Lots of trouble doing my train photography - any one else having this much trouble?!

USA, Midwest, Northwest Indiana:

I'm having lots of trouble doing the train photography I love, from cops and local crackpots, and wonder if anyone else has this trouble. But I think that this is largely because I'm a women, and most people could not tell you what a railfan is! Over the past year and a half, I have been subjected to public and police harassment, here in my home state of Wisconsin, as well as in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, and most of it takes the form of some person who I have never met calling the cops and saying I'm a "suicide." And - with a camera around my neck and a camcorder on a tripod! I have had trouble in the railfan meccas of Chesterton and Rochelle. I've had Porter and Chesterton cops watching me and in Rochelle, I was followed from Mendota to Rochelle, to the railfan park, a distance of 20 miles.

But I've had the most trouble at the Willow Creek diamond in Portage Indiana. I have been visiting the CSX Garrett Line since April 2024. The Willow Creek diamond is surrounded by public property, which includes Woodland Park, where there is a county driveway that goes over the tracks. Over about the last year and a half, I've been harassed by the Portage police and local people. A year ago, I was visited by an ambulance crew to "check to see if I was mentally ill." At the time, I had my Nikon camera around my neck and a camcorder on a tripod and had been shooting trains in the Woodland Park for about three hours. Now, this is in Northwest Indiana, where railfans with cameras next to tracks is a common and even expected sight!

But the real serious aspect of my experience is that someone or someones is calling CSX and telling them that I'm at Willow Creek to "derail a train." I was told this by a local, but also the actions of some "watchers" indicates this. The trains stop running and an MoW guy on a truck goes by on the tracks. He stops and glares at me, and on my last visit to Willow Creek, he tried to hide in the bushes! I have many, many locations that I can just migrate to along the Garrett Line for 30 miles east. I really don't need to be in Willow Creek, but the park and having First Amendment protections is important to me.

I'm figuring out what to do! I have a Master's in National Security and I understand what is going on, and I;m innocent of the bullcrap accusations against me! I'm a railfan and photographer, and a participant in many railroad clubs and societies. I'm about to use my education as a kind of weapon to fight back, and I will!