STOP - RAILFANS NOT ALLOWED!

[Anonymous]

I certainely agree with the above response, I've made the same stupid mistakes my self in the past, just to be able to get that special shot. I realized real quick that the best way to work with our railroads as far as railfanning, is to respect the owner's property, being safe can't be stressed enough. I've been very lucky in the past to be allowed in areas that the public would never get a chance to experience, and in doing so, proved to the RR that I was visiting that I was very capable of being a safe and smart person while on the property. About railfanning in today's times, if you're out there, and see any RR employee, talk with him, let him know what you're doing. I like to usally do some train watching in the evening around Schoolcraft Mich. One night a track gang came back to the little depot from work on the CN main west of there, they saw my car, and I knew right away that they would be suspicous, I went up to them, even before they came to me, I told them that I was just enjoying watching trains and told who I was, they were relived, and even thanked me for keeping a eye on their RR. I was pleased to hear that, it made me feel good about my hobby. The best thing I can think of for today, is to always remain alert, know that you can be watched too, if any police or RR employee talks to you let him know about yourself, above all act in a respectable manner and that will get you a good response. As far as RR info, if terrorrists wanted to do any harm to our RR, they would be able to access a ton of info, such as the nice "Map of the month" in Trains, perhaps this would be a good time hold back giving out info like this. It wouldn't take much for a terror group or any one to really cause easy harm to our RR infrastructure, when they have such good info on hand, I know it's difficult, but maybe for the time being we could keep info like this to oursevles.

[Mookie]

Chris - I was an adult when the 1st Star Wars came out - and never got around to seeing the 1st issue until many years later. I, unfortunately, don't do Sci-Fi very well. I am too much of a realist and have never been convinced that there are people on other planets. But at any rate, you made your point clear and I understood it - even at my very advanced age.

Mookie the cat can't do any of those, but she can make a slave out of her mistress - because of arthritis, lift her off the bed and on; feed her or she will stare you to death; clean kitty litter or she will hide the presents! She has never uttered a word, but "speaks" volumes with her actions and eyes! That is pretty sci-fi too.

I would love to come to Texas (from Nebraska) to see Centennial Yard. I lived in Oklahoma for a year and have visited Texas several times since then - from Amarillo to Padre Island. I love your state and the people were always so nice to the Yankees!

So I won't dis Yoda and just remember - the Force is always with me! Y'all... :)

[Mookie]

wow! And be honest - who feeds this whole tribe?

Slinkie, Squeaky, Spokane and......Connie?

[Anonymous]

I think most of us have made those same mistakes. I know I have, and I regret them and have learned from them. On the UP in Sheboygan, WI. I also identify myself with employees I haven't encountered before. Most of the time they enjoy my presence and even wave and blow the loco horn a couple times. There are the few newer guys who work for the UP who don't like me 'cause I'm a 'young kid' (College Age) to them, but most of the people there know me on a first name basis because of a relative who was a signal maintainer for the CNW and later UP for 35 years. It helps when you let them know that you are on their side. Too bad law enforcement and railroad brass don't see it that way...

[louisnash]

I also agree about the terrorists finding about info. on trains website. But we need not only to say it is only trains.com fault, which I strongly believe it isn't. The other day after President speech I was watching our Cincinnati news station (FOX) and they made a comment about the Fernald facility located just north of the city. For anyone not familiar with Fernald they handle nuclear waste,mainly uranium I believe, that they are presently cleaning up at that facility due to its closing. A lot, if not a majority of what they get rid of goes out by train. They said this on their newscast. I knew this anyway because when they first started cleaning this area up a few years ago it was big news in this area around Cincinnati. I live south of Cincinnati in KY but also worry about this at times because I live around a mile from the RR. So I think that all our news networks tell just as much, some things they shouldn't. But in the time that we are in are news should not be reporting things like this. Not just about the rail industry but any industry. A terrorist though has no reason, I believe, to even be out taking photos of trains. All they need to do is see our media coverage, whether it be TV or internet.I also believe we are to open of a society when it comes to a lot of what our government tells us or what we see on TV. In times like we are in right now with the war looming I think the media should curtail some things until we are at a level at which the threat is gone and then let us know those things. Just my opinion! When I am out railfanning and I was to see anything that would help the RR you better bet I'd call. I've got the numbers with me of them and the local law. The rails can't be patrolled 24/7,and it's up to the great railfans to try and help those FELLOW AMERICANS out.
Brian (KY)

