I really like these side-by-side head on shots (safely done of course). The engines don't have to be running, but should have steam up. Might we someday soon hope for side-by-side-by-side head on shots of the recently restored Southern 2-8-0's (154, 401, 630)?

Les

Does the UP policy really change anything? OK, the part about requesting removal is new "Kalmbach, can you please recall the February issue? We don't like one of the photos..." but hasn't trespassing always been prohibited?

In one vague sense, this is an improvement--now a railfan has something that they can pull up for the busybody sheriff deputy in UP territory that thinks he's just got to call the Pentagon about "the al-Qaeda spy" he just "apprehended."

And Lord know, there are folks out there that need clues savagely beaten into their skulls. The best story along these lines I ever remember was a story that showed up in an early issue of Railfan, when a woman became so engrossed in photographing the American Freedom Train's steam locomotive that she didn't hear the electric commuter train slipping up behind her, and the train crept up so close behind her that the conductor leaned out the front door and tapped her on the shoulder!

The problem with "one size fits all" policy is the black-and-white, absolutist nature of the restrictions. Real-life example: My brother-in-law and I showed up in Seligman, Arizona just as the old trackside Santa Fe Harvey House depot was being demolished. I had paged one of the magazines about possible photos of the demolition, and showed up on the scene in full personal protection equipment, crossed the tracks at a legal crossing, and hiked a considerable distance in on the south side of the tracks, into what years ago had been a small yard for the AT&SF. I bagged a couple trains going past the demolition's beginnings. Eventually a BNSF employee, a supervisor of the demolition, crosses the tracks and grills me/us about my mission. Long story short, they end up calling the magazine to verify my story about shooting some photos for them. Coming back over, he tells us we have to leave, then and there. even though we arr way out of potential harm's way, even though I had done everything "by the book." I shrug, we go.
A half-hour later, the same guy spots us at the convenience store/gas station on the west end of town, and pulls up to us and profusely apologizes for being "such a ****head back there!" It turns out that 1) HIS supervisor was there; 2) a group of three kids had been over there about two hours ahead of us, "checking out" what turned out to be an eagle's nest in a mound of dirt I had almost scrambled up to get a higher vantage point, and the kids had blithely blundered over the tracks as kids are wont to do, and 3) he approved of my BNSF Citizens for Rail Security card I had presented to him as part of my ID process.
But those newsworthy photos didn't show up in said magazine, and it wasn't for the quality or lack thereof of the photos.