As a few of you might know, one of the major hobbies in the 50s and 60s, probably the 70s too, but that was after I moved on, was what was mostly known as "trainspotting". At its height this activity motivated thousands of kids, and also growner-ups ; bishops, reverends, engineers... and although the great majority were masculine, I did run into some girls who "caught the bug". At first you would be limited to hanging around a nearby railway, but as you became more initiated into the community, you would find certain railway stations (please, not "train station" - ugh) would be places where you would inevitably see many types of engines - on the other hand, you might be attracted to other places where little would actually be going on, but the atmosphere of the place would get to you. From there you'd be attracted to what we knew as "locosheds", officially called "motive power depots", and there you were into the second level ; "trips" lasting two or three days to all parts of the country, "rover" rail tickets....
And insidiously, whilst doing all this, and scrupulously underlining your "cops" in the special booklets produced by Ian Allan (I still have some saved from those days), you got infected by something quite wondrous ; the history of all this, its influence on town geography, the growth of industry, the characters involved (there was a reference to Isambard Kingdom Brunel on another thread recently, there were many larger than life characters like him connected to the railways).
Any of you on here remember this ?
Here’s an interesting link about an initiative by the National Railway Museum at York :
http://www.maturetimes.co.uk/confessions-trainspotter/
Hope there are some of similar faith out there :)
Never had one either - duffel coat and then donkey jacket, and duffel bag for the bacon butties and the flask that always shattered. I still have some early Airfix stuff, made up to varying standards, plus even a Kitmaster German Kriegslok which I cut about to Anglify it :) There are some half-decent French modelling mags in the newsagents which I sometimes buy, the big expos mostly seem to be in Paris. Hmmm, a group? For the two of us? :)
Anoraks were before my time-I thought we looked quite smart in our Duffel coats. All the equipment is still packed in boxes including early Airfix and Mainline stock. Have never seen an expo advertised here (near Pau 64). Maybe you should start a group here? There is Anglo French Railway Modellers here: http://afrm24.freeforums.net/
Ah yes, they must be afraid of getting the anorak thrown at them :)
Was easy enough to get round some sheds, but others were known as ferocious places to enter. I did manage to sneak round Bristol Bath Road despite the shed office being the only way in - we snuck under the window like Injuns. Same here for the models, I've only got room for a sort of shelf thing where I can at least run a few diesel shunters back and forth.
Obviously very few members are willing to admit that they were spotters! I was living near the main Liverpool Street to Norwich on the Eastern Region but often got a Railrover and traveled up to the main London stations to spot and sometimes further afield. I normally went with a few male friends (I once met a spotter who was a girl!) and sometimes with a club which meant you could get into a shed officially. Off course we tried unofficial visits as well. This led onto model railways and I'm still hoping to build that big layout but despite having a large house, an even larger barn plus various other outbuildings a place to build the layout still eludes me.