Eastern Railroad Discussion > Just a heads up for those traveling thru central NC

First off I want to say that I support our law enforcement considering what they have to deal with especially these days. However sometimes I wonder about their judgement calls. I know in this case the officer had no way of knowing who the hell I was or what I was doing in his area. Like so many others last Thursday I was heading for the Spencer event. On the way I wanted to check out the shortline Alexander RR based in Taylorsville NC and runs east towards Statesville. When I got to Taylorsville nothing was sitting around so I decided to just follow the track east since I was going in that direction anyway. The speed limit was 50mph. The morning was nice and I had my window down with my arm out the window driving between 45-50 mph. I soon notice that I'm being followed by a police officer. I'm guessing that he was tailing me for about 5 miles when I noticed that I had caught up with the train and was working an industry. I pulled into a gas station and he followed behind turning his lights on. Comes up to my window and I ask what I had done wrong. Your driving to slow was his answer. Since I'm a senior he asks if I was lost? No was my answer. I told him that I was a train enthusiast and was heading for Spencer and told him that there was a big train show there that weekend. I told him that I wanted to get a shot of the RR that I had been following and showed him my camera with images of trains on it. He asks for my drivers license which I complied and back to his car to call it in to see if I had any warrants on me. BTW I have an Indiana plate. After a few minutes he walks back to my car and tells me that he was waiting to here from dispatch. I then hear he's clean. He then tells me that he wasn't going to write me a ticket but it was against the law in North Carolina to have a frame around your license plate. Mine was the dealership. Your good to go. I then grab my side shot of the Alexander and proceed into Statesville and noticing that probably 8 out 10 cars had frames around their plates. From dealerships to college teams. Now this should be the end of the story. The next day I'm at the show and got up a converstion with a gentleman who had just retired from the Army from Alabama. I tell about my story. Did this happen around Statesville? I told him yes and he tells me that two years ago he was doing 46 mph in a 45 mph speed zone.One mile over the limit and got a $250. ticket. He asked some Army lawyers if he should fight it. They told him tp pay it and move on. So just a word of advice  if your out of town do exactly the speed limit when in this area. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/01/26 12:44 by srman.

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Great roster shot - Thanks for the heads up.
Bob

Lots of things are illegal in North Carolina but not generally not enforced unless you are an a-hole to the cop. Traffic stops are jokingly called school fund raisers.  In North Carolina, court costs are split among the various judicial and administrative fees, but the actual fine itself goes to the county school corporation.  We have a couple small communities here in Moore County that are real sticklers and will get you for 1 over.  There is a healthy cottage industry around here for lawyers - they'll get your ticked busted down to an equipment violations where you still pay the fine (and their fee of course) and take no points on you license or insurance hit.  Out of state plates don't really matter around here - being outside Fort Bragg, we have thousands of cars running around with out of state AND out of country plates.  Alaska plates are common.  Hawaii plates are fairly common.  Any you'll even see the occasional Guam and European plates (both European shape/size and North American format).  

scraphauler Wrote:
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> Out of state plates don't really matter around
> here - being outside Fort Bragg, we have thousands
> of cars running around with out of state AND out
> of country plates.  Alaska plates are common. 
> Hawaii plates are fairly common.  Any you'll even
> see the occasional Guam and European plates (both
> European shape/size and North American
> format).  

The military will pay to ship one vehicle owned by a service member that is being transferred from one base to another. 

10-15 years ago, 2/3 of the vehicles transported on Matson combo ships (both RO/RO and container) in/out of Long Beach, CA were related to a service member being transferred from one military base to another.

Sounds like Barney Fife had nothing better to do than be an Adam Henry.

I suppose those southern cops reference outsiders haven't changed.

Victor Baird

1 mph iunder - probable cause. Guilty people are careful about obeying the law so the police won't stop them.  Probable cause leads to search and fishing trip to figure out what to charge.

1 mph over is a violation.

I knew a railroad cop who quit being a city cop because he couldn't participate in that any more.

TAW.

"Pretext stops" are pretty common. Failure to signal a turn, one mile over the limit, etc. Small towns in the South rely on this revenue.

Posted from Android

And of course car speedometers are accurate to +/- 1/10 MPH! NOT.
Minor tire size changes, tread wear, tire pressure can all add to inaccuracy. It is absurd to base traffic stops on +/- 1 MPH.
But if a local yokel school district needs funding, by all means pull the Good Ole Southern Cop on an unsuspecting stranger and state, "Your'e in a heap of trouble boy".
Reminds me of the Friday night "Dukes of Hazard" TV series. When I competed nationaly in car races it was a Friday night ritual to take that half hour and the adult beverage of choice to get revved up for the weekend's race! So appropriate as we raced on unpaved roads in State forest lands.
Ye'Ha Y'all! Imiss those days!
Gonut

 

FWIW, in the cars I've driven recently, the speedometer reading was 2mph OVER the actual speed displayed by one of those radar indicator signs. So if I think I'm going 50, I'm actually going 48. 

use waze to check my speedos,and cruise  control if i want to follow the speed limit

Watch out in Maryland, they hide photo radar ticket writing machines behind Johnny Blue toliets

Maryland has always been innovative in their speed trapping over the years. Putting troopers in highway dept vehicles with their radar guns, etc.

Virginia busted a village police dept on the old road to Williamsburg two years. Long time speed trap area.  Barney and  Goober arrested a young African American guy for being Black in a new car. The guy was pumping gas. And he recorded the whole conversation, nasty comments and all. Barney and Goober might have earned some Klan credits, but Virginia changed its laws covering part time auxiliary police.  The guy was a decorated active service Army officer.

License plate frames are legal in North Carolina as long as they do not obscure any letters, numbers, the state name, or registration renewal stickers. Too many people are getting free rides on toll roads because they obscure their license plates and the plate readers at toll collection points cannot read the plates.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article281200363.html



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/26 09:26 by ctillnc.

there are sprays that reflect light too

ctillnc Wrote:
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> License plate frames are legal in North Carolina
> as long as they do not obscure any letters,
> numbers, the state name, or registration renewal
> stickers.

10/1/26, North Carolina does away with registration renewal stickers AND paper registrations. All electronic now. Out of State agencies are supposed to see that NC does not use paper registrations when they run your tags, but I’m sure there will be confusion early on, especially when you have an outdated sticker on your plate making it look expired.

Posted from iPhone

Registration stickers aren't the main concern. It's the ability of the automated license plate readers (both the toll roads and Flock) to pick up the state and license plate number. Very often I see frames that block the name of the state. 

Florida changed its laws to require that no part of the unique plate number, state name, or upper right expiration date can be covered. Bottom text ("Sunshine State", "Don't Tread on Me", "Save the Dolphins" etc) can be blocked.  Significantly, the state has banned plastic covers, anti-camera coverings, reflectives, etc.

Several counties had been earning a significant amount of money by stopping out of county vehicles with license plate holders that blocked any of the bottom text.