Crazy things a railfan would do!

[NSFan14]

What is the craiest thing that you have done just to get a picture of a train?

[Second Moss]

Hiked along a section of LIRR mainline that has you walking in the gauge next to the 3rd rail, or along the ballast slope in brush.

[NSFan14]

Wake up at 6 am to see amtrak:teeth:

[HemiAdda2d]

Get up an hour before first light, drive to a favorite railfan location in a snowstorm, wait till dawn, and snap the shutter from an elevated vantage point:

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/633/Blizzard_shot.jpg

Or, hike along a slick precipice; on mossy, icy rocks, and climb down the face of a sheer cliff to bag a last light shot:

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/630/Jermey_s_E_Moffat_088.jpg

Or, hike 2.2 miles one way in knee-to-waist-deep-snow up a trail that gains 1200 feet of elevation, to a cold, windy perch on a icy rock, to bag a manifest:

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/629/Old_9_wb_manifest_a.jpg

How about doing those last 2 in one day?

[NSFan14]

Get up an hour before first light, drive to a favorite railfan location in a snowstorm, wait till dawn, and snap the shutter from an elevated vantage point:

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/633/Blizzard_shot.jpg

Or, hike along a slick precipice; on mossy, icy rocks, and climb down the face of a sheer cliff to bag a last light shot:

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/630/Jermey_s_E_Moffat_088.jpg

Or, hike 2.2 miles one way in knee-to-waist-deep-snow up a trail that gains 1200 feet of elevation, to a cold, windy perch on a icy rock, to bag a manifest:

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/629/Old_9_wb_manifest_a.jpg

How about doing those last 2 in one day?
GREAT PHOTOS!

[SP 9811]

hmmmm, craziest, just one? hehehe....
well one time left my spot at Woodford in the Tehachapi's, and just after getting back on Hwy.58 I saw a SP train in the hole at Walong, and Marcel. So I made a U turn on the highway! There is a part of 58 that has a concreted sloped ditch in the middle, so I took advantage of it!:teeth: Railfan law...leave your spot and you will see trains in the rear view mirror!
Thom

[NSFan14]

hmmmm, craziest, just one? hehehe....
well one time left my spot at Woodford in the Tehachapi's, and just after getting back on Hwy.58 I saw a SP train in the hole at Walong, and Marcel. So I made a U turn on the highway! There is a part of 58 that has a concreted sloped ditch in the middle, so I took advantage of it!:teeth: Railfan law...leave your spot and you will see trains in the rear view mirror!
Thom
Thats the way it always is..lol


Is that SPH&TS your website?

[SP 9811]

Is that SPH&TS your website?

No, thats the Southern Pacific society page. My member number is R2180

[NSFan14]

No, thats the Southern Pacific society page. My member number is R2180
I just clicked the link. But never really looked thru it.

[BNSF FAN]

A buddy of mine and I used some highway cones borrowed from his work to close one lane of a 4 lane bridge so we would have a place to park and shoot the N&W 611 one time. Worked very well and no one seemed to notice it wasn't a real closure.

[NSFan14]

A buddy of mine and I used some highway cones borrowed from his work to close one lane of a 4 lane bridge so we would have a place to park and shoot the N&W 611 one time. Worked very well and no one seemed to notice it wasn't a real closure.
HAHAHAHAHA Sometime railfans can do crazy things!

[friscobob]

Outside of chasing 3985 over Sherman Hill while wearing scrubs from working the night shift just previously, I can't say I've done much of anything crazy.

[Charlie]

opening the vestibule door of a commuter train traveling at 70mph to try and get a good photo of #261 whenever she would be in town.
Since I was a brakeman/conductor at the time, I could get away with it
but it was rather dicey!

CT

[Mr. Train]

My my you guys make a tuff act to follow

Yes I looked both ways and moved off the right of way as soon as I got my photo. And I was thinking the whole time those guys on train board always tell me to stay off the right of way. But....but... look at the shot I got.
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/500/100_0206.JPG

You will have to go to my album to get the rest of the story.
Photo album (http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/showphoto.php/photo/45572/ppuser/941)
http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/500/100_0180.jpg

[Alaska GP49]

Probably the craziest is about two summers ago Hemi and I thought it would be great camp out so we could get those first light shots. Problem was the ONLY place for our tent was 28' from the tracks. Neither one of us got a wink of sleep that night. Just as we would start to fall asleep another train would go by. If we only could have had as many trains this past weekend as we did that night! Hemi, correct me if I am wrong, the pictures taken at T30 weren't that great after all that we went through to get them!

[Paul_M.]

A buddy of mine and I used some highway cones borrowed from his work to close one lane of a 4 lane bridge so we would have a place to park and shoot the N&W 611 one time. Worked very well and no one seemed to notice it wasn't a real closure.

Nice. Sound like something I might do.:shade:

[HemiAdda2d]

Probably the craziest is about two summers ago Hemi and I thought it would be great camp out so we could get those first light shots. Problem was the ONLY place for our tent was 28' from the tracks. Neither one of us got a wink of sleep that night. Just as we would start to fall asleep another train would go by. If we only could have had as many trains this past weekend as we did that night! Hemi, correct me if I am wrong, the pictures taken at T30 weren't that great after all that we went through to get them!

I was saving this for you, Mike!

