There’s a few spots I know of that have some really old buildings and diamonds, etc but are located in a crime ridden area that really isn’t too good to be wandering about. Does anyone else here have some great railroad spots located in not so great neighborhoods? Has anyone here ever run into trouble in such places? Thanks.
There are tons of great spots on Chicago’s south side and NW Indiana. Many of them are not in the best of neighborhoods, however from the times I have been there, people have left me alone.
Yes, but never to the point where I was really scared for my safety and besides, I always try and stay away from such places after dark.
There was one trip to Chicago where we took a wrong turn and ended up in a very bad neighborhood. We ended up getting pulled over and the cop asked what we were doing in this part of town. Told him that we took a wrong turn and was trying to find our way out. He ended up giving us a police escort to a better place. All i remember was that there was abandoned cars with not much on them, steel bars on all the windowd, graffitti everywhere and the El
Another time was in Kansas City. We just knew we were in a bad neighborhood where the police station even had steel bars on the windows and door along with a church.
Paul
We don’t really have bad neighbourhoods as such in Calgary…
…In general, if one is interested in older depots in cities…they usually are located in questionable parts of the city. Have railfaned in one in the east {up on the platforms}, and at times have felt potential but never did have any trouble. Suppose one has to use good common sense.
Well, yes…
Back in my younger days (between ten and twenty years ago), I did a lot more bicycling than I do now. Our friends from Michigan were coming down to their campsite in Portage, Indiana, and–since it was trackside, as mentioned in the camping thread–I decided I’d bike the 80 or so miles from Lombard to get there, while my wife and girls drove over, took Mrs. M. strawberry-picking, then joined us for supper at the campsite.
My biking route took me through some nice places (Downers Grove, Hinsdale, LaGrange), and some not-so-nice places (Robbins, Blue Island, Dolton, Calumet City), and into Indiana. Just as I entered Gary, I got a flat tire. About that time, I said, “This would make a sane person nervous!” I looked for a gas station that would help, but nobody dealt with inner tubes any more. Finally I was directed to an auto-parts store in a section of town I was totally unfamiliar with, where I bought a patch kit and attempted to make a repair on the steps of Gary’s police department! A couple of folks stopped to watch, including one elderly lady who said “It’s been over twenty years since I saw anyone do that!” I hope that that long-ago person had better results than I, because the patch didn’t hold very well. I had to stop several times to pump up the tire again, and finally gave up at Miller, where I was rescued by Mr. M, only about seven miles short of my destination.
Lessons learned: never take a long bike trip without a spare inner tube. To heck with those patches! Also, the majority of folks you meet in places like Gary are pretty decent.
Yes -
As soon as you enter the city limits of Milwaukee you are in no-man’s land. I’ve tried to follow the old beer line on the northeast side of the city, and for the most part the line is in okay neighborhoods. I still wouldn’t want to hang out there after dark, but at least in the light you feel somewhat okay. The part of the line that still has the tracks in place (WSOR just filed to abandon even more of it) is not that nice a neighborhood and I wouldn’t go walking thataway unless I had some help from Mr. Smith and his associate Mr. Wesson. Even then you are really playing some games. I’ve tried numerous times to locate the North Milwaukee yard where the beer line intersects the Milwaukee Road lines from Horicon and Grafton, but that yard is very hard to access without trespassing so I’ve given up on that one. That area of the city is in real rough shape, too. You have to weigh your safety with your need to see something historical, and in that section of town I’d much rather play it safe.
Something I’ve always wondered - what do the train crews do when they work in those areas? I can’t even imagine the amount of crap they have to put up with. I’ve worked on construction sites on Teutonia, North, and Capitol Drive, and I can’t even begin to imagine what a pain in the arse it must be in dealing with those people at night. We had tools stolen in broad daylight, prostitutes soliciting right in the middle of the site, and even a few shootings at one site (the masons saw one guy running like mad with another guy chasing after him pulling the trigger as fast as you could). You don’t even bother calling the cops for theft - the few times we did (while the theft was in progress) the cops took about 45 minutes to show up. They might as well have saved themselves the effort. Given all that garbage on construction s
…I’ve thought of that Carl in the recent past doing a bit of riding on our trail. Never did have trouble though, but then I’ve not done a fraction of the miles Carl talks about.
