Rail Fans Killed by Train.............(opps!)

Thursday, November 05, 2009

FULLERTON, Calif. — A father and son who were trainwatching died yesterday after being struck by a train, the Los Angeles Times has reported. Virgil Lamphier, 56, and his son, David, 23, both of Fullerton, were hit around 11:15 p.m.

The Fullerton Metrolink station is a common hangout for railfans. The Lamphiers apparently decided to walk along the tracks. BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said the train's engineer sounded the horn, but the men were apparently unable to get out of the way in time.

"It looks like they were a couple of guys who liked to go down to see the trains once a week," said Fullerton Police Sgt. Mike MacDonald.

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WHAT were they thinking? Doing? Not doing?

theres a right way and a wrong way to railfan.

rrdude said:

The Lamphiers apparently decided to walk along the tracks. ---------------------------------------------------------

WHAT were they ... doing?

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Walking on an active line? And they were railfans? :blink:

I transfer buses at Fullerton Station twice a week while coming home from school and sometimes I'll sit on the platform and watch a few Metrolink trains drop off passengers. I'm not as hardcore as these guys though. I occasionally see dudes walking on the right of way or even the track. I really don't understand it.

Another LA Times articles says they were not train watchers.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tr...0,6186936.story

There are railfans that make our hobby harder for us. These are some of them.

It was like their bonding time ... They'd go out and do that and reconnect. It wasn't to go to the train tracks. It was their space, their time. It had zero to do with the trains themselves.

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I guess they really bonded together!

Green Maned Lion said:

There are railfans that make our hobby harder for us. These are some of them.

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Uh, GML, they weren't railfans:

What the two were doing on the tracks is still unclear. Authorities initially speculated that they had been train-spotting. But although many people are fascinated by trains and enjoy watching them roll through town, the Lamphiers weren't among them, said Summer Lamphier, the 27-year-old daughter of the older victim and sister of David Lamphier. She didn't recall them ever mentioning trains. 

Rather, she said, the tracks were merely a nearby destination for the pair's weekly nocturnal walks that allowed the men to talk about things both large and small.

 

"It was like their bonding time," she said Thursday. "They'd go out and do that and reconnect. It wasn't to go to the train tracks. It was their space, their time. It had zero to do with the trains themselves."

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L.A. Times article linked in a prior post