It is my understanding from someone on-board the 4449 special that the BNSF Police Department has been following the train the whole way. I don't know how effective their enforcement has been, but at least one railfan was pulled over and cited for almost running head-on into a cement truck. After he received his ticket, he went back to doing the exact same thing.

Pacing and the dangers associated with it are not restricted only to steam specials. An idiot did a pacing shot along Cajon last week, and was following side-by-side with a UP freight at about 30 MPH. This took place on a dirt road with lots of rocks. At one point in the video, the person almost ran head-on into a pickup truck as he rounded a blind turn. The pickup truck had to swerve to the right and put himself dangerously close to the moving freight train. The video can be found here:

[www.trainorders.com]


You have to be a member in order to see the video, however. I made my comments as to how unsafe this was, and I was promptly banned from the website and kicked off for making an "attack". I don't know what it is going to take for certain railfans to understand how dangerous this practice is. Monkey see, monkey do---someone sees it and then they want to try it, and in the process they get hurt or killed. Not a good situation for anyone.