In response to the thread which discussed the detaining of two railfans for photographing trains (http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=28130), what have you done, as a railfan, that could land you a short stay in jail, or an empty wallet? Do you frequently tresspass on railroad property, to get that close-up photo of your fav. locomotives? Have you done the timeless tradition of putting a penny on the rail? If you have, have you ever been caught? Maybe you have gotten trouble, like the railfans in the mentioned thread, without any reason. Lets hear the stories where railfanning became, dare I say, lawbreaking.
(For those who are shaking their heads at this thread, despite the hard work of Op. Lifesaver, I do tresspass on railway property, but that is pretty much as far as I go, and I haven’t been caught–yet[:p].)
When I wasn’t as smart as I am today, certainly. Today? No where near as likely, particularly if it’s a situation where I could be considered a threat to the railroad. I chose my photo ops where I have legitimate access (ie, from a parking lot - private property, but publically accessible). I got an invite from the local trainmaster to visit the yard, and when I finally take him up on it, my first stop will be his office…
There are plenty of public places that have excellent vantage points of railways in action, trespassing on their property (or anyone elses for that matter) just isn’t necessary.
when i was 12 or 13 i used to live in Ottawa, IL and i would go watch the local BN crew switch the small yard in town. every afternoon the train would come down from aurora to take a trainload of sand north. i was offered a cabride the one time but declined…the ‘don’t accept rides from strangers’ was hammered into a kid’s mind u know. as a consolation one of the trainmen let me give the engineer the highball over the radio. another time when i was around the same age my dad took us to the CSX yard in ottawa to look around. we were approached by an employee there and my dad told him he was takin us kids for a look at what was goin on there. the guy was kind enough to take us up into the cab of an engine…#1522 a GP-15T. gone are the gp 15’s…now i see dash 8’s and sd 40’s-60’s there. so, i was trespassing, but that would never happen nowadays…
As a railroad employee I have seen and heard of some railfans doing thing that were just increadable.
One was caught on a stored unit striping equipment, another was seen ( on camera) running around the out bound, jumping in frount of moving trains and taking pictures then jumping out of the way at the last minute.
And those are just two examples of the stuff that goes on around here.
And you know what?
When the police caught up with those two, they didn’t even think they were doing anything wrong and couldn’t understand why they were being charged with anything.
Well the statute of limitations has passed on this … when I was a teenager – so we are talking about close to 40 years ago – a friend and I would spend as many summer days as we could hanging around the local C&NW depot. One day we walked over to their trash heap where they would pile up trash and about once every three months or so pour kerosene on it and burn it up. That particular day we saw that they had thrown away their metal Railway Express Agency signs (since the Agency itself had long been closed) as well as several Adlake kerosene lanterns. The lenses were all smashed out of the lanterns.
In theory I guess we were taking railroad property although of course by that time the railroad was assigning no value to the stuff
My friend was more daring than I was. He later went to the station agent and explained that he had taken two lanterns from the trash heap but that the lenses were broken. The guy took him into the store room and gave him new lenses as well as the rubber gaskets that were used – so I guess you could also view that as permission to have the lanterns, although I suppose the guy probably lacked authority to give away railroad property, even if it was trash.
Dave Nelson
All I can say is that I miss the roof walks on box cars parked on wayside sidings. I had great fun running all over them when I was a young teen some 45 years ago. But it wasn’t until my new, 17-year-old bride charmed an SCL engineer into giving us a ride at Fernandina Beach, FL that i ever got on a diesel. And I was scared to death then. So was the engineer, but he was helplessly under the spell of a beautiful woman.
Jock Ellis
Cumming, GA US of A
When i was 12-13 y.o, i rode coal locals taking emptys up a short line to a mine where a good friend lived,spent the day and road the loaded cars back to start at the end of a fun day. To think of doing that now, i cringe.I sometimes get close to tracks but never on them to take pics.
Dragonslayer87- CLearly in your picture you can see superman is indeed tresspassing. NS police were quick to try to detain him but after saving the day superman flew away just out of the grasps of the NS police. Though his identity was revealed by the Camera in the front engine. The next day Clark Kent wrote a well written story about the daring feets of superman. While the New York TImes wrote a scathing expose on how easy it is to tresspass on Railroad Property. And how the terrorists could easily use this information and destroy America.
Andrew
Not sure about the ‘adventures’ of ‘younger’ people now;
but I did a ‘few things’ when I was younger.[8D][B)]
I have a “Railroad Crossing” sign in my collection.
However,the ‘railroad’ knows about it,and actually gave
it to me.
I dread to think how many times I have been technically trespassing on Railway Property - usually loco sheds but yards and others. Lets be clear though - we’re not talking running lines and it was usuually with a nod and a wink from whoever was around.
I’ve also spent many happy hours in signal boxes (towers) with friendly Bobbies (signalmen). It was all spoilt by the idiots who decided to start sueing against their own stupidity.
Would I do it again - not today but take me back to the 70s and 80s and I’d do it all over again but make sure I visited all those places that I missed then or didn’t know about. I guess you could say I was unrepentent but I never vandalised, stole or put myself in the way of 100 tons of metal coming the wrong way. I might ask permission a few more times, looking back it was rarely refused and then you had a little justification.
The penalties have changed , it was worth the risk for a stern telling off, its not worth it for a criminal record.
Sorry if this appals the professionals amongst you
It would seem that the same story plays out across the world. Here in the UK most railfans are sensible and keep their distance or don’t trespass on the railway. However there is a few that do spoil it for others. They blatantly walk across tracks, walk into rail depots without asking and then spoil it for the rest of the railfans.
I work at a large depot and I am still a railfan, have been for over 30 years. In the 80’s some UK depots would let you look around if you asked and it was fairly quiet. Obviously over the years and with the sue culture; some accidents followed. Eventually depots became fortresses and even permits that used to be issued to large groups were steadily withdrawn.
Railway depots are dangerous places. Before I worked on the railways, if visiting a depot I would try to arrange a permit in advance or visit the offices or indeed ring up to see if access would be allowed. In those times I have seen people just run into depots, take pictures, take items for their collection and run out. It’s a shame but these very few people spoil it for the majority.
Where I work is quite a large depot that facilitates maintenance on locomotives, rolling stock, including fuelling and a Wheel Lathe. I have on a number of occasions just come across people walking around the site. When challenged they assume it was all right to walk across a mainline to get to us. Our site is only accessed off a private road and a private crossing which we have to get permission from the signaller to cross it. The other end of the site is accessed from a footbridge from other railway property and is classed as a walking route for railway employees only. Yes despite this people just walk on and feel it’s their right to walk into running areas, around moving locomotives and take pictures.
On Christmas day I was working and it had been snowing. I walked around the site and saw fresh footprints in the snow. I followed these and found a railfan taking pictures. When I asked him what
When I was living in Champaign (97-98) I regularly drove to the yard and sitting on a bench just out of the yard office look to what was happening and in the lull times read some magazines…
From what i am reading here, I was absolutely trespassing IC proprierty (to go there you had to cross a few tracks), but none never complained (and the yard men were walking a few meters from me). So apparently I was tollerated…
I was a conductor riding a shove a few years back and came around a bend on the very active running track, in the middle of an area with a siding next to me with cars in it and two main tracks on the opposite side, in the midst of a good sized yard complex used by three railroads, the other side only to encounter a fan with his tripod set up in the gauge taking photos of a visiting steam engine. Needless to say we had to come to an abrupt stop and the fan was escorted to the local police station by RR police for booking.