Dave,
I think it's great that people are allowed to wander about the yard in Chama, my point is that people need to be aware and
reminded that it isn't a playground. People often tend to believe that if they are allowed to be somewhere that it's completely safe, it's not! Even at walking speed, getting hit by a locomotive and being knocked under it is going to make you just as dead as if it were moving at track speed. Lets face it, a lot of the people walking around that yard are, shall we say, less than agile
, so it is even more imperative that they don't engage in high risk behavior. I'm sure the people there as volunteers are schooled on a regular basis about railroad safety, however I'm sure that the general public is not. In your video it seemed, on one occasion, the engineer had to stop and get someone to move to a safer location. What if he hadn't seen that guy or had looked away for just a moment? What about things that aren't being monitored, like a standing box car rolling out on it's own? Everyone moving around in that yard has to assume something like that can happen at any minute. I think it's great the yard is open to the general public, I'd just hate to see that going away because of one person who thought it was someone else's responsibility to watch out for their safety.
Scott