Re: re Looking on with responsibility

["Derick Wuen" <cullend@webone.com.au>]

David Johnson wrote in message <374D587D.CB755C5F@ozemail.com.au>...
>< Tell > wrote:
>
>> OK you can get "wounded" from time to time, I have and
>> I admit it.  This is 1999.  The age of electronic
>> exchange.  Come on you lurkers with mobs of tales and
>> experiences, join in, we have a common interest.
>
>Ok...  Way back when I was young, I went to Port Kembla, and asked at the
main
>gate if I could walk around BHP property and take photos of their extensive
rail
>system.  They said no, so I climbed off a bridge and spent the rest of the
day
>photting and cab-riding around BHP without permission.
>
>--
>David Johnson
>CityRail Guard
>trainman@ozemail.com.au
>http://www.ozemail.com.au/~trainman/
>


40 years of being escorted off the premises

(1) 1958 Enfield, by "railway dicks" from the employee-only pedestrian
overbridge over the "rotten row" tracks where there was a priceless
collection of 57, 58, 36, 26, 17 classes, not to mention many Thow
standards.

Solution: returned the next weekend and avoided the footbridge.

(2) 1987 Eisenhower Bvd (I think) Washington DC Metro, by the Metro
rail-police (BIG afro-americans with 3ft truncheons and 6-shooters).
Opposite metro station was ex RF&P Alexandria passenger depot at the
southern approaches of ex RF&P Potomac Yard. Sitting in the depot was N&W A
1218, in steam. A fellow rail enthusiast and I were the only ones who
remained on the platform, whilst the casual onlookers had spilled onto the
tracks..... 3-rail with 660 voltsDC, and high-frequency service. No way
could I convince police that (a) I didn't do it and (b) I was just a poor
boy from Australia come all this way to drool over the big malley, albeit
from the safety of the platform.

Solution: wait off premises until police caught next train back to DC, and
reenter platform.

(3) 1988 Redfern, Sydney. Videoing pm rush from southern end deemed to be an
offence against some by-law which had been passed whilst I was out of
country. Admin apparently sensitive about media exposes of slackness of rail
employees. Permission was now needed for photography from railway premises,
and it would not be given if asked.

Solution: caught next train to Mac town and did it there, possibly a better
location.

Apart from "Sleeping on Trains" journeys to Oatley car sheds, 3 hits in 40
years is not so bad, and only one was a technical (but safe) trespass. My
usual style is to inform railway employees as to what I am doing, and then
do it. I don't seek permission. They either think its harmless or else I am
a complete nutter to be left alone as possibly dangerous. Seems to work in
all states, NZ, USA, UK, France, Germany.

But some of my pals have hair-raising yarns about confrontations with Red
army in China, British army in N. Ireland, guerilla army in S. America,
whilst doing their thing on railway premises.