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Walking railway lines

  • 03-10-2015 10:26pm
    #1
    JJJJNR
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,791 ✭✭✭


    I want to walk the tracks to take some photos, is it legal as it's a Sunday morning there's no trains running or are there still trains on the lines.


«1

Comments

  • #2
    markpb
    Registered Users Posts: 9,238 ✭✭✭markpb


    There could always be trains on the line: specials (gaa, private tours, restored antiques), freight, stock positioning, line maintenance, etc. It's never legal.


  • #3
    liam24
    Registered Users Posts: 369 ✭✭liam24


    Do it anyway and ignore the ridiculous health and safety mania which has overtaken our society. When I was a child everybody used to walk the railways.


  • #4
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,234 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    About 10 trespassers per year are killed on the Irish Rail network. Some may have been suicidal and / or intoxicated, others were taking short-cuts. Don't add to the statistics.

    If you want to take pictures of trains, there are plenty of places you can't do it without trespassing.


  • #5
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,234 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    Thread moved

    Moderator


  • #6
    murphaph
    Registered Users Posts: 19,018 ✭✭✭✭murphaph


    Still illegal. How do you know some works train or inspection car won't be out? The timetable doesn't show these movements obviously.


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  • #7
    GerardKeating
    Registered Users Posts: 7,523 ✭✭✭GerardKeating


    murphaph wrote: »
    Still illegal. How do you know some works train or inspection car won't be out? The timetable doesn't show these movements obviously.

    Freight trains also do not appear on the timetable, assuming we still have some.


  • #8
    wylie
    Closed Accounts Posts: 462 ✭✭wylie


    JJJJNR wrote: »
    I want to walk the tracks to take some photos, is it legal as it's a Sunday morning there's no trains running or are there still trains on the lines.

    Its illegal. This is a joke!


  • #9
    whisky_galore
    Registered Users Posts: 15,720 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    liam24 wrote: »
    Do it anyway and ignore the ridiculous health and safety mania which has overtaken our society. When I was a child everybody used to walk the railways.

    There was a time too when no-one wore helmets on building sites, cars didn't come with seat belts and you could smoke in pubs.
    Things change.

    To add to this, if you trespass for the purpose of taking photos it will bring other, responsible photographers into disrepute and perhaps leading to IE hardening their position to all photography on their property, even station platforms etc. like we see happening in the uk.


  • #10
    munchkin_utd
    Registered Users Posts: 7,820 ✭✭✭munchkin_utd


    a lad in Munich last week decided to take a short cut on a rail line, because there "was no trains" any more that evening.
    You know what happened, he is now dead as there was a train running to the depot out of hours that caught him unawares.

    But, sure if you are looking for a Darwin award (which the idea of contemplating walking on a live train track deserves) then go ahead.


  • #11
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,523 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Wait til the strike, it'll be nice and empty then....

    Still likely to be prosecuted if found, though. Find other vantages fot your photos


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  • #12
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,234 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    L1011 wrote: »
    Wait til the strike, it'll be nice and empty then....
    And if the trespasser slips an hurts themselves, they won't be found for a week.


  • #13
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,523 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    Victor wrote: »
    And if the trespasser slips an hurts themselves, they won't be found for a week.

    You're optimistic on how long they'll stay out!


  • #14
    Salmon Leap
    Registered Users Posts: 552 ✭✭✭Salmon Leap


    Can't believe we're indulging a thread for someone who wants to do something that stupid.


  • #15
    wylie
    Closed Accounts Posts: 462 ✭✭wylie


    Women dies after being struck by train.


    http://www.thejournal.ie/irish-rail-sallins-fatality-2371579-Oct2015/


  • #16
    CaptainSkidmark
    Registered Users Posts: 1,240 ✭✭✭CaptainSkidmark


    We were walking On the mallow-Kerry line a few years back and there was a strong head wind and we never heard the train behind us, only seen it when it was about 500m behind us.

    never went walking on the tracks again.


  • #17
    rawn
    Registered Users Posts: 3,093 ✭✭✭rawn


    Guys, chill he was just asking a question (rather than going right ahead and doing it). OP, I would ask if there's any disused tracks you can use, the overgrown ancient ones.


  • #18
    jungleman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 803 ✭✭✭jungleman


    rawn wrote: »
    Guys, chill he was just asking a question (rather than going right ahead and doing it). OP, I would ask if there's any disused tracks you can use, the overgrown ancient ones.

    Plenty of disused tracks around Meath, OP. The one that runs to Tara Mines being one, another one runs between Slane and Oristown.

    But just to be extra sure, maybe contact Irish Rail or whoever just to be 100% sure that they are disused. I presume they are, they're completely overgrown.


  • #19
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,523 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    jungleman wrote: »
    Plenty of disused tracks around Meath, OP. The one that runs to Tara Mines being one, another one runs between Slane and Oristown.

    But just to be extra sure, maybe contact Irish Rail or whoever just to be 100% sure that they are disused. I presume they are, they're completely overgrown.

    The line to Tara Mines is used...


