# Luckiest man on earth! (track inspector)



## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Im not sure where or when this is..

but its pretty amazing!


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## Ralph Berg (Jun 2, 2009)

That is either amazing, or photo-shopped. 
Ralph


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

doesnt look fake to me.. 
(and you cant "photoshop" video!  
yes, video can be faked..but not with photoshop.. 


Scot


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## Ralph Berg (Jun 2, 2009)

I know. Generic, but improper, use of a word.
"Edited" would have been a better choice.


There is an amazing amount of air turbulence between passing trains.
It could very well be real. I'm just not convinced it is.

Ralph


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

I have tried looking for more info on it..cant find anything.. 
based on the style of trains, I would guess its Germany or Japan.. 

there is probably some discussion about it on the internet somewhere..but not in English.. 

Scot


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## parkdesigner (Jan 5, 2008)

looks to me like there is quite a bit of ghosting around the hard hat... I'm voting fake....


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## Scottychaos (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By parkdesigner on 17 Oct 2009 01:39 PM 
looks to me like there is quite a bit of ghosting around the hard hat... I'm voting fake.... 



Interesting..
but wouldnt that ghosting actually better support it being real?
because ghosting is a video artifact..
if it was faked, it would be easy to remove the ghosting to make it appear more realistic! 
just a thought..

I doubt someone would fake a video and add in ghosting on purpose..
the goal of "photoshopping" (used in the generic sense  is to make something as realistic as possible..
so as to pull off the hoax..

IMO, the ghosting better supports the "its real" theory, not the "its fake" theory.. 


Scot


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## blueregal (Jan 3, 2008)

If it's real i wouldn't want to be the person or wife that had to clean his under drawers!! yikes LOL The Regal


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

There have been quite a few new "close call" videos involving trains lately. I seriously consider most of them to be fake. There are a few new video tools that are available to mix two videos together, picking only one or the other video as the master and copying only differences from one to the result. The only difficultly being "timing" of events, such as this one here; i.e.: getting the "actor" to "jump" at just the right time.

I really question these latest videos I have seen. I have seen some that are totally animation yet look real. Most are done to give the appearance of being from a very low resolution camera which hides a lot of the evidence of fakery, (as well as making for less work on the part of the video editor/editer). This sort of thing is no longer the perview of the big (expensive) film/video production houses. If you have the time to spare, your PC has the power to spare.

The only thing about this one that makes me wonder if it is real is the fact that they guy did NOT nearly get hit by the third train... I have trouble believing a "faker" could resist the temptation for the fellow to walk away from the second train into the path of the third one.


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

I'm voting fake. Why is it so blurry? Why is the time code obscured? It's a surveillance camera--the timecode would be visible, otherwise it's useless. Why is a track inspector wearing a hardhat? And why is he unaware of two scheduled passenger trains?


The way the guy tumbles over the rail doesn't look right to me, and the lighting around the guy seems off when he jumps. But it's a well done fake--that's my conclusion



There are a lot of college kids with laptops, video editing software, and time. It could easily be somebody's class project in a course on video editing


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## Greg Stevens (Jan 3, 2008)

Lownote, et al,

I don't want to defend this video as real, I just want to point out some of the problems with your reasoning. 1. ALL track personnel and other crafts MUST wear hard hats these days. It has to do with safety issues. It is required. 2, I have seen many, many employees get out on to the mainline, not thinking about scheduled trains to do a quick inspection and get off. The correct way is to get track and time from the dispatcher before even thinking about getting on the M/L. This video is a direct result of not doing just that. 3, As to the fuzziness of the video, remember that the camera sits out there 24/7. It collects dirt, dust, bird poo, spider webs and lots of other polutants from the air on the lense. These cameras are not very well maintained. When I was working, I was incharge of over 100 cameras, closer to 200 really, at Hobart Yard in Los Angeles. It was my responsibility to make sure the cameras were working and the lenses were clean. Well, for the cameras not easily accessable from the ground, it took an act of Congress to get the maintainance company out to clean the high cameras. They too, had to get track and time from the dispatcher then get their scissors truck or bucket lift out to the camera to clean/repair/replace it. Very expensive and let's face it, the RR's are all about saving a buck. Therefore, the film quality is just plain crappy. I can't tell you how many times we relied on the cameras to show us what was happening in the yard and couldn't see very well because of the above listed reasons.

This is not a flame nor am I defending the film clip, I am just pointing out some things people have brought out which aren't necessarily true. I, too, am not sure if the video is real or not. If it is real, that's one lucky dude and he should go out and buy a lottery ticket.


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## Rod Hayward (Jan 2, 2008)

Would an inspector on that sort of line really be working alone without a look-out?


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## lownote (Jan 3, 2008)

Good information Greg, thank you. I now consider myself better-informed!


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## Jerry McColgan (Feb 8, 2008)

Its a shame that we can no longer trust our own eyes and question everything we see. I don't know if it is real or not but even if fake it is not hard to imagine it having happened somewhere. I remember the video we probably all saw about a woman walking in front of a stopped train only to be hit by another train on the other track.

What did strike me about the video (and I only noticed after the suggestion of fake had been made) is that there are clearly visible shadows of large trees moving in a strong wind yet strangely the white tops of the train are devoid of any shadow at all. It would seem to me that since the train is certainly lower than the trees and the camera is above the train that the moving shadows should have been visible on top of the white train.

Either way it was well worth seeing.

Thanks,

Jerry


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