TOT as usual: train spotters

I visited the National Railway Museum the other day. The other visitors
were mostly family groups and old age pensioners. However a third group
was noticeably well-represented. These were groups of men who seemed to
want to cling together. They were largely dishevelled, unshaven, spotty,
and dressed the way people in the fifties used to dress their adult
mentally-handicapped sons. They had cheap cameras and notebooks. Some
had spectacles that had been repaired with elastoplast. The cliqued
anorak was well represented. Once in a while I would see an unhappy
female, mostly either absurdly fat or thin, dragging along behind a
group of the males. Yes, these were train spotters. I honestly thought
the archetypal train spotter was a figment of the imagination.

Incidentally the person I was with had brought a three year old child,
and had come by rail from Doncaster. I helped him to get the child and
the pushchair from the platform at York station to the museum, a short
walk but with a ridiculous number of steps. He was quite happy though
because the return fare was £13, but less happy when we got back to the
station to find that the train to Doncaster was running 70 minutes late.
After a day spent admiring the grandeur of the British rail network in
its hay-day this brought us down to earth with a bump.

Bill

I've never seen them myself but I do recall some years back a Police
spokesperson for a very nasty set of attacks on trains thanking the
trainspotting fraternity for being so observant and these reports of a
person being instrumental in catching a very elusive individual so they are
not totally useless, just perhaps a little bit odd.
There are unfortunately similar people about who spot aircraft you know.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________


"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 10 Dec 2011 03:04:34 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

I visited the National Railway Museum the other day. The other visitors
were mostly family groups and old age pensioners. However a third group
was noticeably well-represented. These were groups of men who seemed to
want to cling together. They were largely dishevelled, unshaven, spotty,
and dressed the way people in the fifties used to dress their adult
mentally-handicapped sons. They had cheap cameras and notebooks. Some
had spectacles that had been repaired with elastoplast. The cliqued
anorak was well represented. Once in a while I would see an unhappy
female, mostly either absurdly fat or thin, dragging along behind a
group of the males. Yes, these were train spotters. I honestly thought
the archetypal train spotter was a figment of the imagination.

The same types have been there each time we have visited the NRM with
our grandson.


Incidentally the person I was with had brought a three year old child,
and had come by rail from Doncaster. I helped him to get the child and
the pushchair from the platform at York station to the museum, a short
walk but with a ridiculous number of steps.

If you arrive by car there are lifts that avoid you having to use the
stairs.

You appear to have missed small kids screaming "I want I want" Thomas
the Tank Engine stuff in the souvenir shop

He was quite happy though
because the return fare was £13, but less happy when we got back to the
station to find that the train to Doncaster was running 70 minutes late.
After a day spent admiring the grandeur of the British rail network in
its hay-day this brought us down to earth with a bump.

Bill
--

Martin

Bill Wright wrote:

I visited the National Railway Museum the other day. The other
visitors were mostly family groups and old age pensioners. However a
third group was noticeably well-represented. These were groups of men
who seemed to want to cling together. They were largely dishevelled,
unshaven, spotty, and dressed the way people in the fifties used to
dress their adult mentally-handicapped sons. They had cheap cameras
and notebooks. Some had spectacles that had been repaired with
elastoplast. The cliqued anorak was well represented. Once in a while
I would see an unhappy female, mostly either absurdly fat or thin,
dragging along behind a group of the males. Yes, these were train
spotters. I honestly thought the archetypal train spotter was a
figment of the imagination.

Heheheh, it's not just trains ..

Go down Old bawtry road from Finningley and see them all watching the
'planes .. or Flamborough head when a storm's coming in off the sea for
the Twitchers, waiting in the storm for sight of a wind-blown rare bird
.... I can still remember saving car registration numbers as a very
young child .. they were still relatively rare in our (pit) village in
the early sixties ..

Incidentally the person I was with had brought a three year old
child, and had come by rail from Doncaster. I helped him to get the
child and the pushchair from the platform at York station to the
museum, a short walk but with a ridiculous number of steps. He was
quite happy though because the return fare was £13, but less happy
when we got back to the station to find that the train to Doncaster
was running 70 minutes late. After a day spent admiring the
grandeur of the British rail network in its hay-day this brought us
down to earth with a bump.

There seems to have been a number of local (to Doncaster) stoppages and
delays in the last few weeks, not least of which are down to cable
stripping pikeys ..


--
Paul - xxx
"You know, all I wanna do is race .. and all I wanna do is win"
Mark Cavendish, World Champion 2011.

In article , Brian Gaff
scribeth thus
I've never seen them myself but I do recall some years back a Police
spokesperson for a very nasty set of attacks on trains thanking the
trainspotting fraternity for being so observant and these reports of a
person being instrumental in catching a very elusive individual so they are
not totally useless, just perhaps a little bit odd.
There are unfortunately similar people about who spot aircraft you know.


And some take piccys of electricity pylons and TV masts even;!.....

