And we wonder why station staff get nervous when you want to take a picture!

[kevinlms]

So why should station staff get nervous about people taking photos from safe locations?

 

In most cases that get discussed here the posters have claimed that they have been challanged while standing well clear of platforms faces or from public locations etc.

 

In this example someone is clearly clambering about the tracks in front of a train that is about to depart.

 

 

As different as black and white, so why should station staff get confused?

 

 

Kevin Martin

[woodenhead]

But how do someone tell the loony fringe from the sensible photographer before they step off the platform. It is the idiot minority that can spoil it the for sensible majority, this isn't limited to railways and enthusiasts, if you are running any sort of business where the public can freely walk around your property unescorted and there is a risk of injury then one idiot will make you rethink your policies to ensure you don't get done for negligence or worse.

[Guest stuartp]

So why should station staff get nervous about people taking photos from safe locations?

 

Because as Woodenhead has identified, there is a lunatic fringe who occasionally wander off from safe locations into dangerous ones while you aren't looking, and they're often indistinguishable from the harmless ones.

 

As some on here know, in the early 1990s I was Operating Supervisor at Appleby, which meant I got to play with steam trains every other weekend and get paid for it. I came into contact with literally thousands of photographers and enthusiasts, the vast majority of whom were perfectly sensible and pleasant to deal with, and happy to abide by the few rules which we put in place. For example, the reason you were allowed to stand across both running lines at Garsdale during water stops was because my boss (Paul Holden) and I intoduced a safe system of work which meant that RRNE HQ let us get away with a lot of things which the Rule Book didn't normally permit. In the case of Garsdale the SSoW was to open Garsdale box and block back on the opposite line, thus ensuring that the throng of photographers was protected by fixed signals. Likewise runpasts were permitted at Appleby provided the platform was cleared first and everybody made to stand on the opposite platform (protected by another blocking back). The view from the footplate of 600 people all leaning over the platform edge trying to get a shot is terrifying enough without having them do it on the line you're actually charging towards them on.

 

However, I also had my own CK cutlass-swinging moment when somebody decided that he was going to climb up the water tower. Another chap very carefully checked the timetable to ensure nothing was due then set up for his shot by positioning his tripod and video camera in the opposite 4' near Culgaith where the driver of an unscheduled ECS movement promptly spoiled his afternoon. I've been verbally abused for setting Flying Scotsman back wrong road to take water because that meant, apparently, that the sun was now in the wrong place, and I had to fetch the BTP to a chap who decided that the 'everyone on the opposite platform' rule for run-pasts applied to everyone except him. It was the most impressive ***ll*king I've ever seen - a BTP Inspector no less in best No.1 uniform, he even had a pace stick with him ! (Dick B if Dave/Max remembers him).

 

Just to show it wasn't just photographers for whom you needed eyes in the back of your head, prize numpty was actually one of the train stewards. He decided to do something about the flapping noise coming from under his coach by sawing through the slightly frayed dynamo belt which was causing it (passed fit to run at Blackburn btw provided Carlisle C&W fitter attended on arrival there) leaving the dynamo hanging down foul. Apparently his dad was once a fitter at Finsbury Park. One red card and a bit of impromptu shunting later and they were 64 seats short for the rest of the trip.

 

The vast majority of enthusiasts I met were fantastic (corporate charters were another matter - we could have done with pick-axe handles and a couple of big dogs on occasions), but we were dealing with them week in, week out. Most station staff don't, and unfortunately it's the idiots which everyone remembers.