Can someone tell me .................?

Question

What trainspotting is all about?? (no i dont mean the film)

Answer 1

It's like the game that my cousin & I played when we were kids and the new Austin Mini Metro came out. I lived in one town and he lived in another and we would see who could beat each other in spotting the most Mini Metro's.

The only differance is that train spotters are grown up men who are trying to out do fellow spotters and collect more train numbers.

Answer 2

I like watching trains and learning about them but foamers can get really annoying blabbing about "did you se that ex-southern Norfolk Southern SD-45-1 with the air tank and longborn horn"

Answer 3

Some very good answers but you wont get far in the UK with a scanner or find many train dispatchers.

In the UK Train Spotting usually involves collecting numbers and attempting to see every engine in the country, this can spread to collecting coach and waggon  numbers as well.

Many train spotters like to take photos whilst others enjoy riding behind certain types of engine.

Train Spotters come from all age groups and it is not confines to the male s*x.

Answer 4

Do you like trains? If not stop here.

If you do, do you like watching the trains go by? Or is there more fun poking around inside the engine?

If you answered positively to the first then you are a train spotter. If you like, you can write down the number on the side of the locomotive. You can then find out more about that locomotive from books, magazines or even the internet. You could take pictures of trains, and share them on any number of web pages. Someone is bound to respond and tell you something about the train or the line or the name of the conductor. Some people like to buy "scanners" from radio stores and then listen to the radio frequencies used by the railways to regulate their operations. This way you can get an idea of how long you may have to wait to see a train. Otherwise, it can be as unpredictable as fishing. And to some people that is part of the attraction too.

If you need to ask, you probably won't like it.

Do Not Trespass on the Railway

Answer 5

Collecting numbers Engines  carriages.Trains.

Answer 6

I guess I'm more of a railfan than a trainspotter... I do it as research for my model railroad.

I go out to the commuter tracks, and the Stockton, California UP Yard  I model: I take some pictures for reference, maybe a few notes, and no I don't have a scanner.

Mostly I'm looking to get appearances correct, the right type of cars, and the general "look".

Oh, I ALWAYS call the appropriate security group, and I HAVE reported trouble (broken crossing gates, hazmat near tracks, and a set of smoking-brakes) as well as actual trespassers.

SADLY, I've seen no "buxom beauties" trainspotting... and I REFUSE to dress in drag for Hogshead's amusement !! hahaha

Answer 7

For 50% of the railfans, trainspotting is about enjoying trains going by.  

For the other half, it's about stalking trains for miles on end.  It's about standing in the right of way (very dangerous to do) to take pictures of trains.  It's about trying to bother engineers when they are stopped so they can ask questions that engineers aren't supposed to answer (technically you can get a crew fired for telling you who's on what train etc.) and acting as if somehow disrupting a man at work is something they should be patted on the back for.  

There is a way to tell a difference.  If you drove 25 miles down the highway to follow right next to the engine, you're the second half of the railfans.  If you're 21 and your girlfriend (or so you claim to have one) is at home waiting for you to take pictures of trains instead of take her on a date, you're the second kind.  And #1, if you could be home having Thanksgiving dinner with your wife but, you're taking pictures of me on a 30 year old rust bucket that is leaking more oil than the Exxon Valdez, you're the worst kind of railfan.

EDIT:  Hoghead, I've had members of the general public who weren't railfans report to the police/dispatcher/me such things as a wheel on fire or a kid riding the side of a car.  What I'm talking about are the 45 yr old guys wearing a t-shirt too tight and listening to everything on a scanner.  They are the ones that think I'm going to let them board my engine and pester me to death when I stop in a siding and have a moment to go to the toilet.   Doesn't matter anyway, I got promoted to RFE yesterday.  I won't be on as many trains now.

Answer 8

It is about people indulging themselves in their hobby, nothing more and nothing less.  But there are benefits beyond personal indulgence.

On more than one occasion, I have been notified via radio by a train dispatcher advising of a problem back in the train, the condition having been reported by a train watcher.

It never hurts to have extra eyes rolling your train by, particularly these days.

There are those of us railroaders who find them annoying, at times.  But, if the people involved were predominantly buxom young ladies, I doubt there'd be much consternation amongst us....

Funny, how that works, isn't it?

Answer 9

Personally, I have never done it.

And often thought it unusual.

However, I have just read the BBC book from the series 'The Age of Steam' by the late Fred Dibnah. (Now he could hardly be called an anorak could he?)

And it has made me think about  the role of the British (English,Cornish,Welsh and Scottish) engineers and inventors who gave rise to the Industrial Revolution.

From their endeavours came. among other things. the steam locomotive. This probably more than anything else allowed ordinary folk the opportunity to travel, for the first time, beyond their village and local town. I believe it to be the greatest feat of the millennium.

So, those who choose to spend their time cataloguing and noting the examples of that advance are enjoying it too. In their way.

And when were you last mugged,molested or mooned at by a trainspotter ?

Answer 10

spotting trains