I laughed a little bit when I read this, the topic was spot on but the description was off. As a railroader I don't expect to see a railfan wearing safety boots, long pants, and safety glasses. I would find that more comical. Your doing leisure activities so you should be dressed that way, shots are fine.

What I find comical about the railfan dress style is the usual unfashionable out dated clothes. Stuff like socks with sandals, old stained t-shirts, Shorts with extra high tube shocks(the ones with the color stripes on them). The over the top railfan shirts/hats are funny too. Wearing a hat with your favorite railroad is ok, just don't put 34 pins on it. If you don't want to stand out you should dress like everyone else who is not a railfan and act like you were on the way to run some errands and happened upon a train. Also don't be so excited that you can hardly contain yourself. Some of the funnest times people have taken pictures of trains I was on they were literally running around like a hyper puppy looking of a place to use the bathroom.

As for wearing safety gear, if you are in a location where you need it, you shouldn't be there taking pictures.