I was asked by email why a musuem I work for doesnt offer many railfan days. I answerd his question, but I also added these tips to it.
dont get my wrong…I am a railfan my self and I enjoy there company but here are some tips to not **** off the train crew or your fellow railfans and keep things safe!!!
Here is my reply.
From expierience ------ at the both musuems and RR I am a engineer for most railfans and railfan days are like this…
1.No one shows up
2.you get the one( most of the times several) nerd railfan than thinks he is cool and hops on the moveing locomotive and falls down.
you get the railfans that *** and moan the whole day cause it was cloudy and it was somehow the museums fault.
4.You get the railfans that are either deaf, blind or just stupid cause when you take off out of the station they are running after the train and missed the 300 annoucements over the loud speaker that the BIG GREEN TRAIN–THAT HAS HUGE NUMBERS ON THE SIDE AND HAS ALL THE PEOPLE YOU CAME WITH ON BOARD is leaveing!!!
Railfans who think the closer to the track they get the more my blood pressure goes down.
During photo shoots you got the moron that is there for a cabride hanging out the window or standing on the front of the locomotive.
Railfans with there own radio, saying bring her back when I do switching!!! GRRRRRRRRRRR
Railfans that think cabrides are owed to them…
Railfans that have NO clue about our switching plan, yet feel the need to throw switches.
Yes, the horn has to be that loud…I seriously got asked if I could turn it down giveing a cabride once!!!
There is a group from the NHRS, they are pretty good cause there leader keeps them undercontrol and as a group and thinks out there photo shoots.
I agree totaly with you there JM even though I am a railfan in my younger years, the oh so good old enough to know better but still to young to care portion of life, I have seen so other railfans do some very stupid stuff. I have a policy that if a train is moving I never get within about 50ft or so of it just for my own safety and so that the crews blood pressure doesn’t go so high it kills them. As for railfan days at museums and the ones the the local railroads might offer it always seems that they are schedules on a day when i have to work or have something more important going on. Like the ones that the Wisconsin and Sounthern is having for their 25th anniversary. Well thats just my two cents worth with a little added sympathy on the side.
I’ve seen plenty of railfans like that…I try not to be like 'em.
I stay a safe distance away from the track.Engineers hate when you get next to the track.
I don’t walk up and talk to a conductor on the ground when he is trying to figure out what track he is going to set out and pick up his cars.I saw some guy today do this and I’m sure the conductor just wanted to do his job and then go home.
The only times I’ve been up in an engine is if the engineer asks me to come up.It seems odd 'cause usually an engineer wants to do his work and not get bothered but I guess there are some that are really freindly.
Or when the UP4023 and the UP6900 are sitting on the grounds of the WHM in Omaha when you see some stupid Railfan walking across the BNSF and UP Main lines when there is a driveway that leads right up to them just on the north side of the WHM. DOING!
Allan.
I would let most railfans come in the engine when we were stopped for a meet or whatever, as long as it did not jeopardize them or any one on my crew. The only thing I DID NOT care for was a know it all attitude that a few of them had once they got up on the engine.
Virlon
save your ticket… the P.E. will rise again.
There was a guy in the late '90s that let me up because he was stopped for 3 hours.He was a loaded wheat train and they had him stop that long so he wouldn’t slow the late afternoon intermodal trains down.
I totally agree with you about the attitude thing…I know a guy that thinks he knows everything…its very annoying!!![:(!]
40 people assisting the crew doing the walk around with the oil can and rag? All of them within an arms reach.
Children pulling on parents hands to get closer to the fire breathing steam engine that has just released it’s brakes and cylinders and is gathering steam to get moving?
Wow, I violate about one them only occasioanlly…the standing too close…the only time I get within 20 feet of train is when I’m getting a cabride (that is offered, I don’t ask for them)…or…Amtrak is coming in at 1:02 A.M. and I’m photographing it from the platform…or I’m riding it. I’m there to watch, not make you worry.
MP 573 I meant the railfan days were no one shows up.
I remember we had one two years ago…sent out flyers a month before. I got all kinds of email in interest. I spent the whole morning getting out some unique equipment and pumping it up and lubeing it. Set up tables and a snack stand and went out and brush cut out the photo lines and a path to them. 1 FREAKING PERSON SHOWED UP!!! I kid you not…the general public was there as they always are…but one person bought a railfan ticket, which included a pass to the shop and yard etc.[:(!][:(!][:(!]
I have seen that bottom one ALOT!!! Also, those little kids that always climb on the equipment, especially when it says, in huge lettering, “DO NOT CLIMB!”. Saw that 2 days ago in Whippany… 2 little boys… they were entertaining to listen to, though, as one kept saying the same thing repetitively. Kind of a good thing was,the museum wasn’t running any trains that day. Their mother was trying to physically pull them off an Erie caboose.
But that one person is a lucky guy. If I had been him I would have been profuse with my thanks and try to make up for the 50 others that didn’t show up. And if I could afford it I’d make a donation on top of the ticket price.
Shore Line trolley museum at East Haven and Branford, CT, has railfan days, but they are generally targeted, like New York day, when all the subway and elevated equipment that can be operated (yes, they have non-authentic trolley poles but some el cars did once have them) is operated plus all the ex-Ny and Brooklyn trolleys. Many of the people who come on NY day are people working for the subway system (or bus drivers!). Then there is Connecticut day, with the emphasis on the cars that actually ran in the New Haven area. On such days, certain people get hands on operating instruction, sometimes by a lucky drawer or by an additional donation. Then there is “working on the railroad” day, with trackwork and wire work, mostly demonstrations, and car repair, with all the snow plows (even without snow), the line car with its rotating and raisable tower, the self-propelled crane, and other utility vehicles including the ex Derby electric locomotive that is the oldest operating anywhere (motor inside the carbody with chain drive to one axle), and usually crowds can be depended upon coming.
I was once at the Shelburne Falls Trolley Museam and right next to us is the Guildford rail line. Well a slow freight came by and this 10 or so year old kid jumps on one of the moving fright cars rides it then jumps off his mother (I assume it was his mother) just shook her head and muttered the kids name. MY PARENTS WOULD HAVE FLIPED IF I DID THAT. Rember kids talking to strangers is dangerious but jumping on a moveing fright train is fun.
I try not to rattle off the history of a locomotive unless a crew asks. One time on an SD9043AC from the UP, an engineer told me it had 6,000 horse power. I kindly told him it had only 4,300 and he looked at his consist list and sure enough I was right. He asked how I knew, so I told him. Besides the road number, the hood is at a corner, a 90 degree angle…6,000 hp units have a beveled hood. He thought that was interesting followed by a “tell me more”.
Sounds kind of like what I do when trolling the trailer parks for dates. I tie a pack of Marlboro Lights to some fishing line, toss it in, then reel it back when the line goes taught…