TOT as usual: train spotters

"Mark Carver" wrote in message ...

Doctor D wrote:


Autism, they call it. I think trainspotters are all some way along the
autistic spectrum.

Aren't we all?

I think all males are to a degree. Of course the most popular male
obsession is football.


I did a test to see how far along the autistic spectrum I was with my
slightly obsessive behaviour at times.
Apparently 80% of all people with autism score over 32, I scored 24, my wife
scored 13............

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 11 Dec 2011 17:06:48 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Martin wrote:

You appear to have missed small kids screaming "I want I want" Thomas
the Tank Engine stuff in the souvenir shop
There are two Thomas the Money Grabber rides. I put coins into both.

Us too. At the Yorkshire Air Museum he wanted to spend all his time in
the simulator.

We have to remember that the child's idea of what is great fun often
doesn't fit in with what we have provided, at great expense and
inconvenience! You know the situation. You take then 100 miles to see
something fantastic and when you ask them about the trip afterwards all
they say is, "We played hide and seek in the bushes behind the toilets."

We did a three week tour of California and all my son remembers is
sitting in the back of the car playing with a Nintendo.
--

But he was 25 years old then?

--
JohnT

In message , JohnT
writes

"Martin" wrote in message
.. .
On Sun, 11 Dec 2011 17:06:48 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Martin wrote:

You appear to have missed small kids screaming "I want I want" Thomas
the Tank Engine stuff in the souvenir shop
There are two Thomas the Money Grabber rides. I put coins into both.

Us too. At the Yorkshire Air Museum he wanted to spend all his time in
the simulator.

We have to remember that the child's idea of what is great fun often
doesn't fit in with what we have provided, at great expense and
inconvenience! You know the situation. You take then 100 miles to see
something fantastic and when you ask them about the trip afterwards all
they say is, "We played hide and seek in the bushes behind the toilets."

We did a three week tour of California and all my son remembers is
sitting in the back of the car playing with a Nintendo.
--

But he was 25 years old then?

In the late 1950s, my parents and I went on a B&B driving tour around
Scotland. We were accompanied by our neighbour and his wife, who
followed 100 yards behind us in their own car. When on the move, his
wife spent the whole time, her head down, knitting.
--
Ian

In article , Bill Wright
scribeth thus
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.


No there're an endangered species, treat them with care;!..

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

Yeabut did you enjoy the place?. Can't think of anyone who wouldn't,
even wifey and Three daughters were very impressed on a visit a few
years ago!..

And no I'm not a spotter more a basher..
--
Tony Sayer

In article , says...

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.


We must have been lucky on our visits to the NRM, then. Perhaps they'd
found some real trains to watch instead?

Incidentally, having noted several comments recently about Eternal
September behaving in an unusual fashion but not experiencing problems
myself, I'd seen all the answers to this post but not the original,
until it turned up on ES this morning ...

Does everybody with ES problems get their own personal variant?

I have had some problems with seeing previously read messages re-appear
as unread but assumed this was a news reader (Gravity) malfunction. Is
this another ES glitch as well?

--

Terry

Found on uk.tech.digital-tv:

On Dec 10, 3:04*am, 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.

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 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.


Every group in society can boast of more than a few that fit the
stereotype.

I was recently dragged along (screaming) to a fashion show and you've
never seen so many victims.

Then there was the local Labour party quiz night, well if you're ever
in need of a lifetime of disappointment look no further.

P.S It could be worse, in the US 99% fit the stereotype over there
and, if you're a crank, it's obligatory to dress up as Casey Jones.

On 10/12/2011 03:04, 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.

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

Like when we parked the car at Howarth and got return tickets for
the steam train to Keighley.

Missed the train on the way back due to a timetable misunderstanding so
has to get a black cab (which was actually white).

Quite an expensive weekend that was, at least I didn't get clamped at
Howarth.

--

Graham.

%Profound_observation%

allantracy wrote:

Then there was the local Labour party quiz night, well if you're ever
in need of a lifetime of disappointment look no further.

You want to try a Conservative Party function if it's stereotypes you're
after!

Bill

On 12/12/2011 13:40, alexander.keys1 wrote:
Found on uk.tech.digital-tv:

On Dec 10, 3:04 am, Bill 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.

"Cheap" cameras doesn't sound right.

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.

With a female? I suspect they were just pretending to be trainspotters.


--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK