Trainspotters

I'm what you would term as being a rail enthusiast. As per the sentiment expressed by TW_Fox, I find it frustrating that because I am interested in railway history, engineering, and operations, people assume I collect numbers.

I have absolutely no interest what so ever in collecting different unit, coach or loco numbers. I dabble in rail photography and photograph anything unusual or historic such as a steam loco or heritage diesel.

I recently attended an event where I was able to see a steam loco hauling an 1800 tonne freight train - http://www.jonhewes.fotopic.net/p51555407.html

I also witnessed the arrival of a steam hauled train from London Kings Cross to Lincoln - http://www.jonhewes.fotopic.net/c1532082.html

Believe it or not, there is a thriving on-line community of rail enthusiasts - The www.wnxx.net forum has over 3,000 users, http://railways.national-preservation.com has 2,895 members, and http://forums.uktrainsim.com has over 13,000 members!
 
Theres nothing like getting on an old steam train, taking a trip somewhere and getting hammered on real ale.
I quite often have a drink with Pete Townshend & Pete Waterman on these train trips too but I haven't been on one for about 3 years.
 
AcidHell2 said:
Then why do they flush on to the track then.. Cos they certainly do that..
I've had the damn things hit me..
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I go on a lot of trips to London on Virgin Pendolinos and never once have they said, 'please don't flush the toilets in the stations', unless we get proper toilets in first class (which i can't belive cause the announcements are train wide, not class based).
 
When I was a kid I used to spend a lot of time on train tracks cause it was legal back then and we didn't have a lot to do.
I never once saw a turd on the track and thats 40+ years ago.
I would have thought toilets were even better now.
 
Presumably if a train is moving at pace said turd would be distributed over a fairly wide area. There must be a speed threshold after which point a turd would be spread too thinly and therefore would be unrecognisable. Perhaps in those halcyon days you were happily playing on a very thin layer of turds.
 
Rhys said:
I work near a train station and everyday there are at least 5 trainspotters on the platform. There is such a variation on the sort of people that do it. From young kids to old guys, men and women, scruffy people and people in suits.

Does anyone here spot trains? What is the appeal?
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We have a variety of bus watchers where I live, they semi-hide in between taking pics of busses, It's like collecting, I think there is something corrupted in their brains. Mind you is siting at a station any less weird than sitting on the plains of Africa waiting for a lioness to kill an impalla
 
The other strange thing I just remembered is that some trainspotters seem to talk into a Dictaphone as a train goes by and some film it with a camcorder. I suppose it is to just so they dont miss any "numbers"
 
gillywibble said:
I was forced to trainspot as a child :(

I got every Deltic.
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But Deltics are cool. All that power. Normally diesel-electrics aren't cool but the Deltic was. My favourite diesel.

[TW]Fox;12102676 said:
However what bothers me most about them is that most of the general public think there are only two types of people - people who are not interested in railways, and trainspotters. Therefore if you happen to casually mention you've got an interest in rail transport, everyone thinks you are a member of the pointless Thermos Flask and Bobble hat brigade :rolleyes:
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Agreed. I have an interest in rail transport, hell I got married at Midland Railway Centre because my wife also has an interest in steam powered locomotion and it was cool to be married in a Victorian Station house and have your own steam train pulling the reception around.

However, when people ask me they give me the same look you'd give somebody who was completely mental.

There is a massive difference between train-spotters and people who have a interest in rail transport.

My wife has an interest in the Holocaust as well, you should have seen her face light up when at the Berlin Technology Museum when she saw one of the trains & rolling stock that took the Jews to the camps. Was kind of eerie.
 
I'm vaguely interested in trains. I don't know too much about them, but I still enjoy seeing steam trains. I was pleasantly surprised when one went powering through Bath station while I was waiting for my train, and the smell was just something else. You just don't get that any more.
Apparently there's a steam train that goes between Stratford and Birmingham Moore St. Its a little pricey, especially as you can book a lunch on it, but I'm considering having a ride on it, just for the experience. I realise the experience would be lost a little on me, since I don't know too much about the engine, but still...
 
The trains on all the mainlines i've ever been on, do definitiey flush onto the track - i've seen it happen, much to everyones disgust in the station :D

I do understand trainspotting when it comes to really old steam trains, because they are interesting relics of the past.. I don't really get people who collect the numbers of bog standard trains though..

Same as bus spotting, at the Christmas fair in Lincoln each year, they all congregate near the Catherdral taking endless dismal pictures of buses..
 
When I was a little kid I wanted to note down car numberplated everytime I seen a car as I thought it would be interesting if I seen that said car again :p. What would that have classed as? Number plate spotting? :p
 
First the loo stuff...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6563775.stm

> Industry experts say the airline-style toilets on the Pendolinos, which in
> order to meet new health and safety guidelines store waste on board
> rather than flushing it straight onto the tracks, are also prone to blockages.

I've travelled up & down the West Coast Line for many years (though not as regularly as I used to) and after a shaky start the new trains seem to have sorted their bogs out. They were indeed very smelly for the first year or so.

I've also boarded a train before now when it was still being cleaned and the poop tanks were being emptied. There are plenty of older trains still around though, so I'm sure many tracks around the country are still 'entertaining' workplaces.

As for the trainspotter thing... I'm probably dangerously close to being an aviation geek, but it's only recently I've worried myself by starting to take a *slight* interest in aircraft registrations. The planes from Gatwick fly over this bit of Kent in holding patterns, and while I'm out walking I've sometimes taken pictures of aircraft, then later checked what they are and where they might be going. I try and convince myself that this might be healthy... after all those aircraft travel all over the world in less than a day, which is pretty impressive for such large lumps of metal.

But I suspect it just means I'm starting to go senile.

Overall I think hardcore spotter-ish behaviour is 'just' a flavour of OCD... an unnatural and obsessive extension of perfectly normal behaviour and curiosity. The trick is staying on the right side of obsessive! The trouble with that is everyone has their own idea of what's acceptable.

The way I look at it, whatever your hobby, if you're young & enthusiastic, or doing it with your kids part time and having fun, that's fine. If you're 50, still live with your Mum, have a model railway running under your bed, and spend every spare minute up the local junction with your notepad, you've *probably* wandered slightly onto the obsessive side, filling a gap in your life.

Andrew McP... 45, single, no trains under the bed (just shoes and dust), and not living with his Mum. Phew, I'm almost normal! No gap in my life, honest. Or Nike. I do have some George from Asda though.

Mmm... Oh dear, I think I might be a spotter after all! And hang on, I did buy a flask the other week, OMG! How could I have missed the signs? For the love of god, somebody save me! <fx:razor blade, blood............> ;-)
 
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