Has model railroading ever gotten you into trouble?


The only trouble I have gotten in is not taking advantage of buying products and equipment that was easy to find and littered every hobby shop shelf years ago when I knew I would eventually need it or want it. Only to find years later that its out of production and outragously priced in the second hand market. If I only knew.:(
 
Model railroading? No. But, judging by the OP, railfanning is included - Even for a harmless Canadian like myself, it's hard to avoid trouble. I remember vividly being threatened with arrest by a female RCMP officer while taking photos from a road, through a fence, of the Winnipeg VIA station. I was 12 at the time, and (you guessed it) it was less than a year after September 11th.

A few years later, I'm over in Missoula, Montana, enjoying some MRL action, when a BNSF cop pulls up and tells me that I'm on railroad property and that if he saw me within a block of the tracks again he'd cite me for trespassing. Now, that might only seem a bit firm until you take into account that I am most definitely on a public road, not even at a crossing! Needless to say, I gave him a defiant glare and agreed to get out of his town, as it were, and went straight on over to the far side of the creek where a far more legally grey shot was waiting for me. (Warehouse private property, not railroad.)
'Course, didn't see him again.

Most other situations I've handled with the grace of a gentleman...or at least with enough grace that I haven't been told to leave since.
 
On the advice of counsel, I respectfully decline to answer this question on the grounds that I might incriminate myself.
 
I wanted to try out a new video camera so toddled off to the local railway station to get a few shots, after a couple of hours I had two big and burley railroad cops hop off the train and asked what I was doing, I told them I was just testing the camera on local suburban trains, one made a call on his radio and came back to tell me it was OK but stay behind the yellow line, in the meantime the other was asking if I was taking pictures of the graffiti I had painted the previous night, I told him if I was I must be the oldest graffiti artist in Australia as I am 68 years old, he said huh OK then.

Regards
Dave
 
A few days ago I was at a public park..Greenway Park here in London ON...taking some shots of the trains that run along the CN rail lines that run on a filled in trestle to the north of the park...

I actually had to explain to a friendly neighbourhood police officer what I was doing...he took my name and ran an ID check on me..then asked to see what photos I took on the camera...after I showed him what I took he told me that somebody phoned in about some perv taking shots of children in the park.

So, you see, if you are a guy with a camera...watch what you are taking shots of..if it is not one thing..it will be something else ...:eek:
 
The guy with the Camera, now that brings back memories, I have been a camera nut for over 50 years and used to take walks along the beach with my camera so I could take pictures of sunsets, everyone knew me in our little town but one day there was a young woman murdered behind the sand dunes, from what I have been told she was sunbathing in her birthday suit.

Eye witnesses reported seeing a man with a camera around his neck walking in the area she was murdered so people being what they are put 2 and 2 together and came up with 5 because I got questioned by people in town as to my whereabouts, thankfully they caught the guy that murdered the girl but it just shows how easy it is to rouse peoples suspicion just from having a camera with you.
 
I have never been questioned by anyone anywhere while out railfanning about what I was taken photos of. But these are reasons why I hardly go out with a camera anymore. For that matter, railfanning I have not done since last April. You begin to feel like a prisoner after a while cause your rights are slowly being taken away or you are always looking out for someone who is going to harass you.
 
Old 97 said:
It's happened twice to me so far. Both times I was railfanning. Once was with an attractive woman in a secluded trackside area ( Until the POLICE lit up the car with a BRIGHT spotlight! ) and the other day when a railroad cop raced up to where I was standing. He was on the M.O.W. path and promptly gave himself a blown tire. :eek: Gave me a warning and told me to move on....... :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Er, the topic says "model railroading" but you are talking about prototype railfanning! Here I thought you were going to relate a story about how your wife threw you in the shed for spending 500 bucks on an expensive engine or something.

BTW, it was my wife reading over my shoulder that pointed out the error of your ways! Title was disconnected from your story!!! =D
 
Ive never took a camera with me to railfan. Im not really much of a "chaser' of a perticular train like some are. Some go as far as packing away food, grabbing one of those cool scanner things that pick up the dispatcher/crew calls as well as the electronic train detector that say "no defects". Thats a bit hardcore to me and probably a complete different part of the whole train hobby.

I usually just find a popular spot in my area that a lot of railfans go and just park and sit and enjoy them as they go by. That said though. Lately, there has been a few times where I saw something I though was pretty cool and would have liked to have photos of it for future reference.
 
Situations causing problems
In reading through the various posts it more than seems that far too many have been harassed for no reason other than in a attempt to throw their weight around, especially when taking shots from a public location!
Being a professional photographer I have to be aware of the law of invasion of privacy and trespass and as long as your taking pictures of trains from a safe spot and not on railroad property I can't see where any guy/gal connected with the RR or not has any legal standing to even suggest you need to move or stop taking pictures! I realize that in these current times most everyone may tend to be a bit edgy but viewing or taking various shots can hardly be viewed as a threat.
And even if you were taking shots of the Graffietty just tell them your going to make decals of it to try and sell to MRR'ers. And where else are you going to find that art work spaced out so appropriately but on the various RR cars?

In the first place the trains for the most part are on public display day-in-and-day-out so it's not as though no-one is suppose to see them and indeed many times the various RR will buy various shots of their equipment. So again I can't see where or how they would have any cause to be concerned other than if your were in a dangerous position.

Of coarse if you could get permission from whatever line you wanted to photograph first that would solve the whole problem but I know myself it seems very difficult to make contact with say the BNSF for an example.

As a quick note about these things being of topic, Old 97 started out about talking about just such a subject.
 
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Although a Model Railroader, I'm not much of a Rail fan. Heck in Chicago one does not have to seek them out, my house is literally surrounded by railroad tracks and yards. I did like to pkotogragh commercial airliners. Between beefed up security and sound abatement walls, I have completely given that hobby up.

And no, other than a occasionally complaint from the wife about time spent in the basement, model railroading has never gotten me in any hot water.
 
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