CSX Track Upgrades & Infrastructure of Pan Am

F74265A wrote: ↑Fri Jun 02, 2023 7:05 am (...who did appear to me to likely trespass regularly on RR property - perhaps that was his offense??)

I highly doubt it, as there's numerous accounts and videos dedicated to trainhopping and hoboing (e.g. RanOutOnARail), which are far more egregious cases of trespassing than Birch Hill Subaru Guy going to the other side of Worcester Union Station.

Chux on YouTube has a video up today of rail being dropped just north of Winthrop along a lake on June 2

Birch Hill's account was hacked, for the second time.

Well, he has rubbed many the wrong way. He can be pretty nasty. Too bad since it is always good to see the action he catches. We just don't need the opinionated narration.

I'm not a fan of narration unless it's short and informative, in the style of Pentrex professional train videos. Some of these YouTubers go waaaay overboard with the narration, to the point that it makes me want to avoid their videos.

I think Stephen D. does a real service and I suspect that his narration and very well produced videos may have revealed more about the operations of the operations of Pan Am Railroad than someone wanted to be exposed. He is no fan of Pan Am or its former owner. But he is not unique in that opinion.

Stephen's narration is accurate about the contents and destinations or much of the freight hauled over the CSX and Pan Am Southern Railroads (the old Boston & Maine Fitchburg mainline, The old Boston and Ambany Railroad and the Providence and Worcester. His narration provides a very useful insight into the nature of rail traffic in and through Massachuetts and the nature of interstate commerce over thee railroads.

For example Stephen highlight the volume of trash, refuse and demolition materials hauled as Stephen would put it "from the Blue States to the Red States". He also sheds significant light on the deplorable condition of these rail systems including their right of ways, trackage, motive power and trackage under the former Pan Am ownership and the upgrades under CSX ownership.

He has also documented on video on a public forum many shortcoming of train operations especially on Pan Am and so may also have also some enemies in operating union labor. He often comments on "unfriendly Pan Am crews".

Concerning trespassing on railroad property: I have washed Stephen's videos for years and he doesn't trespass. He goes right to the property line but does not cross onto railroad property.

There is a reason Stephen has been hacked twice while rail fan videos without cogent and accurate narration are never hacked. It my opinion it is because he crosses the line from train spotting to analysis of interstate commerce and interstate railroad business operations.

I prefer more New England train videos from whoever is willing to make them, no matter what commentary they include. I can turn the sound down if it is obnoxious.

Depotroad wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 11:43 am He often comments on "unfriendly Pan Am crews".

Referring to freight train crews as "friendly" or "unfriendly" is not helpful. What exactly constitutes a "friendly" freight train crew, anyway? Waving? Tooting the horn?

Their only obligation is to safely operate their train. Failing to wave at someone pointing a camera at them doesn't make them "unfriendly," and labeling them as such only deepens the divide between railfans and railroaders.

No love lost between my former employer and myself (I think they were an abomination) but the repeated comments regarding Pan Am this, Pan Am that, while at the same time praising CSX, are quite obnoxious and contradictory. Pan Am has been effectively gone for 8 months now. Any poor operations are a result of CSX and no one else at this point. It's going to be 2032 and this guy's still gonna be blaming Mellon for bad railroading or when a train doesn't hit the horn for him.

The discussion about the railroads and the public trust is a real issue.

Rail fans were one thing before iPhones and YouTube but now they perform a real public service documenting rail operations and right of way conditions (including the public hazards of dangerous and toxic debris strewn along the entire right-of-way).

I am neither an individual who personally follows trains around to video them nor am I in any way involved in the railroad industry. However I am interested in both the way railroads are operated and maintained and their effects on the North American economy, public safety and the environment.

The fact that rail fans video and describe the daily operations of railroad is in my opinion a public good because they provide good visual documentation of day to day train operations which can be and are used by our legislators and government regulators to monitor the railroad to help document actual field conditions .

We have ample examples of the lapses in maintenance and safety on North American Railroads resulting in major and catastrophic accidents resulting in public injury, death, economic damage, property and environmental damage.

As long as private corporations operating railroads are hauling mile long trainloads of dangerous chemicals, radioactive materials refuse and demolition materials and other hazards through the backyards of our communities across the continent, I for one am very happy to have their operations documented and publicly displayed by rail fans.
Thanks to them it is possible to track railroad operations of individual trains from terminus to terminus.

If it were up to me I would opt for railroads to be owned by government and operated like the interstate highway system. Until that happens I am happy to have as much documentation of operations as possible.

For the record I think that the money CSX in investing in the former Pan Am railroad is laudable and long overdue but increased speed do to improved trackage is going to increase the need for the replacement of at grade railroad crossing across New England for public safety.

Whether you talk positively or negatively about any particular crew or company is up to the commentator. It's not breaking any law and if you don't like it, switch it off. I like listening to "real talk" because I want the whole truth. One guys opinion is one guys opinion. It doesn't make me regard Pan Am or CSX any better or any worse. Every employer of any kind on this planet has good and bad points. I do dislike hackers of all kinds though. They are a threat to every single person because they can target anyone for ny reason at any time. The hacker is the one who committed the crime and yet the positive/negative discussion is about the victim who committed no crime.

I appreciate everybody's 2 cents on this. They're all valid. Just my 2 cents.

Depotroad wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 11:43 am There is a reason Stephen has been hacked twice while rail fan videos without cogent and accurate narration are never hacked. It my opinion it is because he crosses the line from train spotting to analysis of interstate commerce and interstate railroad business operations.

Safe to say, as has been said and sung before, given the medium and content, "that's entertainment!".

My discomfort with any video made public comes with displaying an employee rules violation.

To continue the OT, when I was a high-school junior in 1959 (yes, 64 years ago), a friend and I got passes from 150 Causeway to take photos at Deerfield and Greenfield. While at the Deerfield shop, we were challenged, not because of our paperwork, but because we might be documenting shop activity. If there was that level of concern about corporate eyes-on in the mid-20th century, it has only intensified in the intervening decades.
Rules violations or inactivity can be real or perceived, especially by ambitious managers. Anything that might appear to be surveillance, even if there is positive commentary, can cause unease, even among "friendly" crews.

The Golden Rule is one we shouldn't violate except for situations of danger.

KuBand12 wrote: ↑Sun Jun 04, 2023 9:18 pm The hacker is the one who committed the crime and yet the positive/negative discussion is about the victim who committed no crime.

I appreciate everybody's 2 cents on this. They're all valid. Just my 2 cents.

This is 100% on point - it doesn't make it right that he was hacked. Perhaps if someone knows him they can show him how to enable two-factor authentication to prevent this from happening again.

No one is defending the hacker. All I see is some speculation about the hacker's motives.

The fact is, thousands of people are hacked every day, and most of them are hacked simply because their passwords aren't strong enough or they used one password for multiple sites/apps. If you hack someone's YouTube account, you've also hacked their Gmail account, which is a potential goldmine. If this particular YouTuber was indeed hacked, it might not have anything to do with the content of their videos.

Regardless, it's off-topic. Let's get back to the topic at hand, please.