Odd encounters with non-railfans

[SALfan]

QUOTE: Originally posted by chad thomas

Sometimes I take a few guns and do some target shooting to divert attention from my main activities. It works for me.

I'll bet the ones that do approach you are VERY courteous, too.[:D] The combination of trains and guns would be so much fun, don't know if I could stand it.

[chad thomas]

Usually the only time I have trouble with non-railfans is when checking into hotel rooms. The clerk invariably has to know why I want the room that's nearest the tracks or has the best view of the tracks. Trying to explain myself is futile at best. Anymore I just try to tell them witch room I want without letting them know why.

Avoiding non-railfan interferance is why I do most of my railfanning in secluded areas. Sometimes I take a few guns and do some target shooting to divert attention from my main activities. It works for me.

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by jeaton

Mitch

I can almost see an old timer climbing out of the cab, firing up the ever present cigar, going up to the front of the car and leaning in to push it back. That is funny.

Jay

Jay,
Come to think of it, I think the hogger stepped outside (as he had to go back to the engine anyway) shrugged his shoulders and yelled,"Wanna help me push!"
This is exactly how guys get there nicknames on the railroad.
Mitch

[jeaton]

Mitch

I can almost see an old timer climbing out of the cab, firing up the ever present cigar, going up to the front of the car and leaning in to push it back. That is funny.

Jay

[Modelcar]

...As CSX engineer stated the public knows nothing about the railroads...One more reason railroads need advertising...If no one knows, how will they be first in line, or in line at all.... {down the road in time}, to be selected for their carrier of products....

[Anonymous]

I was always warry of people on the train that wanted to talk railroading with me. One was a lady that had to go on and on about how she took the train to Florida when she was a child when she was living in Chicago. She insisted that she rode the Wabash because,"That's what it said on the side of the car." Then there was a guy who stated, "My father has the last Santa Fe in Kansas," whatever that meant. But as an old friend of mine once said,"You have to let 'em wallow in their ignorance." You really have to listen patiently and understand they know not of what they speak. If possible take the approach of being a patient teacher when trying to explain further. I agree with CSX Engineer. The outside world just has no exposure to railroading at all anymore, and people have no idea.

OF TRAINS AND FOOD DELIVERIES....Nothing new where I come from. On the CNW, when I was a fireman, there was a pizza joint in Park Ridge, right next to the westbound suburban platform. We could call them from the Glass House at the Chicago depot and have a delivery guy right there on the platform with the pizza upon our arrival. On the South Shore Line there was an entire network developed over the years where food joints would make deliveries. Both Michigan City and Miller had rib houses that were close to the platforms. Calls from Randolph Street insured prompt service. The age of cell phones made this process very efficient. We could depend on the weekend dispatcher to arrange pizzas in Michigan City. The pizza guy came to the Shops, and the dispatcher walked over to the main line and "hooped" the pizza up as we passed.

OF CAB CAR MIS-DOINGS. Once, when I was in train service on the MIlwaukee Road, we were coming eastward (south) at West Lake Forest, on a suburban train, with a cab car in the lead on a 2 car train. Snow piled on the main from freshly plowed snow at the grade crossing was high enough to cause the knuckles to part between the 2 cars and we came in two with the cab car rolling a little farther than the coach and power. The conductor stepped off the cab car and saw we were in two. He turned to the engineer in the cab car and gave a big back up signal. He never lived that down.

Mitch

[mersenne6]

Quite some time ago when NS was still doing steam excursions they had laid on a trip that went right through my town. I got the word that #611 was due through early in the evening so I went out to my crossroad of choice and parked the car. Directly adjacent to the crossroad was a do-it-yourself car wash which was surrounded with a huge amount of blacktop. I waited awhile and a few others in-the-know drove up and parked. It was a pleasant evening so soon all of us were standing outside in the twilight chatting quietly. A few, like myself, had a camera and tripod so we picked our spots and waited some more. The excursion had encountered some delays to the east so the arrival time continued to slip and we went from twilight to dark. As time passed, still more people arrived until we had a crowd of 20-30 people standing around just quietly talking - mostly about trains. Around 11 P.M. a black and white came cruising up the street and when he saw the large cluster of people he whipped a quick U-turn and rolled into the parking area.

He got out of his car, looked over the peaceful crowd who didn't seem to be paying him much attention and strolled up to where we were standing. Nothing was happening and it was obvious he was more puzzled than alarmed. Finally, when no one said anything he sort of tipped his cap back on his head, scratched his forehead and said, "Evening folks, what's going on?"

One of group said, "Nothing - just waiting for 611."
He said, "What?"
Another fan replied, " You, know the N&W Class J. She's rolling this evening."
He just sort of stared and finally I said, "We're waiting for a steam train to come through."
He looked at me and then in a voice filled with a combination of surprise and mild incredulity said, "A train, you mean all of you are just standing around waiting for a choo-choo train?"
Several people said, almost in unison, "Yes, a choo-choo train."

