Train spotters warned to take care...

[whole diary]

[BerkshireBugsy]

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/14351596.Trainspotters_warned_after_drone_camera_crashes_into_Flying_Scotsman/

I think the clue is in the title. If the drone was damaged I hope the drone owner isn't going to claim for damages!

[Billhere]

After its first outing on the main line and the problem with trespassers on the ECML^▸ (East Coast Main Line) the delay minutes latched up nearly 400 minutes to that journey and others, and cost NR^» (Network Rail - home page) a rumoured ^50,000 as compensation to TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company)'s as a result. NR are responsible for ensuring there is no trespass and have to pay up if there is and it delays trains.

If that incident had been on the national network and a man fell on the track delaying trains the costs would have to be met by the station TOC as they are supposed to be responsible for preventing it.

Trespass - a minefield in the delay resolution part of the operational side of the industry. That triggers the compensation paid, either way, between NR and the TOC's and has been a bone of contention since before it all started back in 1994. I went to the initial meetings about how it was going to work and remember a load of grizzly old railwaymen laughing a top table full of bright young things off the stage when they were trying to explain how it was all going to work. It hasn't got any better. When I did it I was at the top of the chain and signed off the daily summary of delays accepting or disputing things with an opposite number in NR (or R/T as it was then) which culminated in actual cheques changing hands every month. I understand there are another three or four layers above that now, including lawyers to sort out the tricky ones. Earwigging a court hearing would be quite interesting I would think,

Drones? - a public menace in the wrong hands.
 

[TaplowGreen]

Drones? - a public menace in the wrong hands.
 

At ^50,000 of taxpayers money wasted on one incident, I'd say cameras, binoculars, notebooks and thermos flasks fall into the same category too!

[JayMac]

Those items are stereotypical of the rail enthusiast. 99.9% of rail enthusiasts wouldn't dream of trespassing to get the perfect shot. With Flying Scotsman I'd wager nearly all those trespassing were non-enthusiasts.

The rail enthusiast community has rightly condemned the actions of those trespassers. Magazines and forums have published pictures of trespassers to aid identification and (hopefully) prosecution. Where trespassers have uploaded pictures and video to social media they have been rightly castigated.

The stereotypical 'spotter' with his binoculars, notebook and Thermos^ wasn't the problem here. Don't tar them all with the same brush.

[grahame]

How do you define "enthusiast"?   It's someone who is enthusiastic and the new, unaware, fascinated enthusiast who knows no better or lets their enthusiasm overtake their adherence to rules or consideration for their and others safety.

It's within this wider extension from your responsible 'rail enthusiast' to the over enthusiastic that the issues of trespass and safety lie - but unless they can be separated, there's every chance the few will bring the controls needed for their own safety on the few onto the many.

[TaplowGreen]

How do you define "enthusiast"?   It's someone who is enthusiastic and the new, unaware, fascinated enthusiast who knows no better or lets their enthusiasm overtake their adherence to rules or consideration for their and others safety.

It's within this wider extension from your responsible 'rail enthusiast' to the over enthusiastic that the issues of trespass and safety lie - but unless they can be separated, there's every chance the few will bring the controls needed for their own safety on the few onto the many.

Exactly - in the same way that the vast majority of decent, well behaved soccer fans were impacted by the actions of a relatively small number of high profile hooligans.

[JayMac]

How do you define "enthusiast"? 

With lazy stereotypes it seems. 

[ChrisB]

There are complaints in the Norwich area as the Flying Scotsman has been pulled from a visit there because of these 'enthusiasts' likelihood of trespass....Rail was tweeting about it yesterday.