When did the rail enthusiast hobby start?

[gg1]

When did the rail enthusiast hobby start? Were there bashers or spotters in the 19th century for example?

 

[D1511]

When did the rail enthusiast hobby start? Were there bashers or spotters in the 19th century for example?

I watched a documentary recently suggesting it took off big time post 1948 when there were so many different types all operating at once. A certain Mr Ian Allan has some culpability in this......his first spotting book appeared in 1942, after he'd got fed up answering questions about SR locomotives in his role in the PR department.

 

[John Webb]

When did the rail enthusiast hobby start? Were there bashers or spotters in the 19th century for example?

There were certainly enthusiasts about in the Victorian period, some of whom wrote about railways from the amateur viewpoint rather than as a railway employee.

People timed trains and recorded these. "The Railway Magazine" started in the 1890s and books about railways were being written, both non-fiction and fiction (think of the railway references in the Sherlock Holmes stories, for example).

But remember, small boys didn't have much spare time as they were either at school or were off to work at an early age in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. As D1511 says above, it was the arrival of the Ian Allan books that 'train-spotting' really took off after WW2.

 

[Gloster]

The Railway Magazine first appeared in 1897, so there must have already been a sufficient number of interested people around to justify publishing then.

There had been Herepath’s Railway Times back in 1839, but the early journals were much more concerned with finance and economic matters. The interest in railways probably only emerged slowly amongst those who had the leisure time and freedom to devote themselves to such matters.

It was probably a generally solitary avocation, with only the occasional meetings of like minds to discuss matters. In the Bullhouse derailment of 1884 a gentleman ‘in holy orders’ gave evidence, although the Inspector Officer came as close as he could to describing the gentleman as a self-opinionated know-all.

 

[Sun Chariot]

When did the rail enthusiast hobby start? Were there bashers or spotters in the 19th century for example?

Cecil J Allen was the second contributor to a large series of articles called British locomotive practice and performance in The Railway Magazine from 1909 until 1958.
I have seen numerous photos, in books and online, with rail enthusiasts, young and older, in the mid 1930s.

 

[LickeyIncliner]

When did the rail enthusiast hobby start? Were there bashers or spotters in the 19th century for example?

For a more complete reply, see the 40-page chapter on "Enthusiasm" at the end of Simon Bradley's book The Railways: nation, network and people (published by Profile Books). Worth reading anyhow, as possibly the best single-volume history of railways in Britain.

 

[The exile]

The Railway Magazine first appeared in 1897 so there must have already been a sufficient number of interested people around to justify publishing then.

IIRC, RM started life as something akin to a trade magazine but quickly recognized the market potential of “railwayacs”.

 

[tbtc]

I'd image the Ian Allan books of the early 1830s were a lot smaller than the ones I was using a hundred and fifty years later!

 

[norbitonflyer]

Cecil J Allen was the second contributor to a large series of articles called British locomotive practice and performance in The Railway Magazine from 1909 until 1958.
I have seen numerous photos, in books and online, with rail enthusiasts, young and older, in the mid 1930s.

Timing of trains by amateur observers was certainly a thing by 1903. It was such a person - Charles Rous-Martin - who made the claim to have timed City of Truro at 102.3mph in that year.

My uncle's diary reveals some of his railway interests in the early 1940s, including insisting on travelling between his parents' London home to his aunt in Devon (where he spent most of the War) by GWR rather than the more direct Southern - although he did espy (and get hauled by) the first Merchant Navy Pacific on one trip where he was prevailed upon to travel with the rest of the family from Waterloo. There is a particular account of his long trip around the West Country on the eve of his 14th birthday in 1941 (the last day he was eligible for half fares). He would also help out at his local station (a Colonel Stephens operation, so a little more lax with the rules I suspect than a normal one.)

It seems to run in the family, because his uncles both helped out in a similar way on the "Swilly" in Ireland before WW1, which stood them in good stead to get jobs on the Beira Railway in what was then the British colony of Southern Rhodesia. Sadly, although this was a "reserved occupation", they both joined the army in 1914 and neither of them survived the war.

 

[Sun Chariot]

Fascinating family anecdote @norbitonflyer thanks for sharing.
My mother and my maternal uncle, Devon-born, sadly had no interest in railways; and then they (together with my maternal grandparents) moved to Senegal - as my grandfather served there as a British Army Major.

 

[Magdalia]

The Stephenson Locomotive Society was formed in 1909.