[Anonymous]

I'm just a rookie at this but what Mr. Jacobson has some merrit. As a railfan you go places that few other people may choose to go and frequently may be able to spot something out of the ordenary. If it means checking in with the rail security so what, he's checking there back and ours.

[edblysard]

You know, we didnt plan on any of these animals, squeaky was saved 15 years ago by my wife, from a flooded bayou, slinkie was dumped on our door as a kitten, Connie was found on the side of the freeway, I45, just outside of Conroe, (yeeah I know) and you know how we got Spokane. But, oddly enought, my nine year olds feeds them, the three year old "helps" if holding the door open and bossing her around is helping.
The snakes and rodents are my wifes, and she feed them all. The bunny showed up last month, cage and all. I havent decided if I want to ask my wife why or not, but I got a funny feeling we are going to have a bunch of bunnies soon, to replace the rodents. Which is ok with me the rats make noise, the bunny is real quite, and a whole lot more cute than big white lab rats. More fun to pet, also.
Stay Frosty
Ed

[Mookie]

I have gotten all my dogs and cats at the front door or from the pound. Best pets ever!

This is why your daughter wants to be a vet - she has everything but the medical training.

Your wife, now that is a different subject- rodents and bunnies maybe, snakes - well, petted one one time, but not sure I want to share my house with one...especially their eating habits...

[edblysard]

But Boas are beautiful. They shimmer in a rainbow of colors in the sunlight. The female we have is 6', 8", the males range from 40" to 55" in length. The Leuicescent rat snake is even more fantastic. He has clear scales, and blue eyes. Not a albino, but a breed of ratsnakes, a constrictor also, he only comes out at night, when his color would not be a target for his natural predators, hawks and owls. Besides, snakes are low maintainance pets, they dont bark, claw up the couch, or need to be walked. And watching them is like staring into a fishtank, sort calming. The rodents and the rabbits are snake snacks, and I leave that part up to Aimee, she grew up on a farm, so wacking them is no big deal to her, just gives me the willies.
But yeah, the best pets find you, not the other way around. We still have the first one, a 15 year old cat, and thats old for a cat.
Stay Frosty
Ed

[Mookie]

A constrictor was what I saw up close and personal - Julius Squeezer - is that awful!

He was really big and not terribly pretty, but a very gentle snake (from our children's zoo).

Don't think I have heard of a blue-eyed one. That would be interesting.

Mook is 14 and still gets around pretty well and always lets me know she is there! Especially at 2 am - I don't get up until 4 - she has horrible timing!

[edblysard]

Funny how they think we are the pets, and put here to serve their every whim, which we do, of course, because if we dont, they sneak up on you at night, and sit on you chest, staring at you till you wake up, or do the "making bread dough" thing till you cant stand it any more and give in. Aimee called her squeaky because she cant meow, she hasnt in 15 years, but she squeaks, just like a squeaky door, and she can make that sound loud, really loud, till you do what she wants. And the older she gets, the more bossy she becomes. But after this long, she has earned the pampering.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[Anonymous]

