Warning to "ALL" Railfans.

[wabash1]

To me it sounds like your mad cause the police was called. not that it did anything it is that your right to be left alone was violated. and that calling the police to tell them to leave you alone that you are going to be somewhere is more of a invite to bother you. well boo hoo get over it . the thing is if your standing around a crossing and i never seen you before im calling in with a complete discription of you. As a engineer and being they found a bomb capable of derailing and destroying track. ( regardless of what the rookies said here. i have the inside scoope i work that line) yes i will be calling in. what ever you do if the railroad cops come out they will get your name if your freindly to them they will tell us crews and you will be forgiven as a threat. In short be cool talk to the guys once your noticed as a nice guy / gal ( sorry mook) nobody will care until you do something stupid.

[Anonymous]

Hell next if someone wants to play call the cop so will I.

[DPD1]

Unfortunately, there's a lot of people in the world that are closet cops, and they are going to try and act like cops every chance they get... Even if it makes no sense to most people. Every year, the local church near me has a carnival with fireworks at the end of the day. This has gone on for years and years... Yet every year, numerous knuckle heads call the cops and say there's a gun fight going on. Some people are just clueless.

But sorry to say… Unless you live in Mayberry, a call to the cops would either get you laughed at, or just more paranoia.

Dave
-DPD Productions - Introducing the NEW TrainTenna LP Directional RR Radio Monitoring Antenna-
http://eje.railfan.net/dpdp/

[CopCarSS]

I agree with teh others. As long as you keep on Public Property, and not Railroad or other private property, it shouldn't be a problem. While I miss the old days like everyone else, I've only been checked up on once, and it was fairly painless. The cop was a nice fellow, and pretty easy going. I know there are some out there who aren't, but I think the vast majority are.

Just remember to have fun, and not get too hot and bothered and it'll be AGAGB, All Good And Gravy Baby!

Chris
Denver, CO

[Anonymous]

Goodness.... That happened to me once and the local sherrif came out but he saw me with my BNSF shirt and hat looking like a geek in the middle of a city[:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:p][:I][:I]

[edblysard]

Got rousted by a UP cop a few nights ago at the the west end of Eureka yard...he drove up, wanted to know what I was doing, I explained I was taking photos of trains...and waiting for Amtrak so I could get a night shot.
He asked if I had ID, which I supplied, my TDL and my railroad switchmans ID...

He ran the TDL through CICS, I came back clean...he handed me both IDs back, said have a nice day...I stopped him, offered him a soae from my cooler in the back of the car...we sat around talking "shop" for a while,,,I got a few more photos, Amtrak never showed, (big surprise there)...I got one of his business card, you never know when you will need a cop!
I also made it a point to thank the guy for checking me out and doing his job!

I was on public property, and he was well aware of that, he was just checking me out, he hadnt seen my car there before.

If your friend was on public property, and not doing anything other than watching trains and taking photos, he should have no problem withthe cops.

In fact, due to the fact that most railroads are in the not so great part of town, the presence of cops, be it the city guys or the railroad cops, should be a comfort to your buddy.

Next time hes there, and the cops show up, he should intorduce himself, and work at making the cops his friends, not his enemies, after all, their job is to protect you, even if it sometimes means protecting you from yourself.

If he plays his cards right, he might end up with his own security force....

I have known the regular cop at Eureka for years, he see my car, he cruises by and checks to make sure I am ok...he even knows my 11 year old daughters name, she watches and takes photos with me.
Most of the time, he dosnt stop, but gives us a flash of his searchlight and a blip on his overheads...

So tell your buddy to work this to his advantage...

Ed

[gabe]

I don't get it?

So what if he called the cops? So what if they come out and ask you who you are?

I think the last thing law enforcement wants to deal with is a bunch of us calling them 24/7 saying “I want to go look at trains.”

I think the civilian did the right thing by calling the cops. You didn't say how your friend was hurt or even inconvenienced as a result of this action, and it is far from apparent to me. If I see someone that doesn’t look quite right near a busy rail line, I hope I do the same thing as the guy did to your friend.

Gabe

[Anonymous]

I earge that all Railfans to contact your local Police or your Sheriff the next time you deside to go out on a Railfan journey. Why? Because Yesterday (05-05-05) my friend was out Railfanning and some guy was watching every thing that he was doing. why? Because he was hanging around the the Railroad crossing waiting for a UP detour down at Oreapolis to go East on the BNSF. Ok so, Then the guy came back to him to what and why he was standing around the RR X.
My friend told him kindly that he was a Railfan. But the Moron in the other car went and called the cops on him anyway on his cell phone. What a jerk.
Now that the Government is gona get ever so hard on all of us we all had better start taking better steps to protect our rights now or we all be seeing the feds of all type's at our fron door now that the Public is RATTING&SNITCHING on us more than ever. From now on. Every time you go Railfanning,I earge you all to call the proper Law inforcement. Let then know where you are gona Railfan at. Tell the Dispatcher the time you start to the time you will depart on that same day. Because the public is watching now more than ever and the chances that you being call in to the cops is greatly high more than ever now. Because they have nothing better to do than call the cops on Railfans.
So,If you do go Railfanning,make darn sure that you make that call of you will be haveing a very bad day when the FEDS show up at your back window!!!!!!!!!!!
And I am Serious too!
Sorry for this Boring Stupid Topic but I just had to warn all of you Railfans.
BNSFrailfan.