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/631/campsite.jpg

No warning with EB's at this location... Note the half-folded tent in the corner of the photo:

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/631/first_lite_t30_area.jpg

Were we nuts? Prolly...... :o

[Steve Brown]

Well I took my vacation last year on Crawford Hill. Some would consider this crazy.
Steve

[WildBill]

About 3 years ago I chased UP 3985 coming to Houston. About 50 miles NW of Houston, I waited trackside along with many others. When it came by I took some pics. I decided to pass it and get some more photos. But some fool was running side by side to shoot video from his car. A long line of cars were behind him on a 2 lane secondary highway. I got into the oncoming lane of traffic and passed about 50 cars hitting 90mph. I got ahead of 3985 and stopped for more photos. It was very dangerous and I don't think I'd do it again.

[friscobob]

Crazy, no- odd, perhaps, but consider the following:

On my hitch in Cheyenne, I headed west on Lincolnway to a highway crossing west of the C&S overpass, and stopped in the left-turn lane to get out, aim my camera back behind me, and shoop a pic of a northbound BNSF train crossing above the UP main and Lincolnway.

The fact I was able to stop literally in the middle of the street was due to a slow-moving eastbound UP freight, which had blocked the road crossing I was going to turn left onto. I'm sure that looking at this blue van with Texas tags, the locals thought I was no doubt a bit bonkers.......

http://www.trainboard.com/railimages/data/1303/agk_sized.jpg

[Second Moss]

Heres another one:

I once hopped out of a sunroof and stood on the roof of our car at a grade crossing so I could get a shot of the motors going across the road.

[MEClover]

cold clear day perfict photo opp.

http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h181/Trainboy13/SLA3000-2.jpg
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h181/Trainboy13/SLA3000.jpg

[MOPACJAY]

Once when I was driving for big brown,I passed the NS yard in Elkhart Indiana and saw a Pennsy E-Unit.GUNGH!I did a double take,flew to the nearest drug store for a cardboard camera,and took the whole roll.Definitely not the greatest pics,but just like spotting bigfoot,people don't beleive you,they want proof.

[L Lee Davis]

And from the looks of those photographs well worth the effort and risk Hemmi. Most outstanding!

"Still Training After All These Years"

[campp]

I did EXACTLY what Hemi and AlaskaGP49 did, a few years ago, pitched a tent about 60' from the BNSF transcon. It woke me up every 10 minutes. The tent would magnify the headlight to almost daylight inside, and in my half dream-state, it sort or freaked me out, as if I was ON the tracks. I laugh about it now, but I'll never camp that close again. All because I wanted to enjoy my morning coffee while railfanning.

[HemiAdda2d]

I did EXACTLY what Hemi and AlaskaGP49 did, a few years ago, pitched a tent about 60' from the BNSF transcon. It woke me up every 10 minutes. The tent would magnify the headlight to almost daylight inside, and in my half dream-state, it sort or freaked me out, as if I was ON the tracks. I laugh about it now, but I'll never camp that close again. All because I wanted to enjoy my morning coffee while railfanning.

That was a scary night--our tent lit up like it was noon too. Amazingly freaky night....:omg:

[sandro schaer]

it was between edmonton and jasper.... been waiting for a cn train. started my camcorder and filmed the train...well, the whole train slowed down and almost came to a complete stop. this because a via rail passenger train came the opposite direction and passed 'my' cn freight on the siding. freight train was still running very slow... maybe half of walking speed. that's when i decided i want to continue my video clip from the other side of the train....so i climbed up on a procor tank car, and descended on the other side while the train was still moving. i got off the moving train exaclty as it started to accelerate again.




i know this was illegal and maybe a bit dangerous. but hey, would you pass such a chance while having your camcorder running ?

[randgust]

Yeah, that's crazy.

Back in July 1980 I signed on for an 'official guided railfan tour' of Chicago. Living in PA it seemed like a great idea, my buddy and I went out for four days of solid railfan activity in uncharted territory. We never rented a car, travelled all over by taxi, METRA, and Amtrak.

One of the wildest railfan days of my life. Four of us and two guides covered the entire city from dawn to dark. I 'thought' they had advance permission, nothing could be further from the truth. Their car was obviously 'known' to the local police and railroad security folks, even then, and we tresspassed in every place in Chicago from the Amtrak yards to the US Steel plant in Gary, where our guides produced hard hats and clipboards to hide the cameras and we walked right through the plant gates. We were chased out, at high speed, by Amtrak security. We were pursued by plant security, UP security, IHB security, every shot was grab and run, though every photo spot and timing was spot-on perfect. We had two low-speed car collisions on the expressways. The driver, our guide, got two tickets for illegally parking on overpasses, and judging by the Illinois Troopers, it wasn't the first time. One overpass was at the end of Proviso.

When we hit Corwith (the ATSF yard) I was actually a Santa Fe shareholder then - I showed my ID and my shareholder notification, and for the FIRST TIME we were treated like royalty instead of scoundrels. That was fun. But right after that, we set up at McCook for the westbound fleet out of Corwith, and an eastbound piggyback train snuck up from behind us at 79mph, running over the cooler full of drinks we had left beside the track (sucked it under the train, actually) and scattering us like pigeons. No pictures of that...

Today, working in the railroad industry, if I'm tresspassing, the penalties are a whole lot worse for me professionally than even if I was just an individual. I'm much more aware of the danger, and of the now ability of the railroads to have remote surveillance where you don't realize it. A 'that was then, this is now' needs to be said here, and most railroads will still let you on the property with an identification and a release, and if not, simple, just don't go there on railroad property. There's enough public spots and telephoto lenses to do 90%.

The only area of rail/public accidents to dramatically increase for 2006 was tresspasser injuries, which includes the handful of railfans, too. Everything else - employee injuries, grade crossing accidents, etc, was down. While most of them may be either criminally stupid acts by those individuals involved (including those stealing rides on trains), you can expect the FRA and the railroads to focus on the one area that increased, which is a blanket 'get tough' situation now.