Do you carry any bike wrenches with you Carl…How about a small tire pump, etc…
Finally last year we purchased some LED tail lights and new headlights for riding our bikes here in the neighborhood…{not that it’s dangerous from people}, but if we’re out and it’s getting dark, bingo we have lights. And those LED units you can see for a mile and the batteries last for up to 100 hrs…! They can be set to blink in several different patterns…Neat.
I happen to have a 12 volt generator and light on my 5 speed bike but that works the same as a dynamic brake. But now I have them both anyway.
Columbus, Ohio - the focus of most rail action is the site of the late Scioto Tower, literally in the shadow of downtown. It’s the crossing of the ex-PRR Columbus-Cincinnati main, the ex NYC West Virgina line (which carries a great deal of transfer traffic), and the ex-C&O Russell-Toledo Main. While not truly “dangerous”, it’s smack-dab in the middle of the local homeless “camping area” - I’ve been solicted for a handout on about half my visits. I’ve considered just bringing a cooler full of Olde English 400 the next time to save everybody time and trouble.
I -used- to be a operations analyst for an LTL trucking company, and spent a LOT of time in truck terminals all over the northeastern US. Trucking companies are not known for being selective about their surroundings - and I could tell you horror stories about working at night in places like Camden and Hoboken NJ, Brooklyn, Detroit, and Washington DC. Our Detroit terminal was so bad that we had two lines of 12’ chain link fence with armed K9 units patrolling the space between. With trailerloads of valuable goods (clothing, electronics, appliances, etc.) all over the place, we attracted the professionals - there was more than one occasion when I feared for my life.
This happened over 20 years ago, but one late summer morning, I was down in Long Beach, CA. checking things out at SP’s Dolores Yard, and decided to head further down the road that parallels the yard. After viewing a huge refinery or two, and some shipping container storage yards, I passed under a bridge with lettering saying something like, “You are now entering the Harbor District.” No worries just yet, as the same industrial landscape I’d been watching continued to unfold before me. It wasn’t until the road I was on dead ended (or so it seemed) in a rundown neighborhood consisting of old buildings from the middle of the 20th century, and a number of derelict people either staggering around, or passed out on the ground that I began to worry. First chance I got, I turned my mom’s 1973 Chevy Malibu Super Sport around and beat a hasty retreat back to Dolores Yard.
UP’s North Salt Lake Yard is in a marginal neighborhood, but the residents in the area mostly keep to themselves. I’ve never had any trouble down there, but if I get one of those gut feelings that now’s not a good time to visit the yard, I’ll try again some other time.
Railroaders often work on the “wrong side of the tracks” and the dirty little secret is that almost to a man they carry a pocket knife and a lot of the old heads pack firearms, rules be ignored.
Former SP crews (now UP) operating out of Dolores (near Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbors) had to enter the Pacific Harbor Line (former Harbor Belt Line) daily. Prior to the construction of the Alameda Corridor, there was a really bad area adjacent to the old Shell refinery (between CP Farragut and Badger Bridge) that the local cops referred to as the “Third World.”
The inhabitants were the living dead, homeless crack addicts of the worst sort. Stabbings and robberies were common. The cops wouldn’t go in with less than six units for safety in numbers. So what would the rails do when there was work? Line switches!
The junior trainman on the crew got sent out to line the switch when it was relatively clear. On one occasion, I saw an engineer actually hold a 9mm pistol out the window to cover the brakeman performing his duties. [:O]
Train crews were relatively safe during daylight, but at night they were instructed that if they were on the ground and heard any strange noise behind them to swing around with their lantern as hard as they could, then run. Fortunately, that area got demolished but it is still rough on the waterfront real estate.
