Carrying electronics and trains through airport security

[randgust]

I've had the TSA completely freak out over track rail gauges.   Just because they are metal, in a gun shape, and come in a holster.

I carry an entire users manual with me just to prove what it is and what its for and I pull it out of my carry-on so there's no 'SURPRISE!'

http://rrtools.com/images/NewGAUGE-1.JPG

[up1950s]

Even if the TSA via call says it's ok , you still have to deal with the one on one TSA agent who has the power to wreck your trip plans .

[daniel_leavitt2000]

I was searched and interviewed for much less suspicious items than that. That screams "TV/movie bomb". And similar to test packages that send though to train security.

We travel internationally once or twice a year. Security is no joke. Don't piss off three people behind you who:
1. See the TSA agent tense up.
2. Watch you escorted off to the interview room.
3. Are stuck till the package is "cleared" by bomb dogs or forensic sniffer.

Not a good way to make friends.

Drop ship it ahead of you, or load it into checked unlocked baggage with a note explaining what it is and a phone number you can be reached at.

Or just bring a conventional throttle.

[Angus Shops]

 While most of us in Vancouver would love to see it in motion, even a static display would would be great.
Geoff

[u18b]

Sorry, but I have a low view of TSA.  I know they have a job.... but.

I wouldn't risk it.
There is way to many things that could go wrong.

You detained.
Bags held up
device confiscated.
your device damaged.

Here in Pensacola, the entire airport was shutdown this very morning because of a suspicious device.  At this moment, no report on what it is.   If that happened to you... would be bad.

just my 2 cents.

[Scottl]

Don't forget to consider your return flight, and CATSA.  They have the same, but likely subtly different set of concerns about homemade electronics.  I've had no end of troubles with commercial items like these: https://rbr-global.com/products/standard-loggers/rbrvirtuoso-rbrduo.  Mind you, they kind of look dangerous.  I would check the train controller and let them look at it in the comfort of the back room at the airport.

[CNR5529]

I was held up by TSA for 45 minutes last year for bringing a few bags of Arizona Rock and Mineral ballast with me (we cant get it in Canada so I pick it up when I find some while on business trips). Despite explaining that it is crushed stone for model railroading, the labels on the product that describe where the rock was quarried from and crushed, and showing the receipt from the hobby shop where the product was purchased, TSA still decided to open each bag, collect samples, and test it for drugs and/or explosives. You'd think after the first three bags they would have decided it was good to go, but no... they still opened every last one.

If the TSA agents cant use common sense or logic for something straight forward like that, I definitively wouldn't risk bringing something like a home made throttle across, which is that much harder to explain.

[C855B]

I've had the TSA completely freak out over track rail gauges.   Just because they are metal, in a gun shape, and come in a holster. ...

...I've had no end of troubles with commercial items like these: https://rbr-global.com/products/standard-loggers/rbrvirtuoso-rbrduo.  Mind you, they kind of look dangerous. ...

TSA hates tools of any kind. You will find an endless number of stories about support techs making an emergency client call and getting detained for their normal service kit. Heaven help you if it was something über-expensive like signal analysis gear that you did not want to check, it didn't matter, it wasn't going into the cabin. Ask classical musicians about the hassles they go through to travel with very expensive and irreplaceable instruments. Would you kowtow to the TSA agent requiring you to check your $4 million Stradivari? I wouldn't.

It was even pre-9/11 that my wife packed a collectable kaleidoscope that the TSA agent thought looked like a hammer on the x-ray, and we were stopped. That was in the long-gone days where you could demonstrate what it was and they'd reluctantly give you a pass.

No tools. No non-mass-market electronics. Nothing odd. Nothing "everyday folk" wouldn't have. But even "everyday folk" doesn't count any more, given all the restrictions on normal grooming supplies and paraphernalia. I quipped several decades ago after a new restriction was enacted - very mild in retrospect - that air travel would eventually require being stripped naked and loaded into coffin-like tubes, and you would be reunited with your clothes and maybe select belongings at the destination, having been flown on a separate plane. We're almost there.

[Philip H]

back in 2011 we were flying as a family to Seattle From DC for a scientific meeting.  My very talented wife had made homemade play dough for the kids who were toddlers at the time. Even though it passed the bomb sniffer machine test they still seized it because they couldn't really tell it wasn't explosives. Stuff is flour, corn starch salt and a bit of water.

What is the famous quote about trading liberty for security and ending up with neither?

[Scottl]

Max, perhaps arranging a local power pack will ease travel.  I don't see the locomotive being an issue but the controller is a wildcard.

[mmagliaro]

Thank you everybody.

I think you are right.  The thing screams "bomb" to anybody who doesn't understand anything about electronics
or home-made hobby items in general, and that likely means 99.9% of the TSA agents.

I am going to just mail it up there in advance.  The model engine has to stay on my person at all times, but I don't expect any trouble from that.  I will just pack it in my carry on and run it through the X-Ray without even calling attention to it.
Even if I have to open it and show it to them, I really don't expect trouble with the engine.

And yes... to the very alert and astute observer who noticed... that is indeed the painted, disassembled 0-6-0 in the background of one of the photos of the throttle.

[Maletrain]

Maybe this crap will result in the reintroduction of more passenger trains?  But, then again, terrorists are starting to blow up trains, too, so maybe this TSA mentality is coming to trains, soon, too?

[C855B]

... maybe this TSA mentality is coming to trains, soon, too?

Already there. Maybe not with metal detectors and security lines (yet), but if you have traveled through any major Amtrak hub such as Chicago, NY or DC you will have had your luggage sniffed.

There was a serious proposal two years ago to add airport-grade security screening to Amtrak across the system, obviously the product of big-city think. It was rightfully and finally dismissed as preposterous given that most Amtrak stations on the long-distance routes are little more than unstaffed shelters in the middle of nowhere.

[Scottl]

Max, last time I was at RMMBC, I bought a Kato locomotive and brought it back in my carry on.  They saw it in the x-ray and wanted to see it, but on a quick glance, were satisfied.  Your model should be safe to travel that way.

[Point353]

The model engine has to stay on my person at all times, but I don't expect any trouble from that.  I will just pack it in my carry on and run it through the X-Ray without even calling attention to it.
Even if I have to open it and show it to them, I really don't expect trouble with the engine.

You might want to print out and carry with you a copy of the main webpage for the meet.
http://railwaymodellersmeetofbc.ca/
If questioned, you can show it and say "I'm Max" and "this is my steam loco model that's a featured attraction at the meet I'm travelling to (or from)."
Maybe put a model railroad magazine, or two, in your carry-on bag, as well.