Steam & Excursion > B***h Moan and Complaining about pictures and videos

It is so sad to see all these posts that happen time and time and time again whenever a steam locomotive is moving, b***hing moaning and complaining about some entitled a**hole that ruined it for others.

You see, when you do that, you yourself prove to the rest of us what an entitled childlike attitude you really have.

No one and no picture/video is so important that it permits YOU to have a license to be rude-mean-obnoxious-etc to anyone else just because they might be rude-mean-obnoxious-etc to you or others.

Well said John!

Larry W. Grant
(olddude41)
Dallas, Texas

Being a railfan and doing "railfanning" is a hobby, hobbies are supposed to be fun. 

Have fun. Enjoy yourself. Help others to enjoy OUR hobby.

Negativity breeds negativity, unless YOU break the chain. 

Enjoy, be safe, and have fun. And enable others to enjoy, be safe and have fun.

jst3751 Wrote:
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>
> You see, when you do that, you yourself prove to
> the rest of us what an entitled childlike attitude
> you really have.
>
Childlike attitude of railfans?   It can't be true....lol

Most of the time these spots are on public ground and aren't an organized photo line
with "rules" in place.  When someone runs up to get a location and doesn't move then
just organize a move forward to join the "intruder" and that takes care of that.  Getting
all "hot and bothered" doesn't make for a good day.  Much of the time getting a shot
with NO people in it requires some real planning, hiking and realizing that one is just
not going to get many shots.  Live with it.

This has been a major problem forever since the late 1960's when I first got involved with steam trips.  This will never change.  There will always be someone who does not care about you or others.  Look at the individuals and  groups who have done restoration work to operate a special trip and they spend thousands of their own money to make it happen.  Then they run the trip and they stop to have a photo runby for the paying passengers to be able to photograph the train.  Then someone who does not buy a ticket and/or never would give you 10 cents towards the groups effort, they come along and get right in the way of the paying passengers on the photo line.  Selfish?  Greedy Bas----?  Yes, but legally you and/or your organization can not do anything to stop these ignorant people.  It will continue to happen, these folks have their rights no matter what you think.  So just ignore it.  It's not worth getting upset about.
John in White Marsh, Maryland

If you are able to, try to distant yourselves from those obnoxious people. It will be an issue. FYI, there is nothing wrong with getting people in your shot as long as if they don't block the train. Trust me, sometimes, it's great to get pictures of other people photographing the same train that we all are. The people element of a shot is important too but yes, the most important subject is obviously the train.

I've had several people mention that they didn't go see 4014 because they didn't want to deal with the crowds. All I can say is it's their loss. I went to Illinois this past week with the attitude that there were going to gobs of people and I better just deal with it or be miserable. I dealt with it and ended up having the best railfanning experience of my life.

Posted from Android

nkpfan Wrote:
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> I've had several people mention that they didn't
> go see 4014 because they didn't want to deal with
> the crowds. All I can say is it's their loss. I
> went to Illinois this past week with the attitude
> that there were going to gobs of people and I
> better just deal with it or be miserable. I dealt
> with it and ended up having the best railfanning
> experience of my life.
>
> Posted from Android

We drove from Portland to western Wyoming for the doubleheader. Yeah, we got stuck behind pavers for hours and a totally "unspoiled" shot was impossible. But it was an event, not just a train. So we had the same experience thousands of non-foamers had and it was more than worth the distance traveled.

When we first started the HICO trips in the 1960's we had one guy who would chase every trip and show up at the run by locations and pose a problem with always insisting on being on the wrong side of the tracks or down the line from the organized photo line etc. After about 5 or 6 of these performances I had 3 of our biggest guys confront him, take his 3 cameras and 2 carrying cases and store the equipment on the train for later transfer to our HQ.

   He called the HICO office repeatedly the following Monday and we let his calls go to the answering machine. Finally the Friday of that week I had the office manager call him back and say he could come retrieve his stuff if he signed a 1 page agreement we had our lawyer prepare that basically said if he showed up ever again he was granting us the right to seize his equipment and sell it at our discretion.

   We never saw him again. Problem solved. Ross Rowland

On one of the photo trips that we ran a few years ago on the Texas State RR, at the very first runby location, there were three college students and their car parked right beside the tracks when we stopped to unload the train.  Their car was right in the middle of the shot.   I went over to them and asked them where they stayed the night and they pointed at the car.  I then comiserated with them remembering what it was like to be a broke college student, and then asked them to move the car to a spot of my chosing, out of the shot, and explained to them that the other people on the train had paid for the privilege of riding and shooting, and that so long as they did not interfere with the paying passengers or their shots, they were more than welcome to shoot away, at any of the road crossings that we used for run-by's (and we did have one other). The paying passengers got 3 runbys, that no one could drive to.  I also let them know, that there were possibly extra sandwiches at the Rusk station that would be for sale after the passengers and the train crew got theirs, should they want one.     They did precisely as I asked them, behaved very well, and at the next road crossing, the car was parked out of sight, and they had already told a pair of other vehicular photographers what the rules were.  No incidents, no complaints, and the concessionaires were glad to sell them the left over sandwiches.  