Speaking of trains, pets and trespassing on railroad property. I,m a volunteer at the Dearborn Animal Shelter and one day I got a phone call (pre 9/11/01) about a dog in a box car. That didn't seem odd since I had recently seen a news story and video of kids hopping freights and the video showed one guy with his dog. Anyway, the animal controll officers we off duty at the time, so I went to investigate. I found the string of box cars in question but all their doors were closed. Now I know better than to open up box car doors so the only thing I could do was to throw rocks at the box cars and hope, if there was a dog inside and still alive, it would bark. No luck. They must have heard the sound of a dog barking nearby, bouncing off the sides of the cars. I hope.
Here I was throwing rocks at a train, close enough to be trespasing on railroad property (multi track). Had I done this today, I'd probably be arrested in a hart beat and maybe put in the psyco ward.
Ed or anyone reading this, if you happen to rescue any more animals and don't have room for them, look up www.petfinder.org and use their search for an animal rescue group or shelter near you. It's an alternitive to dropping them off at a typical pound that only holds animals for a short period of time before destroying them. From our experience, we're having great success adopting out pets by linking our site with petfinder.
If it wasn't for my old cat, I probably would have lost my job for being late too many times. Every day she makes sure I don't oversleep. And it's not about food. Her food dish is always full so she can eat anytime.

G.setter

[edblysard]

Hey Gee,
I will take a look. But,for the most part, we dont use any of the SPCA shelters, due in large part to their policy of "putting to sleep" any creature they dont adopt out within a certain period of time. My wife is a reptile junkie, and when she discovered they kill all the pet snakes turned in, with out trying to find a home for them, she got upset, and contacted their director. Seems the SPCA's policy is its wrong, illegal, imoral to own a snake or reptile of any kind, refuses to classify them as pets, and routinly kills them as soon as they are dropped off. Which is how we ended up with eight Boa Constrictors, and a rat snake. As for the warm blooded strays that show up here, or are dropped off here, we keep them till we find a person who fits the animal, or vice versa. Seems we always have one extra dog or cat for a few weeks. And we get all of them spayed or nutered, before we even think of finding them a home.
Yes, we know there is a prejudice against snakes, but its kinda silly. Heres a fact. 90% of all snakes, worldwide, are non venomous, and if you live in the suburbs, I can guarantee you are within 100 feet of a snake right now. Granted, its a garter sanke, or a ribbon racer,(grass snakes) both of which eat crickets and frogs, but its there, you walk by it evey day. If you go in your backyard, and really look, you will find one. The rat snake, or kingsnake thrives throughout the Americas, and keeps the rat and mouse population down to a level we humans can stand. I find snakes at the railroad all the time. We service a Cargill grain elevator, so you can imagine the rat population there. They(the cargill employees) know to leave any snake they find alone, as its one of the ways the rat population is controled. One day, the foreman asked me to come look at some snakes one of his crews had found. We went to the edge of one of the siloes, and there, under a sheet of corrugated roof tin, was a new hatched clutch of banded corn snakes. He was afraid they were copperheads or cotton mouths, (both are pit vipers) and wanted to know if he should kill them. I told him what they were, what they ate, when grown, about two rats per day. The next day, when we were spotting a loaded grain train, I noticed that the tin was still there, with "do not disturb" sparypainted on it, and some old rebar driven into the ground around the front, like a fence of sorts. Natures own pest control wins a round every once in a while.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[Anonymous]

Our no account neighbors got a kitten--when our apartment complex found out, they put her out. We took her in and were going to take her to Operation Kindness, a no kill shelter. However, we fell in love with the little scamp and Chessie is with us today--she looks like the railroad kitten!

[edblysard]

You know, cats have a way of finding where and whom they belong with...
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[Anonymous]

I have had two run ins with security over rail fanning since November.

Let me say this: I never ever trespass. I always am very obvious about what I'm doing, I don't hide the camera or pretend to be interested in anything but the railroad action. If one of the crew comes over and asks what I'm doing, I tell them and offer to show them the pictures if they want, and if they like, I'll delete stuff that they want me to (I use a digital camera). I carry cards with my name, address, e-mail, telephone and cell phone, and offer them one.

If they see me doing something they prefer I didn't do, I tell them (if they have a cell phone) to call me and I'll clear out. Or, if they think it best, I'll clear out right now, and thanks for watching out for me, sorry to have been a bother.

In thinking it over, I'm not going to post the details, I'm afraid it will get me in trouble.

In general, I was threatened with a gun, and told to cooperate immediately or get shot. The second incident, the cop told me not be be found around railroads again, and that if I was, I could expect to be in prison for a long time. In each case, the cop was not in uniform, didn't show me a badge, and I didn't want to ask what law enforcement they worked for. One doesn't argue with a man holding a gun.

