TH'r, sure, ".... if they wish to pursue it". So too can the same be said of spitting on the sidewalk in NY laws. If someone "wished to pursue it", sure, they could "throw the book at you" for doing that too.
Just curious: can you tell us of any such incidents of anyone getting ticketed, fined, roughed up, etc.... for md'ing (or walking or whatever) alongside RR tracks? Barring this anomoly of this thread? Sure: if someone sets up a pup-tent to permanently live besides the RR tracks, then yeah, they can and would roust you. Granted. I just don't see this occurance as anything more than an anomoly, that ..... true .... if you worry long enough and hard enough "anything can happen".
Tom, besides this one seems to me we had a post a couple years or less back where a member was ticketed for it, but could have been on another site as I have belonged to all of them....
Here is the difference in your case, what will spitting on the sidewalk cost you if they want to persue it. Less than a $100, what will trespassing on railroad property cost you if they want to persue it, hundreds of dollars at a mininum, and you had better pray you haven't damage any cable on the easement, or they find a cable damaged by someone else as they will blame the person caught there... Not sure why some members say dont hunt a persons private property with out asking it is wrong, yet say its okay to hunt railroad property which is private property..........
Here is what I am positive of.... Railroads are private property, the same as any private property when your on it your trespassing..... It isn't like hunting city parks, county parks, beaches or state forests, it is private property....They can fine you, but the danger of fines does not end there....
There are private easements on railroad property that phone companies use for fiber optics. Can you damage this cable digging with your hands, no, can you damage the cable digging with a small spade or a trowel like we use for land detecting, yes you bet you can. Fiber optic cable has a metal wire in it for locating.....Even a small hole cut into the cable while digging that signal your detector gave you for the metal wire in it that does no damage to the fibers costs in the high hundreds of dollars to repair, cut or damage just one single fiber, and the costs run in the tens of thousands and goes up from there and you had better believe if there is anyway at all to pass that cost off on someone they will do it. We had lawyers that was their only job, they were paid a yearly salary, didnt matter if they had 10 cases or 1000 cases a year so they had no problem going to court.
I have worked on maybe 15 fiber cuts in my life, every single one of them where someone damaged the cable that was on an easement were persued legally....the small ones were in the $100 k, the largest one I knew about was 2.5 million $, the farmer did not have enough insurance to cover it and they took his farm and sold it to cover the damage... He was stupid, he had sold the easement to a gas company, found out it now contained fiber and wanted more money, he was told the easement was bought for life and he would get no more money so he cut it....... By the time it was repaired the bill was more than his insurance would cover...
Back then I worked for a different phone company and for 16 years, part of my job was riding my fiber route every day, the route was 125 miles and included railroads. Anyone on my route that was doing any digging of any type with out permission was told to leave, if they refused or gave me a hard time I called the law. I watched a police officer give one man 3 different tickets because he was on the easement digging, he refused to leave and so I call the police..... He thought he had ever right to be there and argued about it, he found out he was wrong. He got a ticket for trespassing, one for endangering utility worker, and one for endangering public utilities... His fines were over $1000, and he lost in court and had to pay...
If someone wants to hunt railroad property that has lots of iron slag, iron trash or other trash they will do it, but don't think you have a legal right to be there, or that your safe from being fined.... It is like illegally hunting the 1715 leases, you get away with it till you get caught, just don't think it will be just a tiny slap on the wrist if someone wants to get nasty with it...
