Odd encounters with non-railfans

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

Maybe this has been discussed here before, but what are some of the strange and/or amusing things you’ve experienced with non-railfans while pursuing your hobby? Some of mine:

A pedestrian who saw me exchange waves with the engine crew of a freight asked me if I was a freind of the engineer…

A college-age girl was astonished to see that the trains rolling through her town actually had crew members. She thought they were all “robotically controlled” from some central location and insisted this is what she heard in school…

I’ve encountered at least a dozen people who had no idea that the locomotives pulling today’s trains weren’t coal-fired, steam-powered. When I treid to explain the concept of diesel-electrics, some asked if the rails were electrified, and why people weren’t electrocuted when they crossed the tracks. Others wanted to know how long it took to charge up the batteries…

A co-worker who lived along a lightly used industrial spur thought she could just call up Amtrak’s toll-free number and order a train to pick her up at the grade crossing down the street…

Most non-railfans I’ve met have little concept of how railroads operate; they seem to think that trains just sort of wander the rails like trucks on the interstates. I’ve met people who assume that if a train has foreign power, the crew must have originated on the “foreign” railroad, even if said railroad is thousands of miles away. (these same people are confused when they see no caboose at the end of the train and ask “where do they sleep?”) I also know people who believe that the crews own the locomtives…

And lastly, I met a fellow who thought the five or six trains a day that ran through his town had to constitute some kind of national traffic record. He refused to believe me when I told him about Fostoria, Ohio and it’s multitudes of trains…

Okay folks, let’s hear some of your experiences…

2

I keep getting panhandled. There are some good spots nearby where I’ve sometimes waited for trains. There aren’t particularly bad parts of town during the day. It’s safe to walk through them. But, if you’re standing still, you become a target. I’ve yet to figure out a way to look busy while I’m standing and waiting.

3

Sounds like those encounters were/are “here’s your sign” material.

When we were dating, I took my wife out railfanning at Sand Patch. After the first train went by she said she was ready to go. She was very surprised when I said there going to be more coming. Guess you had to be there to fully appreciate it.

4

I am slowly getting mine trained :slight_smile:

I guess 23 years of talking about them is sinking in. When she goes down to her Mama’s house, she travkes along the old Sunset Route. If she sees something , shes calls me and if I think it is ok, I will head out to get pics. When the Steamer came to town the other week, she went with me and had a pretty good time. Now I need to work on my son.

5

I got a guy that now post photos on a site and is a member of this forum that in January didn’t know any more than that trains were more than “trains”. I’ve almost gotten in a fight over who builds the locomotives, they think GE and GM make microwaves and cars. People have asked me how much coal an SD40-2 burns, where the cabooses went, and “how bigga transmission and drive shaft to they have?” People are clueless. In Galesburg, IL a British kid about my age asked me where they park the Eurostar or something and aked what a ex-BN BNSF SD40-2 ran off of. LOL [:D]

6

Where do you find these mooks? are they really that dense? Do they not read? or travel? or ask questions? I guess a society that thinks movie stars are to be hero worshipped along with t.v.show hosts can’t really be expected to know a lot about anything. Just hope these people aren’t operating on your kidneys or defending you in court or fixing your plumbing or teaching your children. yikes !

7

“mooks” ? Mookie is going to be mad.

8

it’s the same with anything really. people who don’t know anything about trains ask/say stupid things like that, us in the know laugh about it. when i tell people i farm they always ask if i have chickens, goats…milk the cows…“hey, where’s the straw hat?!” the only good place for a chicken is fried, no goats, it’s allllll corn and i proudly wear my CUBS hat. people’s ignorance is quite amusing at times.

9

Back when the San Diegans were running with Amfleet equipment,I met a man who thought the cab car was powered.

10

Back in 1980 a non railfan motorist saw his first steam loco—surprized the heck out of him.A lot of us were standing around the US 224 and N&W grade crossing waiting to watch NKP 765 haul a fantrip.This car stopped next to the tracks and the young driver asked me why a crowd was here.I barely had time to yell "we are watching that ! "as the 2-8-4 stormed by.His eyes really got big. Joe G.

