Which is the most friendly and least friendly TOC to rail enthusiasts

[fgwrich]

Interesting, as I'm going to uni there next year.

Hmm, I'll have to see what happens.

Dont know if shes still there, but i came across the FSR car park woman...who when seeing that i was taking pictures of 158s, came right up to the fence to shout the same old stuff about taking pictures... i mooved off to another part of the station and quietly took a few more pictures...

rich

 

[Mojo]

^^also at leeds they have their own platform guards (dunno if thats the right term) that whistle and see the trains off...

National Express East Coast staff dispatch XC trains at Leeds.

 

[Bittern]

Interesting, as I'm going to uni there next year.

Hmm, I'll have to see what happens.

If anything does happen it would be a rarity. As I said, I've been there once or twice and never encountered a problem. Out of all the companies I've heard that has a problem with enthusiasts, First ScotRail seem to be on the "nicer" side.

 

[martyn29]

EMT arn't very good. On a couple of occasions I've had staff say stuff to me.

A particular one was last time when some very unfriendly person came over and started saying stuff to me about me taking photos. Those words involved swearing.

When they havn't been saying stuff to me they've been throwing me looks.

Or maybe it's just the station? All of these happend at Derby.

Back in the day GNER wasn't bad, I did quite a bit once at York and they didn't bat an eyelid. Neither did the MML staff at St Pancras

Who were the people at Derby? As long as you aren't in the way it should be no problem at Derby

 

[monkey]

National Express East Coast staff dispatch XC trains at Leeds.

...last time I was at leeds, was deffo a xc person, as they had the xc uniform on (he was deffo a dispatcher, had whistle nad those bats). most of the time I've gone up to eds, its been like that...

 

[Mojo]

XC have staff at are Edinburgh and Birmingham New Street - the other stations use local TOC staff, and whenever I've been to Leeds it's NX staff doing dispatch. The website also backs this up that there are only two station teams. What colour jackets/blazers did you see these staff wearing, and did they have any hats?

 

[monkey]

^^erm, he didn't have jacket on or hat on but he did - have red tie on? I dunno you might know better than me, but I was sure he was xc staff...

 

[CCF23]

The Island Line is friendly i've had some cab rides there and regularly get asked for whether i would like some pictures in the cab, the guards are friendly too. Although i know that the Island Line is part of South West Trains who i don't rate as being generally very friendly. First Great Western, Arriva Trains Wales and Virgin have always been friendly to me although others may disagree.

 

[37401]

Ive never had any problems but NR jobsworths are the ones to look out for, EMT are very welcoming as are LM and they say hi, ive been at Tamworth and ive seen the same faces alot so people get to know you and its vice versa

 

[Mr Spock]

Only ever had problem at 2 stations (Marylebone and Fenchurch St) and each time it was a "security guard" who made a fuss.

At other stations I have always got on well with staff whatever Toc, etc they worked for.

 

[37401]

each time it was a "security guard" who made a fuss.

.

yup I had that at Coventry, it was the security guard who asked what we were doing and kicked us off

 

[SWT Driver]

They are indeed, but the drivers are hella stingy when it comes to giving tones!

They (manglement) get a bit tetchy over the use of horns nowadays, due to complaints by residents, there's no use trying to deny the use of the horn because its use is logged by the OTMR.

I'm waiting to see if I get pulled in for using the horn the other night at about 2340 to scare a deer from the track near Ash. :roll:

 

[2030720310]

Me and a friend were getting horns at Stechford, when the tiket office man came down and asked us to stop

 

[thefab444]

SWT getting some slack here; I've never had any problems on SWT stations.

 

[Aictos]

SWT getting some slack here; I've never had any problems on SWT stations.

Indeed Eastleigh has a poster on the platforms advising rail enthusiasts of what they can and shouldn't do.

Which is why FCC has followed SWT's lead in producing such a poster for use on the larger FCC stations as directed by the MD of FCC,

 

[SWT Driver]

Here's an update from SWT:

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/SWTrains/News/_railenthusiasts.htm

Which is all just plain common sense stuff really, although I did get a moron do some flash photography a while back. ****!

 

[alexdodds]

On the guidelines it would be better if there was a list of approved photography equipment for personal use such as.

Camera phone
Digital camera (still and moving)
Normal video camera
Tripod

Just incase the staff say you can only take stills and not moving images which was the case for me at Dundee in May this year.

 

[SWT Driver]

Good grief, it tells you, you can use more or less any of them, INCLUDING TRIPODS, provided that they don't cause obstruction (or positioned too close to the platform edge)

What more information do you need, Brand Names???

 

[fgwrich]

Good grief, it tells you, you can use more or less any of them, INCLUDING TRIPODS, provided that they don't cause obstruction (or positioned too close to the platform edge)

What more information do you need, Brand Names???