North of Dolores is the garden spot of Watts, ground zero for the two best riots in LA history. When a train goes into emergency in that neighborhood, rails stay on the head end until the railroad police show up to escort the conductor to the problem, day or night. The locals get very hostile when their street crossings get blocked.
Ive probably been into enough dangerous neighborhoods around the USA getting into and out of the markets that I am very happy to see nothing but birds and crickets where I am when I railfan.
Ive seen the very worst and also the very best of different peoples around the USA.
To me, it’s not worth going into bad areas just for a few images. Not worth your life. Especially when that photo or video equiptment can get the vultures another few days of drugs or booze.
Also alot of the activity that was present when I was growing up has literally been buried in new condos, developments and other projects and ceased to exist.
One of the busiest spots for rail traffic in the Western U.S. has to be Colton, Calif., where the UP Sunset Route crosses the BNSF Transcon main (with plenty of Overland Route-bound UP trains thrown in). Not the worst I’ve ever seen, but I don’t feel like hanging around there alone.
Not really a railfanning spot anyway, but San Bernardino’s Duffy St. neighborhood (where the gigantic SP derailment occured in the 1980s and some homesites remain un-rebuilt) is an interesting place for a look-see, but I don’t even stop the car.
Threre really isnt a bad part here. Nthe North side of the tracks east of M street is about as bad as it gets… And that is manly Those unlawful visitors that seem to pop up, and lots of drugs. But I dont fan that area at all, so I really don’t have an issue…
We weren’t fanning, but there was one time in the travels that I had with my dad while he was still a Square Dance Caller, We had to go through East Denver… Not a big fan of that place… Good thing we had the .44 mag(exactly like Dirty Harry’s) under the seat, and the CWP in the pocket just in case.
The old 16th Street SP station in Oakland. On a 14 day Amtrak pass, a high school friend and I had a layover between the Coast Starlightand the California Zephyr. We didn’t want to hang around the station for hours and there wasn’t a cab to be found so we went out to catch a city bus. How we found the schedule I don’t recall, but we were waiting out at the bus stop and didn’t know the fare. There was only one person to ask-on obviously derelict old man. But there was no on else and it was right in front of the station, in broad daylight so we drew straws (so to speak) and Brad came up short. So, with me watching for trouble, he went up and asked the guy about the bus fare, expecting the only reply to be the guy belching and throwing up a couple gallons of Ripple. Instead a very polite, apparantly well educated (and completely sober) gentleman told us the bus fare, the best connections to get across the Bay and an approximate transit time so we knew how late to stay in the city before we had to start back.
Learned then to not judge books by their covers so much.
toledo and fostoria have some bad spots on the way to look at trains.one time 5 cop cars pulled up to a house in fostoria and matt asked what was going on.i just said that the man was bad and hes going to timeout.
stay safe
joe
Sounds like the scene from National Lampoon’s Vacation movie.
Same operating procedures were in effect back (in the 70s & 80s) when freights departed and arrived at the 40th Street yards on Chicago’s near west side (Pulaski Road).
I have railfanned many a questionable neighborhood in my day and I will say you have to be very alert, very aware and very quick. Unless you are with a group, you don’t walk into these areas and hang out. You come in, get your shots, and leave.
That being said, I have only had one railfanning experience where I was in real jeopardy… and that was in one of the safest towns in America. Over 30 years ago - a friend and I biked down to the River Edge, NJ depot and rode our bikes all the way to the northern end of the platform to wait and see if the local freight came through. Well, on the northern end of the platform you are essentially on a shelf with a hill behind you that is too steep to climb, the tracks in front of you, and then another hill beyond them that is fairly steep itself.
Two large guys spot us, pick up large tree branches, and start walking towards us. We knew we were in trouble, and didn’t know what to do. Finally, we both threw our bikes down the hill and jumped, rolling into the gravel. We got on our bikes, ignored our scrapes and bruises, and rode away through the parking lot. As we passed the closest we would get to the guys with the sticks, they threw them at us.
Point being… you have to be careful everywhere you go. There are knuckleheads and jerks to be found all over.