What do railfans do with all those redundant pictures?

Question

I was at a railroad park in Rochelle IL. with a friend. I noticed that some of the "railfan" types were taking lots of photos of what seemed to be the same thing. My friend told me that they were called foamers. I don't understand what this means, but their excitement at seeing these trains was kind of hard to understand. Are these folks obsessive or something?

Answer 1

Were they using old style cameras?  I have seen "railfans" shoot entire rolls of pictures of the exact same scene, usually a "roster shot" of a locomotive.  These are not railfans, but businessmen.  They plan to sell the slides to railfans.  

Why do they shoot so many pics?  Same reason as fashion photography, shoot a pile so you get a few good ones.

Are they obsessive or "foamers"?  No more than most men... ever talk to a boy about cars? Computers? Games? You get the idea.  Boys are boys.  But then, girls are girls, with their own sets of ... peculiarities.  "Pot, kettle, black" is what I say to that.

Of course, railfanning is a little "strange" because it's not a hobby the media exactly approves of.  It's some coincidence, isn't it, that all the "cool" hobbies involve buying things from their milion dollar advertisers.

Answer 2

their kids take them to the auction after they die

Answer 3

Yeah, "foamers" is an old joke.  Basically the problem is your lack of perspective. Women are primarily interested in relationships, and they take pictures of people in relationships.  Train fans take pictures of trains, and sports fans take pictures of sports.  Astronomers take pictures of the stars, even though they're about the same every night.  Because of your totally self-absorbed perspective, you think everybody else should be interested in the same thing you are, which is other people.  You think your hobby (controlling your husband) is somehow more lofty than the other guy's hobby.

So these guys have a hobby.  Some build models, and if you're going to build a model, you need lots of pictures.  Sometimes they don't build models, but they like to know how things were made, and they just like to collect that information.  I know it's amazing, but that's really what museums do, they preserve how things look.  

If you're like my wife, she doesn't want to see anything in a museum.  She wouldn't cross the road to see the moon crash into the ocean.  Anything that's not about her, she doesn't understand what people are looking at.  

But I went a wedding with her one time (mine), and she paid a guy a lot of my money to take about 500 pictures of this wedding (mine).  Honestly, there's not much action at a wedding.  No change in the scenery at all.  1 picture would capture it perfectly.  But it was all about her, and she wanted a lot of pictures.  I hope that helps your perspective a little bit.

Answer 4

Well, good question.

But you may ask the same thing of a wildlife photographer or a parent, why all the thousands and thousands of the same thing???

There is a certain amount of obsessive behavior in all of us I imagine.

I know of railfans who are not happy until they have photographs of each and every locomotive that a given RR owns.

And yes, your friend is right, we do call 'em foamers, they start foaming at the mouth at the mere thought of a train.

Can you imagine being a rail fan AND a railroader?

Your hobby would be your job.

That would be like having my own fishing show LOL.

Answer 5

A "foamer" is someone who foams at the mouth whenever they hear a train coming.  As for the photos, a good portion just like to take photos and will do nothing with them.  Most will stick a few on the hundreds of internet forums/galleries.  There actually is a market for photo slides once they start getting 20 or so years old.  Some plain old slides of shots like you are describing have sold on eBay for as much as eight hundred bucks, believe it or not.

Most of these guys in the popular places are railfans first and photographers second.  Or even third or fourth.  I'm a little different in that I am fairly serious photographer who has sold to calendar compaines (Non train photos,) and my goal is to make fine art type photos.  I do sell some train photos to magazines, along with articles I write.

Ultimately, foamers taking photos of trains is no different than people who run all over the world taking photos of birds.   Trains are big, smokey, dirty, powerful, and noisy.  In short, they have all the qualities that guys find attractive. (Except in women, of course.)  Well, I got to run.  Just heard a horn blow on the BNSF track that runs a few blocks from my house.  Catch you later.

Kent in SD

Answer 6

sell the photos to magizines  (you can make a ton of money)

use them as a basis of models make a book

Answer 7

Its sort of like p**n to them LOL

Answer 8

Not being a psychiatrist, I'm not qualified to say if they are obsessive or not (nor do I think MOST here are either)...

However, as a US Naval Aircrewman and a model builder I used to take thousands of pictures of my plane, and many many many others.  Many of those pictures are in Squadron reference books... so detail modelers can SEE what the inside of the engine compartment or cockpit or rotor-head look like.

Now that I'm into building model railroads; I have a home layout, do work at two local clubs, and have a business designing and building model railroads... I ALSO go out and snap pictures of railroads.

The trains, the cars, the tracks, the view AROUND the area, the buildings... it is REFERENCE material.

I suppose their interest would be the equivalent to YOU getting to see EVERY designer handbag ever made ?

Answer 9

They really need to have a life.

such a shame that they chase trains  all day long.