He shook his head, went back to the car, called it in, decided we were harmless, got in his car and left. Well, it turned out that LOTS of people must have been listening to the police band because during the next 45 minutes dozens of people rolled up in cars to and asked if we were that bunch of people waiting for a "choo-choo". 611 finally came through around midnight. We got our pictures, ohhed and ahhed as she passed and then, just as quietly as we had come, we returned to our cars and dispersed.

[daveklepper]

Ed, you Pizza story really belongs in print in TRAINS. If you submitted it and they didn't print it, something is very, very wrong. It is truly great.

I believe on several posts I may have mentioned that in my Senior MIT years I had a part-time B&M job as a locomotive test engineer working for Ernie Bloss, and got to run a GP-7 on the Porstmouth-Sommerville night freight. (Geeps 1567 or 1568 went up north on the 4PM passenger from North Station and came back on the freight.) I generally parked my bike (the commute from MIT over the Longfellow Bridge) at North Station, so the problem was the trudge at 3 or 4AM from Sommerville Yard to North Station. No problem, I could bragg to my non-railfan MIT classmates that I regularly had the service of a 1500 HP taxi.

But my MIT classmate Mort Grosser, who passed away recently, did me better. As a Freshman, he hung around South Station and in 1949 and 1950 the New Haven was still using 0-6-0 steam switchers and Mort alway was able to catch a ride.

[oltmannd]

QUOTE: Originally posted by espeefoamer

Back when the San Diegans were running with Amfleet equipment,I met a man who thought the cab car was powered.

Well, at least, once-upon-a-time, that cab car WAS powered![:D]

[tree68]

My daughter watches a two year old boy who has a tot's usual interest in trains. Since they are not far from Syracuse's Dewitt Yard, she went by there the other day so he could see real trains, thinking he'd be amazed by their size. He was disappointed - there was no engine (wrong end of the train) and they weren't moving. FRED was present on the last car, per usual, but she figured explaining that was a little over his little head.

On the other hand, she said that a good friend's 5 year old who is quite enamored with N&W 611 (you may recall the story of his encounter with the real deal) now watches a video with the loco almost daily. He normally doesn't get to watch a lot of TV, but this he gets to see. He doesn't care about toy trains...

[Mookie]

Ed: I bet working with you and your crew would be a real hoot! Doing something I like, plus having a laugh out loud fun time!

Mook

[Mookie]

QUOTE: Originally posted by tatans

Where do you find these mooks?

Trackside, where else?

[bbrant]

Don't know if this would be considered an odd encounter but I thought I'd share it anyway.

Last fall I dropped my 5 year old daughter, Hannah, off at school. My then 3 year old daughter, Sarah, was with me. After dropping Hannah off, I asked Sarah if she wanted to go see some trains. We made a quick trip to Rockwood (PA) just in time to see a couple of light engines leaving the S&C Branch and heading east on the Keystone Sub. Sarah dubbed the engines as "her" trains and sternly yelled at me for scaring them away!!

To this day, anytime she sees a CSX locomotive, she says "Daddy, there's my train." And when we make trips to Rockwood she still, on occasion, reminds me to keep my voice down so I don't scare any more trains away.

Brian

[ericsp]

Judging from some of the stories here, I think this thread should be called "Close Encounters with the Non-Railfan Kind".

[DPD1]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Carleton Vickers



A college-age girl was astonished to see that the trains rolling through her town actually had crew members. She thought they were all "robotically controlled" from some central location and insisted this is what she heard in school...

Guess colleges will take just about anybody now.

When I was a kid, a friend of mine who had moved out of the city was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the trains by our houses ran on electricity from the two rails. Since I was into trains, I of course knew this was wrong. I'm guessing he was thinking of the L trains he saw in the city. One day I decided to prove he was wrong, so I walked to the crossing with him and planed to put one foot on each rail. I was going to play a joke and pretend like I was getting electrocuted, but I never got the chance, because he went running away screaming before I got the second foot down. He never did believe me.

Dave

-DPD Productions - Featuring the TrainTenna RR Radio Monitoring Antennas-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/

[jeaton]

You shouldn't be so hard on these people. Just ask them to go back to their own planet, but be polite.

Jay

[edblysard]

Odd encounter, eh?

Hummm...I got it , the Pizza guy!

Back a few years ago, I worked one of our industry jobs, afternoon trick, 4 to midnight.
Well, along about 10:00 pm, we got hungry.

Seeing as how the tracks in this paticular industry were right beside a major highway, and we could see a billboard advertising Pizza Hut...we decided to order some pizza.

