# Not just the TSA......



## tacfoley (Jan 3, 2008)

but also their Canadian 'partners' - both are capble of publilcy demonstrating profound ignorance, IMO.

Last weekend we were returning from Portland OR to UK via Calgary, and encountered the usual personal security check with our carry-on baggage. As my back-pack went through the x-ray machine, the young lady operator [YLO] called over her supervisor .

YLO - I'm getting a heavy electronic component response here, chief - looks like it comes from two items here.

S - Hmmmm, dunno what it is, I'll get the owner to stand-by while we check it out more thoroughly.

S to me - Is this your baggage?

Me - Yup.

S - It seems to contain a number of unidentified electronic devices, what might hey be?

Me - Could be my camera charger or my model train.

S - Your WHAT? Did you say a 'model train'?

Me - Yes, it put it in my carry-on because it is a. delicate and b. quite valuable.

S, after swabbing the bag for explosive residue - Let's open it up and see, right now I have no idea what you are talking about.

The bag having been opened up, he removed my camera charger and put it to one side, and also the two boxes containing the H0 scale Tenshodo GN S-2 loco and tender bought off e-***.

S - Do you know what is in these two boxes?

Me - Yes, I packed them early today.

S - You admit to packing these two items, whatever they are?

Me - Of course, they are my............

S - Don't tell me, I am now going to open these two items in front of you, and you are going to identify the contents and tell me what they are.

Me [bemused]- Uh, right.

S then opens up the smaller of the two boxes - this one contains the tender which I had carefully wrapped in bubble-wrap and tissue paper, as befits a $1500 vintage brass model.

S - What is this?

Me - It is the tender for the locomotive that is on the other box, carefully wrapped etc....

S - You mean this is actually worth something, like a hundred dollars or something? [He then opens up the other box, and plonks the loco down on the desk-top.] 'Jeez, what is THIS thing?

Me - I collect model trains - I have a pretty big collection of them back in the UK, and this is one I bought in the USA just last week. This one is prolly worth about $1500 or so....

S - What? $1500 for THIS? You're kidding me, right? I've never heard of such a thing. Wossit called again? A steam engine? So why is it full of electronics?

YLO re-appears - My brother has a ton of them, he's a train freak too. His makes all the correct noises, y'know, hooters and bells and stuff. THAT's what all the electronics are for.

S to YLO - You're kidding me, right? Then, to me - OK, pack up your stuff. [Mutters as he walks away] Well, I've never heard of ANY toy trains being so valuable before.

I leave the security area, totally amazed by the ignorance of my fellow man.

Well, maybe the few moments I spent being patted down prior to that should have primed me for what was to come.....I'm an older white guy, with freckles, balding grey fur [formerly red, like my eyebrows], green eyes, a florid farmer's complexion and go by the name of Foley - in other words, ethnically typical of my basic racial background. I was wearing a silver replica of a bronze-age bangle, and was asked if I was a Sikh, and did I wear it for religious reasons.......... 

My advice is to stay away from Calgary.

tac
http://www.ovgrs.org/
Supporter of the Cape Meares Lighthouse Restoration Fund


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## Ralph Berg (Jun 2, 2009)

Geez,
I'd say it was very fortunate you did not have any R/C equipment.
Ralph


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## wchasr (Jan 2, 2008)

And yet we breezed thru the checks with two laptops and two digital cameras two Nintendo DS's and all the associated chargers and plugs and such for them from Buffalo to Atlanta and back again a year ago? Maybe it was just because we were not flying into or out of the country? 

Chas


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Back when I sold model engineering supplies, live steam, and old fashioned (wood, tin, cast iron) toys, I often got the attitude from people that it wasn't a 'real' business.... (Then I don't have to file all those forms or pay these fees? right?) And a lot of 'that junk ain't worth THAT kind of money!'... (okay, then build it yourself, or do without)

If the person was SELLING something to me, OTOH, then it was gold.....

Our own fault, I guess, for not having 'normal' hobbies, like tearing up other peoples' property on quads or swilling beer and watching football.l


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## jfrank (Jan 2, 2008)

Apparently that is quite common with the Canadian customs. I was taking the train into Toronto from the US which went in through Niagra Falls. They went over the train with a fine tooth comb. We were there for almost an hour. They questioned every, I mean every passenger. When they got to me with the usual stupid question like why are you coming to Canada and what are you going to do, I told them I was vacationing and going to take the "Canadian" from Toronto to Vancouver. The female agent was totally puzzled, like she didn't know what a train was(yet she was on one) or why anyone would take three days to get from Toronto to Vancouver. When I crossed back into the US from Vancouver, the border check took just a few minutes.