The Railway Correspondence and Travel Society (RCTS) was formed in 1928 and is already making plans to celebrate its centenary in 2028.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Oct 2025 ==

Timing of trains by amateur observers was certainly a thing by 1903. It was such a person - Charles Rous-Martin - who made the claim to have timed City of Truro at 102.3mph in that year.

The railway races to the north of 1888 and 1895 were possibly the start of wider interest in train performance.

 

[delt1c]

in 1970 we had cards which we read in school and answered questions. i got a card about Mallard and steam speed record, (teacher turned out was interested in railways) that was me hooked

 

[Bertie the bus]

I watched a documentary recently suggesting it took off big time post 1948 when there were so many different types all operating at once. A certain Mr Ian Allan has some culpability in this......his first spotting book appeared in 1942, after he'd got fed up answering questions about SR locomotives in his role in the PR department.

The fact that he got so fed up with enquiries to his office that he started producing books just proves that Ian Allan being the grandfather of train spotting is a myth. He identified and satisfied a demand that already existed.

 

[D1511]

I note everyone's examples of instances of rail enthusiasm, and there are people that are interested in everything since that particular thing first appeared.....ships, planes, trains, tractors (farm, not EE!), motorbikes, sewing machines......whatever.
However the programme on iPlayer I watched suggested that trainspotting only became a mass participation activity post-war. It became the absolutely coolest thing for (mostly) young boys to be doing......especially as they hadn't been able to do anything for years.

It's from the BBC Timeshift series, entitled The Last Days of Steam (from 2008) and it was made available on the Iplayer last month for a limited period for rail 200. The bit on trainspotting starts at about 19 mins, but the whole programme is worth a watch if anyone hasn't seen it.

Timeshift, Series 8: Last Days of Steam:

 

[Gloster]

The fact that he got so fed up with enquiries to his office that he started producing books just proves that Ian Allan being the grandfather of train spotting is a myth. He identified and satisfied a demand that already existed.

But I would suggest that it was Ian Allan’s spotting books and the other handbooks that soon followed that turned a relative minor hobby practiced by a relatively small number of people individually or in small groups to one enjoyed by a large number. Something would probably have set off the hobby post-war, but it was the availability of the little books that allowed you to know a bit about what you saw that started an interest that could broaden out in different directions.

 

[D1511]

But I would suggest that it was Ian Allan’s spotting books and the other handbooks that soon followed that turned a relative minor hobby practiced by a relatively small number of people individually or in small groups to one enjoyed by a large number. Something would probably have set off the hobby post-war, but it was the availability of the little books that allowed you to know a bit about what you saw that started an interest that could broaden out in different directions.

Exactly, see my post above, and the BBC programme says the same. It was the books with numbers and details in them that you took with you to the station that really kicked it off.

 

[Peter C]

Reading this thread so far has reminded me of the fourteen-year-old Fanny Johnson, who started writing down the "Names of the engines on the Great Western that I have seen" in 1861. She lived in Westbourne Park and Guiness World Records has given her the title of the 'earliest confirmed trainspotter'.

The earliest confirmed trainspotter was Fanny Johnson (UK), who in 1861 – at the age of 14 – began keeping a journal entitled "Names of the engines on the Great Western than I have seen". In the journal, she recorded the numbers of the various locomotives that passed on the tracks near her home in Westbourne Park, London.
[...]
Although there is widespread evidence of public interest in this prominent new technology, there are no documented cases of individuals methodically noting down the names or numbers of the trains they saw until Fanny Johnson's journal. Moreover, the comprehensive nature of the list she compiled (which included the names and numbers of all the Gooch broad-gauge locomotives active on the Great Western Railway at the time) makes it clear that Fanny Johnson was deliberately setting herself up near the line to keep watch, not simply noting names she happened to see while out and about.

The original journal kept by Fanny Johnson does not survive, but select pages were reproduced, along with a general description of its contents, in a 1935 edition of the Great Western Railway Magazine.

Unfortunately, her original notebooks don't survive, but selections from them were published in a 1935 GWR magazine article (and a few shots of this can be seen in this BBC News video from 2014: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-28934268).

A new record of trainspotting has been discovered from 1861, 80 years earlier than the hobby was first thought to have begun.
The National Railway Museum found a reference to a 14 year old girl writing down the numbers of engines heading in and out of Paddington Station.