I miss railfanning.

[Anonymous]

Greetings E.
We've kept homless pets for more than a year before they got a home. The best thing we got going for us is the foster program. Volunteers can take a pet home to care for. Besides easing overcrowding, it helps the pets that need a long time to adjust, are too ill or young to adopt out right away. The group I'm with is striving to be a no kill shelter but unfortunatly sometimes an animal is so sick they don't recover and are near death or injured so badly they have to be put to sleep. The shelter is owned by the city and we operate it for the police department. Rarely do we get a truly vicious dog that can't be adopted out but that's the not the animals fault. Some human had something to do with it.
I agree with you 100% about reptiles and snakes (same for bats too). We do on occasion get snakes and other reptiles, mostly from drug bust, but haven't found a need to destroy any. It's not much of a problem to find someone to take the (LEGAL) reptiles anyway. We have a resident "reptile head" to evaluate and identify the reptiles. Every snake we have gotten so far wouldn't survive the Michigan winter (by the way, please hold the Frosty, I had enough of the winter here). We've had alligators, crocks, a camion (that was one mean sucker), a peacock, sheep, chickens, a lynx, ducks, turkeys, chickens, rabbits and just about everything else.
God bless you Ed and your family for looking out for the animals.
You stay Froty, I'm trying to stay warm!
G.Setter

[edblysard]

Gee, G,
Sounds like your got a regular Ark going there. A camion? Had to be from a drug bust...yes, they are mean. As for illegal reptiles, we really wish US Customs could keep them out, because any animal, introduced into a forgien habitat either dies, assimilates, or takes over. Africanized bees are a prime example. And no way would a Boa, or any of the boids survive your winter, even if they could find shelter. And the Frosty part is a pun on my last name, Blysard, pronounced Blizzard, like your storms. My co workers use to tell me I was too involved in our work, and to "chill out, stay a little frosty".
Whenever I woud get a little wound up, someone would always remind me to "stay frosty".
I guess it wouldnt be fair to tell you its 70 degrees, I am sitting on the back porch, watching the barbeque pit, waiting for the coals to burn down a little, and trying to decide if I really want to mow the grass, or make one of my kids do it?
Stay Warm,
Ed

[Soo2610]

Was wondering where the "stay frosty" bit came from. Now I know. Anything good on the grill? Grass here is just starting to show some green and Tulips and crocuses are starting to pop up. Was 74 yesterday. Heard a rumor about snow by Saturday.

[edblysard]

Steak, cheese/stuffed bell peppers, alvacado slices, grilled mushrooms with saute'd onions, tossed salad, brown sugar beans, homemade bread.
Followed by Blue Belle ice cream and apple pie.
So stuffed, I could care less if it snowed down here. When I can move, I think I will get off the porch and go watch a train DVD. If I can move...
The Jasmine and Wistieria (sp?) vines are blooming like crazy, silly live oaks just droped the last of its leaves, the pecan tree is starting to bud out.
Stay Frosty,
Stuffed

[Soo2610]

Darn, I just finished eating a steak, ceasar salad and au graten potato dinner and it still sounds pretty good! Hope you unstuffed in time to report for work.

[edblysard]

Yesterday was one of my off days, I dont have to be there till 3 this afternoon. And when I cook, I intend to eat as much of it as I can, I have three kids, so its grab what you can when you can, there aint gonna be any leftovers.
Stay Frosty,
Ed

[Soo2610]

Tell me about it! I have a few more than three. My boys all have hollow legs with no bottoms. Leftovers.....? I don't understand. What is a leftover?