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## Totalwrecker (Feb 26, 2009)

A very informative post! 
I've always wondered what my Tennshodo GN S-2 #2577 is worth! Dad brought it home from Japan (naval tour) in 1967. It sure wowed the gang at the Long Beach RR club back then. 
$1500! Whoo woo! The box (if I remember correctly, stored somewhere) was tagged with; 22,700 yen. 
He bought it at the factory store in Tokyo. 

John


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## NW Jim (Jan 2, 2008)

I had the exact opposite experience a few years ago when I was flying home from the Queen Mary show. The TSA agent instantly knew what I had in my boxes, because she knew what a garden railroad actually was. Her supervisor kept telling her to open my boxes (steam loco, Bridgewerks power supply, etc) and she insisted she would not because it would mess up the factory packing. They went at it for several minutes before the supervisor finally relented and let me through. I've always wondered if that lady ever went on to law school - she was pretty persuasive!


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## ralphbrades (Jan 3, 2008)

Terry, 

I am just wondering what they will think of the stuff that I am planning to take with me when we go visit family in Medicine Hat over the Xmas holidays... I still have some red hair (but not visible!). We had Guillaume here over Pass Over and he was flabbergasted at how "lax" things were. I regularly ship parts and components back from Frankfurt and Berne with me as "hand luggage" -along with dozens of metre long bars of "Toblerone"!!! If you have problems with a model loco imagine what I will have when I take home drawing of what I consider to be beautiful locomotives.... 

regards 

ralph


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## Cougar Rock Rail (Jan 2, 2008)

Ah yes, good old Calgary! Didn't you like the little model planes/helicopters that go zooming above your head in the lobby, though? Sorry to hear about your ordeal, Tac! 

A few years ago (pre 911), I was bringing my live steam Billy back with me from Ontario, where I had taken it to show my Dad. I had it in packed in one of those old gator-skinned cosmetic cases from I'm guessing the '50's. Anyway, you can imagine all the bells and whistles going off as it passed through the x-ray machine, and it wasn't long before about 5 inspectors were all over it. Turned out all they really wanted to do was to see it because they thought it was cool, and I had about a 15 minute show & tell session with them. Hmmm...now that I think back I think I might have forgot to tell them about the butane tank...oh well.  

Keith


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## East Broad Top (Dec 29, 2007)

Pre 9/11 - I'm flying to Denver from the steam-up in Diamondhead. I arranged to have a friend transport my locos back to Denver for me, but since I'm on my way back to college at this point, I've got items that a college kid would have, including my video camera, which isn't exactly your ordinary video camera. Okay, the camera itself is ordinary enough, but I built a shoulder mount for it with external (home-built) battery packs, large external microphone, light, etc.. Definitely looked cobbled together... Add to that the fact that the stupid camera died over winter break, so it wasn't working. While this was pre 9/11, security still insisted that electronics be turned on to prove they worked. Yeah, I was dreading having to explain all that, and quite confident there was going to be trouble. 

So, I put the camera bag on the belt and say nothing. It goes into the X-ray machine. The belt stops. The security agent calls over her supervisor. 

"Oh, that's one of them train things. They've been coming through here all day long. It's okay." 

I never felt so nervous on a flight in all my life... 

Later,


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## joe rusz (Jan 3, 2008)

My luggage misses the airport shuttle in Oaxaca, Mexico and I am experiencing a serious anxiety attack as my Mexican host works his cellphone, tracks down the bag and assures me it will be at the aeropuerto in minutes. Meanwhile, the gate agent is telling me that I must board the plane, which is sitting on the tarmac, baggage or not. As I look over my should at the x-ray machine I notice the inspectors staring at their screen and studying my bag, which has arrived (yea!). But then, they begin to look puzzled and I know what they're trying to figure out is my homemade camera thing--a woodworker's spring clamp with a Manfrotto ball head attached. They speak no English, I speak very little Spanish (Dos Equis, margarita), which doesn't stop me from trying to explain what this thing does (speaking VERY LOUDLY doesn't help). Finally, figuring this just ain't worth the trouble, they wave me through leaving me just enough time to scamper up the door stairs and onto the plane, where I use my Spanish to order that cerveza.


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## Semper Vaporo (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By joe rusz on 04 Jun 2010 03:15 PM 
My luggage misses the airport shuttle in Oaxaca, Mexico and I am experiencing a serious anxiety attack as my Mexican host works his cellphone, tracks down the bag and assures me it will be at the aeropuerto in minutes. Meanwhile, the gate agent is telling me that I must board the plane, which is sitting on the tarmac, baggage or not. As I look over my should at the x-ray machine I notice the inspectors staring at their screen and studying my bag, which has arrived (yea!). But then, they begin to look puzzled and I know what they're trying to figure out is my homemade camera thing--a woodworker's spring clamp with a Manfrotto ball head attached. They speak no English, I speak very little Spanish (Dos Equis, margarita), which doesn't stop me from trying to explain what this thing does (speaking VERY LOUDLY doesn't help). Finally, figuring this just ain't worth the trouble, they wave me through leaving me just enough time to scamper up the door stairs and onto the plane, where I use my Spanish to order that cerveza. 

