WE may think we are dressed appropriately when we are out railfanning. But you never know what the non-railroad people think.
This happened about four or five years ago, I think, and it involved four or five readers of these SPORRS postings. A group of us were in NW Montana one late fall afternoon, perched on the big rock cut between Lupfer and Vista, Montana on the BN main line west of Whitefish. It was a beautiful day and we knew of three or four trains coming east in great light. So we all found nice spots among the rock cuts and photographed the trains in quick sucession. When the parade ended, we packed up our cameras and hiked a couple hundred yards down the steep hill thru some trees to our rental cars that were parked along US93. Picture this. We all had backpacks full of camera gear, fancy tripods, heavy hiking boots, and scanners on our belts, or in my case, on one of those radio bras like railroaders and the forest service guys wear. We all had on baseball caps and were dressed like we stepped out of the Cabela's catalog. So here we are hiking out of the woods to our cars...all American-made rentals, all with magnetic-mount antennas, all parked obnoxiously along the 2-lane highway, halfway into the ditch. Looked like a bunch of railfans. right? Down the road comes this lone bicyclist, with fancy riding clothes and helmet. He stops, and looks at us. Then he looks at me. He was in great shape, maybe in his 50s... "What's goin' down...?" he asks me. "Waddaya mean...we're just railroad buffs taking pictures of trains..." I said with a smile. "Yeah, right, I know the way you guys operate", he says. "The backpacks, the rental cars, the fancy radios...I've been around you feds long enough to know what you look like when you're out on a surveillance..." I laughed. "Naw, really, it's just our hobby", I said. He giggles and gets ready to ride off. Looks at me again and says "I did 28 years in law enforcement with the LAPD and I know all about you feds...hope you catch your guy." So I just smiled and said "Ever seen anybody walking down the street up here wearing a shower cap?" And he laughed and just rode off down the road. The next year, about a hundred miles due west of here, Randy Weaver had his big shootout with the feds near Naples, Idaho, along this same BN main line. Needless to say, you don't want to be mistaken for feds in that part of the world... -> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects -> Web Site: http://www.anet-stl.com/acphotog/sporrs -> Message © SPORRS® 1998 - All Rights Reserved
