According to today’s Trains Newswire, the Union Pacific has announced a ban on taking photographs from the Chicago Metra Stations on the three lines it owns and operates for Metra. Citing 9-11, things have changed, terrorists and all that, the UP said it still would like to be friendly to rail fans, but you know how things go.
To be a little more precise, here is the drivel put out by the UP, as quoted in the Newswire.
“We recognize that railroad fans can be our eyes and ears out there,” said UP spokesman Mark Davis. “But we live in different times. The number one concern for Union Pacific is the safety of everyone. Right now, and since 9/11, security has been heightened and increased. This is part of that effort.” Davis added that, “This stuff about UP not liking railfans is not true. But we have to be as safe and secure as we can.”
I was wondering if anyone can help me. I have maybe a couple of dozen photos of trains taken from the UP Metra platforms on my hard drive. I understand that if I just delete them, someone with the right skills could recover the images. Does any one know how to permanently remove the images? I would hate to have my desk top stolen by a terrorist who might use the photos to plan some dastardly deed.
I have a couple of thousand UP photos…some even show locomotives!
With the doors open and everything!
I guess I will have to install steel security doors, laser triggered alarms, booby trap the hard drive, and get one of those pressure sensitive floors like the one in Mission Impossible…
But those evil guys will never set a finger on my keyboard!
Previously taken photos are not going to be used against you.
In NYC, the subways have always had that rule since WWI. After 9-11-01 there was a push to enact the exact same ordinance. HEY! Just enforce the law you’ve got people!( really gets my goat) Rochelle park is owned by the city, right? I look over at the web cam and what do I see? Pedestrians WALKING across the tracks. If the UP bans photography, so be it. It is their layout, they can play trains any way they like.
Lessee, now. If I get out my 2000mm telephoto and rent an apartment across from the tracks, I can take all the pictures I want, with enough detail and definition to count the freckles on that pigtailed red-head. But I can’t stand on the platform…
It would seem to me that my pictures taken on the platform might be useful in apprehending the bad guys if they do decide to pull something…
What blows my mind is that within 50 yards of almost every platform, is a public grade crossing where one could take pictures of. With the right equipment, you could get the same type of detail that one could get from the platform as from the grade crossings, if that is what you where looking to do.[banghead] And people on this board wonder why the UP is disliked by some railfans.[2c]
Secret new device mounted under the opaque bubble on the lead unit zaps cards and other eletronic image recording media and fogs film. (Maybe you won’t notice pacemaker malfunction before things go black.)
Don’t spread it around, but my high level sources tell me that there is going to be a movement of a special type of boxcar. Something about not letting the terrorists know what happens after they are caught, so no photos allowed.
Maybe UP (Unfair to Photographers) is doing this so the rest of us can’t print and sell Union Pacific calendars. (See Union Pacific Railroad vs. Nils Huxtable copyright case)
Stinks, UP. Really stinks. Please inform me as to how banning photographers from Metra platforms raises the level of security on your railroad.
ATTENTION Mr. Terrorist: let me save you the trip out to the 'burbs.
Go to www.metrarail.com and you can get directions to the stations, schedules, maps…even photos of the stations! How convenient!
OOPS, was that a secret???
paraphrasing from nearly five years ago: “we will not live in fear. We will not change our American way of life. If we change the terrorists win.”
I’m not trying to start a flame war here as I think those are moronic wastes of marvelous technology. But stuff like this photo ban…I just don’t understand.
I agree with all of you guys the Union Pacific’s reason for banning photography from the METRA platforms on the commuter trains operated on their tracks is ridiculous. But let me be the devil’s advocate. It’s their property, it’s private property so they can do as they please.