at danger.
There are controlled ways to get cab rides, in environments where safety comes first. Public trackage is not the place.
There. Now that’s out of my system.
