A railfan code of ethics and good behavior? By Double F? Good golly Miss Molly,...what next, color train pictures taken without even using film?

I think it is interesting how the railfan community in general feels a need to quantify in some way virtually everything. There certainly is no room for abstract thought or point of view. We must be precise, exact and have it written down in stone. This need has now even reached the point how we are supposed to approach our hobby, how we all must conform, has now appeared in the Holy Railfan Bible. Moses has come down from Mt. Kalmbach and the rules governing railfan life have now been given to the wandering tribes of railfandom.

The problem with editorials like Fred's is, this is a hobby for most of us. You know, a hobby, the thing we do to get away from life's maze of rules, expectations, and superiors telling us how to lead our lives. I don't subscribe to a magazine like TRAINS to have someone take up column space telling me how he thinks I should act.

Now I actually have no serious issue with what Fred wrote, but it represents nothing that will really change anything or anybody. If your parents haven't beat Fred's rules of behavior into your head by the time you're about 6, all the royal proclamations in the railfan world aren't going to make a difference. I read it, shrugged and thought, "yeah, so...I'm paying a fair amount of money to Kalmbach to read this?" This is a nice example of TRAINS doing a little superficial PR work, which is fine, I guess, but I see it as presenting nothing we all haven't heard and done ourselves. To read it this kind of article leaves me with the feeling, "Who is TRAINS to tell me what to do?"

Railfanning is a hobby, for me. It's how I get away from being preached at.

Martin Burwash

(although this IS the internet...I could be anybody...)