|
Railroadiana, Trains
more...
 Home
Knives, Swords & Blades
Militaria
Science Fiction
Tobacciana
Trading Cards
Transportation
 Automobilia
Aviation
Bicycles
Boats, Ships
Buses, Taxi Cabs
Maps, Atlases
Motorcycles
Other Transportation
Pins, Buttons
Railroadiana, Trains
 Hardware
 Badges, Emblems
Dining Items
Lanterns, Lamps
Locks, Keys
Other Hardware
Spikes, Nails
Tools
Whistles, Bells, Horns
Other Railroadiana
Paper
Advertising
Annual Reports
Books
Brochures
Calendars
Employee Timetables
Maps
Menus
Other Paper
Passes, Tickets
Playing Cards
Public Timetables
Rule Books
Stock Certificates, Bonds
Photo
Negatives
Other Photo
Photographs
Slides
Video
Watches, Pocket Watches
Scooters
Signs
Subway
Trucks
Videos
A railfan or rail buff (American English), railway enthusiast (Australian/British English), or (often with a more specialized meaning, described below) trainspotter (British English), is a person who is typically strongly interested, in an amateur capacity, in railroads. Railfans can be found worldwide. Railfans can also be retired career railroaders who still share a love for watching trains as well.
Other names
Excessively enthusiastic railfans are sometimes referred to pejoratively as "foamers", especially by American railworkers, in reference to the joking notion that they foam at the mouth in their excitement over train operations. "FRN" (for "fucking rail nut") is a similarly-used term in the American rail industry. The UK equivalent is "crank", which has been taken into enthusiast usage.
In the UK, railfans are sometimes called trainspotters, grizzers or gricers, according to their speciality (see below). In Australia, they are sometimes called "gunzels".
The study of railways, or a general interest in them as a hobby, is sometimes known as ferroequinology (literally, "study of iron horses"). The term is rarely used by non-railfans. The Railway Magazine attempted to popularise the term railwayac without success in the early 20th century.
Activities
The hobby extends to all aspects of railroad systems. Various people have one or more particular concentrations of interest, such as:
Railroad locomotives and rolling stock;
Still-used or disused railroad lines, bridges, tunnels, stations, and other infrastructure;
Subways and other local rail transit systems;
Railroad history;
Railroad photography;
Railroad signalling;
Model railroading;
Railway photography
Train photography is a common activity of railfans. Most railfans do their photographing from public property, unless they have permission to use a specific private property owner's land. Occasionally, they run into problems with law enforcement, especially due to post 9/11 paranoia, because they are sometimes viewed as suspicious. In fact, in 2004 the New York City Subway attempted to institute a photo ban. This was met with fierce opposition, and was ultimately scrapped. Railroad companies also sometimes dislike railfans, considering them a nuisance.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
|
|
