railfan

[i'mlost]

ok i mean no disrespect to all the rail fan people, but, what's the big deal? what's so great about just pictures of trains without anything painte on them. yes, i may sound like i'm being ignorant but, that's because i am. i'm just trying to gain some knowledge and try to understand. peace.

[Ski Mask]

Thats like asking a car nut the same thing. "So whats the big deal about just pictures of cars and stuff" If your not intrested it doesn't have any signifigance.
If your into it its not just "pictures of trains" it means somthing to you. Its a odd paintjob on a SD45 or pictures of the last Alcos in service on a railroad. Remnants of long gone predacessor railroads...

If your not into it thats fine...but its hard to explain the attraction.

[i'mlost]

ok i get it. not my thing but, it makes sense.

[kinkosnerd]

Its a pretty interesting thing that so many people on here are supporting the railfan and moniker posts.. I think that its pretty cool...

Next thing you know everyone will be posting their model train sets.. (which I think is very cool as well, so if you get an idea from this, post away.)

[baLLeRplAyA]

the railroads are what built this country.......they linked the west and the east.....history man, why wouldnt it be interesting......

[EL MASKO]

Originally posted by JumpOffStuff
what's so great about just pictures of trains without anything painte on them.

Because, one of these days it/they're not going to be here anymore. People thrive on technology, so old things get updated.

[sectorTVA]

i wasnt really into trains until i started painting them, and started reading alot in trainspotting on this board....the yard safety thread really turned me into a rail fan.....i just got really curious on how the railroads opperate after reading the first few safety tips in there....now its like a constant quest for knowledge on trains....

[Willy Wonker]

Trains are just dope in general... ever since i started painting them I just love being around them...:cool:

[honkyartist]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by JumpOffStuff
ok i mean no disrespect to all the rail fan people, but, what's the big deal? what's so great about just pictures of trains without anything painte on them. yes, i may sound like i'm being ignorant but, that's because i am. i'm just trying to gain some knowledge and try to understand. peace. [/QUOTE
You should already know the answer if your asking that ?.
To a dedicated train oriented person any sighting or mentioning
of a train keeps that persons blood boiling. When you got the spirit
you do and when you dont you dont.
Sk8 rip died doing a fr8 his spirit lives on in all of us
true train rockers.

[Asid]

Ive been loving rails for awhile guess its in the blood.. my great gramps used to be a engineer(only met the guy twice before he died) when I was 7-9 years old I always drew on my model set on the boxcars when I saw graff roll by outside my home...

[tue skinny]

i just started to enjoy rolling stock. i want to lern more. tho i dont know allot

[Fox Mulder]

i just like being around trains. i don't really like the engines that much, i'm more interested in the cars. i love the smell of the creasote(sp?) on the ties. i love sitting in the shade on a sunny day benching waiting for a train to come by. i love looking down the line and seeing that little color patch and wondering who it will be. just everything about it.i'm on some shit right now so i'm sounding a little uhh...

[imported_joewelcome]

nah, fox, you're rambling but it's okay. i prefer cars to engines too.

i entirely understand why kids ask about the train fixation, but it is a hard thing to explain. it's usually a deep-rooted thing for a lot of people, like for me it's heavily linked to being a kid and traveling in Europe on local rail systems as well as the NY train influence. and to make it more ethereal and even harder to substantiate, it's the type of thing that train nuts can sense on each other. i was talking to a track worker (aka workbum) a while back and we started talking about UPFE cars.. now i don't know that much about train specifics but he and i just started to exchange railfan info with such exuberance, just because we obviously knew that we were both down with trains. i don't know how well communicated that was, but anyways.

trains are fresh, there's something about seeing good trains and experiencing them firsthand. and i'm a big train lover but i don't think i'd ever get into toy trains and trainsets. layups, tracks and trainyards are too dear to me, and nothing is like a real train. freights are more genuine and honest than any other kind of car- they've been around and have history of their own and i suppose you can kinda feel that. lots of energy in a trainyard. i guess that's what i'm trying to explain.

[KaBar]

The closest thing I can think of to a rail fan would be maybe an airplane freak. I would say "bikers", but the bikers are a lot closer to train hoppers than they are to rail fans. But they have that same kind of all-consuming interest. I've met a railrider who had "BN" tattooed on his bicep. It reminded me of a biker with "Harley-Davidson" tattooed on his arm. Or Marines with "USMC" and the eagle, globe and anchor. Many model railroaders have an ENORMOUS wealth of knowledge about trains. There is a very large (and quite expensive) book on the Operation of Railroads, Marshalling Yards, Switching and Junctions that has a ton of information about things like how much grade should be put on a yard so that the cars will roll correctly after being humped, the appropriate radius of a curve, banking on curves, average life of a switch and so forth. This kind of stuff would bore most graff artists spitless, but rail fans love it. They get into things like shooting a picture of every single type of engine a particular company bought, and then, a shot of EVERY SINGLE ENGINE in a series (7730, 7731, 7732, etc.) Needless to say, people like this have a tremendous affinity for order, timetables, running according to the Rule Book and so forth. Something like a tagger desecrating a new paint job on a unit just makes them crazy. They want to kill the guy that did it. Since they can't catch him , they carry their trusty cell phones and do their best to report every trespasser they spot, whether it's a tramp, a hobo, a graff commando or whatever. Hitting units, vandalizing stuff, damaging railroad property is just majorly dumb. It's definately a turd in the punch bowl, and it will eventually ruin the party for everybody.