Engineer got on the cell phone, called in for 3 large pies...got a odd look on his face, looked over at me and said, "they need a address!"
I though about it a minute, asked the for the phone, spoke to the guy taking the order, explained who we were, and where we were.
He said "cool, but I still need a address..."

So, I told him "its 9604 Highway 225, the big, blue locomotive with the flashing light on top, parked right behind the guard shack to IC Terminals"

Now, 9604 is the number of our locomotive.

He said ok, took the cell phone number, and direction on how to get to us from where they were, promised to have the delivery guy look for the locomotive, not a address, (there is no 9600 block of highway 225)

20 minutes later, this POS Ford Festiva come smoking around the corner of the guard shack, stops beside the shack, and this kid gets out, goes to talk to the guard.
He has the lighted Pizza Hut thing on the roof, so we know dinner is here!

A few secod later, he comes out of the shack, jumps in the car, and takes off down the street parallel to the tracks, going 90 to nothing into the industry.

Dinner is escaping!

Our engineer blew the horn, loud, but the kid kept right on moving...next thing I know, Terry, my engineer, has knocked off the brakes, and is blasting off after this kid.
I looked over at him, he grins, said"hey, I'm hungry" and snatches notch 6...

We get even with the kid, Terry is ringing the bell, blowing the horn like mad, the kid looks over, all startled, and punches the gas...so now we are racing a beat to crap Ford Festiva through a refinery, chasing our dinner!

I hang out the window, Terry gives him another blast on the horn, the kid looks over, I point to the two foot high numbers on the side of the locomotive, 9604...and then point at the kid, make motions like I am eating...the kid looks down at the slip on the pizza, looks back at the locomotive...and stomps the brakes.

Of course, we are blasting along, so it takes a bit to get stopped.

We back up even with the kid, he is standing there, on his phone(turns out he was talking to the guy who took the order)...I motion him over, and open the front cab door.

The kid must have finally understood his boss was telling him to deliver to the idiots on the locomotive..he walks over, stands at the edge of the steps, and yells up, "hey, did you guys order three large pizzas?"

I step out on the front porch, he hands me the pizzas, I give him the cash..he just stands there, glancing at the locomotive with that look in his eyes...kinda a mix of fear, and curiosity together with a dash of lust!.

He wants to get on this thing!

Terry still has it in switch mode, so the diesel is thrumming real loud, and the kid reaches out and puts his hand on the sill...

I figure what the heck, anybody who has the cajones to race anything else in a Ford Festiva, much less a 1500 HP locomotive, deserves a chance to look one over up close.

I told him come on up.

He climbs up into he cab...looking all around..Terry is already destroying one of the pizzas...now, the cab of a MK1500D aint that big, there are three of us in the crew, plus the pizza guy...so Terry takes his pizza out on the front porch.

The kids is asking questions a mile a minute...he is practically hanging upside down over the control stand, trying to figger it out.

I guess I was feeling in a good mood, hot pizza is on hand, we still got a hour to kill before they release the plant to us anyway...so I told him to sit down, in the engineers seat.

Terry is still stuffing his face, so I show the kid where the bell is..he gives it try, Terry looks in the front window...points toward the rear of the motor, waves "bye bye" and goes right back to dinner.

What the heck, I show the kid the reverser, and how it works, told him to put it in reverse, he does, then I knock off the independent, and reach over and put it in road mode, and notch it into run 2... this kid starts to grin so wide I though he hurt himself..

Off we go, at a whopping 10 mph...the kid gets to blow the horn, ring the bell, after a few runs back and forth, with me pretty much side seat driving, we let him lose..

We created a monster.

If there was a knob, lever or switch on this thing, he messed with it!

He cut the traction motors cut out, then back in...lights on the front, off and on..sanders, bell, horn, we even let him get moving in run 1, and plug the emergency brake!

This guy had the time of his life, he freaked out when he grabbed notch 8 for a second, was amazed something that big and bulky could take off that fast...

After about 30 minutes, his cell phone rings, his boss is scared we killed his driver over three late pizzas!

We let him run it back up to his where his car was parked...he is so jazzed he is vibrating...

The next week, when we were out there late again, I think we got the fastest, (and major overstuffed) pizzas ever delivered.

That kid just about had his POS on two wheels coming around the corner of the guard shack!

I saw him again last year...he quit pizza delivery, and went to work for KCS...so it all good in the end!

