Railfan Technology > What DON'T You Bring Trackside?

Really enjoyed the thread below dealing with the gear we bring trackside with us. So, I'll
go the opposite route, and ask, what don't you bring trackside? Things you bought that
you thought would be great or at least useable, but, turned out to suck. Something that always
seemed to bring bad luck, whatever. I'm certain that there's some stuff we just won't bother
with anymore.

JWR
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22117982@N03/

Cheetos.

GPS since it has led me to wrong places. And my car got broken into at Trenton, NJ and that was one of the things that was taken.

Mark

My wife. She doesn't want to come. If there was good shopping nearby, it might be a different matter ;-)

john.

A film camera and film (how much of that expensive stuff should I buy to bring?)


Marty Bernard

A digital camera. Kodachrome is dead, but Fujichrome is alive and on life support.

Randy

baltimore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A digital camera. Kodachrome is dead, but
> Fujichrome is alive and on life support.
>
> Randy

AMEN!

Laptop and ATCS. Don't need 'em for railfanning.

Danny Harmon
Tampa

I don't bring my laptop but occasionally I might have my I-pad with me. I have a lot of timetables and profile charts on it. About the only time I need it is when I leave it at home. The laptop situation might change however. I've thought about taking it and using my software defined radio. The I-pad won't power the radio. The SDR software has a panadapter function. That function gives you a picture of about 200 KHz bandwidth and you can see where the activity is. If I find some NXDN I can download software to copy that. At this time that's a lot cheaper than other NXDN options. So far I haven't noticed any but I haven't gone looking for it either.

I don't bring my big screen TV either but I guess that was a given.

John

Link to my NXDN article in May: http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?9,3414512,3415383#msg-3415383

I think the context of what type of outing is important here. I suppose it was somewhat important for the other thread too, but seems even more relevant when you're deciding how to lighten the load.

There's lots of things that I take with me ONLY if I'm going on a multi-day trip well away from home. Laptop and full camera bag are but a few. If I'm staying relatively local, I don't carry nearly as much stuff with me.

Night photography is a whole different beast altogether, in addition to the lighting equipment, I bring a step ladder, a cooler with food/drinks if I'm in an area where most of the restaurants and stores will be closed. Usually a pillow and a sleeping bag just in case I decide that I'm too tired to drive back to the hotel or home after waiting forever for a specific train or trains.

Usually the only thing I take is a camera body, a lens or two, and a spare flash card. So my answer to "what don't I bring" is... everything else. If I'm really after something specific and not just using the "find a train and follow it" method, I'll take a radio and a timetable. I really am a minimalist.

Night shooting usually adds a minimum a tripod and a flashlight, and sometimes some flash gear if I'm shooting static things where bright lights won't blind anyone.

Crap weather!! Chris uk.

I find that if I bring someone with bad weather luck, it cancels
out my own. Consequently, what I DON'T bring trackside are even
numbers of railfans with bad weather luck!

/Mitch

Laptop and beer.

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