Thank you.  I was just about to post the same. 

Railfans aren't the problem here.  It's people who don't really know trains and assume they'll hear them coming.  The local BNSF yard here used to allow a few local portrait photographers to bring clients in and take their photos on their caboose and box cars etc. The trainmaster finally had to end all that when it became clear these folks had no clue about safety.

Kent in SD

"RR Photography"

    I wouldn't call that railroad photography, it's more supposedly artistic shots that happen to take place on a railroad. Railfans usually know enough to stay off the tracks when it's a dangerous location.....DaveB

Agreed.

When I started shooting trains at Boyds,MD. about 25 years ago, it was definitely rural, and one could sit in the small MARCRAIL parking lot all day and not see anyone.
However, suburbanization has encroached to within a couple of miles, and the RR tracks are now a haven for troublemakers and trespassers.
This piece of x-B&O trackage does enable trains to move along in both directions, and while railfans use scanners to stay aware of impending trains, the young people that trespass nowadays are either oblivious or impaired.
As the attached photos show, safe RR photography is possible here, and the pedestrian subway was installed in 1931 to replace a grade crossing.
All photography by Warren W. Jenkins

I have a story about rail fanning that some of you may or may not have experienced. I was driving from Florida to Arizona a few years ago and I stopped at a gas station for a fill up and this just happened to be just the other side of a railroad crossing for the U.P. line just outside of elpaso Texas. as I pulled out of the service station to get back on the highway the crossing gates came down and so I grabbed my camera and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to get a few pictures of the locos and train, I got out and stood by my truck and was snapping pictures when out of the blue this guy walks up to me and asked what I was doing so I told him I was a rail fan and was just taking a few pictures. he said that I was breaking the law and that I could be prosecuted for taking pictures of trains without permission from the railroad. he was a federal agent with homeland security and he told me I could be arrested for suspicion of terrorism. he confiscated the micro card out of my camera and told me to get in my truck and not to take anymore pictures of trains and I haven't since.   

 "he said that I was breaking the law and that I could be prosecuted for taking pictures of trains without permission from the railroad. he was a federal agent with homeland security and he told me I could be arrested for suspicion of terrorism. he confiscated the micro card out of my camera and told me to get in my truck and not to take anymore pictures of trains and I haven't since."

  There's lots of crazy people down in Texas :> .......DaveB 

Seems like a good time to share 3 different train stories from railfanning in New York. Some may find them interesting.

1)At Dobbs Ferry, Metro-North's Hudson Division, I was walking near the tracks (but on public property) near what was then the popular Chart House restaurant. Within about 5 minutes, 3 police cars came. Seems like someone committed suicide slightly north of where I was, they were just making sure I was safe.

2)Scarborough, NY, soon after September 11, 2001, I was photographing a track crew (while on public property), someone on the crew apparently called the police, a nice Sargeant came by and asked what I was doing and let me continue.

3)My favorite story was back in Dobbs Ferry as Metro-North was running their official/inaugural running of their specially painted New York Central schemed FL-9's to commemorate the history of the Central, as the A-A units ran up and down the Hudson Division...I was sitting with a friend on a bridge (I would say it was public property but looking back, we may have been obstructing traffic) overlooking the main line. Just then, a Dobbs Ferry Sargeant pulled up and asked us what we were doing, we explained the events going on, he then parked his cruiser and joined us! 

I have several friends who are police officers and I can understand how difficult their jobs are as they don't know what type of person they are approaching. Most of my interactions were very professional and courteous. 

Tom

Scariest thing I have ever heard was at a dinner I was at they were talking about someone who had been killed when taking their high schools on the tracks. I mentioned that it is illegal to take photos while on the railroad tracks and the people who had known the kid looked at me like deer in headlight, before saying "I had no clue it was illegal to take photos on the tracks."  

 In this post 9/11 world of ours I've been reported as a suspected terrorist dozens of times.  What never fails to amaze me is the inability of the people who report me as such to distinguish between a rocket launcher/bazooka/heavy machine gun and a camera with a telephoto lens mounted on a tripod.  The good news is, every time the police have been courteous and pleasant and once they have asked a few questions and looked around a bit they have left me to continue what I was doing.