Slightly Strange Experience Today

Now I'd like to check in on this one...

I agree with the idea of being non-confrontational, but if you were on public property and not violating any municipal laws or interfering with any activities,public or private,
nobody has any right to tell you what you can or cannot do, camera or no camera!

All of you know that I am a retired railroader, I am sure I have made it into someones photos or videos more than once(and with my build, I most certainly filled up a good deal of the shot,LOL), but I cant really get upset about it. I did caution some railfans
once about taking photos of the train crews while riding on a METRA train. I told them that it would be in their best interest if they would check with METRA first.

As far as being worried about employees being caught doing something wrong on the job... well the answer is easy enough for that one. The employees only have to follow
rules and procedures and they needn't worry. I have mentioned before in "Storytime"
about the fans at Eola who spent hours trainwatching and looking at the switch crews
do their thing. I knew I was being watched,but if I was following the rules...why worry?
I had to refrain from offering a fellow rail(and railfan) a ride on our switch engine a few years back, but "the heat was on" and we were being watched "from the weeds". I felt
like a real jerk especially knowing the person was a qualified trainman AND a certified engineer, but he understood the drill and knew I couldn't stretch the rules,regardless of
our friendship!
Even at my age, I probably wouldn't have been so agreeable to the rail officials. I would
most likely have told them what they could do with THEIR ideas and opinions. I would have likely challenged them to make good on their offer to notify the authorities and then
have given the authorities a "story" as well! HEY, this nonsense can work both ways!!! LOL

CT

 

Also, think of it like this. What would you think if someone wanted to film you changing a tire on your car. Just an idea.

Adam

 

I agree, in general. I carry the photographers right card in my bag (with extra copies to give away). It's hard to communicate this in e-mail, but it was clear to me he was telling me he didn't want me to video tape it, not that he thought he could prevent me, or run me off or anything....simply his preference. I found this odd only because he was much more friendly at the start. Had that been his initial statement I wouldn't have really thought twice about it.

The other slightly weird thing to consider is where I was. The siding is along the "old town square" here, and next to it are two more now unused sidings with private cars on them used as a restaurant. I believe those sidings are owned by the town, based on articles in the local paper about them working with the people running the restaurant. There are roads on both sides. Where railroad property begins and ends is anyones guess; I don't think I knew for sure or he did for that matter. At the time I was on sidewalk that crossed the tracks parallel to a road that crossed the tracks, and perhaps 15 feet from them (at a street corner). Is that railroad property? Is the sidewalk public property across? Normally I wouldn't have filmed from there at all, but they had closed the main line with the little flags the hook on the rail to move one of the side booms where it would block the main line. So where I was could be considered a grey area.

I could have moved across the street to a clearly town owned sidewalk and kept filming; but again, I'd like this guy to not think bad of me in the future.

 

I wouldn't worry about it Leo. Something probably didn't go his way (as usual in railroading) and simply put him in a bad mood. You enjoying your time while he was working probably just didn't sit well with him at the time. If he was friendly at first then most likely that is his usual character. We all know we can have bad days at work and become testy afterward.

 

I work for a major defense contractor - we have cameras pointed at us continuosly with tape rolling. Every move we make is on camera from the time we pull in the parking lot until we exit. Even our restrooms have cameras. Every stroke I make on my keyboard is monitored and recorded. Every web site I go to is monitored. No big deal to me - I actually feel more secure knowing this is happening - although most of my co-workers aren't happy about the situation. And the ladies don't seem very happy about restroom "security".

Maybe that's why I don't see any big deal with taking photos in the public domain. I am very courteous and use discretion when taking photos or videotaping. I have made friends with train crew members over the years, and actually they get annoyed by some of the "blowhards" that think they have some magical authority to stop railfans from enjoying the hobby. Reminds me of an incident a few years ago when I was videotaping a coal train arriving near a power plant. I had my car off the side of the road with my flashers turned on (a standard procedure for me), on property owned by a local motorcycle club. Another railfan pulled off the side of the road and was showing me his spectacular digital Nikon camera and lens - then one of the power plant trucks pulled up and said that we were not allowed to take pictures of the train. I was feeling kind of "naughty", so I just smiled and politely asked if "martial law" been declared - since I had not heard about it. I asked him (again, politelty) if there was a specific ordinance he was referring to that prohibited taking pictures of trains, because I always try to follow the law. And then I asked him to please show me some identification. The other guy jumped right in and said that according to the sheriff's department there was 20 feet of easement on either side of the road. He also said that the only person blocking the road and creating an unsafe situation happened to be the power plant "official". The guy in the truck just up and left.

