Re: Questions, Answers and Tips

[Greg Triplett <triplett@hotkey.net.au>]

Hi Folks,

James C. wrote:

>>Goodness me!!!  they probabily think you are a spy or something....I
can't understand why some people would see photograph trains
as
a "mandatory sentancing" thing..... is not like all trains
carry nuclear
weapons or something....funny how you didn't had problem in
Spain and
Italy as Spain banned photograhic of all the trains and rail
infranstructure/facilities. Italy require supervising and
few weeks
notify ahead(similar to QR).<<

Going back to 1972 when the cold war was in full swing it
was quite an adventure to phot behind the "Iron Curtain" as
it was called. You had to be very discreet and keep a low
profile. Stick to the countryside locations and not stay in
the one spot for more than an hour. A game of cat and mouse
between you and the police.All the eastern Bloc countries
were very security concious and of course the railroads are
a stategic installation in time of war. Hance train photting
was quite illegal in those countries. Enter some suspicious
foreigner taking pix of bridges tunnels and other juicy
things which are good to blow up and he's very likely to get
reported and arrested if he is not discreet about ( and also
if he is ! ).

Same problem in a few other places with totalitarian
governments such Argentina and Yugoslavia & South Africa.
Chile was another arrest with the biggest machine gun I've
ever seen shoved into my chest. The total number of arrests
was nine but I'm writing from memory and can't remember the
missing two. Also 5 countries are missing of which 2 are
Switzerland and Austria. 3 more to remember. Should make
better notes.

In Mocambique Alan Jorgensen & I came close to disappearing
without trace when we were arrested late at night at a
lonely unmanned railway station. It was right at the
changeover from Portugese rule to Frelimo rule in 1975 and
the soldiers who arrested us with AK47's were quite drunk.
We were the wrong colour unfortunately. That's probably my
most scary experience whilst train photting . Luckily for us
we were taken to a military camp and spent the night in a
cell. Next day we were released. We'd had our car emptied
out and searched 14 times in 2 weeks on that trip. Got some
nice stuff on the Henschel Garratts with the little smoke
deflectors though.

I've had a adventurous life tracking down phots in the far
corners of the world !

Regards

Greg Triplett