Passenger Trains > FRA safety cars on sunset limited train 1

Federal Rail Admin. office of safety cars DOTX 220 and 221 were on the rear of train 1 arriving in LA today.
I wonder what they do?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/10 10:06 by loiter2.

Track geometry cars, slow orders follow close behind them. They scan and map the track for defects.

Saw these cars in New Orleans last Saturday. They were sitting by themselves on one of the station tracks. Amtrak forbade us from taking ANY pictures while on the platform.

New Orleans Amtrak forbade us from taking ANY pictures while on the platform.

I like to know what they are hiding? I was there last year and they said the same thing no pictures of the platform.
Have taken pictures of train in the platforms in LA, DC, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, Portland, Oakland, and a few other place last year and no one said you could not take any pictures except New Orleans.
Dennis

cajon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> New Orleans Amtrak forbade us from taking ANY
> pictures while on the platform.
>
> I like to know what they are hiding? I was there
> last year and they said the same thing no pictures
> of the platform.
> Have taken pictures of train in the platforms in
> LA, DC, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, Portland,
> Oakland, and a few other place last year and no
> one said you could not take any pictures except
> New Orleans.
> Dennis

I was a little taken aback by it, I must admit. I've been riding Amtrak sleepers four or so times a year for nearly a decade now and this was the absolute first time that I had anyone ever warn me against taking any pictures, of anything, with the threat of camera confiscation for a penalty. The last time someone said that to me, it was while taxiing on the tarmac at St. Petersburg. As in Russia.

The situation was that we were in the sleeper group and we were briefed by a uniformed Amtrak Policeman who gave us all kinds of information about how we would be taken out to the train, etc. and that we needed to make sure to not take any pictures at all. I was very disappointed, having my camera around my neck all ready to take pictures of the FRA cars. If I had, I'm pretty sure I'd still be in a New Orleans cell now.

It was "funny" because just a week earlier I had been waiting to depart Chicago Union Station for the trip TO New Orleans and I spent a good forty-five minutes on the platform there snapping everything I could and no one gave a crap, as has always been my experience in the past.

In New Orleans' defense, it was the Saturday of the Saints vs. the Bengals game in the Superdome next door to the New Orleans' station, but I don't think that was the reason for the photography prohibition. But hell if I can figure out what the reason IS. If I'd wanted to take pictures for nefarious purposes, it would have been trivial to do so just by being discreet (or simply taking pictures out the windows of the sleeping car once boarded). The only practical purpose of the policy seems to be to pointlessly punish Amtrak's paying customers, which isn't a good policy in any industry. It certainly wouldn't do anything to prevent any kind of terrorist activity.

Absolute gestapo-ism!
This bullying cop is incompetent.
Camera confiscation should launch charges of theft, loud media coverage.

Wasn't it at the Amtrak platform where local law enforcement erected chain link fences to create holding pens for prisoners during Katrina? They could be sensitive about that. I could see someone still working a civil action based on the place, and that may be their concern.

On the other hand, someone getting on or off a train with a bag full of camera equipment is not who I would send to scope out the place for nefarious purposes. They should know that and leave us foamers alone.