And that's what I do.

Know what I'd like to do? Take a couple of legislators along for a boat ride through the chunk ice, then have 'em follow me through the bottoms with hip boots for three or four hundred yards, then as we approach these 'rat huts we can wave to the folks driving by . . on the other side of the tracks. Wonder if the paramedics would have permission to cross the tracks to revive 'em.

Where I go, deer hunters and waterfowl hunters disregard this law on a daily basis. Some don't stop just at crossing. Many walk the tracks. Even fishing up in Marionette for the walleye run, people walk the railroad bridge to get to the island.

I walk up the tracks myself to some of my mink and muskrat trapping spots.

:

There seems to be more enforcement in the Southwest area of the State. My guess is the threat of terrorist action to the tracks/trains so near the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers!

Chris

The reason the Beav is scared of walking the tracks to this day. This scene was from part of his memoirs describing his childhood. The kid that portrays him in this movie wears the striped shirt with the white collar.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gozRrRCtj6E

12 pages... good grief. I was curious about the thread because I was chastised by a RR guy once. There was a crossing - I don't think it was a formal easement - that the RR said was there so that the farmer could access his field because the RR couldn't keep him from accessing his land. Regardless, he told me not to get caught because he didn't think I should be using it because I was just the non-landowner trapper. It seems I had permission to the private lands of the farmer but I didn't have permission from the railroad.

The problem we have is because our law is limited to a dualistic nature of public vs. private land. Railroad technically fits the category of private ground but the land is purchased and shaped in a unique way that personal property cannot match. There's not only a distinction between personal private property and corporate private property but also between other corporate private property and railroad private property.

Let's say my great great grandfather bought a large parcel of land in 1900 for some strange reason. The land he bought was in Wisconsin, 30 feet north to south, but east to west went from the Iowa/Minnesota border to Lake Michigan. The only legal easements were the roads in existence at the time and none were created since, no other roads or crossings were legally allowed thereafter. Crossings took place... until I inherited it and raised a stink about it. Would it legally be in my right? Yes. But it's a rather ridiculous example of personal property even though it's typical of railroad corporate property. Not all private property is equal.

Are we jointly co-owners of public land because we pay taxes? Would we also be co-owners of a railroad company if we had shares in it? If I invested in a railroad company would I be able to claim part ownership and then be able to cross that railroad's tracks when I wished because I'd claim it as partly *my* private property? Somehow I don't think the railroad would come to the same conclusion.

Railroads are an odd duck.

Good questions.

My friend r owns property that has a pipeline across it that benefits the public.
I have a sewer line crossing my property that benefits the public.

Should the public, because it was taken from us, have the right to trample across us?

Lol

Your wrong as usual no where will you find In this thread where I was scared to walk the tracks or cross them. I just pulled a few CRs today and I crossed the tracks In 2 places and In another I waked 100 yards down the tracks to pull another one. Your the one making this a huge Issue.
When we were young and stupid we use to put the car On the tracks and run from one crossing to the next one.

Beav-You must not have the Railroad cop cruising up and down the tracks like we do over here.

Moosetrot

From the newspaper article: ". . . Devils Lake State Park where more than 100,000 people each year illegally cross the railroad tracks on the public property. . . "

Interesting isn't it? The railroad dicks are more concerned with a few trappers, hunters and fishermen crossing the tracks than the 100,000+ people in one state park crossing the tracks annually. Ah, but that would be bad PR. Much easier to bag that lone trapper, fisherman or hunter and hope he/she doesn't squeak too much.

Pathetic. And our legislators are grappling with this issue?

Meanwhile, the "old guys" who have walked across the tracks all their lives to ice fish their favorite honey holes now sit in the living room looking out the window wishing they could be out there on the bucket. They're too old to park X number of miles up or down the highway and then walk the same distance back across the ice. And they're hoping someone with enough guts will get this issue resolved before they're too old to sit on the bucket any longer.

Never even heard of one let alone seen one.

Thats because they're talking about Wisconsin

The RR engineer must have known it was beav- I noticed no braking on that engine; it may have even sped up a little.

None of you ever ran the tracks with your car or truck?