selector wrote:... Just as I appreciate that you had to pass the same skill test as I to get your driver's license....
... Just as I appreciate that you had to pass the same skill test as I to get your driver's license....
Sometimes I wonder if the DPS (Dept. of Public Safety, or whatever you call it in your area) is truly testing people's skills to operate a motor vehicle in a safe manner. The way a lot of these licensed moronic drivers plow their way on the road with cell phone in one hand and food in the other makes me sick. I wish they would make cell phone usage while driving illegal and I also would like the state agencies to make a new driver's license class for people who want to drive a SUV, or any vehicle larger than a typical car. Why would anyone give a moron a license to operate a vehicle that weighs a 1/2 ton or more when they can't even keep the darn thing in the lane, or park it for that matter? They have a motorcycle license, CDL's for large trucks, they need to make a SUV class license !!
Now to the OP, the idea that someone suggested (name escapes me) about mailing the engine to yourself is a really good idea. If I ever find myself in your situation, I'll probably go that route.
Thanks.
TONY
"If we never take the time, how can we ever have the time." - Merovingian (Matrix Reloaded)
TA462 wrote: loathar wrote: TA462 wrote:I just thought of something. How many locomotives are shipped Air Mail everyday? Tons and I know UPS, Fed Ex, USPS and our Canadian Postal Service Xrays everything that goes on a plane.Since when?? The whole complaint has been that the stuff in the cargo hold (other than passenger luggage) doesn't get ANY kind of check. Same thing with MOST of the shipping containers that enter the country. Shipping schedules don't allow time for checks like that.Loather, EVERYTHING gets checked that goes on a plane. They don't care if its a envelope or a huge box. Email UPS and Fed Ex and ask them. You think George Bush is going to let planes fly over the USA that haven't been checked for bombs, lol. This isn't the 70's anymore. Friends of mine use to ship their film by Fed Ex when they were in other countries for months at a time but they stopped because the film was being damaged. When they checked into why they were told they were x-rayed. They started doing this a few years ago, the Post Office even longer. Containers on the other hand hardly ever get checked but there is a plan in the works to get them checked.
loathar wrote: TA462 wrote:I just thought of something. How many locomotives are shipped Air Mail everyday? Tons and I know UPS, Fed Ex, USPS and our Canadian Postal Service Xrays everything that goes on a plane.Since when?? The whole complaint has been that the stuff in the cargo hold (other than passenger luggage) doesn't get ANY kind of check. Same thing with MOST of the shipping containers that enter the country. Shipping schedules don't allow time for checks like that.
TA462 wrote:I just thought of something. How many locomotives are shipped Air Mail everyday? Tons and I know UPS, Fed Ex, USPS and our Canadian Postal Service Xrays everything that goes on a plane.
Since when?? The whole complaint has been that the stuff in the cargo hold (other than passenger luggage) doesn't get ANY kind of check. Same thing with MOST of the shipping containers that enter the country. Shipping schedules don't allow time for checks like that.
Loather, EVERYTHING gets checked that goes on a plane. They don't care if its a envelope or a huge box. Email UPS and Fed Ex and ask them. You think George Bush is going to let planes fly over the USA that haven't been checked for bombs, lol. This isn't the 70's anymore. Friends of mine use to ship their film by Fed Ex when they were in other countries for months at a time but they stopped because the film was being damaged. When they checked into why they were told they were x-rayed. They started doing this a few years ago, the Post Office even longer. Containers on the other hand hardly ever get checked but there is a plan in the works to get them checked.
To put an end to SOME of this debate, I called UPS directly and asked ((and probly sent up some red flags... <waiting for men in black suits>)) , They said that "...all air freight is subject to, but not guaranteed to be, x-rayed...".
"So, don't confuse the folks behind the moving belt with the dingbats in Washington that are to blame for all of this."
The dingbats in Washington cannot do the things they do unless the "folks behind the moving belt" are willing to carry out the dingbat's orders, and unless the sheeple are willing to stand in line like lemmings and submit to it.
I, for one, will not.
Fortunately, so far Amtrak still treats it's passengers like humans.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
They do screen checked bags, too. I don't know what percentage of bags get screened, or whether they are able to do this at all airports. They use "sniffers" that detect stuff which indicates explosives. I've been stopped by a "sniffer" on a carry-on, which contained a camcorder. We never did figure out what triggered the alarm. They thought it was residues from hand cream or suntan lotion.
As much as we belittle the TSA efforts and the inconvenience they cause, we haven't had an incident for a long, long time. So, you can't really say that it doesn't work, any more than you can say that it does work.
And I, for one, will always try to be polite, even friendly, towards the TSA people. Most of them are just working stiffs like the rest of us. They drink beer, and around here, they root for the Red Sox and Patriots. They think gas costs too much, and their little girls grow up too soon. Yeah, there are a few rotten apples, but by and large they're just trying to do their jobs. So, don't confuse the folks behind the moving belt with the dingbats in Washington that are to blame for all of this.
But you know what does weird me out? They let knitting needles on airplanes. Man, those things could easily double as a stilletto.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
Phoebe Vet wrote: TA462 wrote:I just thought of something. How many locomotives are shipped Air Mail everyday? Tons and I know UPS, Fed Ex, USPS and our Canadian Postal Service Xrays everything that goes on a plane.To the best of my knowledge, the only thing to which shipped good are subjected is the idiotic over reaction of the US Postal Service who have irradiated most mail since the anthrax incident years ago. The proceedure has fogged a lot of film, but otherwise seems harmless. I am not aware of a single anthrax attack the incredibly expensive process has prevented. That, and the new rule that packages have to be handed to a postal employee rather than dropped in a remote box. I have no idea how that is supposed to improve security. Just more of the "I'll protect you" illusion to which we seem to be addicted.If you wanted a single phrase to describe America today it would be paranoid gross overreaction.
To the best of my knowledge, the only thing to which shipped good are subjected is the idiotic over reaction of the US Postal Service who have irradiated most mail since the anthrax incident years ago. The proceedure has fogged a lot of film, but otherwise seems harmless. I am not aware of a single anthrax attack the incredibly expensive process has prevented. That, and the new rule that packages have to be handed to a postal employee rather than dropped in a remote box. I have no idea how that is supposed to improve security. Just more of the "I'll protect you" illusion to which we seem to be addicted.
If you wanted a single phrase to describe America today it would be paranoid gross overreaction.
That particular rule was implemented to protect postal workers, even though they kill more of themselves than anyone else .
And Phoebe Vet, I don't think you need to apoligize for speaking your mind in our "free" America. though your post was off the main topic, it was a lot more relavant to the topic than some posts I've seen on other threads here. (insert religious icon here) Bless You and Your Family, and Happy Holidays to All...(religious icon) Knows we ALL need it.
Just to drop my 2 I recall a reading about a member of my weathering forum being stopped due to strange shape showing up in the x-ray machine. It turned out to be the weight in an Intermountain covered hopper that he was taking with him to work on during his business trip. Once they saw what it was, they said everything was fine, & let him move on.
I have my thoughts on some of the Homeland Security issues too, but this isn't the place to argue them IMO & (hint, hint!)
KingConrail76 wrote: loathar wrote: 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. I've been profiled and pulled out of line for extra searching every time I've flown since!! Sounds like a Civil Liberties lawsuit waiting to happen to me. Maybe one of the Law professionals I've seen posting on other posts could chime in on this one.I'd be curious to know if you can be repeatedly targeted because of your completely legal reading material, which is probably for sale at the Newsstand of most Airports that you've traveled through.
loathar wrote: 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. I've been profiled and pulled out of line for extra searching every time I've flown since!!
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. I've been profiled and pulled out of line for extra searching every time I've flown since!!
Sounds like a Civil Liberties lawsuit waiting to happen to me.
Maybe one of the Law professionals I've seen posting on other posts could chime in on this one.
I'd be curious to know if you can be repeatedly targeted because of your completely legal reading material, which is probably for sale at the Newsstand of most Airports that you've traveled through.
The bad thing is all the funny looks the rest of the passengers give you after they see you being searched for the third time! I didn't even know why they were putting me through all that till I remembered that magazine in my luggage. I asked the guard if it was because of the magazine and he nodded yes. I'd rather just drive now!Takes less time.
Yeah, we all know how dangerous those ''monthly assault magazines'' are, what thinking man needs one of those anyway?? all they are for is entertaining people 30 times a second or for use by terrorists who might show a picture of an M4 to the stewardess and say ''I am going to buy one of these and hi-jack this airplane!!'' LOL
I didn't fly before all this nonesense with "Homeland security'' and I'm sure not going to start now!....those idiots confiscate nail clippers...NAIL CLIPPERS!???.....has anyone EVER been killed or even hurt with a set of clippers!??? maybe some doofus who cut off the tip of his finger! LOL Jeesh!! what a bunch of morons!
Anyway, only thing I see causing a problem is if one of the dimwits running the machine sees the motor and thinks it's a bomb.
selector wrote:I appreciate that they use screening methods, including the X-ray, to ensure my safety.
That is the problem in a nutshell - it doesn't ensure anything (except a densely packed group of soft targets outside the security boundary). It's just a feel good measure. (*) Because people think it is ensures safety or even "means my plane won't crash", they are willing to put up with more and more - or worse and worse . . .
Anyhoo. . . I sure liked travelling in trains in Europe where I could arrive at the station eight minutes before departure, walk right up and get to my seat, and be sure - no certain - it would arrive and leave on time. Quite depressing to go through the dip line and board the winged cattle car to come home.
KL
(*) Like the soldiers with M16s and no magazines in them standing next to regular armed airport police. What benefit was there to a guy carrying a 5.56mm club?
Americas not alone on this, I had two Athearn undecorated Genesis P42's confiscated by Australian customs here in Queensland, Australia last year, took a month to get them cleared, so I would guess they were X-Rayed and looked like miniature Scud missiles to warrant their examination so closely, they still work, and they still don't explode.
It really is all for our own good, I don't think the X-ray will hurt, it's the interpretation of the X-ray that can be the painful part.
Teditor.
Teditor
andrechapelon wrote:although I think a decoder might be fried from the electro-magnetic pulse of a nuclear detonation.
although I think a decoder might be fried from the electro-magnetic pulse of a nuclear detonation.
Well yeah, as a nuclear bomb has a tendancy to destroy everything in the area!
Smoke
2 years ago i came back from america with my hand luggage stuffed full of model rr. stock and there was no problem at either airport and definitely no problem with x-rays and loco's
Gav
Phoebe Vet wrote: andrechapelon wrote: 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?AndreI 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.
andrechapelon wrote: 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
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.
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.
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.
Phoebe Vet wrote: 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....
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.
...
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.
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.
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.
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!
Modeling the Rio Grande Southern First District circa 1938-1946 in HOn3.
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.
jsoderq wrote: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...
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
Smoke wrote: 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
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
?? 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.