Off You Go
Apr. 16th, 2022 04:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeYesterday morning, my ears pricked up as I heard on the radio scanner the engineer of Amtrak #5, the westbound California Zephyr talking to the Union Pacific Nevada subdivision dispatcher. She told the dispatcher that they needed to put a passenger off the train and would they call the sheriff to meet the train. The passenger "failed to comply with the instructions of the conductor."
The conductor of a train is like the captain of a ship: their word is law. If you don't follow the conductor's orders, they can put you off the train, theoretically anywhere. Lisa and I have seen cases where on the Coast Starlight they stopped the train at a dirt road grade crossing and put someone off the train. In practice, law enforcement is usually involved, and the passengers aren't actually abandoned in the wilderness, but turned over to the sheriff or police for further action.
Checking the Amtrak Track Your Train website, I saw that the Zephyr was sitting stopped at Darwin siding, about ten miles east of Fernley, waiting for an eastbound freight train to pass it. Darwin is a terrible place to kick someone off, for it has virtually no road access, so I assumed they would come to Fernley, and I was right.
This video (click on it to watch) shows #5 slowly coming in to stop across the street from our house, which is close to where the former Fernley passenger station was located. If you watch this, you'll see a Lyon County sheriff drive up in his SUV, then drive down the access road parallel to the tracks. I speculate that he thought that he was supposed to go to the head of the train where the engineer was. The conductor, with the about-to-be-ex-passenger, were at the rear of the train, and you'll see the conductor having opened the upper half of the Dutch door on the rear car waving at the sheriff to try and get him to come back.
A second deputy arrived as the train rolled to a stop.
The conductor put a step down on the gravel as the deputy came up to the train.
Unlike some cases where a passenger has had to be removed from the train by force, this one exited the train under his own power with his luggage.
The passenger took off his face mask almost immediately after exiting the train, although for reasons unclear to me, he put it back on again shortly thereafter. Lyon County sheriff's deputies are Much Too Manly to have ever worn face masks, even during the days of the statewide mandates. (After all, who would ever enforce it if they disobeyed: They Are The Law, and presumably the county sheriff himself thought the pandemic was Fake News anyway; it would be par for the course for rural Nevada. Sigh.)
By now, the other deputy had figured out that the engineer isn't the actual boss of the train and had made his way back to the rear where the action was. The deputies talked to the conductor and the former passenger for a while.
Having left the ex-passenger to the care of the two deputies, the conductor got back aboard his train, hauled up the portable step, and buttoned things up.
Video: As the train resumed its trip to Reno (and eventually Emeryville), the deputies put the ex-passenger's luggage in the SUV and the ex-passenger in the car.
Right after I took this picture, the two sheriff's vehicles departed. What they were going to do with the ex-passenger, I don't know. He may or may not have been charged with a criminal offense; if so, they would be taking him to the jail in Yerrington. But I didn't think it wise to go and ask. I stayed on our property, where I still think it's legal to take pictures from on my own land.
I'll probably never know the end of this particular story, but it's not the first time that I've seen a passenger's trip come to a premature end. There are a lot of people who think they don't have to follow rules. This could have been someone who refused to wear a mask on the train, in defiance of federal orders applicable to all public transit (trains, airplanes, buses, subways). Maybe he'd been drunk, and in particular maybe drinking a private stash (prohibited in the coaches; you can drink your own liquor in the privacy of a roomette or bedroom). Possibly he was smoking or vaping. Or maybe he got into a fight with someone. All of these things are possible, and all of them will get you removed from the train. Do not mess around with the conductors, or you will find out what they can do to you, and you'll learn that it's a long walk from Fernley to Emeryville.
The conductor of a train is like the captain of a ship: their word is law. If you don't follow the conductor's orders, they can put you off the train, theoretically anywhere. Lisa and I have seen cases where on the Coast Starlight they stopped the train at a dirt road grade crossing and put someone off the train. In practice, law enforcement is usually involved, and the passengers aren't actually abandoned in the wilderness, but turned over to the sheriff or police for further action.
Checking the Amtrak Track Your Train website, I saw that the Zephyr was sitting stopped at Darwin siding, about ten miles east of Fernley, waiting for an eastbound freight train to pass it. Darwin is a terrible place to kick someone off, for it has virtually no road access, so I assumed they would come to Fernley, and I was right.
This video (click on it to watch) shows #5 slowly coming in to stop across the street from our house, which is close to where the former Fernley passenger station was located. If you watch this, you'll see a Lyon County sheriff drive up in his SUV, then drive down the access road parallel to the tracks. I speculate that he thought that he was supposed to go to the head of the train where the engineer was. The conductor, with the about-to-be-ex-passenger, were at the rear of the train, and you'll see the conductor having opened the upper half of the Dutch door on the rear car waving at the sheriff to try and get him to come back.
A second deputy arrived as the train rolled to a stop.
The conductor put a step down on the gravel as the deputy came up to the train.
Unlike some cases where a passenger has had to be removed from the train by force, this one exited the train under his own power with his luggage.
The passenger took off his face mask almost immediately after exiting the train, although for reasons unclear to me, he put it back on again shortly thereafter. Lyon County sheriff's deputies are Much Too Manly to have ever worn face masks, even during the days of the statewide mandates. (After all, who would ever enforce it if they disobeyed: They Are The Law, and presumably the county sheriff himself thought the pandemic was Fake News anyway; it would be par for the course for rural Nevada. Sigh.)
By now, the other deputy had figured out that the engineer isn't the actual boss of the train and had made his way back to the rear where the action was. The deputies talked to the conductor and the former passenger for a while.
Having left the ex-passenger to the care of the two deputies, the conductor got back aboard his train, hauled up the portable step, and buttoned things up.
Video: As the train resumed its trip to Reno (and eventually Emeryville), the deputies put the ex-passenger's luggage in the SUV and the ex-passenger in the car.
Right after I took this picture, the two sheriff's vehicles departed. What they were going to do with the ex-passenger, I don't know. He may or may not have been charged with a criminal offense; if so, they would be taking him to the jail in Yerrington. But I didn't think it wise to go and ask. I stayed on our property, where I still think it's legal to take pictures from on my own land.
I'll probably never know the end of this particular story, but it's not the first time that I've seen a passenger's trip come to a premature end. There are a lot of people who think they don't have to follow rules. This could have been someone who refused to wear a mask on the train, in defiance of federal orders applicable to all public transit (trains, airplanes, buses, subways). Maybe he'd been drunk, and in particular maybe drinking a private stash (prohibited in the coaches; you can drink your own liquor in the privacy of a roomette or bedroom). Possibly he was smoking or vaping. Or maybe he got into a fight with someone. All of these things are possible, and all of them will get you removed from the train. Do not mess around with the conductors, or you will find out what they can do to you, and you'll learn that it's a long walk from Fernley to Emeryville.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-17 04:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-17 01:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-17 01:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-17 01:55 pm (UTC)My post about this on Facebook has gotten more likes and comments than nearly anything else I've ever done, but no photos from passengers who were on that train.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-17 04:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-04-25 10:49 pm (UTC)