rod5nz Wrote:
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> I've got to respectively disagree. Their
> publicly owned railroad is just that....a publicly
> owned railroad. So it doesn't seem right that
> CDOT and NMDOT could potentially bar the public
> from viewing said publicly owned railroad from a
> public right of way. Just doesn't make much sense
> to me.
Public ownership does not mean that anyone can trespass at any time. The feds, the states and local municipalities all still have the right to control access to public property. When a National Park (clearly public property) is closed. It is closed, and the public cannot enter. Armed Park Rangers will deny access. The US Military's Flight Test Center at Groom Lake Nevada (Area 51 to the press) is technically public property (owned by the taxpayers)......but you can't just wander in there without severe consequences.
The Federal, state and local governments also have the right to limit access when an planned or unplanned event poses a safety risk to the public. The free-for-alls associated with some railroad events such as the Big-Boy tour must really be testing the patience of government officials, as well as the public in general. Remember, not everyone cares about Big Boy or Rotary OY.
While the C&TS railroad is publicly-owned, it is set up to at least attempt to turn a profit. As such, it offers both public and private events. Are you suggesting that the railroad should not be allowed to hold private events (charters, weddings, conferences, etc.)? In order to hold such private events, the railroad needs to take certain actions to provide for the privacy of the event and ensure the completion of the mission for the folks who are funding it. In the case of a charter, one of those actions is to ensure that non-participants don't become unwanted artifacts in the photos of the folks who paid. If the OY event were to be public, it would be a free-for-all and there would be people crawling around everywhere. Getting clean photographs of the operation would be difficult to impossible for the folks who funded the operation.
I've said this multiple times here, but it's worth repeating. I could not care less what the freeloaders might get while taking photos of a private charter I've paid for, as it travels between photo stops......just as long as they keep their cars, their tripods and their red T-shirts out of the photo stops I've paid for.
Unfortunately, there is a segment of the so-called railfan community that seems to have a sense of entitlement, and that's why it's come to the point of having railroad police or local constables accompany charters.
/Kevin Madore
