Has railfanning ever taken you into unsafe neighborhoods?

[solzrules]

Yes -

As soon as you enter the city limits of Milwaukee you are in no-man's land.  I've tried to follow the old beer line on the northeast side of the city, and for the most part the line is in okay neighborhoods.  I still wouldn't want to hang out there after dark, but at least in the light you feel somewhat okay.  The part of the line that still has the tracks in place (WSOR just filed to abandon even more of it) is not that nice a neighborhood and I wouldn't go walking thataway unless I had some help from Mr. Smith and his associate Mr. Wesson.  Even then you are really playing some games.  I've tried numerous times to locate the North Milwaukee yard where the beer line intersects the Milwaukee Road lines from Horicon and Grafton, but that yard is very hard to access without trespassing so I've given up on that one.  That area of the city is in real rough shape, too.  You have to weigh your safety with your need to see something historical, and in that section of town I'd much rather play it safe. 

Something I've always wondered - what do the train crews do when they work in those areas?  I can't even imagine the amount of crap they have to put up with.  I've worked on construction sites on Teutonia, North, and Capitol Drive, and I can't even begin to imagine what a pain in the *** it must be in dealing with those people at night.  We had tools stolen in broad daylight, prostitutes soliciting right in the middle of the site, and even a few shootings at one site (the masons saw one guy running like mad with another guy chasing after him pulling the trigger as fast as you could).  You don't even bother calling the cops for theft - the few times we did (while the theft was in progress) the cops took about 45 minutes to show up.  They might as well have saved themselves the effort.  Given all that garbage on construction sites - what do train crews do when they have to handle the same stuff?  

[CShaveRR]

Well, yes...

Back in my younger days (between ten and twenty years ago), I did a lot more bicycling than I do now.  Our friends from Michigan were coming down to their campsite in Portage, Indiana, and--since it was trackside, as mentioned in the camping thread--I decided I'd bike the 80 or so miles from Lombard to get there, while my wife and girls drove over, took Mrs. M. strawberry-picking, then joined us for supper at the campsite.

My biking route took me through some nice places (Downers Grove, Hinsdale, LaGrange), and some not-so-nice places (Robbins, Blue Island, Dolton, Calumet City), and into Indiana.  Just as I entered Gary, I got a flat tire.  About that time, I said, "This would make a sane person nervous!"  I looked for a gas station that would help, but nobody dealt with inner tubes any more.  Finally I was directed to an auto-parts store in a section of town I was totally unfamiliar with, where I bought a patch kit and attempted to make a repair on the steps of Gary's police department!  A couple of folks stopped to watch, including one elderly lady who said "It's been over twenty years since I saw anyone do that!"  I hope that that long-ago person had better results than I, because the patch didn't hold very well.  I had to stop several times to pump up the tire again, and finally gave up at Miller, where I was rescued by Mr. M, only about seven miles short of my destination.

Lessons learned:  never take a long bike trip without a spare inner tube.  To heck with those patches!  Also, the majority of folks you meet in places like Gary are pretty decent.

[Modelcar]

....In general, if one is interested in older depots in cities....they usually are located in questionable parts of the city.  Have railfaned in one in the east {up on the platforms}, and at times have felt potential but never did have any trouble.  Suppose one has to use good common sense.

[trainboyH16-44]

We don't really have bad neighbourhoods as such in Calgary....

[Soo 6604]

There was one trip to Chicago where we took a wrong turn and ended up in a very bad neighborhood. We ended up getting pulled over and the cop asked what we were doing in this part of town. Told him that we took a wrong turn and was trying to find our way out. He ended up giving us a police escort to a better place. All i remember was that there was abandoned cars with not much on them, steel bars on all the windowd, graffitti everywhere and the El

Another time was in Kansas City. We just knew we were in a bad neighborhood where the police station even had steel bars on the windows and door along with a church.

Paul

[eolafan]

Yes, but never to the point where I was really scared for my safety and besides, I always try and stay away from such places after dark.

[n012944]

There are tons of great spots on Chicago's south side and NW Indiana.  Many of them are not in the best of neighborhoods, however from the times I have been there, people have left me alone.

[Night Freight]

There's a few spots I know of that have some really old buildings and diamonds, etc but are located in a crime ridden area that really isn't too good to be wandering about. Does anyone else here have some great railroad spots located in not so great neighborhoods? Has anyone here ever run into trouble in such places? Thanks.