Met a Railroad Cop Today

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I've heard the "legends" of the fabled, if not feared, railroad police. While out surveying years ago on the tracks near downtown Charlotte, other guys were absolutely freaked out that I was on railroad right-of-way without the railroad's permission--this, mind you, was in the homeless district just north of the 277 loop where 1,000's of homeless folks use the edge of the tracks as a homeless highway. I'm sure the railroad po-po wasn't too concerned with me.

Nonetheless, my coworkers told me stories of how the RR police would arrest me if they caught me on the tracks, even doing something as mundane as taking some grade shots. I remember thinking "them and what army are going to pull up in unmarked vehicles and try to throw me in the backseat?!?!"

Fast-forward to today and I'm at a gas station filling up. A police-looking Ford explorer pulls up to the other side of the pump and a guy gets out in OD green cargo pants, tac belt, and open carrying a pistol, badge on the belt. I casually sneak a peek at the badge and it says "police officer special agent" with "Norfolk Southern Railroad" underneath.

There he was...saw one in the wild: a railroad cop. I decided to strike up conversation with him and come to find out, they're not the big bad wolf that people make them sound like. He says first off, there are only six of them in the whole state, including the supervisor. They're far from proactive in patrolling the tracks; they're mainly reactive to reports from drivers/engineers or other incidents (apparently someone firebombed an old N-S building in Asheboro this week, so they're assisting the fire marshal in the investigation).

I asked him about getting busted on the tracks and he laughed--said that was just a rumor that they keep alive to make people think twice about doing anything in the railroad right-of-way. He says you have to be doing something pretty bad/dumb on the tracks to catch their attention.

I know--kind of a let-down of a story, but I thought I'd share my meeting of the "boogey man" today. Pretty cool guy that I could have talked to all day if it hadn't been for our tanks topping off and needing to go about our ways. The moral of the story is putting coins on the tracks to be squashed is not as bad as his actions as a kid where they'd hop on the back of the caboose and ride it in/out of town in rural Texas! I don't think I'll be too concerned with the dreaded railroad police any more.
 
Fast-forward to today and I'm at a gas station filling up. A police-looking Ford explorer pulls up to the other side of the pump and a guy gets out in OD green cargo pants, tac belt, and open carrying a pistol, badge on the belt. I casually sneak a peek at the badge and it says "police officer special agent" with "Norfolk Southern Railroad" underneath.

And... What did you get arrested for (threatened, asked for sexual favors, etc)???
 
And... What did you get arrested for (threatened, asked for sexual favors, etc)???
That is one thing I’d recommend to anyone who wears any sort of badge: deputy dog badge, work badge, etc. You presumably want people to read it, so maybe don’t put it in the belt area nearest the crotchal region. It makes it look like I’m checking out your junk. I had that awkward realization while trying to read the guy’s badge. Luckily he didn’t think I was soliciting...or at least I hope he didn’t. If I get a Lionel train model of a Norfolk-Southern engine in the mail anytime soon, I’ll feel a little odd.
 
That is one thing I’d recommend to anyone who wears any sort of badge: deputy dog badge, work badge, etc. You presumably want people to read it, so maybe don’t put it in the belt area nearest the crotchal region. It makes it look like I’m checking out your junk. I had that awkward realization while trying to read the guy’s badge. Luckily he didn’t think I was soliciting...or at least I hope he didn’t. If I get a Lionel train model of a Norfolk-Southern engine in the mail anytime soon
I’ll feel a little odd.

Not sure how to respond but, yeah... o_O

(Just giving you a tough time)
 
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If you want to see an interesting railroad hobo, look up Stobe the hobo on YouTube. He would trespass on the trains and go all over the place. He had a few interactions with "The Bull" aka RR police.
 
I told some of the people at work about railroad police and they thought i was fibbing. I made them look it up.
Then they were like "why would you even know this?"
1) I know a lot of stuff
2) me and some friends used to hang out on the tracks, hop on to some cars, and ride them for a couple minutes. once, the train did not slow down or stop... we wound up hanging on the ladder of a car for over 20 miles, then walking 10 miles back up the tracks to have a friend pick us up. At night. In detroit. No joke - we passed a burning house, and everybody stopped watching the house on fire and turned to watch us walking up the tracks... surreal.

Never did run into a RR cop though. Saw them driving by a few times
 
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