Back in 1973 the company I worked for had a product that was sold to a Canadian/Canadien goverment entity (I don't think I am allowed to say which one, even now!). In order to sell it TO Canada it had to be manufactured there. I was involved in the build of the test equipment to test the device and when that test station broke one time, the techs there could not fix it, so I was sent to see what I could do.

At the Toronto airport, all the passengers from that plane were routed away from the main terminal and through a maze of stairways and long, narrow hallways/tunnels into a large room with long tables at one end.

There on the tables was our checked luggage. We were told to seek our luggage on the tables and then to stand by them, but not to touch them in any way... some folk ignored that "request" and were severely reprimanded by multiple, uniformed people on both sides of the tables. Some of the passengers were jokingly wondering aloud about what someone might be suspected of smuggling into Canada.

A young fellow, after he had searched the bag of the person next to me, stepped to my bag and told me to undo the bag but not to open it. I did so. He asked me what was in the bag and I told him it was a change of clothes, shaving gear, my Bible and a technical manual for some equipment I was coming to Canada to fix.

Then he told me to open it... I did so.

He picked up my Bible which was laying on top and riffled through the pages too quickly to read anything, and asked me, "What is this?"

Somewhat confused by his question, I replied that it was my Bible. (What? He didn't know? Aren't there any Christians in Canada?... Confusing!)

He then asked why I had it in my bag. I told him that I didn't want to have to mess with any carry-on bags so I checked everything I was bringing.

He riffled through the pages again and said, "What is it?" Hmmm... he must have forgotten that he already asked that, so I told him again it was my Bible.

He then asked why I had it in my luggage... again! So I told him again.

He asked again what it was!

I figured this must be a good time to "witness for the Lord", if the poor fellow was so ignorant of the Gospel that he didn't know what it was or why anyone would have it with them. But, I didn't get very far in my desertation before he interrupted me with:

"You cannot bring this into Canada."

I figured he was just playing with me to see if he could raise my hackles, so I shrugged and said, "Well I don't go anywhere without my Bible so I guess I can't enter either."

So he said, "I agree. You will not be allowed to enter Canada." and stepped back from the table, still holding my Bible.

I thought, "Oh great, my boss ain't gonna like this! What happens now? Do I get escorted to the next stage outta Dodge? Will I get handcuffed to a seat on a plane until just before they close the doors for takeoff?" I was really confused! But I tried to keep my head and I said something on the order of, "Well since I am here at the behest of the Canadian Government to fix something they need maybe you'd better get your supervisor to contact my company to explain this."

Okay, okay, I was "stretching the truth" just a wee bit, but it could be construed to be true... it was a product the Canadian Government was buying and they had told my company to get the machine fixed so they could continue getting the product... That could mean that they had invited me there... right?

He looked again at my Bible, then at me, tossed the Bible back into my suitcase, said I could go on, and stepped to the next passenger.

I zipped up my suitcase, picked it up and went out the door I got pointed toward, got my rental car and went to the hotel. I fixed the station in about an hour the next day (loose connection in the back), chatted for a couple of hours with the technician about how the station worked, how to troubleshoot the product and the station, the weather and U.S./Canadian relations... and the Customs Agent I had encountered.

The Tech said he had heard similar stories from some of the other U.S. employees that had come through Customs. I had been there once a few months before and I went there one more time a year or so later and didn't see a Customs Agent anywhere in the terminal either of those times.

My schedule allowed me to stay another night if I wanted (or more if needed) but I decided I didn't want to be there any longer than necessary and so I drove straight to the airport and left on the next available flight. (No trouble returning to the U.S.... except the third time and that was simply weather related... but that story is even better... just nothing to do with Customs or TSA!).


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## baron67 (Jan 5, 2008)

As a conductor on a tourist RR, I wear a lever set pocket watch, real RR one too. I have taken it off and put it on the x-ray 
belt and waited for the questions. What is it and what are all those gears for? I have seen one on the x-ray screen and it 
is neat, for me. Numerous people, US and Canada has said they have never seen one before, and looking at their age, they 
probably haven't. I get o spend some time explaining about the watch and why I have it...Some even believe me. 

Jerry Barnes 
Conductor 
Grapevine Vintage Rail Road


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