RR crossings and access

Is there knowledge in the windsurf group (!) about gaining appropriate permission to access beaches, rivers etc over railroad tracks?

We recently had a site closed and posted no trespassing in Washington State. $250 fine to cross, no other access. Options include waivers, or seeking access crossings at some cost.

Any good attorneys have data on this one? Thanks,

No data or legal advice to provide, but the right you seek can be conveyed either by easement or license. An easement is a right to pass on another's property. The easement must be granted to identifiable people. That is, a 10 foot easement across the tracks and to the river might be granted to members of ABC Windsurfing Club and such members likely could enforce the easement against the landowner to preserve their right to pass. Conversely, an easement benefiting 'the windsurfers of Washington State' without greater specificity likely would be unenforceable by those wishing to pass.

A license is a right to use rather than an interest in the property per se. Just as the hot dog vendor is granted a license to hawk frankfurters but has no actual property interest in the ballpark, certain windsurfers might be granted a license to park on and launch from the property in question. The issue of adequately identifying the licensee applies to licenses as to easements. Note that the right to pass often is construed as implicit in a right to use as long as the circumstances allow. Otherwise, a good lawyer would make a right to pass explicit within the license if for no other reason than to estop the landowner from denying the windsurfer the ability to get to the water but still take the windsurfer's money for the right to use the property to launch.

Both easements and licenses require some form of consideration (something of legal value) and something in writing signed by the owner of the property for either to be enforceable.

The RR's are right near, if not at the pinnacle, of the Gorge pecking order. They literally bought irreversible, total control over both shorelines of the Columbia for much of its length from willing U.S. Congressmen, or so the story goes, in the early 20th century. If we cross their tracks uninvited on foot or in a vehicle, they can and will nail us for at least $250. If they can't catch us (because we're gone when the guy in the truck shows up in response to reports of our presence), they will sometimes bulldoze up a berm a horse would balk at. They are deadly serious about this, because trains hit 5,000 people/vehicles, injuring 2,000 and killing 600 each year, and the cost to them is huge even if they do beat any liability suits. Think you or any lawyer is gonna convince them to give up 1) the ruling crown they bought from Congress and 2) their relative legal invincibility supported by standing firm on the NFC/TMY rule? (OK ... No Crossing; This Means You.)

At one wild spot, some fishermen and occasional sailors park on the highway side of the tracks, 30 feet from the tracks but inside a permanent 30-foot-wide gap in a fence. That alone is worth the $250; they own and rule a huge right-of-way, and have posted or sent RR cops at/to such spots to nail violators. I used to have a remote spot across the tracks

Where exactly did you get sited? If a secret spot you don't need to answer but if it is a known area might save another from the situation you are in.

The odds of getting caught, and the enforcement, are likely to be worsened by some of the behavior I've seen at some of these spots (I drive by all of them well over a hundred times a year). One group often ran across the tracks too close in front of trains until the RRs came down hard on them (if they see us, they probably consider it too close, considering that their stopping distance is measured more in counties than in feet). That stymied crossings for a few years. Then last fall I saw a couple of vans of sailors parked inside the fence near the tracks. I turned off the highway and drove down to inform them of the far greater risk of arrest they were incurring just to save a 30-foot walk, but I'm not sure the message penetrated their pot fog. The minute one of these stoned sailors misjudges an oncoming