Most active railfan forums?

[bcat]

Hello, I'm a newcomer from China and I'm looking for an active railfan forum in English language. There are lots of railfan forums here in China, for example, bbs.hasea.com, there are millions of messages on the forums and people post thousands of messages a day. I'm trying to google similar forums in English but found no forums that as active. Do you have any ideas or suggestions? Thanks.

 

[Craig]

You could try the uk.railway newsgroup.

http://groups.google.com/group/uk.railway/topics

 

[bluenoxid]

I think this place, WNXX and railchat probably are the largest. You need to realise that rail enthusiasm is less prevalent than in China and that our nation is many times smaller than yours

 

[bcat]

I think this place, WNXX and railchat probably are the largest. You need to realise that rail enthusiasm is less prevalent than in China and that our nation is many times smaller than yours

Sorry, I mean such message boards in English language, maybe in the US, India, or some other countries?

 

[me123]

The USA has a relatively quiet rail network, with very few passenger trains. Most if not all "interstate" services are operated by Amtrak, and there are a couple of other much smaller operators outwith the commuter networks. Passengers prefer to fly because it's quicker and probably cheaper too.

As a result, there are probably fewer railfans over there than in the UK.

 

[Metroland]

I wouldn't say there are a lack of railfans in the UK or US, etc For instance the busiest museum outside London is the National Railway museum in York. http://www.nrm.org.uk/leisureandtourism/index.asp

The USA has the busiest freight railways in the world, and I think the most rail track, but not too sure what the enthusiast scene is like over there. MSTS sold around 4 times more in USA than the UK, so there must be some interest. Busiest passenger railways are of course China and India.

What I would say is interests tend to be quiet specialised, there seems to be lots of forums, for instance most of the 70 preserved railways have forums, then there's the railway modelling forums, computer game trains forums and so on. There's a lot of magazines in the UK (around 15-20) for rail fans, so not everyone is active yet on line.

This forum seem to have a large amount of people under 35 for some reason, not too sure why that is.

Here's a few others

http://www.railchat.co.uk/

http://billz1064.proboards1.com/index.cgi

http://www.pdf.preserved-diesels.co.uk/

http://railways.national-preservation.com/

 

[bluenoxid]

Sorry, I mean such message boards in English language, maybe in the US, India, or some other countries?

Oh. I guess you mean one in the english language for railways of the world and China in particular???

Not my area of expertise. Anyone got any whose remit covers Chinese railways in english.

 

[Z12XE]

This forum seem to have a large amount of people under 35 for some reason, not too sure why that is.

It doesn't help that about 18 months ago the average around here must have been 12 or 13 which certainly put older people off - it did with me. (and I aint that old!)

I know people age but now it's less of a kids forum (who remembers the pathetic "Happy Half Term" banner?!) and IMO one of the better railway forums

 

[Metroland]

I think generally in Britain the club/society model still seems to rule, there are no end of them with 100s or 1000s of members. The internet is still young, and dominated by younger people, I suppose in time there will be more activity on line, but maybe its more informal nature doesn’t always suit older or more serious enthusiasts with specific interests.

Some examples of societies are:

http://www.mandgn.co.uk/

http://gnrs.150m.com/

http://www.thedps.co.uk/

http://www.cfps.co.uk/

http://www.lnerca.org/

http://www.gcrsociety.co.uk/

http://www.lyrs.org.uk/

http://www.didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk/

http://www.mimas.ac.uk/~zzaascs/mrsoc/mrsoc.html

http://www.crassoc.org.uk/

http://www.aclocogroup.co.uk/

http://www.drcm.org.uk/Content/Ken+Hoole+Study+Centre/North+Easter+Railway+Association.htm

http://www.cambrian-railways-soc.co.uk/

http://lms-society.org.uk/

http://www.lmsca.org.uk/index.htm

http://www.sdrt.org.uk/index.php

http://www.gersociety.org.uk/

http://www.hrsoc.org.uk/

http://www.gnsra.org.uk/

http://www.siam.co.uk/srs/

http://www.ctls.org.uk/

http://www.c37lg.co.uk/

http://www.a1steam.com/

http://www.dapsites.com/mlst/

I’m sure there’s plenty more, but they are the ones I can think of.