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Railfanning, Was I in the wrong?
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From a (UK) rail worker's point of view... <br />[look at my posts on keeping safe while railfanning for a start please]. <br /> <br />Were you wrong? It would appear not except for 9/11 and paranoia... and... <i>maybe</i>... <b>you note the security guard's accent...what has this got to do with anything</b>.... except (<i>possibly</i>) your attitude or perceived attitude to the man doing the job he is paid to do (how well or otherwise he does it is a different issue). <br />Put yourself in his position... <u>he shouldn't yell at you</u>... but how many people has he had to deal with on that bridge already today? (Doesn't make him right). You come off the bridge...maybe a bit "fulll" of yourself (<i>maybe not...I wasn't there</i>)...maybe he sees attitude about his accent??? <br />Whether it's really necessary as part of his job he decides to run you through the mill. <br /> <br />As I said, put yourself in his shoes... what if he came into your place of work and you thought he was out of place and then you thought he had attitude? <br /> <br />I'll give you a different example:- <br /> <br />The route from Crewe (England) to Manchester is blocked for massive engineering work -ripping it all out and building new for the most part). <br /> <br />This means that we are both running replacement buses and doing the Possession management work that I do from an area at the back of Crewe station called the "Horse Ramp". The result is a whole bunch of guys running the buses, the bus crews, the people preventing unauthorised parking (people stopping for "just five seconds" have a habit of blocking the buses for an hour...or two), and me or my colleagues mostly sitting on our backsides waiting for the next burst of action. <br /> <br />If they are busy or on a break I keep half an eye open. It isn't unusual for anyone and everyone from old grannies to gorgeous young ladies (and of course everyone including men in between) to either try to park wrong or to wander off into the wrong area looking for a bus instead of following the signs to the waiting room. <br /> <br />Probably about once a day someone will wander by with a camera. <br /> <br />There are two kinds:- <br />Those who don't put on High Visibility ORANGE (track use) jackets and those that do. <br /> <br />Usually those that do will greet anyone who checks them out... we often check with little more than a nod or a "nice day"... and they just briefly check that we don't mind them taking pictures. <br /> <br />Those that don't put on a jacket we will stop and check out. Quite a lot are looking for the bus...sometimes because they photo buses <u><b>(weird!).</b></u> <br /> <br />In all the weeks since December just one has kicked off. <br /> <br />This one had no camera in sight, no orange jacket and a pile of attitude. He ignored the first two staff who approached him, shoved past the third and headed toward where I had just parked up with a trail of staff plus his very embarrassed friend. <br /> <br />I'm not large by US cop standards... but I can do a pretty good Incredible Hulk impression. I was also in our version of National Guard (a long time ago). <br /> <br />The guy did not get past me. <br /> <br />We were Fascists, thugs, bullies etc. etc. He couldn't understand why we were victimising him like this. <br /> <br />He didn't get to take any pics, anywhere near us, at all. We put the Transport Police onto him. <br /> <br />The fact is that the guy was far more likely to have just been a massive idiot with a chip on his shoulder. <br /> <br />The equal fact is that if there was a terrorist about he probably glided by looking just as he should, smiling nicely, being polite and fitting in. <br /> <br />No Terrorist wants to attract attention to him/her self... that's the way the French Resistance worked to beat the occcupying Germans. That's the way the IRA worked when planting bombs around the UK. <br /> <br />So what are we supposed to do? <br /> <br />For a start we need to rescue the grannies and nice-young-ladies (and the rest) from going the wrong way. <i>We also need to be seen to be doing. </i> Even when nothing happens people are alerted to the possible risk of terrorists... so if we don't react we get letters to the local paper, Congressmen etc saying that we are sitting on our backsides doing nothing but taking our paychecks. <br /> <br />So we pay that bit more attention. Where five years ago you probably wouldn't have even had a guard you now have a guard. he has a job to do and he has to be seen to be doing it. <br /> <br /><b><u>What should you do as a Railfan?</u></b> <br /> <br /><b><i><u>First be safe.</u></i></b> <br />Then look out for the guard, seek him out, be nice to him, ask his permission and (even though it may be a pain if he says "no") accept his answer. <br /> <br />Sometimes we say "no" because of who's around but, if the response is right, will take your camera and quietly get the pics as best we can for you. <br /> <br />I don't know whether you were right or wrong BUT i do know that there are ways to discreetly get people on your side. It's surprising how someone can "just have to be somewhere else" if you handle the situation right. <br /> <br />Of course... getting the unsuspecting guard on your side is exactly what the terrorist will do... <br /> <br />I was told ages ago that "just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean that they are not out to get you"... <br /> <br />Then again... in over 25 years of working on the rail including all the IRA troubles, the present mess and just plain vandals, thieves and druggies... there is <i>always </i>something wrong about the duds. The big problem is that it doesn't always register until after they get up to whatever they are planning....so (increasingly often) we have to check out everyone that little bit more ... and say "NO" that bit more often. <br /> <br />Just a thought... what would have been your reaction if the guy had had an accent from the Bronx or Australia? <br /> <br />PLEASE keep SAFE and enjoy your rail fanning. <br />
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