Visiting Railroad Yards

Unless you are a shipper or have a friend or relative in a railroad sales or operating position, odds are you will not be invited to visit a railroad yard.  

Yards are dangerous places and railroads typically don't want visitors.

Curt

As Curt said, unless you have some "inside connection", so to speak, you probably won't get permission to enter a yard.  Your best bet is to find a nearby street, parking lot or overhead bridge and watch the action from there.

Back in the 90's (Conrail days), we used to be able to park in the railroad's parking lot at Enola, PA and watch the goings-on.  Today you'll probably get a trespassing citation if you try that!  

Alex, I'm not familiar with the specific yards you've listed, but frequently there are vantage points on public property where you can view some of the action. Here in the Twin Cities, BNSF's Northtown hump yard has a couple of road bridges that cross over the yard. The county rd 2 bridge is a great place to watch the action.

I too have visited Bailey, during Railfest, and got to take the bus tour through the yard, not just the Golden Spike Tower.

Looking at the bowl tracks with the Golden Spike Tower in the background.

Fun afternoon to say the least!

OK, I understand what you guys said. I guess the Bailey Yard is the only one that offers tours or allows visitors - albeit only during Railfest, which is when I went as well.

How about diesel locomotive maintenance facilities? Are there any that would allow visitors or that offer tours? (The one at Bailey yard does this as well during Railfest.)

Thx!

Alex

Shops and shop grounds are equally dangerous places for the causal pedestrian.  Like yards, you probably need to know someone on the inside and still might be limited to certain areas.  Most of these areas (like BNSF's Clyde diesel shop in Cicero, IL) are now fenced in and somewhat secure.

The days of just walking around these areas (like I once did in the 70's at Milwaukee Road's Bensenville engine terminal with a simple "just be careful" from a worker) are long over.

Rusty

The only yard I know you can still, or I did fairly recently, walk all over,  is the Cumbres and Toltec one at Chama.  My brother and I walked all over the Durango yard, once, years ago, but that has been fenced and off limits for some time, and has probably changed from that day.

Unfortunately 9-1-1 and rising insurance costs changed things. A stop at the yard office got you in most railyards with certain restrictions.

There certain areas that cannot be photographed by law, such a nuclear facilities and certain military installations. Somewhere I heard that railroad yards are also verboten. But I have never seen anything from the GOV that this is true.

UP has photo guide-lines near tracks and private property concerns and will ask that you remove on-line photos of private areas.

Is there a 911-like directive forbidding railroad photos??

AlanRail posted:

There certain areas that cannot be photographed by law, such a nuclear facilities and certain military installations. Somewhere I heard that railroad yards are also verboten. But I have never seen anything from the GOV that this is true.

That was during WWII.

UP has photo guide-lines near tracks and private property concerns and will ask that you remove on-line photos of private areas.

Is there a 911-like directive forbidding railroad photos??

Not really, unless the local police officer decides to feel his oats, and causes a scene. Most serious railfan photographers know their legal rights, and carry magazine articles and printed documents, to explained to an overzealous officer, no matter whether they are railroad special agents, transit authority officers, or local police officers. The key to the whole thing is, you had better be photographing from public property.

I have been doing train photography at a local UP Rail Yard and CalTrain depots for the past 15 years.  I've seen other photographers there also.  None of them have had problems with local police officers "feeling their oats."  None of the Railroad agents or transit police that patrol that area have ever swooped down on them either.  None of the railfans that I know carry "magazine articles" or documents to explain to "overzealous" officers either.  The key always...as mentioned above...is you better be on public property.

boin106 posted:

I have been doing train photography at a local UP Rail Yard and CalTrain depots for the past 15 years.  I've seen other photographers there also.  None of them have had problems with local police officers "feeling their oats."  None of the Railroad agents or transit police that patrol that area have ever swooped down on them either.  None of the railfans that I know carry "magazine articles" or documents to explain to "overzealous" officers either.  The key always...as mentioned above...is you better be on public property.

