When did the rail enthusiast hobby start?

[Gaelan]

Aelian’s Historical Miscellany, early 3rd century:

25. Thrasyllus of the deme of Aexone suffered a strange new form of madness. He left the city and went down to live at the Piraeus. He imagined that all the ships coming into harbour there were his own. He made a list of them, attended when they departed once more, and was delighted when they returned safely to the harbour. For a long time he continued to suffer from this mania. But his brother, returning from Sicily, handed him over to a doctor to be cured, and in this way he recovered from the illness. He often recalled his mad hobby and used to say that he had never been so happy as when he rejoiced at the sight of ships which did not belong to him returning safely

 

[Ken H]

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haulage bashing took off much later than spotting (probably in the 1970s, around the time the Westerns were being withdrawn).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

What about buffer stop kissing. Certainly a thing 20 years ago

 

[gg1]

Some wonderful responses here. Only just caught up with them as i missed the notification it had been moved to it's own thread.

 

[Sun Chariot]

What about buffer stop kissing. Certainly a thing 20 years ago

Is that the ultimate way to prove one has been to the farthest point of a particular line...

 

[The exile]

What about buffer stop kissing. Certainly a thing 20 years ago

Might the phrase have been coined by a certain Mr David Maxey?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Oct 2025 ==

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haulage bashing took off much later than spotting (probably in the 1970s, around the time the Westerns were being withdrawn).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

Guessing it took a few years after 1968 for diesels to acquire cult status and the Westerns were the first beneficiaries. Whatever you think about the machines themselves, they ticked loads of boxes: 1) Mainline operations 2) named 3) not available nationwide- but not too restricted in geographical coverage 4) numerous to be a challenge but not so numerous to be daunting (does anyone have every - and I mean every - 47?)

 

[Sun Chariot]

Might the phrase have been coined by a certain Mr David Maxey?

He of Railtour Reivew fame - and his utterly brilliant Not the Railtour Review finale: the only time I saw the phrase "a pair of 37s" captioning a photo of a very buxom lady.

Mr Maxey presented Video 125's Bicester Military Railway edition: he was a far more normal chap than I'd presumed!

 

[The exile]

He of Railtour Reivew fame - and his utterly brilliant Not the Railtour Review finale: the only time I saw the phrase "a pair of 37s" captioning a photo of a very buxom lady.

Mr Maxey presented Video 125's Bicester Military Railway edition: he was a far more normal chap than I'd presumed!

Mind you, prolonged exposure to the world of railway enthusiasts probably colours our perception of “normal”!

 

[D1511]

Might the phrase have been coined by a certain Mr David Maxey?

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Oct 2025 ==


Guessing it took a few years after 1968 for diesels to acquire cult status and the Westerns were the first beneficiaries. Whatever you think about the machines themselves, they ticked loads of boxes: 1) Mainline operations 2) named 3) not available nationwide- but not too restricted in geographical coverage 4) numerous to be a challenge but not so numerous to be daunting (does anyone have every - and I mean every - 47?)

Personally, very nearly, but others on here cleared their 47s....

 

[The exile]

Personally, very nearly, but others on here cleared their 47s....

Must have been very active in the 1960s, or very lucky indeed, to have got all 512! (Working for Brush is cheating!)

 

[D1511]

Must have been very active in the 1960s, or very lucky indeed, to have got all 512! (Working for Brush is cheating!)

Not sure if the others got the early withdrawals or not, but I only missed 7 that were operational since 1978, so I just made it past 500 individual locos......loads more if you count the renumbered 47/4s and 47/7s (and 6/901)

Just waiting for @D1537 and @Falcon1200 to appear now......!

 

[The exile]

Not sure if the others got the early withdrawals or not, but I only missed 7 that were operational since 1978, so I just made it past 500 individual locos......loads more if you count the renumbered 47/4s and 47/7s (and 6/901)

Well done! Don’t think that it detracts from the fact that for a teenager starting out, clearing either 512 or 508 locos for haulage is daunting (without even considering the cost). At the other end of the scale, clearing Class 89 was a fairly short-term challenge. 72 (?) Westerns was a nice sort of Goldilocks quantity (as was the 50 of what replaced them)

 

[D1511]

Well done! Don’t think that it detracts from the fact that for a teenager starting out, clearing either 512 or 508 locos for haulage is daunting (without even considering the cost). At the other end of the scale, clearing Class 89 was a fairly short-term challenge. 72 (?) Westerns was a nice sort of Goldilocks quantity (as was the 50 of what replaced them)

I require 89001, as I'd given up by then!
But I admit my BR ACE duty pass helped with a lot of my Scottish 47 moves, although I also did about 10 or 11 2 week ALRs, which I admit is not in everyone's gift to do.

