Re: re Looking on with responsibility

["David Proctor" <thadocta@spam.ozemail.spam.com.spam.au>]

(For the benefit of uk.railway readers (which I have just introduced to
this) I have included the full post - my reply is at the very bottom.

Derick Wuen wrote in message <375a1f49.0@iridium.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.

I believe a similar thing is happening in the United Kingdom now, with
Railtrack not allowing photography on their stations (they do not run many
statiosn, only the really big ones!)

I read somewhere (Modern Railways, or possibly RAIL) that photograpers were
being refused permission to photograph, even when they had valid tickets
(and thus every right to be where they were) and if they did not seek
permission they were being harrassed.

DaveP