Rail Enthusiast: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"[[Running Gag|I like trains.]]"''|'''"I Like Trains" kid''', ''[[Asdfmovie]]''}}
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Someone obsessed with trains and railways, sometimes to an unhealthy degree, [[Otaku]]-like. This is a type especially common in British and Japanese fictional works, which makes sense since both nations in real life have a high population of such enthusiasts. The United States and Germany have a lot of such enthusiasts as well, as do most other European nations, but generally with fewer depictions in popular media.
In Britain, the most popular depiction is the ''trainspotter'', whose railway obsession revolves around hunting down each and every
The second common British stereotypical character is the older, more respectable railway enthusiast. This is a common pastime of [[The Vicar]]. Such an enthusiast is likely to be active in the railway historical and preservation movement, and may be actively involved in restoring or operating historical trains. They are also likely to have a model railway built with obsessive care, and may be a photographer as well.
In Japan, the most commonly depicted form is the ''densha otaku'' (not to be confused with [[Densha Otoko]]), also known as ''tetsuota'' (''tetsu'' is Japanese for "iron", and railroads in several languages are known as "iron roads": ''chemin de fer'' in French, ''Eisenbahn'' in German, ''sikkat hadid'' in Arabic,''железная дорога'' in Russian, and ''tetsudo'' in the aforementioned Japanese
In the United States, most media depictions of the ''railfan'' (sometimes also called a "trainspotter" on the East Coast, or [[Canis Latinicus|"ferroequinologist"]] for "one who studies iron horses") involve model railroads, which were generally treated as a common and respectable hobby. It's more rarely depicted in recent years. Most portrayed tend to be older, and although respectable, it tends to be treated as [[Serious Business]] for humor's sake. Traditional
Where British railfans use notebooks, German railfans prefer cameras, just like Japanese ''densha otaku''. German rail photographs refer to themselves as ''Fotofuzzis'' or simply ''Fuzzis'' and don't need anoraks either because they usually refuse to take photos when the sun isn't shining, and be it a tiny little cloud blocking the sun the very second a train passes. Quality standards are high, and nitpicking on photographs is common in online communities whenever the standards of commercial photobooks aren't reached. For example, nothing is allowed to obstruct the view on the photographed vehicles, neither overhead catenary poles nor platforms nor signs nor vegetation (which ''Fuzzis'' sometimes cut down themselves). The common rules for vehicle portraits (45-60° angle from ahead, sun from behind and not too high, and so forth) have been used so often that some peope don't do portraits anymore because it's boring. Newer rolling stock and newer liveries are loathed by older railfans, especially those who have seen regular steam traffic in the West before 1977 and still put films in their semi-automatic SLRs, and preferred prey of younger railfans who hardly know anything older and go out with a compact camera or even their phone as their camera. While British railfans wait and see what comes, German railfans love to track down particular vehicles, especially locomotives with advertising on them, using sightings and leaked schedules and [[Berserk Button|go ballistic]] when the expected material doesn't show up at the expected time.
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* Yuichi Yamanoguchi is a troubled boy who gets turned into [[Monster of the Week|EI-04]] in ''[[GaoGaiGar]]''.
* Touko in the ''[[Mariasama ga Miteru]] 4th'' specials; the normal [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming]] scenes with Yumi turn into Crowning Moments of Funny.
* Giroro of ''[[Keroro Gunsou]]'' has this as one of his quirks in the anime. One of the [[Whole-Episode Flashback|tadpole episodes]] touched on this during a plot where the [[Power Trio]] went treasure hunting: he revealed he had a special pass for the galactic trains, which they used to go exploring off-planet. A later episode had them becoming train conductors as part of one of their schemes, to his poorly hidden
* ''[[Kuragehime]]'' has a variation: Banba, the short girl with a [[Funny Afro]] adores street cars.
* Suzuki, one of [[Those Two Guys]] in ''[[Ai Yori Aoshi]]''.
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* The title of ''[[Trainspotting]]'' comes from a chapter in the novel called "Trainspotting at Leith Central Station". The joke is that the station is long-closed and derelict, so trainspotting there is an utterly pointless, dull and squalid experience, like most things the characters do.
* Watson from the [[Sherlock Holmes]] stories is occasionally noted to have a minor obsession with the rail system, including having memorized the London area schedules.
* ''Tunnel Vision'' by Keith Lowe has a
* In ''Notes From a Small Island'', Bill Bryson recounts being stuck sitting by a very chatty, very obsessive rail enthusiast on a train journey through Wales.
* In Sean McMullen's [[Greatwinter Trilogy]], 40th Century Australian civilization relies on wind- and human-powered trains for long-distance freight and passenger transport. Accordingly, there is a social club of trainspotters, some of whom harbor greater loyalty to the rails than they do their ostensible rulers.
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* ''[[King of the Hill]]'': Ted Wasonasong is shown playing with a model train in one episode.
* The [[Classic Disney Short]] ''Out of Scale'' has [[Donald Duck]] building a very elaborate model train set in his backyard. [[Hilarity Ensues]] when he removes Chip n' Dale's tree because it's out of scale with the rest of the set.
** In a related note, many of the Disney artists (including Walt himself) were
* ''[[Thomas the Tank Engine]]'', a series about trains, probably has a few examples within the cast but might well have been the starting point for a lot of railfans. For that matter, its popularity with autistic and Asperger's children overlaps, with some social workers noting that a lot of rail enthusiasts are also autistic or have Asperger's.
* The kid in [[Max and Dave Fleischer|Play Safe]], leading to [[Nightmare Fuel]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUgyWhKlH78 when he gets a little to close to his beloved trains].
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== New Media ==
* The F40PH locomotive, depicted in the page image, is a subject of [[Memetic Mutation]]. For some odd reason,<ref>weekly posting of trains have replaced weekly posting of furry artwork on 4chan</ref>
* Rail Enthusiasm is so prevalent on the internet, that [[Image Board
* There's even a whole [[Image Board]] dedicated to trainspotting called 1chan.net. They feel very strongly about the political aspects of rail infrastructure.
* Australian [[Something Awful]] Goon "Maximum Sexy Pigeon" created almost a dozen realistic pixel art train cars for the [http://goontrain.derekmccrone.com/ Goon Train] art project. There were other train fans (all Australian, oddly enough) in that thread, but none as passionate as Mr. Pigeon.
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