--
Tony Sayer

In message , Brian Gaff
wrote
I've never seen them myself but I do recall some years back a Police
spokesperson for a very nasty set of attacks on trains thanking the
trainspotting fraternity for being so observant and these reports of a
person being instrumental in catching a very elusive individual so they are
not totally useless, just perhaps a little bit odd.
There are unfortunately similar people about who spot aircraft you know.


And there are the beer tickers who have an obsession with "ticking off"
all the real ales brewed in the UK despite some breweries cynically
renaming their beers each week just for those who want something
different each time they visit a pub.

The real sad cases are those who turn up with plastic funnels and empty
pop bottles at beer festivals and those who post endlessly to virtually
dead Usenet groups and mailing lists documenting all the beers they've
"tasted" in previous week.

--
Alan
news2009 {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

Paul - xxx wrote...

I can still remember saving car registration numbers as a very
young child .. they were still relatively rare in our (pit) village in
the early sixties ..

Over the summer holidays of 1960 we had a car number collecting
competition at our school:
http://g.co/maps/4nhv8
I think the winner had 22 or thereabouts, but there were accusations
that he had made some of them up:-(
I can imaging our modern equivalent sitting by the M25 with his laptop
and ANPR system, or maybe not.

--
Ken O'Meara
http://www.btinternet.com/~unsteadyken/

I used to take pictures of tv masts and even foreign test cards as well.
Still have the latter actually.
What kind of spotter does that make me?

Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________


"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article , Brian Gaff
scribeth thus
I've never seen them myself but I do recall some years back a Police
spokesperson for a very nasty set of attacks on trains thanking the
trainspotting fraternity for being so observant and these reports of a
person being instrumental in catching a very elusive individual so they
are
not totally useless, just perhaps a little bit odd.
There are unfortunately similar people about who spot aircraft you know.


And some take piccys of electricity pylons and TV masts even;!.....

--
Tony Sayer

Do you know there are even people who look at rotting wrecks of trans, or
locomotives and look carefully at rivets, apparently enthralled by the
different types?
Surely this has to be some kind of illness?

Mind you I think most people do go through a phase like that. Its just
unfortunate if they alight on something a bit strange to categorise and
study.

With me when I was young it was radio valves and later on transistors.
Brian

--
Brian Gaff....Note, this account does not accept Bcc: email.
graphics are great, but the blind can't hear them
Email:
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ __________


"Paul - xxx" wrote in message
...
Bill Wright wrote:

I visited the National Railway Museum the other day. The other
visitors were mostly family groups and old age pensioners. However a
third group was noticeably well-represented. These were groups of men
who seemed to want to cling together. They were largely dishevelled,
unshaven, spotty, and dressed the way people in the fifties used to
dress their adult mentally-handicapped sons. They had cheap cameras
and notebooks. Some had spectacles that had been repaired with
elastoplast. The cliqued anorak was well represented. Once in a while
I would see an unhappy female, mostly either absurdly fat or thin,
dragging along behind a group of the males. Yes, these were train
spotters. I honestly thought the archetypal train spotter was a
figment of the imagination.

Heheheh, it's not just trains ..

Go down Old bawtry road from Finningley and see them all watching the
'planes .. or Flamborough head when a storm's coming in off the sea for
the Twitchers, waiting in the storm for sight of a wind-blown rare bird
... I can still remember saving car registration numbers as a very
young child .. they were still relatively rare in our (pit) village in
the early sixties ..

Incidentally the person I was with had brought a three year old
child, and had come by rail from Doncaster. I helped him to get the
child and the pushchair from the platform at York station to the
museum, a short walk but with a ridiculous number of steps. He was
quite happy though because the return fare was £13, but less happy
when we got back to the station to find that the train to Doncaster
was running 70 minutes late. After a day spent admiring the
grandeur of the British rail network in its hay-day this brought us
down to earth with a bump.

There seems to have been a number of local (to Doncaster) stoppages and
delays in the last few weeks, not least of which are down to cable
stripping pikeys ..


--
Paul - xxx
"You know, all I wanna do is race .. and all I wanna do is win"
Mark Cavendish, World Champion 2011.

On Sat, 10 Dec 2011 13:28:40 +0000, Alan
wrote:

The real sad cases are those who turn up with plastic funnels and empty
pop bottles at beer festivals and those who post endlessly to virtually
dead Usenet groups and mailing lists documenting all the beers they've
"tasted" in previous week.

How can a group be virtually dead if some people are posting endlessly
to them?

Steve

--
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On Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:08:58 -0000, "Brian Gaff, probably.."
wrote:

I used to take pictures of tv masts and even foreign test cards as well.
Still have the latter actually.
What kind of spotter does that make me?

Brian

A eurocardy? Do you have a copy of the card produced by Rank Cintel
for 625 testing? Now that one is rare.

Steve

--
Neural network software applications, help and support.

Neural Network Software. www.npsl1.com
EasyNN-plus. Neural Networks plus. www.easynn.com
SwingNN. Forecast with Neural Networks. www.swingnn.com
JustNN. Just Neural Networks. www.justnn.com