Well, you should see what goes on within the Chicago Metro area. Apparently your local law enforcement folks are used to seeing the same folks on a regular basis?

join one of the historical soc. [or clubs]  that are in your general area.the conventions they  usually include group tours of certain rr locations.when i belonged to a conrail group,at a different city every year,they had yard tours of elkhart,in; conway ,pa; and altoona,pa that i was able to visit.the pittsburgh convention included a tour of the dispatching center in greentree.for the cost,i thought it was well worth it for what i was able to legally see.-Jim

I just wanted to add some info regarding photography.  As mentioned above the metro Chicago area police are still aggressive. I carry copies of the photographers rights with whenever I am doing rail photography. Of course one has to follow the rules and stay off the private property.

Here is a link to the photographers rights if anyone is interested:

http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm

Jim Berger posted:

join one of the historical soc. [or clubs]  that are in your general area.the conventions they  usually include group tours of certain rr locations.when i belonged to a conrail group,at a different city every year,they had yard tours of elkhart,in; conway ,pa; and altoona,pa that i was able to visit.the pittsburgh convention included a tour of the dispatching center in greentree.for the cost,i thought it was well worth it for what i was able to legally see.-Jim

Jim has kind of nailed here with the clubs and conventions. The bigger the event the more likely they are to have a tour of a local railroad facility. They are usually very limited space. In 1976 I went to the NMRA National Convention in Chicago. The first 500 registrants got to go to EMD La Grange. Made it in just under the wire at 476. At an NMRA regional convention (same era) I took a tour of Northtown tower and shops.   

It is very true that times have changed since then. But those guys in the clubs often have the connections to get through all the red tape and put on railroad tours.

This reminds me that I should get my slides digitized. They aren't doing anyone any good rotting in the carousels. The passage of time may have made them  more interesting.

AlanRail posted:

There certain areas that cannot be photographed by law, such a nuclear facilities and certain military installations. Somewhere I heard that railroad yards are also verboten. But I have never seen anything from the GOV that this is true.

UP has photo guide-lines near tracks and private property concerns and will ask that you remove on-line photos of private areas.

Is there a 911-like directive forbidding railroad photos??

There were none that I was aware of when I retired in 2008.

It looks like others have it covered pretty well, but it is important to remember that as long as you are on public property, photography is NOT a crime, no matter what a police office tells you.  Be polite, but if an officer tells you you can not take pictures, or attempts to touch your camera without a warrant signed by a judge, do not allow them, and ask to speak to a supervisor that is informed as to the law.  If you wish to take photographs from private property, do your self a favor and get written permission.  Lots of folks are perfectly ok with saying " sure, you can go take pictures from the back of my lot" when you ask them, but don't want any hassle so will ask you to leave if police show up.  Getting written permission will solve the problem most of the time.  

JGL

The joint UP and C&NW historical society in 2015 got to tour the inside of the giant dispatch center in Omaha, which is pretty exclusive territory. 

Alex,

You could take a tour of the second largest BNSF yard in the country, in Galesburg, IL during the annual Galesburg Days which is usually during the 3^rd or 4^th weekend in June. During Saturday & Sunday, there are tours of the yard in cramped school buses, which leave every 30 minutes, from the downtown Amtrak station. The bus goes through the BNSF yard, around the maintenance facility & over a bridge that gives a view of the entire yard. You cannot get off the bus but there are BNSF retirees who announce the history, various parts of the yard & answer questions.

But on Friday & Saturday evening around 3:30, there was just 1 extended tour of the yard where you were allowed to get off the school bus to go into the diesel repair shop, hump yard control tower & a Q&A session with an Operations supervisor inside a building. This tour could last up to 3 ½ hours, but there is no advanced reservation, first-come-first-served basis up to 30 people, or however many could fit inside a school bus. When I took this tour 2 years ago, I got there 30 minutes before the start of the tour but could only get the last ticket on the bus. The line ahead of me looked like the line outside Best Buy on Black Friday, with people sitting along the curb in folding chairs before they started selling the tickets. Here are some photos I took during the tour.

These are just my opinion,

Thanks,

Naveen Rajan