Ed

[BNSFNUT]

I seem to always have the one who A: dosn't know anything about trains but has about a 100 questions or B: thinks he knows everything about trains ( they don't) who wants to talk any way when the train is coming and I just turned on the vidio cam and the will get to it and talk away drowning any sound of the train. [sigh]

[csxengineer98]

eveything that you people are saying shows how out of touch eveyone is about the railroad... as far as the genneral public is conserned...trains are an out dated method of transportation..and just an out right annoyance.... the fail to relize that eveything at some point or another is shiped by rails at some point in its life....even if a product never touchs the rails in its pre ownership life... odds are it will when its service life is done and tossed out with the trash.... either shiped to a landfill..or shiped to a scrap for recycleing it will spend some time on the rails going to its final resting place...... hell even airliners are shiped by rail befor they are totaly assembled and put in service.... people dont have any clue and most dont even want to learn either...
csx engineer

[mustanggt]

There are the ones who think that trains can stop on a dime, and usually their vehicles get destroyed because of it[:p]

[joseph2]

Back in 1980 a non railfan motorist saw his first steam loco---surprized the heck out of him.A lot of us were standing around the US 224 and N&W grade crossing waiting to watch NKP 765 haul a fantrip.This car stopped next to the tracks and the young driver asked me why a crowd was here.I barely had time to yell "we are watching that ! "as the 2-8-4 stormed by.His eyes really got big. Joe G.

[espeefoamer]

Back when the San Diegans were running with Amfleet equipment,I met a man who thought the cab car was powered.

[Anonymous]

it's the same with anything really. people who don't know anything about trains ask/say stupid things like that, us in the know laugh about it. when i tell people i farm they always ask if i have chickens, goats..milk the cows......."hey, where's the straw hat?!" the only good place for a chicken is fried, no goats, it's allllll corn and i proudly wear my CUBS hat. people's ignorance is quite amusing at times.

[kevarc]

"mooks" ? Mookie is going to be mad.

[tatans]

Where do you find these mooks? are they really that dense? Do they not read? or travel? or ask questions? I guess a society that thinks movie stars are to be hero worshipped along with t.v.show hosts can't really be expected to know a lot about anything. Just hope these people aren't operating on your kidneys or defending you in court or fixing your plumbing or teaching your children. yikes !

[UPTRAIN]

I got a guy that now post photos on a site and is a member of this forum that in January didn't know any more than that trains were more than "trains". I've almost gotten in a fight over who builds the locomotives, they think GE and GM make microwaves and cars. People have asked me how much coal an SD40-2 burns, where the cabooses went, and "how bigga transmission and drive shaft to they have?" People are clueless. In Galesburg, IL a British kid about my age asked me where they park the Eurostar or something and aked what a ex-BN BNSF SD40-2 ran off of. LOL [:D]

[kevarc]

I am slowly getting mine trained :)

I guess 23 years of talking about them is sinking in. When she goes down to her Mama's house, she travkes along the old Sunset Route. If she sees something , shes calls me and if I think it is ok, I will head out to get pics. When the Steamer came to town the other week, she went with me and had a pretty good time. Now I need to work on my son.

[bbrant]

Sounds like those encounters were/are "here's your sign" material.

When we were dating, I took my wife out railfanning at Sand Patch. After the first train went by she said she was ready to go. She was very surprised when I said there going to be more coming. Guess you had to be there to fully appreciate it.

[oltmannd]

I keep getting panhandled. There are some good spots nearby where I've sometimes waited for trains. There aren't particularly bad parts of town during the day. It's safe to walk through them. But, if you're standing still, you become a target. I've yet to figure out a way to look busy while I'm standing and waiting.

[Anonymous]

Maybe this has been discussed here before, but what are some of the strange and/or amusing things you've experienced with non-railfans while pursuing your hobby? Some of mine:

A pedestrian who saw me exchange waves with the engine crew of a freight asked me if I was a freind of the engineer...

A college-age girl was astonished to see that the trains rolling through her town actually had crew members. She thought they were all "robotically controlled" from some central location and insisted this is what she heard in school...

I've encountered at least a dozen people who had no idea that the locomotives pulling today's trains weren't coal-fired, steam-powered. When I treid to explain the concept of diesel-electrics, some asked if the rails were electrified, and why people weren't electrocuted when they crossed the tracks. Others wanted to know how long it took to charge up the batteries...

A co-worker who lived along a lightly used industrial spur thought she could just call up Amtrak's toll-free number and order a train to pick her up at the grade crossing down the street...

Most non-railfans I've met have little concept of how railroads operate; they seem to think that trains just sort of wander the rails like trucks on the interstates. I've met people who assume that if a train has foreign power, the crew must have originated on the "foreign" railroad, even if said railroad is thousands of miles away. (these same people are confused when they see no caboose at the end of the train and ask "where do they sleep?") I also know people who believe that the crews own the locomtives...

And lastly, I met a fellow who thought the five or six trains a day that ran through his town had to constitute some kind of national traffic record. He refused to believe me when I told him about Fostoria, Ohio and it's multitudes of trains...

Okay folks, let's hear some of your experiences...