QUOTE (Ron Ecker @ Mar 12 2008, 09:16 PM)

The URL has been changed, which is why the link to my website didn't work. Here is the photo that was linked to:
If you look at Altgens 7, you see the cop on the far left, standing higher than everyone else. He is either standing on a raised railroad bed, or he is standing on something raised between the rails and the banister.

If you look at the following photo, cropped from the WC photo linked to above, you can see what the cop must have been standing on. It's the white thingamajig between the rails and the banister. It is clear from this thingamajig that it is higher than the rails themselves, and that the rails are not on a 4 or 5 foot raised bed.

Tosh, is it possible that the rails were on a raised bed where you crossed them, just west of the underpass, with the raised bed ending where the underpass begins? It looks clear to me that the rails were not raised on the underpass itself.
were laid on that crush rock base. The rails are above the bottom of the baseline foundation of the underpass (baseline) about four feet. The new 2004 photo also shows the raised rail bed. The center tracks are inline with the sign in the foreground of the picture and almost even with the top of the banister. Not trying to make this complicated.
What I remember is we crossed a raised bed of crushed rock and rail ties and tracks. We had to angle toward the north and west because of all the switching tracks, so as not to get our feet caught in the switching. This was a space of about thirty feet stright across of crushed rock and tracks. We angled about fifty feet or so and then cut back toward the west side embankment and slid down into the muddy area or a parking lot. (west side and south of the underpass)
The question of some time ago was not about the police officer, but of a picture of a person (Wilson's Photo) across the tracks (west side) or on the center tracks. (there were about six or seven sets of tracks at that time, if I remember right. Your right about what the policeman was standing on. The inside rails were graded to slop north so boxcars on that siding could free roll (stacking) toward the rail yard. (north) Is this fun or what. Thanks for the reply.
P.S. Ron in the WC picture we have to keep in mind that the angle of the person who is shooting looking down on the tracks at about a 10 or 15 degree angle and a true line of height can not be judged from that angle. The, "thingamajig", is a railroad workmens tool box, or perhaps a switching devise, and it is bolted to the base (foundation) of the underpass. The railroad tracks are behind him on the crushed bed of rocks, ties and rails. If someone was standing on the center set of rails they would be taller than the policeman in perportion, but would be further back and appear not as tall. If you shot (photoed) at the same level as the policeman, then the person standing on the center rail would then appear to be much taller.
"Crushed rock" or to give its more accurate name of Type 1 hogging, is an aggregate I have supervised the laying of more times than I can remember. It is NEVER laid to a depth of "3 to 4 feet" The MAXIMUM depth would be 1 foot. Higher than that an the tracks would become unstable Denis.