The guy wasn't impressed and gave him a stern look, but I thought it was brilliant.
I've actually had a similar one, a few years ago I went out into the sticks to a level crossing to film Union of South Africa, there was one other bloke there with a stills camera and a couple of minutes before the train turned up a people carrier turned up with a bloke, his missus and two small kids. I expected the worst but things worked out rather well, the youngest stayed with his mother further back and the slightly older one was stood with his dad next to me, still expecting the worst but unable to do anything about it as we could hear the train approaching in the distance I couldn't relocate but when the train came into view there was a brief sound of the lad being excited at seeing the train but that was it, no disaster.
Some of the worst offenders are the older lot, who see you in acres of space and come over and have a one sided conversation with you while you are trying to film it meanwhile they are trying to take their shot with a box-brownie... Either that or you get the sound of an empty machine gun firing off which is the unmistakable sound of an SLR in overdrive. I should point out the younger generation do that too but stern words tend to send them marching back into the distance.
We all have to keep one thing in mind though and that is that if we are going to a station to see a steam train then expect cranks, if it is a well known station and is expecting a few steam trains passing in the same day then expect "normals" to appear by the dozen to see it too and bring their kids and the family dog - just like the fun and games I had at York several years ago. If you go there for the shot then that's your prerogative, if you manage a good shot then great if not then go somewhere else next time. Likewise if you happen to be stood alone in the middle of nowhere and someone comes over and starts yapping away whilst you are trying to film, then fair enough you can tell them to shut up or where to go or maybe even just move away yourself.
Another small thought to bear in mind is that we can not gerneralise who does what, and who's worst behaved and with what type of traction but the majority of us are considerate, when we are setting up we all ask who's doing what so we know that we won't be getting in anyone's way, it's the bad eggs that spoil it and it's probably the bad eggs that have the issues with the public.
* Should mention that despite the huge crowds at York I still got plenty of good footage, patience pays off.
Phil
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It's very tempting when people can be so obnoxious.