11

There are the ones who think that trains can stop on a dime, and usually their vehicles get destroyed because of it[:p]

12

eveything that you people are saying shows how out of touch eveyone is about the railroad… as far as the genneral public is conserned…trains are an out dated method of transportation…and just an out right annoyance… the fail to relize that eveything at some point or another is shiped by rails at some point in its life…even if a product never touchs the rails in its pre ownership life… odds are it will when its service life is done and tossed out with the trash… either shiped to a landfill…or shiped to a scrap for recycleing it will spend some time on the rails going to its final resting place… hell even airliners are shiped by rail befor they are totaly assembled and put in service… people dont have any clue and most dont even want to learn either…
csx engineer

13

I seem to always have the one who A: dosn’t know anything about trains but has about a 100 questions or B: thinks he knows everything about trains ( they don’t) who wants to talk any way when the train is coming and I just turned on the vidio cam and the will get to it and talk away drowning any sound of the train. [sigh]

14

Odd encounter, eh?

Hummm…I got it , the Pizza guy!

Back a few years ago, I worked one of our industry jobs, afternoon trick, 4 to midnight.
Well, along about 10:00 pm, we got hungry.

Seeing as how the tracks in this paticular industry were right beside a major highway, and we could see a billboard advertising Pizza Hut…we decided to order some pizza.

Engineer got on the cell phone, called in for 3 large pies…got a odd look on his face, looked over at me and said, “they need a address!”
I though about it a minute, asked the for the phone, spoke to the guy taking the order, explained who we were, and where we were.
He said “cool, but I still need a address…”

So, I told him “its 9604 Highway 225, the big, blue locomotive with the flashing light on top, parked right behind the guard shack to IC Terminals”

Now, 9604 is the number of our locomotive.

He said ok, took the cell phone number, and direction on how to get to us from where they were, promised to have the delivery guy look for the locomotive, not a address, (there is no 9600 block of highway 225)

20 minutes later, this POS Ford Festiva come smoking around the corner of the guard shack, stops beside the shack, and this kid gets out, goes to talk to the guard.
He has the lighted Pizza Hut thing on the roof, so we know dinner is here!

A few secod later, he comes out of the shack, jumps in the car, and takes off down the street parallel to the tracks, going 90 to nothing into the industry.

Dinner is escaping!

Our engineer blew the horn, loud, but the kid kept right on moving…next thing I know, Terry, my engineer, has knocked off the brakes, and is blasting off after this kid.
I looked over at him, he grins, said"hey, I’m hungry" and snatches notch 6…

We get even with the kid, Terry is ringing the bell, blowing the horn like mad, the kid looks over, all startled, and pun

15

You shouldn’t be so hard on these people. Just ask them to go back to their own planet, but be polite.

Jay

16

Guess colleges will take just about anybody now.

When I was a kid, a friend of mine who had moved out of the city was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the trains by our houses ran on electricity from the two rails. Since I was into trains, I of course knew this was wrong. I’m guessing he was thinking of the L trains he saw in the city. One day I decided to prove he was wrong, so I walked to the crossing with him and planed to put one foot on each rail. I was going to play a joke and pretend like I was getting electrocuted, but I never got the chance, because he went running away screaming before I got the second foot down. He never did believe me.

Dave

-DPD Productions - Featuring the TrainTenna RR Radio Monitoring Antennas-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/

17

Judging from some of the stories here, I think this thread should be called “Close Encounters with the Non-Railfan Kind”.

18

Don’t know if this would be considered an odd encounter but I thought I’d share it anyway.

Last fall I dropped my 5 year old daughter, Hannah, off at school. My then 3 year old daughter, Sarah, was with me. After dropping Hannah off, I asked Sarah if she wanted to go see some trains. We made a quick trip to Rockwood ¶ just in time to see a couple of light engines leaving the S&C Branch and heading east on the Keystone Sub. Sarah dubbed the engines as “her” trains and sternly yelled at me for scaring them away!!

To this day, anytime she sees a CSX locomotive, she says “Daddy, there’s my train.” And when we make trips to Rockwood she still, on occasion, reminds me to keep my voice down so I don’t scare any more trains away.

Brian

19

Trackside, where else?

20

Ed: I bet working with you and your crew would be a real hoot! Doing something I like, plus having a laugh out loud fun time!

Mook