Update: Photographing near the railroad — Don't!!!

I've been writing about the problem of photographers and videographers, amateurs and professionals alike, working at, on or near railroad tracks and yards for a long time, without the permission and the cooperation of the railroad. Too often, they're putting themselves and others unwittingly in serious jeopardy by the way they are conducting themselves.

Just last September, you might have read my article, “Photographing trains…Stay off the Tracks!!!”

Unfortunately, my articles, and those of colleagues haven't had enough of an effect. Photographers, videographers, and sometimes those being photographed or videod, continue to die needlessly while making images or videos at, on or near railroad tracks.

Photographing trains...Stay off the Tracks!!!

Lately, I've heard from many travel photographers, amateurs and professions alike, looking to make images of railroads, their yards, tracks, passenger and freight cars, and locomotives.

Making photographs while on train tracks and in train yards is very dangerous and there is much cause to stay off railroad property, and their tracks:

• It's illegal to be on or very near to railroad tracks for photography without the permission of the railroad which owns and/or uses the tracks. (Many railroads share tracks with other railroads. You need at least the permission of the tracks' owner.)