Meeting with special agents..

[JCagle]

Today while killing some time before my flight I canvased the rails of the greater Jackson, Mississippi area and set out to do a little sight seeing. While shooting the CN yard in Jackson I was approached by a special agent from CN. This is not the first time I've been approached, but this was definately the most enjoyable run in I have had.

After the usual who are you, why are you taking pictures, and the can I see some ID routine the guy was like I hate to bother you but we have to approach anybody that is taking pictures. He even proceeded to take the time to chat with me a bit and tell me a little about his experiences with the railroad. After 5 or 10 mins we went on our seperate ways. A lot of places all I see are posts about guys that are "harrassed" and how evil the special agents are, so I wanted to take the time to point out that there are some good guys out there that are nice guys just doing their jobs and asking questions.

Run ins in the past have all been professional and non confrontational, but I thought this guy needed mentioning.
What have your experiences (good or bad) with Agents been in the past?

[Chris7092]

A couple years ago I had a very pleasant run-in with an NS special agent in Elkhart, IN.  While he was making his routine intermodal train checking, he spotted myself and another fan trackside, and we spent the next 30 minutes or so just chatting about local railroading.  He was very professional and was no less than respectful the entire time.

Chris
K8CRQ
Ft. Wayne, IN

[nscnotp1]

There was this one agent from the Danville area that is the nicest man that you would ever want to talk to about trains. I do not know if he is still there but we would chat for a bit.

[JCagle]

I'm glad to see not everyone has "horror" stories of dealing with agents. Today the question popped into my head what exactly is he going to do with the information he gathered on me.  More than likely I'd say it would get entered into a database and forgotten unless I was ever added to a watch list. I'm not all too worried about it though since I have no doubt that I'll never be on a terrorist watch list.
With my educational background in a feild related to investigations and police work I would also make an assumption that body language would tell the agent a lot about what he wanted to know about you. There are certian traits that people that are up to no good are likely to posess if caught doing something they shouldn't be. With this in mind my advice would be to know that the worst that they could do to you if you are not trespassing ect is ask you to leave or stop shooting, so don't feel intimidated. If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to hide so feel confident about that.

[Backyard]

  Ten four on the hide nothing, nothing to hide.

I've heard, that once CSX gets your name, you won't get hired.

NS, has been exceptionally good to me, I don't get in the way.

When in Atlanta, stay off the CSX!

[peachfuzz]

OK, time to bring some rain and clouds to this sunshine festival. ;D

Here is the story of my last incident, complete with photos!   

Back in February of 2005, I was shooting around Flovilla Georgia when I was approached by a guy in a Jeep.  Asked me why I was taking pictures of the passing trains.  When I told him it was none of his business and to go away, he informed he was an employee of Norfolk Southern and I was "required" to tell him the purpose of my photography.  Told him to FOAD  (if you don't know what that stands for, it is not a family friendly forum... ) and go away.  Just for kicks I decided to photograph him as shown below.



I continued to enjoy the afternoon moving back and forth on the county road shooting the traffic when  an NS special agent showed up to "investigate" the situation.   He also demanded ID, which I refused to provide and photographed him as well



As you can see, I was on a public right of way.  In Georgia, special agents have no jurisdiction off of RR property.  As the agent continued to make various threats, I photographed him as well and told the agent the Butts County sheriff would be called if he didn't leave me alone immediately.  Upon retrieving my cell to call, the agent departed and I continued my photographic activities.

NS in Norfolk received 8x10 prints of the photos above via FedEx overnight, along with a letter detailing the location and actions of their employees (...turns out Jeep boy was an NS M0fW backhoe operator)  For some reason, NS didn't bother writing back.

Had a great afternoon overall with lots of good pics,  and even a good story to tell as well.

[cmherndon]

There was this one agent from the Danville area that is the nicest man that you would ever want to talk to about trains. I do not know if he is still there but we would chat for a bit.

You must be referring to Bob.  I believe he retired a couple of years ago.  He was a helluva nice guy, and it seemed to me that he didn't mind anyone taking pictures, just as long as they weren't in any place they weren't supposed to be.  I talked to him a couple of times, and he once told me it would cost me $20 per frame to take pictures of the Derby train back in 2003.  I may be wrong, but I don't believe Danville has a special agent anymore since Bob retired.

