With all the discussion of the above subject, I ran across this photo of Portland, Maine. Seems the Maine Narrow Gauge folks were running a photographers special when this guy rode past on his bike, which didn't please them. I think it's kind of a neat photo myself.

http://naphotos.nerail.org/showpic/?photo=2003112600285318422.jpg&bydate%3A25
ryarger@rypn.org

Okay, what the heck's the problem?

The train is stopped. You can simply wait two seconds for the innocent bicyclist to exit stage left. TWO SECONDS. If it's a photo run-by, why hasn't someone purposely stopped the bicyclists way up the path for the few moments the runby takes?

The only reason for anyone to get angry would be if the train's organizers had planned a photo trip to coincide with, say, a bike-a-thon on the trail. Even then, whose fault is that?

I'm both a rail-trail bicyclist and a rail preservationist. There's room for both, in this case and others (Northern Central in Pa., for example). Much as we might not like a strip of asphalt in our photos, it beats not having a place to run the trains--which, in the case of Portland, is probably what the choice is.

LNER4472-NOSPAM-@bcpl.net