 

[The exile]

I require 89001, as I'd given up by then!
But I admit my BR ACE duty pass helped with a lot of my Scottish 47 moves, although I also did about 10 or 11 2 week ALRs, which I admit is not in everyone's gift to do.

Location will also help (how many bashers live in the Hebrides?), as will time and available funds (which nicely brings us back to the original question) as the growing availability of each of those will have been a significant factor.

 

[D1511]

However, back on topic, in the documentary I posted earlier up the thread, there's an interview with what appears to be a steam engine basher from the late 1940s

 

[Robin Edwards]

The thing I like about Railway Enthusiasm is that within, there are many different interests and not everyone needs to be seen as having the same aims

For me, when I started out it was a combination of loving the railways and also the challenge of collecting - seeing, then much later photographing and for some, haulage, ticking the set being an aim. Many classes of diesels lost engines in the sixties so to have seen all 512 Class 47s for instance, might mean that you're in your mid 70s by now? A lot will have depended upon where you lived when growing up and what exposure you had through other family and friends.

Photography is far cheaper and better quality than it once was so now I try and capture as much as possible to capture change over time - photos of all the UK-based 66s is an achievable goal if it floats your boat.

Then there's the Track bashers and those who aim to visit and evidence that visit to every station on the network. Volunteering on Heritage Railways another faction of being a Railway Enthusiast.

 

[D1511]

The thing I like about Railway Enthusiasm is that within, there are many different interests and not everyone needs to be seen as having the same aims

For me, when I started out it was a combination of loving the railways and also the challenge of collecting - seeing, then much later photographing and for some, haulage, ticking the set being an aim. Many classes of diesels lost engines in the sixties so to have seen all 512 Class 47s for instance, might mean that you're in your mid 70s by now? A lot will have depended upon where you lived when growing up and what exposure you had through other family and friends.

Photography is far cheaper and better quality than it once was so now I try and capture as much as possible to capture change over time - photos of all the UK-based 66s is an achievable goal if it floats your boat.

Then there's the Track bashers and those who aim to visit and evidence that visit to every station on the network. Volunteering on Heritage Railways another faction of being a Railway Enthusiast.

Yes, that is so true. There are a lot of niches in the rail enthusiast's world! While I admit to being a complete loco nut for 8 years between 78 and 86, and spending nearly all my disposable income (and some of my non-disposable income too!) on loco haulage during that time, I never gave units a second thought, and coach numbers were way over on the wrong side of a line for me, and besides what type of stock they were (and therefore where the doors and windows were) there was nothing else I needed to know about them. I never really bothered about tracks and there's someone on here trying to visit every station platform......that's definitely not me - although I can respect what others get out of our broadly shared hobby.
As a 47 basher, I realise that wasn't everyone's cup of tea either, but I'm cool with that, because I know they were by far the best......
(dons tin hat and retires to a safe distance.....)

 

[norbitonflyer]

72 (?) Westerns

74 surely

 

[The exile]

74 surely

Couldn’t remember (it’s been a long time, they were always a long way away and were gone before I reached double figures).

 

[Magdalia]

Must have been very active in the 1960s, or very lucky indeed, to have got all 512!

D1671 and D1734 both suffered collision damage, leading to withdrawal, after less than a year in service.

D1908 was withdrawn in 1969 and D1562 in 1971.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 17 Oct 2025 ==

Then there's the Track bashers

This goes back to the Beeching era. The first version of Passenger Services Over Unusual Lines was produced by the Stephenson Locomotive Society in 1963.

 

[Lloyds siding]

The Rainhill Trials in 1829 had a crowd of about 10,000 according to the reports.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I'm pretty sure I mentioned this in another thread recently, but I can't recall which one or what the context was. If I'd waited a week or so this one would have been more fitting. Such is life...