[Michael Knight]

Good for you, Peachfuzz! I haven't seen you here for quite a while. I still remember that neat photo entitled, "What 26 years looks like." Feel free to share some more photos!  It's interesting to note that you had mentioned the fact that, in Georgia, the special agents have their jurisdiction limited to railroad property. I wonder how one would find out what the laws are in their own state.

This reminds me of a recent incident when, while shooting from a public grade crossing out in the country, a NS Signal Maintainer approached my friend and I. It turns out that he was about to play the role of an inquisitor. He went on to tell us that, "It was his job to ask," and that we were breaking the law. He informed us that we would be arrested on the spot if spotted by an NS agent. While we were being nice, and fully cooperatative with him, the fact was mentioned by my friend that I was a former NS employee. Naturally, this guy even questioned that fact and said, "If you did actually work for NS, you would know what you were doing was wrong, etc." I responded by telling him that the planned shot of the passing train wasn't worth having a disagreement with him, to which he responded, "that it was all right to take our pictures."

I could have stood my ground more, as I was in the legal right to do such. I could have given him a list of vetern railroaders that I know personally, or proven that I was a former NS employee; I chose not to. For me a busy student, it just isn't worth the time and aggravation.

[Backyard]

...I told him it was none of his business and to...FOAD...Just for kicks... the Butts County sheriff would be called ...
NS in Norfolk received 8x10 prints...along with a letter detailing the location and actions of their employees...For some reason, NS didn't bother...

Well, I've had about enough of this, no wonder some railroad police act like dastards...years ago you'd be FORD.

I unsubscribe from this thread...

[JCagle]

Ten four on the hide nothing, nothing to hide.

I've heard, that once CSX gets your name, you won't get hired.

NS, has been exceptionally good to me, I don't get in the way.

When in Atlanta, stay off the CSX!

Every encounter I've had with any kind of NS Employee has been pleasurable. Most of them will take the time to chat for a few if they have the time, and if they don't they express their regret in the ability to do so.

I'm not worried about anybody getting my name and not hiring me, as I'm not interested in working for the railroad. To me it would kill something that I enjoy in my spare moments to mix business and pleasure.

I do beleive in knowing your rights and sticking to the fact that you are entitled to your rights, but I also beleive when you deal with people you get what you give them.

I didn't mean to start any kind of ruckus I just thought it would be nice to let people share their stories and maybe let it be known that all agents aren't "out to get you".

[Michael Knight]

I didn't mean to start any kind of ruckus I just thought it would be nice to let people share their stories and maybe let it be known that all agents aren't "out to get you".

I see no problems here, Jason. And now a happy story.

When I was about eleven-years old, I was visting with a family accquaintence who was working at a facility adjacent to the NS and CSX interchange in town. I noticed some very unusual cars- very unusual indeed- sitting on the nearest track. I later learned that these were transformer cars; However, I thought they might have been reactors, or something. Anyway, I precceded to approach the cars for a better look.

While at a distance of ten to twenty feet from the cars, I noticed a man about a thousand feet west of me approaching. I retreated back to my friend's work truck and talked with him some more. Just then, the man showed up and indentified himself as "Railroad Police!" At first, thinking that I was some punk or vandal, he was very loud, stern, and unpleasent while drilling me with questions. I did not know how to respond, so I was only able to muster up a few honest replies. It became apparent to him that I was not conspiring harm against the property. He apologized several times, both for the incident and for scaring me. He then told me that those were transformers on the four-truck flat cars.

[Hoydie17]

I've got a great relationship with many railroad employees from Virginia to NY.  Most know I'm a 'fan and are usually more than forthcoming with information.  I try to make a good concious effort to not become an annoyance and not to ask questions that might be detrimental to an employee's job. 

Amongst many of these employees are several CSX police officers, and two NS officers.   Usually, I'll give the CSX guys a call to let them know where I intend to hang out on a given day, just so they know.   They actually have my phone numbers in their speed dial and on more than one occasion they've called me with a heads-up to let me know something is coming my way.   The NS guys aren't quite the same story, though they usually express appreciation when I take the extra effort to let them know that I'm in their area, although I only get there maybe twice a year.   

I've generally found RR police to be a little bit more understanding than say municipal or state police, the railroad gestapo deal with railfans more frequently and even though they don't usually share or appreciate our interest, they empathize with it. 

As I see it, they are just doing their job, we're doing our hobby, so just ask yourself which is more important?