It was a long day, left at 04:30 returned at 22:00. What a day!
VIA #2 is supposed to arrive at Kamloops at 06:00. When I got there (05:50) there is a large group of passengers ready for the train. The platform track is plugged by an Intermodal - with no power up front.
Talking to the man on the ground trying to get things moving it turned out that they had to split the Intermodal (12000 feet!) and the “shirts” were arguing back and forth for 2 hours if they could/should/will add one more car to the rig. I set up my camera on the extension of the passenger platform ( only difference no yellow warning stripe along the track side) and was chatting away with the CN guy, who got a call from the road master that I needed a High-Visibility vest.
No sweat, went to get it - should have worn it in the first place even on the pass.platform. The CN employee had to take care of some other stuff. Five minutes later the road master shows up and tells me that I’m not allowed to film on CN property (that is on the public VIA platform).
RM: “You can stay here if you have safety boots, safety vest and safety glasses.”
HJ: “So you changed the rules?”
RM: “No, that has always been the rule”
HJ: "No it hasn’t, I talked with your local cop two years ago about that. "
RM: “You mean Mike Stewart?”
HJ: “Yes that’s him, he told me that I should wear a HVV, that was all that’s required”
RM: “I’m sure you heard what happened in the last two month?”
HJ: “Yes! so what you tell me is I wear my vest, my safety glasses and my safety boots (note: I’ve got all that stuff from my previous life!) and I’m set?”
RM: “But you’re still not allowed to film. You can film from just outside the property.”
HJ: “That really cramps the style big time!”
I handed him one of my cards and told him th have a look at the videos.
That was the start of the day. Looks like they are very apprehensive about anyone getting close enough to record all the crap that’s going on (see above). The mucky-muck RM probably doesn’t know how much zoom there is on modern camcorders 
But he’ll find out when/if he looks at my videos.
Last year I talked to the transportation/operation manager who’s in charge for all the CN Alberta Subs.
We had a nice chat about safety distances etc. (“But you seem to respect that”) He was hellish surprised when all of a sudden my scanner squawked with the detector report. After I told him it’s a scanner he just shook his head and wished me a good day.
The short of the long story; The Canadian (VIA #2) was 90 minutes late.
First off a shorty on the Rocky Mountaineer at Redpass, BC
[vimeo]http://vimeo.com/72141006[/vimeo]
PS on the way home last night I checked out the perfect alternate spots just off the CN property and with much better sight-lines. Oh my, those road overpasses are the cat’s meow when you look a bit closer - tight tuck-in parking spot and then walk to the good spots. One can actually see past that first stirng of cars that always blocks the view.
End of Rant.