 

I have no problem with that! But I might ask the photographer if (s)he wouldn't mind giving
me some help with the tire! LOL

When I was still a trainman, I worked an afternoon "dinkie" with some regularity. Made a lot
of friends with some of the regular passengers. Enehay... This particular job had an early evening WB trip that stopped at the Lavergne stop(Ridgeland Ave)in Berwyn IL. There used
to be a small group of railfans that would station themselves in the shelter at the east end
of the WB platform closest to Ridgeland Ave. Just a couple of adults and a youngster 12-14 y/o. One of the adults had a pretty good video taping rig set up there. If you are filming there you can get some pretty good action shots of freights departing Cicero Yard. That
location is right where yard leads join the MT. I used to tease the adult with the video rig
that I wanted to see his videos. Finally he told me that he would show them to me when I
got my engineer's card. Well... after I got my card and was set back to trainman, I happened to see him one day when I was working the extra list temporarily and was on a job that stopped at LaVergne. I said "Hey, I got my card! When are you gonna show me your videos"? I said this as I was waving my card at him!. Never did get an answer to that
and I am still waiting to see his videos!!! ROFL

CT

 

That is for security reasons. Completely different case here. Every move I make at work is monitored too. Someone is not holding a camera getting their rocks off watching you work. Just remember that railfanning is an extremely odd and absurd hobby to most people and they have no idea why you do what you do.

 

Excellent point, Steve. With all the "urgent" press conferences by Homeland Security and the resulting uninformed reporting by the media, every security minded person truly believes he/she is just doing their duty when challenging people with cameras around industrial sites, aka yards and heavily traveled ROWs. Then, I guess we are kind of a strange bunch at that....:tb-wacky:

 

me and my dad seem to be the only railfans in this area i never see any other railfans
(Exept ED with his train horns and horns INC) but only with big moves (air products circus train steamtown excursion) but the hudson model RR club has a big amount of members but they dont seem to come out to mutch there is one person who sits in his car and reads the times leader but pays no attention to the trains and hogs our spot
i was reading Tim Loutzenhisers post and i was like "that sucurity gard is Kookoo
he's nuts he needs a theropist" but it was a funny one tho

 

Well, maybe LOL! I'm just trying to get some people to look at it from the other side of the fence. The comment about changing a tire earlier was right on track with what I was getting at. Most people think that filming a train would be pretty comparable to something like that. I've had many questions asked and odd looks when I mention taking a picture of a train.

 

I don't think that most of the RR crews around here think that railfanning is an odd or absurd hobby - why heck, I know a guy that's a conductor through here from time to time that I meet at one of the local hobby shops ocassionally - he's a railfan and a model railroader. Another friend of mine is an engineer that just recently retired - I would meet him from time to time here in town as he was dropping off cars and picking up the empties to take back towards Chicago. He's just in the beginning stages of getting an O scale layout planned. A couple years ago we were out taking pictures and videos during the fall - the engineer leaned out of his window and took a picture of me taking a picture of him! He must have seen my scanner clipped to my belt because he got on the radio and invited us to meet him up at the next road. Turned out that he invited us on board for a tour of the cab - he was a railfan, also. So I think most of the crews out there tolerate us "foamers" fairly well even if they have no interest in railfanning or model railroading.
Just remembered another time when my wife and I were taking pics of the crew installing new rails at the crossing near our house. He came over and introduced himself and even gave us a chunk of rail they had just cut - he gave me his name and address and asked me to send him some copies of the pics we took of them working. Darned if I didn't loose that piece of paper - I wanted to send him some copies - who knows - maybe he's out there reading this post - if you are, send me a private message - I have those pics for you!!!

 

let us know if he PMs you

 

I'll let you know if I ever hear from that guy again. I was looking at that chunk of rail a little while ago - darn thing is rusted pretty well from just a few years - guess I need to find some way to remove the rust. Then I'll need to keep it oiled - or do something to keep it from rusting up again. I should look for the pics of that crew working on the tracks and post them...

 

is the chunk of iron kept outside or inside

 

The piece of rail has been out in my garage, which is part of the house, but still it's not completely temp and humidity controlled. I have an N scale layout there, and tried running a dehumidifier, but during the summer when the humidity is way up, it just runs non-stop and while it does help, just really isn't worth the electrical expense. What I need to do is just get a window installed, and get a window airconditioner. I have been saying this for a few years now...

 

Id say you did the right thing just by not letting him ruin your day. Sounds to me like thats all he was trying to do.

Some guys are just jerks.

 

I call them like I see them, chief, and the answer you suggested would have been a smart-ass answer. It's easy to say what you would do when the person isn't actually standing there in front of you.