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My headline for this post is humorous precisely because it’s figuratively true, and, when it comes to railroad property, it’s getting more true every day.
Another headline caught my eye last week. It headed an article in the LaCrosse Tribune of LaCrosse Wisconsin about the argument (I wouldn’t quite call it a battle yet) between anglers and hunters and BNSF Railway about access to prime hunting and fishing areas along the Mississippi River that are only accessible by walking
across BNSF tracks. The railroad has decided to play hardball and patrol the affected areas with railroad security personnel. If you’ve never run afoul of railroad security, you probably don’t realize that these are some of the most hard-nosed, stoic, risk-focused and sometimes nasty individuals ever to wear a badge. They are, however, not malicious. They are doing their job.
The prime objective of railroad security, in this post-9/11 world, is to detect and prevent incidents of malicious trespass up to and including potential terrorism. The secondary objective is to enforce railroad rules for life safety, including that of the
trespasser. A tertiary function, mostly implicit, is to protect railroad and customer assets. With the railroads, particularly BNSF, carrying more and more crude oil, ethanol, and other flammables, in addition to a wide variety of materials considered toxic, whether as raw material or in consumer products, they can’t afford to overlook any gaps in their security that can result in huge loss of life, damage to property, and enormous financial liability for the railroad. And I do mean any gaps.
The obvious question is this: What danger do anglers and hunters pose to the railroad? The first answer that comes to mind is this: The same danger posed by pedestrians and vehicles at a crossing at grade, though at a grade crossing, measures have already been taken to minimize this danger. I’ve often asked myself the question: How hard is it to see a railroad track and understand what it is? For me, not very hard. But it is apparent from the number of accidents occurring every year at grade crossings that the equation track=danger does not register in as many craniums as one would think.
An axiom that many do not understand. Anything—and I mean anything—hit by a moving train has the potential to cause a derailment. If you’re still curious what I mean by anything, look around you. By definition, a hunter or fisherman and his gear are included in “anything.” How many of these sportspersons consume alcohol while sitting on the riverbank? How many of those may not have the judgment to accurately determine when it is safe (for the individual and the train) to cross the track?
Then you get to the problem, getting bigger by the day, of determining who is a legitimate sportsperson just crossing the tracks and who is actually a potential threat. Is that man with a backpack carrying fishing gear, or is it something more sinister? Is that woman with a hunting rifle going to shoot a duck or the engineer? You see where I’m going with this.
In this politically correct world, the only way for a private enterprise to apply security measures to one is to apply them to all. Both the hunter and the drunk must be apprehended and moved away from the rails just as certainly as the weapon wielding bomber. Trespassers must be violated—or at least slapped with a violation if they won’t stop.
Before closing, I’d just like to give a little historical perspective to the problem of railroad security. In the Pinkerton detective days of the second half of the 19th century, and in the “railroad bull” days of the early 20th, there seems to have been almost as many threats to railroads as today. The American Civil War was a period of disastrous vandalism, not to mention battlefield destruction. Labor strife later took such a toll that bridges and crossings had to be guarded by armed men to prevent bombings. Armies of homeless tramps and hobos posed a threat to railroad operations as well as to themselves, and, during two world wars, the threat of sabotage always loomed. No other business owns as many dollars of exposed assets as railroading. As a consequence, the railroad security force, railroad police and/or railroad detectives, are an established and well-organized segment of the railroad industry. Dedicated men and women save the railroads lots of money, keep prices down, deter crime, and protect lives. They deserve our respect.
There isn’t enough space in this post to go into possible solutions for the good people of LaCrosse, and for other populations where this problem occurs. Perhaps crowdfunding of an underpass or overpass is the ticket. If these are protected wetlands, maybe the feds have an idea. Bottom line: Trespass on a railroad at your own risk, but remember each and every other life you may be putting in danger.
©2016 – C. A. Turek – mistertrains@gmail.com
(Charles A. Turek is a writer and novelist based in Albuquerque, NM. After four decades working in areas of the insurance industry related to transportation, he now writes on all aspects of American railroading.)