*****
EDIT: I've tracked down the original article in the Great Western Railway Magazine, from May 1935 (Vol. 47, No. 5), with thanks to the Great Western Railway Trust's digitised archive. I hope it's okay for me to share these two pages here, along with a link to the original PDF as hosted on their site: https://www.greatwesterntrust.org.uk/authenticated/Browse.aspx?BrowseID=66&tableName=ta_journals


*****

Interestingly, another BBC News article - this time from 2008 - reports on a drawing from 1825 of the first train on the Stockton to Darlington railway by another fourteen-year-old, this time a boy by the name of John Backhouse. The article (link) includes a quotation from the letter John wrote to his sisters about the train:

It was a very grand sight to see such a mass of people moving on the road from Stockton to Darlington, 600 people were said to be in, on and about the wagons and coaches! And the engine drew not less that 90 tons!!!!! [sic]
There was an excellent dinner prepared at Stockton for the railway gentry. I could tell you a great many more particulars but suppose that you are tired of it by this time.

And here is John's drawing:

(Incidentally - I wonder if much has been made about this in the year of Railway 200?)

-Peter

 

[Tester]

Reading this thread so far has reminded me of the fourteen-year-old Fanny Johnson, who started writing down the "Names of the engines on the Great Western that I have seen" in 1861. She lived in Westbourne Park and Guiness World Records has given her the title of the 'earliest confirmed trainspotter'.


Unfortunately, her original notebooks don't survive, but selections from them were published in a 1935 GWR magazine article (and a few shots of this can be seen in this BBC News video from 2014: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-28934268).


*****
EDIT: I've tracked down the original article in the Great Western Railway Magazine, from May 1935 (Vol. 47, No. 5), with thanks to the Great Western Railway Trust's digitised archive. I hope it's okay for me to share these two pages here, along with a link to the original PDF as hosted on their site: https://www.greatwesterntrust.org.uk/authenticated/Browse.aspx?BrowseID=66&tableName=ta_journals

View attachment 190355View attachment 190356
*****

Interestingly, another BBC News article - this time from 2008 - reports on a drawing from 1825 of the first train on the Stockton to Darlington railway by another fourteen-year-old, this time a boy by the name of John Backhouse. The article (link) includes a quotation from the letter John wrote to his sisters about the train:


And here is John's drawing:

(Incidentally - I wonder if much has been made about this in the year of Railway 200?)

-Peter

Very, very interesting - thank you for sharing!

I will show it to my 90 year old railway enthusiast mother, who got into it in 1959 by keeping three year old me amused by taking me to Paddington station rather than the local park (by coincidence we lived in Westbourne Park at the time!). We were both hooked and the rest is history

 

[Peter C]

Very, very interesting - thank you for sharing!

I will show it to my 90 year old railway enthusiast mother, who got into it in 1959 by keeping three year old me amused by taking me to Paddington station rather than the local park (by coincidence we lived in Westbourne Park at the time!). We were both hooked and the rest is history

I'm glad you like it! It was good fun looking into it. I love a bit of history so I thought I'd try and find the original sources!

That's great that your mother is also a railway enthusiast. I hope she finds the bits about Fanny Johnson interesting! It's interesting to note that even in 1935, they were looking back on those 'broad-gauge days' with nostalgia and fondness.

-Peter

 

[Ken H]

There was one Dionysius Lardner who antagonised Brunel. The GWR lent him a loco to carry out various experiments. In the days of time interval this was quite dangerous. He gets a mention in Rolts Red for Danger. Was he the first?

 

[Gloster]

There was one Dionysius Lardner who antagonised Brunel. The GWR lent him a loco to carry out various experiments. In the days of time interval this was quite dangerous. He gets a mention in Rolts Red for Danger. Was he the first?

I wouldn’t call Lardner an enthusiast, except for for his own hobby horses. He was more of an eccentric scientist who wanted to prove his unusual ideas: he did have some interesting and successful ideas, but railways was one area where he did not shine.

 

[NER1621]

Incidentally - I wonder if much has been made about this in the year of Railway 200?)

As the curator who originally acquired the Backhouse letter for the NRM archive back in 2004, very much hoping that it would be used in 2025, I’m pleased to say that it has. A facsimile of the letter is on display in the Rail200 exhibition train currently touring the country. And a local folk music artist Sam Slatcher has written and recorded a song “My Dear Sister”, inspired by the letter, which has been performed at many Rail200 events in the past few months: it can be heard here on YouTube.