But during the 1990s Marston's beer had a series of TV advertisements alluding to their Victorian heritage by portraying a selection of famous 19th century inventors. There was one which portrayed Michael Faraday as a prankster in the pub with one of those joke hand devices which gave a small electric shock to anyone who shook the hand of the wearer... But more appropriate for this thread was the one showing George Stephenson, with the punchline that "the problem with inventing the train is that you also invent the trainspotter!"

I suspect this may have been done with some affection though- in my vain attempts to find this advert archived on YouTube I discovered that Marston's have (or had) an ale called Saddle Tank. I recall that the locomotive depicted in the Stephenson advert bore the number "001" rather than just "1" which is another point in the column for the joke not being overly malicious!

 

[Thornaby 37]

What about buffer stop kissing. Certainly a thing 20 years ago

I would hazard a guess around 1955, as that was the year that the Branch Line Society were founded

 

[etr221]

But during the 1990s Marston's beer had a series of TV advertisements alluding to their Victorian heritage by portraying a selection of famous 19th century inventors. There was one which portrayed Michael Faraday as a prankster in the pub with one of those joke hand devices which gave a small electric shock to anyone who shook the hand of the wearer... But more appropriate for this thread was the one showing George Stephenson, with the punchline that "the problem with inventing the train is that you also invent the trainspotter!"

I recall a cartoon in Punch - possibly from 1975 - which depicted a Georgian [yes, railways are that old] gent with notebook and pencil standing by the Stockton and Darlington as Locomotion No. 1 passed and saying 'It will be a lot more fun when there are more of them'!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I recall a cartoon in Punch - possibly from 1975 - which depicted a Georgian [yes, railways are that old] gent with notebook and pencil standing by the Stockton and Darlington as Locomotion No. 1 passed and saying 'It will be a lot more fun when there are more of them'!

Much easier to bag a whole class back then though, with either a black quill or a red one!

No doubt there'd be the odd big-mouth in the taverns boasting that he'd been at Rainhill and had the Velocipede for haulage!

 

[Rescars]

Much easier to bag a whole class back then though, with either a black quill or a red one!

No doubt there'd be the odd big-mouth in the taverns boasting that he'd been at Rainhill and had the Velocipede for haulage!

Meanwhile for those of us down south, there would presumably have been a variety of horses to spot on the Surrey Iron Railway. And with its open access traffic model, almost anything which could haul a chaldron might have turned up!

 

[Magdalia]

I recall a cartoon in Punch - possibly from 1975 - which depicted a Georgian [yes, railways are that old] gent with notebook and pencil standing by the Stockton and Darlington as Locomotion No. 1 passed and saying 'It will be a lot more fun when there are more of them'!

The early locomotive enthusiasts would have been sneered at by the stage coach bashers.

They had to carry the Ian Allan book of horses, heavier than the BR 1974 all line timetable, and stay up all night to record all of the horse changes. They also had to have 1S25 by Lord Howard of Effingham, that listed all of the 1825 stage coach journeys, and Horse Hauled Travel that gave the horse diagrams, in case they passed a big horse going the other way and needed to know what stage coach it came back on.

Then they had to contend with Hobson's Choice, being bowled for some half lame crocks when they were hoping for the same hellfire beasts that they had last time.

 

[The Pelican]

Someone on this forum once mentioned the chapter in Tom Brown's School days on stagecoaches. Wikipedia says that London to Liverpool only took 21 hours in 1836. The fast times make you realise that, if you could afford to travel by coach, England was already a fairly small country before the railways.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I recall a cartoon in Punch - possibly from 1975 - which depicted a Georgian [yes, railways are that old] gent with notebook and pencil standing by the Stockton and Darlington as Locomotion No. 1 passed and saying 'It will be a lot more fun when there are more of them'!

I can't remember where I saw it ( it was some years ago ) but I once saw a cartoon showing an artist drawing a very early steam locomotive of these early types and someone in a Victorian style uniform was running up to him shouting "Oi, you!"

 

[Sun Chariot]

I do sometimes wonder whether the first recorded flail was when Robert Stephenson and Joseph Locke, whilst aboard Rocket at the Rainhill Trials, espied several members of the Landed Gentry seated in the grandstand.
Messers Locke and Stephenson leant across the footplate, extended their arms and hailed "My Lords!"

 

[Taunton]

What about buffer stop kissing. Certainly a thing 20 years ago

What an extraordinary youthful activity. I was more into kissing girls ...