Well, looks like I at least woke a few people up and got them thinking, and that in itself is worth something. I agree wholeheartedly with the 'just have fun' concept that has been present in most of this thread. I think my editorial in CTC Board last fall covered that topic pretty well, so I won't repeat it here.
Anyway, this discussion, combined with the letters in the September RN, got me thinking about the 'holier than thou' railfans who 'are ruining/have ruined/will ruin' this hobby. This is a pretty sensitive topic, so I won't be surprised if a few of you go off over it. When I think about the 'holier than thou' crowd, a certain fan from my area comes to mind. This nameless fellow gave up railfanning many years ago, so he is no longer 'ruining the hobby'. Anyway, the thing that most amused/disgusted me about this guy is how he constantly defended and rationalized his behavior with the arguement that his role in this world was to 'preserve history', and that life on earth would cease to exist if he were not able to do this. I see this attitude trackside more than I would like to. There's nothing wrong with a tiny dose of this, but let's not delude ourselves into believing that our 'preservation efforts' outweigh the legal and moral ramifications of our actions. Where am I coming from, you ask? Well, this nameless fan I speak of was hardly what I consider a fan at all -- common criminal would be a more accurate label. Yet he would openly profess that his role as 'preserver of history' somehow justified his blatant trespassing, vandalism, destruction, and theft. A friend of mine used to refer to these sorts as the 'screwdriver brigade' -- those who steal every artifact in sight. But his sins went beyond theft. Even when he was out in the countryside where there was nothing to steal, he thought nothing of cutting fences, breaking gates, and driving through planted fields. I personally witnessed him chewing out a farmer who confronted him about being on his property. Not only did he refuse to leave, he told the farmer that he had the god given right to be where he was because he was 'preserving history', and how dare this farmer's trivial conerns about property rights interfere with him. Lucky I wasn't that farmer or I would have run him off at gunpoint. Although this particular fellow has long since lost all interest in railfanning, there are still those like him out there. I find it interesting that RN's editorial remarks clearly state that they do NOT condone this sort of behavior. They have a fine line to walk here, as they cannot officially condone things like trespassing. On the other hand, many of the photos they publish are clearly taken by trespassers, and there is no doubt about this in anyone's mind. I also recall an editorial in Trains a few years back about trespassing. This was a total BS editorial, as it basically read 'you better not trespass -- I did, but that's ok because I don't now' which pretty much translates to 'hey, I'm a hypocrite, but that's ok because I got my pictures, and you be damned'. Now, before you accuse me of being 'holier than thou', yes, I DO trespass. I find it very hard to take pictures without trespassing. Yet, I do TRY to obtain permission when I can, and I always leave without creating a scene when asked to. Furthermoe, I take great care not to cause damage to private property. No, this does NOT justify my behavior. See, I don't try to rationalize my acts. I KNOW they are wrong, and I accept that, and I understand that in theory, I could be fined or jailed as a result of what I do. It's sort of like speeding -- it's illegal and dangerous, but we all do it anyway. Getting back to my main theme, I DO know of at least one individual who is a regular (non-staff) contributor to RN, who holds attitudes similar to those of the nameless fan I mentioned above. This person once gave me an ass chewing because I refused to cut a fence in order to get to a certain location. I'll tell you this much, if I ever see anyone cut a fence, I'll turn their ass in. Changing gears again, I also wanted to toss in a remark about the original 'why can't we all just get along' piece in RN. As I recall, there IS some obscure rule in the book about RR employees conducting themselves in a professional manner while on duty. Seems to me the SP/UP crew broke this rule with their actions towards the fans. In their defense, they DID have every right to tell the foamers to get off company property, and to call them in to the RR police. However, I do not believe they had the right to threaten them or use profanities and insults. I wonder what Jerry Davis would think if the fans sent him a copy of this tape? Clearly, both the crew and the fans were in the wrong. Thankfully, I've never had an ugly encounter like this. Call me a pussy, but if this happened to me, I would probably just tuck my tail and leave without offering resistance. Seems like the right thing to do, even if it isn't very satisfying. Oh yea, one last thing... My comment about honest book reviews was spurred by the need for some. Great books should be called great books; pieces of crap should be called pieces of crap. Nothing irritates me more than reading a review that says a crummy book is great. Trouble is, how do you call a book a POS without being sued? Why would a magazine run a bad review, knowing full well it would lose an advertiser? I DO have some very strong opinions on a couple of books that are in need of review. Trouble is, I'm too much of a weenie to say anything in public :( Jim Gilley [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.eesoft.com/rr --> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 Content-Length: 1322
