Rainfanning, was I in the wrong?

Maybe we should come up with a scale of how legally correct it is for photography to take place on a given piece of property . . .

  1. certainly wrong
  2. possibly wrong
  3. ambiguous, can’t say, good reasons both ways
  4. possibly right
  5. certainly right

Or something like that. Print it out, make it look official. Rent-a-cops may not respect their public, but IMHO they pay attention to anything official-looking.

a.s.

Here in the NYSSR ALL persons standing on a bridge are violating the law. There is no such law, but those [censored][D)]Pinheads would rather “protect” their turf on their shift. Never mind the “law”, no one has yet had the[censored] to challange these [:o)][D)][censored][banghead]s in court!! BTW it is totally Illegal to railfan on Amtrak platforms in the NYSSR east of Schenectady, down to Penn Station. And don’t even think of trying to photograph Metro-North or the Long Island, anywhere the paranoia there is so[censored][:slight_smile:][banghead]thick you can see it and hear the real terrorists laughing and celebrating their victory! They have won the war, and they will be back, and we will lose more of our rights and they will have won again![V]

What I suspected might have been the real situation. The “owner” of the property being protected has - not only the right but - obligation to test out what he is paying for. Were I in the S/O’s position in your situation, I would have done the same thing he did simply because you looked and acted just like a test set-up.

To do otherwise is to run the very real risk of being fired for deriliction of duty. To find a new job after that is next to impossible and the S/O knows this. An ex-con on parole will stand ahead of you in the acceptance scale of things for a long time. And, if it is a test, the more obnoxious you are (you=security) the better you will be rated.

Hey have any of you guys heard if the maine centrail alows photo taking of it’s trains?
I live in Maine Centrail country.
That also must have been one board Guard there to give you any [censored][soapbox]

back in wwii a buddy, about11 yrs old, copied down the numbers of the nickel plate engines that came thru our town in a notebook. someone, rrpolice, fbi, or other authority, came by and told us it was improper or some such words and demanded that he desist. history repeats itself.

I don’t know about the law enforcement practices in the U.S concerning authorities of the private police but in Canada, it is exceptable to ask questions and enforce the laws on private property provide it is on private property. No security guard can enforce laws that are out of their jurisdiction and public property is clearly a police jurisdiction. If a security guard (treated as a citizen on public property) is concerned of public property matters, than that individual/s must contact the lawful enforcment agency and it would be advisable to ensure that there is reasonable ground that an offence contrary to provincial/state and/or federal law is occuring or about to occur otherwise you are wasting the time of the police. Also, the enforcement of the control of photography is more of private property or national security protection. As trains are subsequently viewed by the public wherever there are active rail lines, it is unreasonable to assume that the “take a picture-it will last longer” practice would breach national security and the fact that the photography took place NOT on private property, the security officer had no lawful authority or reasonable grounds to “enforce” the law.

I can’t believe that U.S State laws and Canadian laws are that different in that respect.

Well, i haven’t had probleum with csx. I do wave at the engineers all the time. The work gang, csx police say it is ok to be near or on there property because i know alot of the works. It is good to know connetions.

at the local hispital were I live the parking garage is next to Gilford’s track that go through my town and I have never seen any railroad police checking along the tracks.