Most of us love rail fans, even offering many to up to the cab if we are stopped and in a safe location. Please dont blame crews for what management is enforcing. We would much rather see foamers than the dreaded “weed weasels”.
Can you please explain to me what a “weed weasel is”?
A couple of weeks ago I got to volunteer as (sort of) a conductor on an excursion train and I met several guys who were conductors/engineers/train mechanics either currently or in the past.
They were all nice guys and none of them seemed to have a problem with people taking pictures.
One of the guys, currently retired, had been a railroad employee (conductor and engineer) for 20 years. He knew the “train chasers” by name, and waved to everybody that was interested in watching the train. I got to ask him a lot of questions, and one of them was about what the railroad employees think of railfans. Basically he said that although some railroad employees didn’t like it, he (and most others) didn’t mind it. In fact, he would do the equivalent of revving the engine (I can’t remember exactly what he said) to put on a better show.
It was nice to hear that. I don’t know if he’s representative of railroad employees, but it was good to hear that at least a significant number of railroad employees don’t see railfans as a nuisance.
dlund
A railroad manager (trainmaster, etc) who “hides in the weeds” watching for crews to screw up so he can write them up. Weasels, of course, are generally thought of as a bit sneaky anyhow.
On the face of it, observing crews to ensure proper performance of their duties seems like the right thing to do, but some “weed weasels” take things a bit further than might actually be necessary, so the story goes.
I’m sure our regular RR employees can relate some colorful stories…
Never mind the engineer waving…
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080421/METRO/804210350
How about a “formal salute” on the horn?
i think tree68 hit it dead on. management is very aggressive near the end of the month. they must have so many failures for rule violations that they literally hide in the weeds. for example they use binoculars and then say we were 37 ft not 50 ft as a rule requires. one of their favorite here is to turn off a detector. to do this they must be in side the dog house. i wonder if it scares them when a water bottle hits it as we go by.
I am realtively new to railfanning. And I have to say I’ve never gotten the slightest hint of anger from a crew. It might be that I bring my son a lot.
I’ve started taking a lot more pictures lately, but that is so I have references for dirtying up my models. Still, I think that when you respect people, you get respect back even if the people are too far away to see clearly.
Yes, what would any of us do if someone came to our place of employment and took photos of us?
The big difference with railroading, however, in my humble opinion, is that railroading is NOT locked in a back room somewhere. It is out in the open, gets in people’s way at grade crossings, and otherwise noisily disrupts others’ normal activities.
In that light, by their own choice, train crews have made themselves fair game to be gawked at, and photographed. And, they have no right to complain. If any do, that is like, in reality, a star quarterback at the Super Bowl game saying, “Spectators in the stadium should be outlawed. I want it quiet so I can plan and execute my next play.”
Sorry… but unlike actors and football players - we are not in the entertainment industry. So even though I really could care less who is watching and photographing me (why can’t I ever find photos of my trains on the internets??) I reserve the right to complain all day and night. I do enjoy my little fan club, though.
Well, that’s certainly a weird take on things, but not very fair to the train crew’s point of view. What exactly is their other option-run thier trains in secret, in the shadows, so no one notices?
Wow, I’ve never heard of anyone comparing us to celeberties, it’s a good thing we don’t slug photographers like they do LOL. All joking aside, I don’t care who takes my photo just as long as they get my good side. We used to have more railfans follow us and take photos, just haven’t seen too many lately. Even had a few ladies take my picture, and that’s something I defenitly don’t mind.
Greetings, Rail-Roadwarrior!
In your 6:02 P.M. April 21 post, you wrote: “We used to have more railfans follow us and take photos, just haven’t seen too many lately.” Might that little picture on the left side of your posts explain why? Ha, ha.
K.P.
Seems like they do that anyhow, even if it isn’t to avoid the railfans…
What is so weird about it? That’s reality. We live in America, and people have a right to gawk at what ever they want to. Train crews should just live with it.
Of course, Americans have the right to elect Osama bin Laden to the American presidency too, and he could stop the gawking, but I’m absolutely sure the American people will never do that.
What would be weird, though, is if reality became like past history … Remember the Japanese emperor, or whoever he was, that was so holy one could not even look upon him for fear of immediately being struck dead? Now, something like that may make some railroaders happy! Imagine, everyone bowing down to passing trains and being in mortal fear, because if they even got a glimpse of a locomotive, fire from heaven would come down immediately and strike them dead! I guess we can all be happy that such foolishness doesn’t prevail under the red, white, and blue …
Of course we live with it - is there a choice? But I reserve the right to make fun of the people out there wasting a beautiful sunday afternoon watching some common-sight doublestacks going through a brownfield. I have that right.
You sound like someone who is very upset with us employees that view our jobs as just a job. We are not in it for the greater glory. Rail workers make fun of buffies. Buffies complain about rail workers that complain about their jobs. All of life is a circle.
the wifey suggests curtains…[;)]
Naaaahh that’s just to ward off the evil spirits. I’m also a fan of Clint, and guns so it only seemed right.
I like to take pics of the equipment, not the operators. By the way, what goes around comes around. Railfans may be the only ones not cursing engineers when they roll through town. While I realize a few bad apples can spoil the bunch, as with many things, Possibly railfans love trains more than some, and the key word is some, of the people in the industry.
I could care less who is cursing me. In fact, I find people that have a fit about waiting 3 minutes downright amusing.
It could be 3 seconds - the point is that they have to wait…