To clarify, I was trying to state that I believe that a charter sponsor or the railroad itself could, and for the immediate future should, ban the use of drones. Of course, this would only apply to the registered participants and not to any non-contributing observer who was on public property or private property they had rights to that was operating a drone within the applicable laws and regulations (and hopefully common sense). Now if you wish to show up as a paying participant to a charter that banned drones with one anyway and stand on your rights under the FAA, I would guess you will quickly find yourself removed from the charter without a refund. In no way does this interfere with the FAA's right to regulate drone activity.
In my opinion based on the information presented in various threads, only knowing the accused by reputation: The original incident in question, in hindsight, was a combination of inexperience and poor judgement with no malice by the person who is well known for their support and promotion of the railroad. They apologized, it is water under the bridge, but has seemingly unleashed a flood of flames. The original question remains - Sooner rather than later there again will be a photo train participant/contributor who shows up without notice or will request to use a drone. Is there a safe and reasonable way to accommodate one or multiple drones during a photo charter? It is going to happen, so what are the intelligent options?
As far as the drones themselves - I don't like or dislike them, but it is obvious that their rapidly increasing use will cause potential safety or invasion of privacy issues. The manufacturers have apparently recognized this and are making improvements that will benefit the industry, but there will always be those who either override the safeguards or fail to use common sense where technology can't provide the oversight. My prediction is that the inevitable multiple fatality incident will eventually cause Congress through the FAA to impose drastic restrictions on drone use. I wonder how the RC plane/glider hobby that has existed for years has dealt with these issues?
Obviously someone can stand on most public property and take pictures of whatever they want. Doesn't matter if they are a paying participant, have otherwise contributed or at least donated, can't afford to buy a ticket or it is a sold out event, just happened to stumble into it, or is just too cheap to do anything but freeload. I think most charter sponsors, the railroads and the paying customers understand and are willing to tolerate this, and they really don't have any complaints or concerns unless someone is acting in an unsafe manner or interfering with the event. There is a difference between someone, even in the photo line, inadvertently or due to inexperience is fouling up a photo opportunity versus someone who is just plain arrogant and inconsiderate (or your choice of another term). Here is something else to ponder - if a non-contributer makes a conscious effort to be in as many photo runby locations as possible, either crashing the photo line, interfering with paying participant opportunities, accessing locations by trespassing on the railroad (even the isolated ones) and claiming prime photo locations first - are they potentially guilty of theft since they are stealing a product/service that everyone else is paying for? Does their "right" to do so trump or have another priority over the others' same rights to enjoy what they paid or contributed to?
Here is what WILL happen if the situation with either drones or non-contributing participants gets out of hand. First some of the sponsors will attempt to run photo charters by invitation only, with all potential invitees known to be reasonable and courteous, and all will be sworn to secrecy as to the date and event. In reality, you can't keep a secret on a railroad so either one of the invitees or from the railroad will eventually spill the beans, or someone will deduce the impending train from the observable preparations. Hopefully the lack of advertising and last minute notice will limit the freeloaders to a tolerable level, but this will also restrict these charters to those few within the circle and with the financial resources to participate.
As far a as a railroad or sponsor that is faced with ending up with a freeloader free for all and dogfighting drones, the sponsors or railroad itself will simply quit offering any photo charters because its not worth the hassle and liability. The serious photographers that pay to financially support these events will dwindle as their photo opportunities do not provide a return on their time, or charter and travel expenses. In short, photo specials will slowly disappear for the most part. Anyone in the railroad industry knows that railroading is horrifically expensive, and those with steam and obsolete equipment even more so. Much of the equipment used for these photo charters are only used in this service, so their repair and repainting must be paid for either by scarce revenues or with scarcer donations/volunteers. The fewer photo charters, the higher costs per event, the fewer participants.
Remember this is turning out to be amazingly small round ball we live on (though some here will still argue it is flat), and the only way we will all enjoy life is if we respect the fact we all have the same "rights", and how we handle ourselves resolving those rights when they conflict will define us.
BTW - This is an open forum that anyone can read, and it is a well known fact that many of the railroads that operate these special events read these posts. If you were in their place, would you really be excited about going to all the extra effort needed for these special trains after reading some of the comments here? Regardless of what "rights" we have, the railroads are under no legal or moral obligation to allow anyone to trespass or to offer to operate any special trains or equipment.
