Why the obsession with trainspotting?

[hannahtr]

Prompted by a thread on here about trainspotters not being real men I was thinking about the range of hobbies people have and apparent concern about some such as trainspotting which are thought of as strange and not done by 'real men'. I wonder why this is?.

Is it any more strange than obsessively following a football team - getting up at 5am on Saturdays for the away matches at the other end of the country?

Is it any wierder than being a football obsessive and being able to repeat stat after stat about a particular football club?

Or being an obsessive ornothologist?

Or following athletics/ formula one/ other sports?

Or booking tickets for every performances of Taylor Swift?

Or being a member of an Aston Martin or other specialist car owners' club?

Or training for a marathon/ Ironman/ultra type event?

Or indeed being an academic researcher following a Phd and really becoming an expert on a subject?

Having a passion for something is a fairly normal part of life - if people didnt our world would be a lot less interesting!

I'll repeat what I said on that thread - my husband and I are trainspotters, we are weird, we don't care 😆

Presumably because it isn't niche enough and can be done by people not earning a six figure salary 🤷‍♀️

Trainspotting has always been the butt of jokes.
And actually there is so much more to it than just taking down numbers of trains. There are a wealth of wonderful illustrated interesting books about trains from every country and region of the world, about every era of the history of trains. And let's not forget the other "spin off "" world of Model trains.

I think there are a lot more boring obsessions than trains. Golf for instance, for me, must be about the most boring hobby in the world. But it requires money . And it is a status thing. And it is elitist. So people aspire to it rather than mock it, as they do trainspotting.

Actually I feel any hobby that becomes an obsession seems quite weird to people who don't share that hobby.

Now I want to be a trainspotter!

Just do it! Your nearest heritage railway is a good place to start - you'll see a much more interesting variety of locos, including steam trains, than you will on the UK mainline nowadays. Our nearest heritage line sells a platform ticket for £1, or there are vantage points near the station where you can get good photos.

It's one of a bunch of niche but otherwise mostly fairly harmless hobbies I guess. I'm never sure why British people seem to specialize in these in particular....and relatively speaking (compared to following premier league football or Taylor Swift) trainspotting and most other niche hobbies are fairly cheap unless you want to travel everywhere to spot them.

Because it’s seen as boring and nerdy and weird - no other reason.

Amazing heritage DMU -

Well, an academic researcher is usually pursuing a subject as a job, and is adding to human knowledge, whether that’s about a medical condition, a historical period or space exploration.

I do agree trainspotting is no stranger, objectively, than following a football team and your mood being dictated by a weekly result over which you have no control, and it’s certainly less environmentally problematic than a car club, and less likely to involve a pack of wankers than golf. And one of my close friends, having started with marathons, now runs extreme ultramarathons. It’s a cry for help.

I don't get the obsessive taking down numbers of multiple unit trains which all look the same, but there is very little as beautiful as a main line steam engine at full speed.

Except perhaps a Deltic thundering down the line!

My Dad was a train, plane and bus spotter.
His hobby took him to many interesting places including Hong Kong.
I have inherited the train and bus interest but can't get excited about planes.
Apart from a nice old fashioned bi-plane maybe.

I am acquainted (through work) with a person who has amassed a collection of model tanks, naval ships, aircraft etc so large he has several rooms of his house dedicated to it.
It seems mad in a way but it makes him happy and its better than spending money gambling, drinking etc.