http://latimesblogs.latimes.co...in-in-fullerton.html


'Train Enthusiasts Trespassers ' Killed by Train Identified
KTLA News, Channel 5, Los Angeles, CA, November 5, 2009

FULLERTON -- A father and son described by authorities as train enthusiasts have been struck and killed by a freight train in Fullerton.

The county coroner has identified the victims as 56-year-old Virgil Lamphier and his 23-year-old son David, both of Fullerton.

The two men were on the tracks near Balcom and Commonwealth Avenues just before 11:18 p.m. Wednesday when they were hit, according to the Fullerton Police Department.

The pair were into something known as "train watching" -- a hobby that includes visiting the tracks and watching trains go by, police said.

They were doing just that when a Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train approached and for some reason, the men could not get off the tracks, officials said.

Investigators believe the men were either sitting on or walking along the tracks at the time of the accident.

The engineer could only honk his horn and could not stop the train, which was traveling at a speed of about 50 mph, according to Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokeswoman Lena
Kent.

It would have taken the train about a mile to come to a stop, Kent said.

Sgt. Mike MacDonald of the Fullerton Police Department said the father and son apparently liked to visit the area each week to look at the trains.

Sound travels on the side of the train, not in front, which makes it difficult for someone to hear on-coming trains, police said.

It's also possible that the men could not react in time because the accident occurred along a curve in the tracks. Enthusiasts

The latest report is that they were not "train enthusiasts",
but plain old trespassers, using the railroad for a place
to walk.
Lee

quote:

Originally posted by marker:
They were trespassing on the tracks last night immediately
east of the Fullerton, CA station. Their ID photos at the
second link. My condolences to their family and the BNSF
crew.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.co...in-in-fullerton.html


'Train Enthusiasts' Killed by Train Identified
KTLA News, Channel 5, Los Angeles, CA, November 5, 2009

FULLERTON -- A father and son described by authorities as
train enthusiasts have been struck and killed by a freight
train in Fullerton.

The county coroner has identified the victims as 56-year-old
Virgil Lamphier and his 23-year-old son David, both of Fullerton.

The two men were on the tracks near Balcom and Commonwealth
Avenues just before 11:18 p.m. Wednesday when they were hit,
according to the Fullerton Police Department.

The pair were into something known as "train watching" -- a
hobby that includes visiting the tracks and watching trains
go by, police said.

They were doing just that when a Burlington Northern Santa Fe
freight train approached and for some reason, the men could
not get off the tracks, officials said.

Investigators believe the men were either sitting on or
walking along the tracks at the time of the accident.

The engineer could only honk his horn and could not stop
the train, which was traveling at a speed of about 50 mph,
according to Burlington Northern Santa Fe spokeswoman Lena
Kent.

It would have taken the train about a mile to come to a
stop, Kent said.

Sgt. Mike MacDonald of the Fullerton Police Department said
the father and son apparently liked to visit the area each
week to look at the trains.

Sound travels on the side of the train, not in front, which
makes it difficult for someone to hear on-coming trains,
police said.

It's also possible that the men could not react in time
because the accident occurred along a curve in the tracks.

Lee, That was quick.

Either way it was a bad story all around.

A tragic incident, never the less, it will put all of us railfans in a bad light! The first report of them being "Train Enthusiasts" will set the tone regardless......

quote:

Sound travels on the side of the train, not in front, which makes it difficult for someone to hear on-coming trains, police said.

Say WHAT?

That is without a doubt the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard said about trains.

quote:

Originally posted by OGR Webmaster:

quote:

Sound travels on the side of the train, not in front, which makes it difficult for someone to hear on-coming trains, police said.

Say WHAT?

That is without a doubt the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard said about trains.

You took the words right out of my keyboard.

quote:

Sound travels on the side of the train, not in front,

yeah, because, as we all know, trains exceed the speed of sound.

Must be that wierd Doppler effect thing, huh Rich? Frankly I got my chuckle out of the engineer "honking his horn".

For an avowed train guy, there are few things more humorous than reading some railroad related press account written by someone who hasn't a clue about trains or railroading in general.

It must have been a VERY SHARP "curve in the tracks" for the train to sneak up on them like that!


Dennis

which direction where they allegedly sitting on the tracks?

Here is the latest version of the story.

Los Angeles Times, by Dana Parsons, November 6, 2009
Father and son killed by a freight train in Fullerton

Virgil Lamphier and his 23-year-old son, David, were struck late Wednesday while on their weekly walk to rebuild their relationship. A family member says they were not train-spotting.
They'd been a father and son estranged -- going long periods barely speaking -- but who in recent months had begun the path to reconciliation on late-night walks to a nearby Fullerton train yard.

Late Wednesday, however, Virgil Lamphier, 56, and his son, David, 23, were struck and killed by a Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train as the pair walked the tracks about 11:15 p.m.

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."

As she talked outside of the family home in Fullerton, she occasionally quaked with emotion, but spoke quietly and without tears. Inside, Bobbie Lamphier, Virgil Lamphier's
wife and David Lamphier's mother, was too distraught to talk, her daughter said.

Virgil Lamphier had left the family about 15 years ago, Summer Lamphier said. But he returned several months ago, and family members began working on repairing fractured
relationships.

The father-son wound was especially tender, she said.

"My brother had a lot of hurt from Dad leaving the family," she said. "There were things my brother needed to get off his chest, so they'd go and try to make amends. Sometimes the
talks were serious, sometimes just talking about how their days went. That's all it was. Dad would come home and say, 'David got a lot off his chest tonight,' or other times he'd
say, 'We didn't really talk, we just walked together.' "

Summer Lamphier credits her brother, who leaves behind a wife, Gerra, with reaching out to their father. "My brother is the kind of person who does anything for you," she said, still speaking of him in the present tense. " . . . He's so young; he's 23. He's such a good man already. Dad had hard times, but my brother took him back into the house. They were reconciling, trying to make that father-son bond."

The two had been working for the same auto mechanics company in Fullerton. Both were laid off last week, Summer Lamphier said.

About 11 p.m. Wednesday, Bobbie Lamphier texted her husband and asked when he and their son would be back. He told her it would be within the half-hour. When they didn't return, she drove to the area and was met by police.

On Thursday morning, several family members had gathered at the Lamphier home. Emotions ran high. "It makes no sense at all," Summer Lamphier said. "It's like it's not real. I see on television that a father and son were killed by a train, and it's like I'm being told for the first time over and over. It's not real. It's not."