  • #20
    jungleman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 803 ✭✭✭jungleman


    L1011 wrote: »
    The line to Tara Mines is used...

    You sure? The part where the line crosses the Kells/Navan road near the old department of Agriculture building and the retail park is completely overgrown? I don't think a train has run there for at least 10 years now?


  • #21
    Victor
    Registered Users Posts: 78,234 ✭✭✭✭Victor


    jungleman wrote: »
    You sure? The part where the line crosses the Kells/Navan road near the old department of Agriculture building and the retail park is completely overgrown? I don't think a train has run there for at least 10 years now?
    Do you mean the line to Kingscourt? http://www.itoworld.com/map/198?lon=-6.50064&lat=53.72432&zoom=10&open_sidebar=map_key&fullscreen=true

    Regardless, it is still trespass.


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  • #22
    jungleman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 803 ✭✭✭jungleman


    Victor wrote: »
    Do you mean the line to Kingscourt? http://www.itoworld.com/map/198?lon=-6.50064&lat=53.72432&zoom=10&open_sidebar=map_key&fullscreen=true

    Regardless, it is still trespass.

    Ah that's probably it. I always just presumed it was a line straight to Tara Mines, they're practically right next to each other at that point where the line crosses the road.

    Happily stand corrected!


  • #23
    Jem72
    Registered Users Posts: 167 ✭✭Jem72


    It isn't likely Irish Rail would take it well if you ask. I once emailed their Heritage Officer to look for permission to take a walking group around the yard on Athlone side of Mullinger (which isn't technically closed I will admit but hasn't had a train for 15 years) for a walking tour I was doing for a group of kids on the history of the canal and the railway.

    Let's just say the response was neither polite nor positive. Basically it was a legal threat.

    Needless to say walking on an active railway line (or an inactive one for that matter) without permission is quite simply idiotic. You have no idea what's coming.


  • #24
    flyingsnail
    Registered Users Posts: 2,752 ✭✭✭flyingsnail


    Jem72 wrote: »
    It isn't likely Irish Rail would take it well if you ask. I once emailed their Heritage Officer to look for permission to take a walking group around the yard on Athlone side of Mullinger (which isn't technically closed I will admit but hasn't had a train for 15 years) for a walking tour I was doing for a group of kids on the history of the canal and the railway.

    Let's just say the response was neither polite nor positive. Basically it was a legal threat.

    Needless to say walking on an active railway line (or an inactive one for that matter) without permission is quite simply idiotic. You have no idea what's coming.

    The last train in that yard would have been in march of this year.





    While trains are the primary hazard, they are not the only hazard on the railways lots of other ways to get hurt.


  • #25
    whisky_galore
    Registered Users Posts: 15,720 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    It's like any industrial or building site now. Like you can't just swan around the premises of a factory (even apparantly disused/abandoned areas) if you clearly have no business being there.

    If you want to walk along the side of railway lines and take your life in your hands, try places with ropy H&S cultures like India or SE Asia.


  • #26
    JJJJNR
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,791 ✭✭✭JJJJNR


    Cheers, there's a footpath that runs parallel to Kilcoole station I can use that, and maybe just maybe be mad enough to put a foot on the railway.


  • #27
    Louche Lad
    Registered Users Posts: 1,088 ✭✭✭Louche Lad


    whisky_galore wrote: »
    If you want to walk along the side of railway lines and take your life in your hands, try places with ropy H&S cultures like India or SE Asia.

    Or like the US?
    539w.jpg
    "A mass of Bruins fans were ready at 8:40 a.m. yesterday as the train approached the commuter rail station in Reading."

    This is from this news story about ice hockey fans having difficulty getting into Boston. The story does raise one safety concern: saying some people could get "trampled".


  • #28
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,523 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    US trains can (Acela etc aside) be extremely, extremely slow and extremely loud. Its also approaching a station where it'd be even slower.


  • #29
    whisky_galore
    Registered Users Posts: 15,720 ✭✭✭✭whisky_galore


    Louche Lad wrote: »
    Or like the US?

    Oh yes, that country where the natural solution to gun rampages are 'more guns'.:rolleyes:


  • #30
    BuffyBot
    Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators Posts: 24,924 Mod ✭✭✭✭BuffyBot


    whisky_galore wrote: »
    Oh yes, that country where the natural solution to gun rampages are 'more guns'.:rolleyes:

    Apple, orange. Keep on topic folks, please..


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  • #31
    MGWR
    Closed Accounts Posts: 611 ✭✭✭MGWR


    L1011 wrote: »
    US trains can (Acela etc aside) be extremely, extremely slow and extremely loud. It's also approaching a station where it'd be even slower.
    The average speed on the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's Haverhill Line (originally Boston & Maine Railway), depicted in post #27, is 30.5 mph for local trains. Compare that to DART's usual average speed of 20 mph. The diesels that MBTA has used in both past and present are no louder than IE's JT42HCWs or JT22CWs.

    The behaviour on the platform shown in the photo is also extremely rare as well as illegal.


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