Train Spotting - Do you still get excited ?

[PLD]

yes i still go out spotting about 20 times a year
if it runs on rail i am a fan i take numbers of every thing except wagons and photos of every thing
yesterday i got excite when i cleared all Chiltern railways stock with 165016

John

I can sort of see the sense of achievement in completing the exercise, but for me it would have to be "I've ridden on every member of the fleet" rather than merely stood there while it's gone past...

[Malc-c]

The thameslink class 700 was the "oddity".  It's one of the new crossrail trains and not something you would find on the ECML, and yes, the class 90 pushing the Virgin train was also "not normal"

Is it? Surely 700s just operate the normal Brighton-Bedford services, and are nothing to do with Crossrail at all, which will be operated by 345 EMUs.

Thanks for the correction,

700s will soon be normal on the ECML when some services from Peterborough/Cambridge to Kings Cross get diverted into the Thameslink core instead. Imagine a day out from Cambridge to Brighton on those seats... 

That's interesting, maybe this was a driver training run ?

I take it the seats aren't comfortable then ?

[red_death]

As Nick says the 700s are the new Siemens Thameslink stock (with similar 707s and 717s coming on other franchises).

Crosslink is Bombardier built 345s (which are similar to 701s and 710s!).

Cheers, Mike

[Newportnobby]

Being in my mid 60s, I spotted steam, early diesels and early electrics. I was based in Wolverton on what is now the WCML but, as my Dad worked in the Wolverton Carriage & Wagon Works, I got 6 free passes each year and 1/3rd fares until I was 16. hence I travelled around much of the UK filling up my Ian Allan books. The fairer sex made a huge dent in my gricing activities and eventually everything became a boring shade of blue, then just multi-coloured worms with flat ends so I lost interest and have never rekindled it.
Every now and then we get steam locos at/near Preston so I make an effort to film them but that's now the extent of my interest in the real thing. I have my layout(s) to remind me of my yoof

[njee20]

That's interesting, maybe this was a driver training run ?

I take it the seats aren't comfortable then ?

Yes, that seems likely. They're going to be a lot more prevalent in the next few years as Thameslink's reach extends significantly.

The seats are brutally hard, in common with the newer 377/5 Electrostars, among others. There's just no padding! That aside, I quite like the 700s in general though, they are very 'roomy' with the open gangways, and the on board screens displaying things like loading information is interesting. Talking to a friend who visited the 3 Bridges open day, apparently they've got really neat diagnostics on board too - so at any time the depot can retrieve status updates on the entire fleet to diagnose problems remotely.

[NeMo]

I think @newportnobby is getting to the heart of the issue.

Quick history lesson: trainspotting was largely invented post-war as an activity for young children (primarily boys) to do. Ian Allen famously printed the little books of numbers, sold them cheaply, and the sheer variety of locomotives made 'collecting them all' very challenging.

Some skill was required to find the right places to see rarities, and boys could be proud of their achievement as they went along. Getting all the engines in a smaller class of loco might be a good starting point, but bagging all the LMS Black Fives, for example, would take real dedication!

Children still do these pointless challenges today, witness the recent Pokemon fad over the last year or two.

The problem nowadays is that trainspotting simply isn't popular, any more than collecting Pogs. Like all these fads it's fundamentally pointless, but kids do them because other kids are doing them. They can compete or work together, as they prefer, and the social status comes from that. Trainspotting offers no social status at all, so why bother?

Rail enthusiasm continues, of course, including a great many youngsters. Just visit any preserved line on Thomas the Tank Engine or Peppa Pig day!

Speaking personally, the modern railway is dull. During the 1980s there were so many classes of loco, and such a huge variety of rolling stock (including things like Big Four brake vans) that made things interesting. One EMU is pretty much like any other so far as their engineering goes, many of them being derivatives of one particular basic design (take the 'Desiro' family for example). It's not even as if much of the modern railway is British-built, so there isn't even the local history aspect to fall back on. For sure the history of the EMD 66s is interesting, but primarily in showing the failure of British industry to keep up with engineering in the US, or perhaps more accurately, the failure of successive governments to invest in Britain's railway manufacturing capacity.

Cheers, NeMo

[JBQFC]

yes i still go out spotting about 20 times a year
if it runs on rail i am a fan i take numbers of every thing except wagons and photos of every thing
yesterday i got excite when i cleared all Chiltern railways stock with 165016

John

I can sort of see the sense of achievement in completing the exercise, but for me it would have to be "I've ridden on every member of the fleet" rather than merely stood there while it's gone past...

the things is i can spent hours on a platform taking photos and numbers  but i soon get board riding on trains
i find spotting more of a challenge these day as it is easy to fill your book with emu and dmu numbers but locos are lot harder to find these days

[mark100]

I take my son out to Leicester or Nuneaton stations, so he can watch and photograph trains go by. Sadly I have no interest in the current railway traction/scene.

I grew up in the days of BR Green switching to Blue then Rail freight, Intercity etc and to me, those were the glory days when there was loads of loco hauled trains. lots of Depots to visit and Class 08 shunting locos were everywhere, I still remember the 08's at Birmingham New Street and the B'ham Nst to Norwich Class 31 workings.

I use to cycle from Wigston to Nuneaton to watch the APT go through and see the Merseyside and Manchester MK2 Pullmans.

Pendolino's Voyagers, Multiple Unit's everywhere and Class 66, 67 68, 70  its not the same.

:'(

[austinbob]

For me... No steam, then no excitement. Prefer preserved railways these days.

[chris86200]

i grew up next to the ditton liverpool line so watching the halewood ford cars / cartics, freight from the docks, ac electrics, and tripped out at weekends from crewe to lancaster - diesels in blue and plenty of memories of the 1980s / 90s

[RailGooner]

I've never been trainspotting - collecting numbers. But I do like watching trains go by - models and the real things.

I like trains, planes, and automobiles because they are all examples of engineering. Most of my working life has been spent in mechanical engineering. As a kid, my favourite toys were Meccano, Hornby Trains, Scalextric, and bicycles - all examples of engineering.

This time last month me and MBH while holidaying in Florence, were riding on a local commuter train with (and toward the home of) a friend of MBH. As they chatted and gazed upon the beautiful Tuscan countryside, I gazed at the trackside infrastructure and passing trains. I'd spent most of that morning at the Stazione di Santa Maria Novella watching trains come and go. Don't ask me to quote the numbers of any of the locos I saw, I wasn't spotting!

[Yet_Another]

I don't go train spotting as such, but I do still shout "Train!" if ever I see one in the landscape while on my travels.

[RailGooner]

I don't go train spotting as such, but I do still shout "Train!" if ever I see one in the landscape while on my travels.

Like a rail enthusiast Father Jack!?

[Yet_Another]

I don't go train spotting as such, but I do still shout "Train!" if ever I see one in the landscape while on my travels.

Like a rail enthusiast Father Jack!?

Now you come to mention it, I've been known to shout "Biscuit!" as well 

[RailGooner]

I don't go train spotting as such, but I do still shout "Train!" if ever I see one in the landscape while on my travels.

Like a rail enthusiast Father Jack!?

Now you come to mention it, I've been known to shout "Biscuit!" as well 

And can you tell us Tony, what's that viaduct made of?