Railfan & trespasser warning

[Anonymous]

Address of the information I read last night http://community-2.webtv.net/bulletbob52/BoxcarJimWashington

[Anonymous]

or type in box car jim into google MIKE

[RudyRockvilleMD]

I agree with what you said especially about the availability of satellite images of railroad lines, photos of railroad lines and the plans for most bridges. For a short time back in the early 1950's we went through a similar period of hysteria regarding not photographing trains even from public property, but this time it was during te Korean "Police Action" and the worry about what the Commies might do to the American railroads. Then only photographs were available, and not satellite images. Fortunately, this hysteria was very short lived, and very few, if any, railfans were actually were hassled. I believe this hysteria will pass with time.

[Anonymous]

Next thing you know a group of towel heads kills some folks in car and we're all walking to work. Lets not progress at all and learn from the past let's just keep getting stupider. I can tell by the last word in my last sentence it's already working. To hel* with liberty, lets just bow to the establishment now and save ourselves the hassle later. How stupid can America get? "Wow! Extended warranty, how can I go wrong" sums it up.

[Anonymous]

Don't temp them too much, the modern day american gestapo might just take you up on it.

[Anonymous]

Heres a thought. Trusting a government official is going to net you the same results as trusting a starving dog to gaurd your steak while you run out for a bit.

[Anonymous]

Become a religious fanatic that involves killing americans, wrap your head up in a dirty bath towel, barely speek english (lower case e intentional) bath never, buy a gas station and use the constitution to wipe your as* with and you shouldn't have any problems from here on out.

[Anonymous]

"But it is hard to fight someone you dont know who it is or what they look like that is what has the law enforcment looking at everyone." Do some research on terrorism, domestic and abroad. I think its pretty clear who they should be looking at.

[Anonymous]

"It may sound silly, but the day you, and all other Americans cant walk around, taking pictures of their own country, and the things we have struggled so hard and so long to make here is the day the terrorist have, in part, accomplished their mission, to change America. I dont want that to happen, and I hope most Americans would agree."

To late Ed. Go downtown and try to photo a federally owned property. You'll be toothbrushing a toilet in Leavenworth before supper time.

[Anonymous]

Careful with the shooting yourself Ed, a good attorney could turn that into a liability suit for your finger, the boot maker, the gun maker, the ammo maker, the guns and ammo dealer, the steel makers of the gun steel, your fam. physician for not recognizing your self-destruction symptoms.................................

[citidude]

Has anyone else here noticed the irony that railroads are cracking down on railfans but the AAR has a link in the imnage to the right where we can pay to join their club?

Dave, the Pittsburgh traindude

[edblysard]

You forgot the sock maker, they should reconize that people often shoot their own feet, and add kevlar along with the polyster and cotton...or would the cotton growers sue the kevlar people?
Ed

[edblysard]

And you know why its such a shame? Its your federal building, not theirs. You paid for it, you pay the people who work in it, and still...
Ed

[edblysard]

Yes, its is rather ironic, isnt it?
Ed

[edblysard]

Heres one for you. USGS survey maps, on line cheap, exact to almost any scale, for just about every square inch of this country. But you get hassled for taking a picture of a train?
Do what?
Ed

[PaulDannenberg]

Has anyone got an idea on how sensitive things are at places commonly frequented like Tehachapi , are they now off limits ?
Just to add a twist I'm a railfan , I'm a video maker and dare I say it I'm a foreigner. But wait I'm a friendly foreigner , AUSTRALIAN , we're sort of replicas of the U.S. ( but somehow we ended up driving on the other side of the road). You guys get "yankee go home" and we get "aussie go home" , as strong believers in freedom and allies of America we get a lot of lunatics wanting to kill us to.
So far the security situation with rail is not too bad here although there is security watching. A larger worry of the railroads is lawyers suing them because vandals and grafitti artists get bar-b-qued on overhead wire. Believe it or not we may be able to out-litigate the U.S. lawyers , things like million dollar pay outs for drunk & speeding drivers who crashed on a bend - the reason they won was the local council should have provided a straight road !
I suspect some of the anti-railfan reaction in the U.S. may be a way of scaring off anybody no matter who they are , in particular hot spots for vandals.
So how are railroads dealing with us dumb tourists waiting on a platform for a train with a valid ticket and we take a photo as our train comes in ?

" ALL THE WAY WITH THE U.S.A. "

P.S. ED we have the best equipped F111's flying , call John Howard if you need some !

[eolafan]

A few of us were railfanning near the Eola yards of BNSF in Aurora, IL last Saturday when here comes an Aurora cop..oh boy are we in trouble. We were on city property but about fifty feet from the main line. The cop turned out to be a railfan also and said he had seen us around for years and the police had no problems with us "known" foamers hanging around all we wanted to. He hung around for about five minutes chatting then left on his patrol duties.

[Anonymous]

Hard to figure out what pattern there is to "Homeland Security". I was out railfanning last weekend in the desert and saw a few fans and had no problems being adjacent to railroad property.

Recently I was also on public property watching trains and was invited to visit the tower for a rail yard and take pictures at my leisure. The person doing the inviting was a supervisory employee and made it clear that had my buddy and I been a couple of flaming foamers the invitation would not have been offered.

What's all this mean....who knows. When authorities arrest and cite people for being at Tehachapi, Cajon, Sand Patch, Horseshoe Curve,Cima Hill, Beaumont Hill {name your location} then the threat is real, concrete and the hobby is really up against a wall.

