Videos

Our most popular story of 2017 thus far is a video from NBC’s “Rosen Reports” we posted in April, warning about the potentially fatal practice of shooting photographs near railroad tracks. What the report revealed, is that trains approach far more rapidly than most people realize, and it’s often difficult to hear them and get out of the way in time.

Network Rail, the organization that owns and operates railway infrastructure in England, Wales and Scotland, recently created the video below to encourage safe behavior among photographers and others who are fascinated by trains.

As you’ll see in this two-minute PSA, more than 40 people have been killed in the past year by trains in Britain. To illustrate why so many lose their lives in this manner, Network Rail created an interesting experiment, surrounding test subjects with a 360° sound system to recreate the sound of an oncoming train.

The goal of this experiment is to see if test subjects are able to identify the direction of an approaching train, simply by the sound it makes. The guy in this clip, who claims his hearing is so good that he feels like  “a special species,” didn’t fare so well.

After watching this revealing video, be sure to look at the story we shared from NBC in April. Admittedly, there is something cool about railroad photographs, but it’s important to realize the potential dangers and shoot from a safe distance.