I am going to be traveling and am taking one of my locomotives with me. I will be flying and was curious if the security x-ray machines at the airport, would damage any part of my Locomotive. It will be straight DC, so I don’t have to worry about my decoder getting damaged.
Thoughts?
-Smoke
As a guess i would say no, it should not cause any trouble, i have had walkmans and cameras go through and no ill effects, so should be all good.
Don’t see any problem,
Just don’t pack the Glock or S&W with the trains.
Don’t bring a leatherman either…I did that last year by accident at Burbank airport, and almost lost it…had the option to pack it in my luggage at check-in and did just that…
?? Seriously? My thought is if I was concerned I would call some airport and definitely not consider asking forum members if an Xray will damage my engine.
Smoke, you have nothing to worry about.
Sure and wait for an hour on the phone? Why not ask forum members who maybe have actually flown with a few loco’s? I was in Florida a couple years ago and picked up a couple loco’s and I’m sure they were Xrayed, along with my booze and smokes(not mine), my camera, Cell phone, Ipod and Clie.
No damage. People put their laptops and digital cameras through those all day long.
Watch what you bring to read too! I had an issue of Shotgun News in my CHECKED LUGGAGE.
Got the whole bomb/gun powder swab, strip search treatment. They pulled me aside and searched me three separate times before letting me on the plane.[banghead] I’ve been profiled and pulled out of line for extra searching every time I’ve flown since!!
Actually taking a loco may not be smart. I had one with me one time and security was convinced it was some kind of bomb device. The only thing that saved me was they found an employee who knew what it was at the airport. Would have been a very long delay otherwise. Security had no idea what an HO loco was.
Exactly the reverse experience in Alaska some years ago. The checker recognized the brass D51, but got hung up on what she thought was some kind of Eskimo seal-skinning blade. It was the clip portion of a clipboard…[(-D]
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Isn’t it grand to live in a free country, not one of those authoritarian monarchies? lol
Land of the free and home of the brave … yea right.
The real trouble is that the experience of others cannot always be counted on to provide you with guidance.
Although federal aviation security is supposed to be standard (although from time to time there are heightened measures at particular airports) there seems to be a huge difference in how each airport chooses to interpret and impliment those rules. Moreover, individual TSA officers sometimes seem to make differing rules interpretations.
My suggestion is to call the airport. I would sure hate to surrender a locomotive at the gate because the particular airport you fly out of feels it may be a threat.
Don’t get me started on the state of fear under which airlines and airports operate these days! Let’s just say it makes train travel seem a whole lot more inviting!
I’ve flown with trains in my checked luggage. Since they are going to show up instantly as “weird” in the x-rays, I put a note inside the bag, right on top. I simply said that the bag contained model trains, which they were free to examine, but I just asked them to be careful. When I got home, the note was gone, but the trains were fine.
On another occasion, I was on a last-minute business trip, so they selected me for “special screening” because the ticket had been purchased in the previous 24 hours. I had to go through the whole thing with removing my shoes and emptying my pockets, and then getting “wanded.” Then, the inspector asked politely, “Is this your boarding pass, sir?” Well, I had to be honest, and explain that one of his fellow team members had my glasses, and I was unable to read the ticket. I said it with a smile, and they all realized that they had to adjust their procedures a bit in this situation.
Most of the TSA people would rather be friendly, if given a chance, but they have an awkward job to do. Airport bars don’t make things any better, either. I try to be as co-operative as I can, and greet everyone with a smile.
On another trip, I was bringing home a box of Krispy Kreme donuts, which are no longer available up here in the Northeast. As I went through security, one of the TSA people said, “We’re going to have to take those, sir.” I looked up, and she had a huge grin on her face. She’d been joking with me, of course, but it made my day.
I see absolutely no reason to be polite to the airport gestapo. If I wanted to live like that I would move to East Germany.
I think it’s disgusting that Americans no longer have the courage to live in a free society. We are willingly giving up our most precious freedoms in return for the illusion of safety.
That said, there is no risk to your engine from the security equipment, though there have been arrests of screeners for stealing things out of checked baggage.
If I wanted to live like that I would move to East Germany.
Then you’d be in for a terrible shock. The Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR aka East Germany) is no more. Germany was re-unified in 1990.
You know, about a year or so after the Berlin Wall came down.
Oh yeah, don’t look for a map of the USSR on Google. The USSR no longer exists.
Did I mention that Poland and Hungary are NATO members?
Andre
I am well aware of that. I used it to illiustrate my point. I apologize for my rude post. It is a subject about which I am very passionate, but it really was not apropriate to this particular thread.
Huh? Seems a bit over the top.
I appreciate that they use screening methods, including the X-ray, to ensure my safety. Just as I appreciate that you had to pass the same skill test as I to get your driver’s license. It just makes it a bit safer for most of us to keep the weirdos from making our lives even more miserable than they would be standing in line at an airport screening facility.
Gestapo…indeed!
Edit- I see your last post. You must have a story to tell.
Why not mail the thing Post Office Priority to wherever yer are going before you fly.
Just need to use a friendly family member’s mail box address or similar. You might even designated in care of the post office in the zip code and town you are going to be at. That might work.
The only time I fly is just the clothes on my back a bit of water and my camcorder. That thing has been scanned until it glowed. It still works.
The cost in wasted time and excess security is getting to be a liability. Those security people are bumps on a log and dont see a model engine very often. Those fat wires, goofy angle metal peices and large solid flywheels etc sure does look like a bomb on the Xray.
Save yourself some trouble. Mail the thing.
Here is proof that the xrayed camcorder and tape worked well:
http://img532.imageshack.us/my.php?image=midwayfinallandbk3.flv
Southwest airlines 737 into Midway-O Hare Chicago. Rather short field landing with lots of trains down below.
I was being sarcastic. And just what is your point? X-ray screening has been around for quite a number of years prior to 9/11/2001 and not just in the US. I flew out of Zurich, Switzerland in 1985 with a couple of locomotives in my carry-on. I was asked by the Swiss security people to show what it was I was carrying. No big deal.
Then again, I’m old enough to remember the first time a plane was hijacked to Cuba back in the 60’s.
In any case, locomotives aren’t sensitive to the kind of low intensity x-rays currently being used, although I think a decoder might be fried from the electro-magnetic pulse of a nuclear detonation.
Andre
As I said, I do not wish to hijack this thread. I will let it drop. That is not agreement.