[Anonymous]

HI
Ever since I can remember the sound of a train always caught my attention.I have always followed trains motto"take pictures leave footprints".I have found most railroad people to be friendly and just doing their jobs.CSX has also been put on high alert.As a railfan I feel it is an obligation to watch out for those employees because they have families too. I've seen rail defects and called them in and I've brought a conductor and engineer breakfast because they were stuck outside of a yard due to frozen brakes on another train.this should just be a common sense thing take pictures leave footprints.around here there are plenty of public places to take pictures of trains.
thank you
Joe

[Anonymous]

Whew,
I can't beieve what I am reading and hearing. To begin with I am a retired Railroad operating managment employee of 50 years last year. I am also an avid RAIL FAN and hava a large collection of railroad slides and other. I was looked down upon by top managment when I took a photos or took interest in my equipment. I was the only one that managment came to for advice on repairing or trouble shoting the locomotives and facts on other railroads because they knew I kept up with what is going on. Can't you people see what is happening right under your nose. The government wants control of "we the people" and this is just another way they can get it. It sickens me that this government uses terror to get control of us and the railroads.They just go along with the government and follow like most of us do. I have looked at the railfan for years now as some are completly irresponsible and should be delt with I agree. I have met them and have asked a few to get off the property. BUT most railfans are friends to the railroads sometimes they were the only friends we had. We have through the years turned off the public in many ways and we made many enemys of the young. This is why we have kids and young adults throwing rocks at us and put crap on the railroad that we hit and loose 800 gallons of fuel which happened to me in the St louis area. Now we give this government more ways to control people a small amount but they don't care as long as they control people. I can't travel down the high ways without being burned by radar and these extorationist wanting to steal my money under the guise of law that dosn't exist. I have had enough with government trying to control me under the guise of the war on drugs(which we lost) now war on terriorism. I have done alright in my 68 years of being able to direct my self so I dont need a beareaucrat to tell me that I have to put my seat belt on. MY president says he will fight terriorism any where in the world. Why doesn't he look in the good old USA and the see what the IRS does to people if that isn't a terriorist organization I don't know what is. We have 150,000 people in jails here in Texas for victumless crimes dosn't that tell you a story. Wake up sheeple we still have a constitution, why don't we insist that the government live up to it they all took an oath that said that they would.I still agree that railfans should be able to get permission to be on railroad property at their risks but at least given the opertunity to do so. Railroad managment could make a lot of friends I used to allow responsible railfans on our property and even got a few engine permits. One railfan I allowed to be on our property is now a retired railroad Division Superintendent. To cut down on the size of this letter. People wake up to the freedoms you are losing. Wake up and do something about it. The Government is what we allowed so lets take it back...............yea I know you will. I just know you will.
Disgusted veteran and railfan of many years.

[Anonymous]

LOL! What a crazy day we live in eh?

[Anonymous]

Well sir, I agree with your words and salute you as a veteran. If I had to sum up your words of wisdom in this post it would take me but one word. The one that describes us all to a perfect T......... "sheeple". And the IRS thing, dead on. Like many a folk, I have no children but am married. Also am a student of engineering but less than full time as I work a full time job (in engineering) and therefore don't enjoy the benefit of any tuition or expense deductions, nor the 25 million dollar EIC for having my 2.3 kids. So for the 5200 bucks I caughed up this year my refund is a sickening 1200. My neighbor, who has 3 kids was just telling me of all the wonderful things they have just purchased with their refund of merely 6800, and that after having paid in just over 2000 between them both. Take from the broken backed and give to the dead-beat, thats what the IRS is good for. I know this is way off topic and I don't want to perpetuate it, but I did want you to understand that I know exactly where you are coming from. The US government is far more a concern and threat to the sanctity of life here than any extremists out there.

You tell me how to take it back brother and I am there.

[edblysard]

Want to win a friend, write the division super, and let him know what a good experience you had with his officer. Explain he did his job, and did it well, and thank the super for hireing someone so professional. Most cops are..
Ed

[edblysard]

The problem at Cajon was vandals turning the brake retainers off, and cutting out the brakes on a lot of cars, and or closing off a anglecock just enought to cause a brake problem. I dont mind you watching, and most of the time, if I am out of eyesight of a trainmaster or the tower, I would invite you up on the motor, and let you look around, best if you have your kids, they really get a kick out of it. But its really hard to let your guard down when some one cuts out you brakes on a really steep grade. It takes all the fun out it.
Ed

[edblysard]

Have at it, Joe, and on the way out to your next fan trip, drop off a letter to your congressman and let him or her know too.
Ed

[edblysard]

I was going to say "lets go have a cup of coffee", but then I realized it might be ultra dangerous, or ultra hot and hazzardous, but then, we all know that coffee is hot, right?
Stay Frosty, Tough198
Ed

[Anonymous]

Anyone who owns private property has the right to tell you to stay off of it. We have no more right to go onto railroad property than we do to go into an employee's home and take a picture of his bathroom.

[citidude]

If they ever cite and arrest people for watching & photographing trains at Horse Curve, then we might as well find another hobby. Horseshoe Curve has a public park and a visitors center.

Dave, the Pittsburgh, traindude

[Anonymous]

Very well put Ed I am a US Navy retiree. Military action was always on my mind when I was on active duty and still is even though I am retired I still have some freinds still serving remember everyone FREEDOM is not free it takes special people to keep this great country free. Rodney conductor BNSF

[Anonymous]

That is a good point to ponder. Rodney conductor BNSF