Ok SWT...Since my sodding Panasonic Cameras gone up sh*t creek,Ive now using a Sony Ericsson Camera phone...Good Enough For You?

 

[SWT Driver]

Perfectly as long as you DON'T use the FLASH!

 

[Bittern]

Can we use Batman?

 

[alexdodds]

Here's an update from SWT:

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/SWTrains/News/_railenthusiasts.htm

Which is all just plain common sense stuff really, although I did get a moron do some flash photography a while back. ****!

At the same time EMT also posted the guidelines on their website.

 

[The Box Photter]

Be particularly careful at Luton as this was the station used by the 7/7 bombers. I had a bit of a tiff with a member of platform train despatch staff once when taking a photo whilst changing trains. I e-mailed Elaine Holt and Moir Lockhead and received pleasant responses from both confirming that photography IS allowed.

It still seems to be the default position to try and scare photographers away by saying the usual old guff about "taking photos is not allowed ..... security risk etc".

I find its best to be pleasant with the staff and remember they're doing a pretty tricky job. You're obviously on stronger ground if you are on the platform for good reason and with a valid ticket for travel. Offer to show them the photographs and remember that no-one has the authority to make you delete any shots you have already taken or demand you hand over the memory card/camera equipment.

At the end of the day, the station is private property and if you are asked to leave, you must do so, or get on the next train!

 

[starrymarkb]

Surely whoever at FGW/EWS who arranged for the 67s to go sick for the last Weymouth relief of the year would be pretty enthusiast friendly

 

[asylumxl]

Be particularly careful at Luton as this was the station used by the 7/7 bombers. I had a bit of a tiff with a member of platform train despatch staff once when taking a photo whilst changing trains. I e-mailed Elaine Holt and Moir Lockhead and received pleasant responses from both confirming that photography IS allowed.

It still seems to be the default position to try and scare photographers away by saying the usual old guff about "taking photos is not allowed ..... security risk etc".

I find its best to be pleasant with the staff and remember they're doing a pretty tricky job. You're obviously on stronger ground if you are on the platform for good reason and with a valid ticket for travel. Offer to show them the photographs and remember that no-one has the authority to make you delete any shots you have already taken or demand you hand over the memory card/camera equipment.

At the end of the day, the station is private property and if you are asked to leave, you must do so, or get on the next train!

I've never experienced any problems when taking photographs at Luton, nor have I at Luton Airport Parkway.

I'm not really sure what relevance 7/7 has to photography. Taking photos of stations really poses no more of a security threat than the large number of people that use the stations everyday.

 

[alexdodds]

Be particularly careful at Luton as this was the station used by the 7/7 bombers. I had a bit of a tiff with a member of platform train despatch staff once when taking a photo whilst changing trains. I e-mailed Elaine Holt and Moir Lockhead and received pleasant responses from both confirming that photography IS allowed.

It still seems to be the default position to try and scare photographers away by saying the usual old guff about "taking photos is not allowed ..... security risk etc".

I find its best to be pleasant with the staff and remember they're doing a pretty tricky job. You're obviously on stronger ground if you are on the platform for good reason and with a valid ticket for travel. Offer to show them the photographs and remember that no-one has the authority to make you delete any shots you have already taken or demand you hand over the memory card/camera equipment.

At the end of the day, the station is private property and if you are asked to leave, you must do so, or get on the next train!

Stations are owned and maintained by Network Rail it is their property they lease the stations to the relevant TOC if they allow us on their 18 managed stations then they allow us on all stations in the UK

I am checking up on the bye-laws about been told to leave. Section 24 part 2ii looks a bit intresting

I have looked through them and photography is not mentioned in them and it also looks like staff can only remove persons if they are in any breach of any part of the bye-laws. photography is not in breach of the bye-laws. The only kind of staff that remove us are ones that hate us and think of us as sad.

I probably have got it all wrong again and back to the subject NXEC are good with enthusiasts although the name has changed the staff are still as friendly as they were from the GNER days. At Durham station on Saturday some came onto the platform to watch Oliver Cromwell pass by heading south.

 

[TEW]

Surely whoever at FGW/EWS who arranged for the 67s to go sick for the last Weymouth relief of the year would be pretty enthusiast friendly

Mark Hopwood, the MD, was on board, I think that says it all.

 

[tony_mac]

I have looked through them and photography is not mentioned in them and it also looks like staff can only remove persons if they are in any breach of any part of the bye-laws.

What about this?

13 (2) No person shall loiter on the railway if asked to leave by an authorised person.

 

[alexdodds]

What about this?

Yep i knew it i knew that would happern. Do i ever get things right.

Taking photographs should not be classed as loitering only e.g. if you were hanging round in a station with no camera and have no intention of traveling then you would be removed. Staff that class photography as loitering take the mickey out of it.

 

[SWT Driver]

Not if you've been there ALL day...