Beating the Bounds ended?

Last August, grad student Naomi Adiv started a thesis project called "Beating The Bounds". Her goal:

"sometime last year, staring out the window of the capital corridor train from berkeley (where i lived) and davis (where i go to school), i started thinking about all of the places that i know so well from the train window, and had never seen up close: the sugar refinery, the town of hercules, the tiny fishing huts in the bay-delta. and i got curious. so for my thesis project, i came up with this project, "beating the bounds," in which i would walk along the railroad tracks from oakland, where the train originates, to sacramento in order to see what i could see. or more officially, to explore regional change in the area and its basis in the historical landscape."
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After her project was posted yesterday on boingboing.net, it appears someone from Union Pacific read about it and contacted a security office who, citing safety concerns, told Naomi to stop the project today.

"So I called the officer back, and he was really nice and polite. He said they weren’t pressing charges, they just wanted me to stop. For him, this was an issue of safety (a problem that I had also cited in the ethical discussion of the work in my own notes.) He told me that there is an accident somewhere on the railroad every 90 minutes, especially because ambient noise makes it so that the train is hard to hear. His job, he said, is to look out for the conductors of the trains, and that he has had to do investigations of train crashes himself. And for anyone who has ever driven a train that hit someone, it sticks with them for the rest of their life. I can’t argue with that."
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So what happens to Naomi's project now?

"Not sure. I have the choice to walk on roads parallel to the tracks. More on this soon."
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You can read Naomi's dispatches and see her photos here.

 

Hate to say it but this was probably a good call on UP's part. Someone on or near the track for purposes other than rr work or railfaining is not looking for trains and is more likely to be injured or killed.

 

I think UP made a good call too. Trains are dangerous and someone inexperienced who's not focusing her attention on trains should not be walking the rails. That said, I can't help but feel a certain amount of envy for her care-free attitude. Though I wouldn't have done it, I can't help but think about how cool it was.

I hope she continues her journey. Her focus on the micro-details that surround the rails presents views of a world rarely seen. Her perspective makes each thing she finds a hidden treasure. Consider:

"I was pretty fascinated at these attempts at human touches on the landscape. This warehouse is so huge and boxy, but flowering plum trees were planted just in the path where people come in and out of the building."
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and

"I admired some other small touches like these stump benches outside of one building."
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I can't help but think how such details would enhance a model layout.

 

Probably be excellent PR for UP to escort her along the r/w and let her write the story...dave