Going back to the OP, whilst trainspotting as a mass craze took off after the Second World War, spotting is only one facet of the hobby, and the OP asked about the history of the railway enthusiast hobby interest more widely. A significant leisure/amateur interest in railways and model railways definitely goes back well into the 19thC, but of course the further back you travel, the more that the interest becomes integrated in other social phenomena, such as having an informed interest in new technology, or local and national patriotism and pride in the railway industry as an exemplar of “progress”.

 

[Harpo]

Charles Dickens was a railway enthusiast of sorts. I suspect the lexicon of some modern enthusiasts wouldn’t be lost on him.

 

[Peter C]

As the curator who originally acquired the Backhouse letter for the NRM archive back in 2004, very much hoping that it would be used in 2025, I’m pleased to say that it has. A facsimile of the letter is on display in the Rail200 exhibition train currently touring the country. And a local folk music artist Sam Slatcher has written and recorded a song “My Dear Sister”, inspired by the letter, which has been performed at many Rail200 events in the past few months: it can be heard here on YouTube.

Oh wow! From a History student fascinated by the work of archives and archivists, thank you for your work in preserving the letter. I'm really glad to hear that it's been used in the Rail200 exhibition train! The letter is really interesting - the Stockton to Darlington line was clearly such a novelty for young John two hundred years ago, and now in 2025 a replica train running along the same route is once more a novelty. Of course, there's so much progress between the two events!

-Peter

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

I think the hobby goes back to the dawn of railways - Dvořák, great Czech composer (1841 -1904) was famously an enthusiast and could often be seen at Prague's main station observing operations. If he couldn't make it on a particular day he would send one of his less able students to record the loco on the Vienna express - that's cheating I would suggest. Older editions of the Guinness Book of Records notes Richard Grice of Clacton as the world's first 'champion train spotter' 1896-1931 - no idea who he was, but one of the possible origins of the 'gricer' term.

 

[mailbyrail]

Prompted by this thread to look at a bound copy of the 1898 Railway Magazine I acquired a few years ago, one particular obituary caught my eye - Lord Sackville Arthur Cecil, half brother to the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury. 'He was born 1848...and whilst an undergraduate at Cambridge he made good use of the Great Eastern Company's lines, travelling on the engines of local trains and expresses, asking questions and noting details of the work of the engine driver and stoker with that keen intelligence he carried into all his doings. Occasionally he would be with the guard in his van, perched at the raised lookout window in the roof'. There follows further information of his life until he eventually started to work for the for the railway. In 1880 he had risen to become General Manager of the Metropolitan District Railway for 5 years before returning to his earlier career in submarine telegraphy. So definitely an enthusiast in the 1860s.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Charles Dickens was a railway enthusiast of sorts. I suspect the lexicon of some modern enthusiasts wouldn’t be lost on him.

Not really an enthusiast, although he made extensive use of the railways when on tour (in the days before radio and television, it was common for authors to tour the country (and indeed abroad) to give public readings of their works. He didn't write much about railways, except "The Signalman", which was written whilst he was suffering from what we would now call PTSD, following his involvement in the Staplehurst crash of 1865.

The article about Fanny Johnson suggests she was more interested in the names than the numbers. Indeed, when she started her records in May 1861 none of the locomotives she saw would have had a number. Mixed gauge didn't reach Paddington until August of that year, and Broad Gauge engines only ever had names.

 

[Rescars]

There were some enthusiastic photographers from quite early on. For example, the Rev A H Malan, who photographed the GWR broad gauge extensively in the early 1880s and again in the months before its abolition in 1892. Apparently his son presented three volumes of his photos to the GWR in 1935 and these are now in the National Archive.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Another early rail enthusiast, although not quite as early as Miss Johnson:

"...all but one of the passengers who gave evidence said that many times on the journey up from Euston they had been alarmed by the speed of the train and the rocking and swaying of the carriages. The exception, significantly enough, was the Rev C W Dod. He was a keen student of railways, he said, who frequently amused himself by timing the speeds of the trains. he noticed nothing unusual about either the speed of the train or its motion. In fact he thought the quality of the riding was particularly good.. Obviiously that love of the railways which so many pillars of the Church display is no recent phenomenon"

A passage in "Red for Danger" discussing the Inquiry into the derailment of the "Tourist Special" at Wigan on 2nd August 1873.

 

[Thornaby 37]

Getting back to the OP's question, as far as I'm aware, haulage bashing took off much later than spotting (probably in the 1970s, around the time the Westerns were being withdrawn). Of course by the 1980s, bashing was well established as a hobby