[Anonymous]

I'm single and don't have any kids but I do have a 24 year old unemployed and starving tenet living upstairs. She comes running downstairs just about every time I cook. But I'm always happy to share with her otherwise I'd be eating the same meal for a whole week! I have three dogs and three cats. Ah! what's one more mouth to feed anyway.
G.Setter

[Anonymous]

Sorry that i have been inactive in the forum for so long, after all i am a junior in high school and that means truck - oops - TRAIN loads of homework so i finally got a break after the six - weeks ended. well anyway, i don't know if i have mentioned it or not, but i have a 6 yr. old chocolate labrador retriever, and he's not show material (many people would say he is), but he is absolutely the best pet i have ever had, we love each other so much... every night he sleeps on my bed (i had a twin and that was big enough, but then he grew, and refused to sleep on the floor, so we had to buy me a Queen sized bed, and in the winter,that is still not enough), wakes me and my dad up, by licking us untill we let him out the front door to fetch the paper - i could go on and on, but the story i really want to tell is this:

in 7th grade i went to a boarding school for two years, and during the first year, my mother died, so during the day, Jake (my dog) was left at home all alone, and was not given as much attention because my dad would have to bring his work home with him (he designs infared sensors for night vision systems at DRS technologies www.drs.com ), so Jake was lonely, and started chewing on his tail, so one day i come home for a visit, and Jake is SOOO happy to see me that he whacks his tail on a wall so hard that it starts bleeding, so we have this tail going 100 mph, flinging blood all over the house. well it never fully healed, because he kept chewing it, and the vet wanted to cut 6 - 9 inches off so he couldn't chew it, but i was coming home for good in a coupple of weeks, so my dad said to leave it, we will see what happens when i came home.

well, within a week of me coming home, Jake had completely stopped chewing his tail, and guess what? the vet said that he has NEVER seen anything like it (a dog stopping chewing on his tail because someone had come home)!!! Jake had been chewing on his tail because he missed me, and had been depressed!!! a trait not often seen in dogs.

well, moral of the story is that dogs (esp. Labs) are great pets, and if given lots of attention, can be the best companion, you will ever have, and will bring you many great years of joy and friendship.

May The Force Be With Ya'll

[Anonymous]

Hi Wookie987
I've read studies where scientist say animals do not have emotions. What idiots!!! Anyone with a pet knows better. From my experience working at an animal shelter when an animal, cat or dog, loose their home they loose their minds. Most are scared and depressed at first. Especially one that was taken to the shelter by their owner. An animals psychological condition is just as much a concern to us as their physical health. We try our best to make them feel loved and cared for.
At the shelter we see the problem of bloody tails occasionally. We call it "Happy Tail" because the dog keeps wagging their tail againt the walls of the kennel and breaking open the wound. We DO NOT have their tails cut. We tape up the tail and, if necessary, use a collar that looks like a microwave antenna dish. After they get a new home it heals up.
Your vet seemed too quick to suggest surgery. You might want to look for another vet or at least get a second opinion at another vet clinic the next time something happens. Some vets, like some doctors, push surgery that isn't needed. Ask a vet if they crop dogs tails and ears. If they say "no, that's cruelity", then they have good ethics in my opinion.
Does Jake like other animals? Have you and your dad considered adopting a friend for Jake? They don't have to be as big as Jake or even a dog. Your local shelter should allow you to bring Jake with you to see how he and the other pet get along. What you do have to look out for is if either animal is food aggressive. If someone tries to take Jakes food away while he's eating, will he growl or bite them? The shelter staff should know whether their animals are food agressive or not. We have had many sucessful adoptions in multi pet homes, however there has been a few failures so take great care on making your decision. As I said I have three dog and three cats and they all keep each other company (even though I'm the center of their attention when I'm home).
G.Setter

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by busserror


In general, I was threatened with a gun, and told to cooperate immediately or get shot. The second incident, the cop told me not be be found around railroads again, and that if I was, I could expect to be in prison for a long time. In each case, the cop was not in uniform, didn't show me a badge, and I didn't want to ask what law enforcement they worked for. One doesn't argue with a man holding a gun.

I miss railfanning.

I don't them they were police. That's breaking the constitution! When I first heard all of this a couple of years ago I was very uneasy when going railfanning but now if I was arrested or threatened by a gun I would bring the thing to court. If I was asked nicely I wouldn't mind but you can't put a gun at someone for no reason!

[AlcoRS11Nut]

Amen!