 

Most people will be OK it you explain it to them like that.  But out of every crowd, maybe 5% of them are just dicks and don't care what they have to do to get "their shot".  
I gave up "chasing" years ago when people got downright dangerous on the roads.  Nothing is worth having an accident or getting injured or worse.  I don't have the nerves for that any more.  Last chase I did was 3985 from N. Platte to Omaha back around 2004.  There were hardly no chasers and we enjoyed the drive along Hwy 30.
You wouldn't believe some of the insanity I witnessed from thousands of miles running 1522.  If I had any hair, it would have curled it.

Obnoxious behavior doesn't just occur when finding a spot to photograph a train. There are plenty of people who have the nerve to speed excessively while chasing as well as cutting other drivers off, even in parking lots. A good example was when the UP Special, lead by the 1943 diesel locomotive, was pulling that special train to Harriman, NY from Croxton Yard. There were many railfans that day who were not on their best behavior, both trackside as well as speeding on highways to get ahead of the train. It's very lucky that I didn't hear about anybody getting hurt but driving way above the speed limit isn't cool. The UP Special wasn't going at trackspeed for a lot of the northbound journey so I think even without the speeding, railfans could have probably gotten to photograph it in a few spots. More often than not, when a special move is being made on a mainline(i.e. Amtrak's Autumn Excursions, the 765 running on various freight mainlines), those trains are often going at the highest track speed that they are able to do. In that case, it's just better to pick a spot, photograph the move from that spot, and then move along. That's like photographing commuter trains or Amtrak, especially corridor trains. Yes, even regularly scheduled passenger trains might sit at stations for a while if they happen to arrive early into them and aren't supposed to leave until a certain time or if there is a delay up ahead. Railfans can use the time that a regularly scheduled passenger train is laying over at a station to get ahead of it and photograph it somewhere else as well.

Aren't you B**hing, Moaning  and Complaining with this post?

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

jst3751 Wrote:
-
> You see, when you do that, you yourself prove to
> the rest of us what an entitled childlike attitude
> you really have.

He doesn't see it that way.

wabash2800 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Aren't you B**hing, Moaning  and Complaining with
> this post?
>
> Victor A. Baird
> http://www.erstwhilepublications.com
>
> jst3751 Wrote:
> -
> > You see, when you do that, you yourself prove
> to
> > the rest of us what an entitled childlike
> attitude
> > you really have.

It comes down to expectations ... expect the worse and don't be disappointed. Be happy when you don't get the worse. Most of the offenders I have seen have no idea what a photo line is. They have never heard the term. They are not "full time" railfans. They just heard something special was passing through and wanted the experience.

The bigger the move, the more likely it will be a zoo. Unfortunately even organized trips can have animals. Buying a ticket doesn't make people better behaved. But continuing the cycle doesn't help.
I try to avoid the lines ... I don't want the same shot as 10-100 other people. For bigger moves it is more of a "experience the moment" trip than getting the perfect shot.

I can understand why people who make money off of their photos and videos would be more upset by "people not following the rules". It is interfering with their livelihood. But they should also be more experienced in finding better places to catch the shot without running in to "railfan" issues.

Set expectations - and hope reality is better than you expected.

My thoughts exactly Victor..... Calling out unsafe behavior around the tracks and warning others what to expect with the crowds isn't okay, but the endless complaining/nitpicking about how Ed runs his dream engine is perfectly acceptable?? The drama on this steam board is really something else.

wabash2800 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Aren't you B**hing, Moaning  and Complaining with
> this post?
>
> Victor A. Baird
> http://www.erstwhilepublications.com
>
> jst3751 Wrote:
> -
> > You see, when you do that, you yourself prove
> to
> > the rest of us what an entitled childlike
> attitude
> > you really have.

co614 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When we first started the HICO trips in the 1960's
> we had one guy who would chase every trip and show
> up at the run by locations and pose a problem with
> always insisting on being on the wrong side of the
> tracks or down the line from the organized photo
> line etc. After about 5 or 6 of these performances
> I had 3 of our biggest guys confront him, take his
> 3 cameras and 2 carrying cases and store the
> equipment on the train for later transfer to our
> HQ.
>
>    He called the HICO office repeatedly the
> following Monday and we let his calls go to the
> answering machine. Finally the Friday of that week
> I had the office manager call him back and say he
> could come retrieve his stuff if he signed a 1
> page agreement we had our lawyer prepare that
> basically said if he showed up ever again he was
> granting us the right to seize his equipment and
> sell it at our discretion.
>
>    We never saw him again. Problem solved. Ross
> Rowland

Nice piece of cowboy justice, and nobody got hurt.  Job well done.  There will be complaints.....a play on the movie title.....There Will Be -----.

AA

Stanford White
Carmel Valley, CA

I was a little shocked by his boasting about the incident.  I see threat of violence ( three big men) ; felony robbery, taking property by force and extortion to sign an agreement which should have rendered it moot.  The victim could have sued.

JB - Omaha



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/04/19 15:15 by Copy19.

JB, it was not a threat of violence it was a promise and he knew it. Trust me, he wanted nothing further to do with us after that and we never saw him again. BTW part of the one page agreement was he was banned from ever riding a HICO trip.

   Sadly in some cases polite reasoning doesn't work. This was one of them.

   Ross Rowland