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I wrote this on another forum a year or so back:
It always amuses me that folk think "train spotting" is a completely useless activity.
Recently on "Who wants to be a millionaire" (UK version) there was the individual who didn't know where Berwick-upon-Tweed was. They guessed "Shropshire" :-) I have to say that my interest in railways has improved my knowledge of the countries in which I've resided immeasurably - UK, NZ, Oz. Same for the USA too to some extent because of my reading although I've never been there.
The words "fun" and "sanity" always loom uppermost in my mind too. Human beings started out as hunter/gatherers. Our need to be hunter/gatherers has not diminished just because we are all too often engaged in meaningless, soul destroying, bureaucratic jobs in what is now termed "The Information Society". In order to retain our sanity We have now had to replace our ancestors' real work for survival with games - treasure hunts, collecting hobbies, sports, etc. "Train Spotting", both in its specific and wider generic senses, caters for BOTH hunting and gathering. In other words the hobby keeps us SANE. And while we are remaining SANE we are having FUN at the same time. I could name other useless hobbies, but every time I think of one I could write a similar piece about why it too keeps us SANE. I could also name far more useless paid jobs than useless hobbies though that is, of course, coloured by my own particular world view.
I remember going down to the South Island with my son in 1992. We drove to most places where the railway went and had our goal to see every loco in the SI. We didn't manage that but we did see every main line loco. I recall discussing this outside Linwood depot with a couple of fellow "train nutters". I discovered that a couple of hitherto unseen DCs were in the repair depot. The only other one was DC4847 which turned up on the shunting service over in Greymouth on our last day. Our "treasure hunt" playing field was the entire South Island. We had FUN on that trip. We slept in the car on three occasions - at Picton (didn't get much sleep that night), Timaru, and Westport. We hurtled back to Picton from Greymouth that day and made the ferry with 5 minutes to spare at 7:25 pm.
I don't see how this form of collecting is significantly different from "more socially respectable" forms of collecting such as antiques or postage stamps. It's a darned sight cheaper too. So you can throw around all the pejorative terms for rail enthusiast you like. It's just water off a duck's back.
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