A clean, dazzling locomotive makes for a wonderous 3/4 wedge shot with the camera. But a locomotive scene in one’s imagination is seldom wonderous in the final end photo. Why? Years ago, darkroom work was easy, and there were super cheap processes to create wonderous scenes! Now, in the digital age, those processes are currently cost-prohibitive.
But let’s say you have a dazzling locomotive 3/4 wedge shot. You might impress the editors of TRAINS so much you then see your photo in print! Congratulations! That locomotive is now famous!
The costs for you were enormous. It is super cheap with the Internet to get a locomotive photo to TRAINS. But gas for driving to a train scene is another story! Most contributors of photos don’t have to worry about taxes. But, if you found a secret process of making super dazzling photo contributions, well, probably not even then would you have to worry about taxes …
Talk about locomotive photos, there was a photo in TRAINS of Amtrak 511 it seems in the last year or two. That was the lead locomotive involved in the saboteur wreck in Arizona of Train 1 (the Sunset Limited) in 1995. I talked to an investigator a number of years later and he commented that they couldn’t even get footprints at the wreck scene because it was trampled on so much …
It is unbelievable how you gentlemen think. Not only did you completely miss the key thoughts of this thread, but you seemingly have no sense of reality! And that is troubling!
Let’s say you only drive 30 miles round trip to take a few photos of a train. Your true costs are over $20 start to finish, according to the 2024 Federal tax guide. If I go from the Inland Empire in Southern California to Phoenix, AZ and back for photos, figure 640 miles, or almost $430. If you got a free $30,000 vehicle, free oil changes, free lollipops for the grandkids, free everything, I would say your posts were right.
So you want to be paid for having a hobby? There are plenty of people who just railfan locally. If you can’t afford to travel, just do that. You adjust your life to what you can afford.
PS–As far as us “missing the key thoughts”, I’m sure a lot of the readers did, since it was a rambling, disjointed mess.
Railroading was my profession for 51 1/2 years at a number of different locations - some the company paid for the move - some they didn’t.
My hobby was racing a small formula race car under the auspecsis of the Sports Car Club of America. I raced at tracks from Watkins Glen, NY to Homestead, Fl to Heartland Park in Topeka, KS and at Road America at Elkhart Lake, WI and a myriad of tracks within those confines. Success let me bring home a $10 trophy - success or failure everything was on my nickel. Entry fees over the 35 years I actively raced ranged from a little less than $100 at the start to over $1000 in the final years I competed. I purchased the race car, I purchased the trailer to haul it, I owned the tow vehicle to get to the race site and back home after the races. I did the wrenching and paid for services when they exceeded my abilities. I only started keeping track of what I was spending about 15 years into my hobby. Over the span of time I was competing I spent close to $1M - my own money doing what I wanted to do and all facilitated by being a Professional Railroader and a Retired Railroader.
You spend your money your way, I’ll spend my money my way.
And don’t pretend that the marginal cost of your choosing to run over and back those 640 miles actually cost what the IRS says you can claim on your taxes.