Railfan at heart

By On January 13, 2013 · 7 Comments

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An ICE3 train is headed towards or away from the Hauptbahnhof in Köln (Cologne), Germany. The photo was posted by peters452002.

I am a railfan by any definition of the word. I cannot stop looking at pictures of trains. I look at Flickr every day and follow many contacts in Europe and Japan who post photos of trains. I’ve never attempted to describe why I think they’re beautiful and I’m not going to start here. I’ve been fascinated by things on tracks for as long as I can remember.

I was very happy to choose DB for my trip from Amsterdam, Netherlands, to München, Germany. Here’s a photo of the front of the train at Amsterdam Centraal Station.

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Here are my other DB train photos.

N.b. I bring this up now because (1) I really love this photo that I spotted in my contacts feed, and (2) I explained what railfans and train foamers are to a friend after breakfast today.

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  • Adam Herstein

    That’s a nice looking train. :-)

    I consider myself a railfan to the extent that I think trains are cool and enjoy riding them, but not to the point of memorizing different railcars, history, etc. It’s more of a casual interest than a serious obsession.

    • http://www.stevevance.net/ Steven Vance

      I memorize railcar manufacturers and models. I don’t track vehicle asset numbers, or train runs, like some people do. However, I think some people, at least European photographers, track train runs so those who view the photos can find out more information about the specific train in the photo (length, route, timing, etc.).
      I built a ALWEG, straddle type monorail last week out of K’NEX. I’ll eventually upload some photos.

      • Steve S.

        Didja hear the Dutch took the Fyra V250 Albatross out of service a couple of weeks ago–just a month after it was (finally) introduced on regular service?

        European railfans tend to doubt that maker’s competence, it appears.

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  • BlueFairlane

    do you like freight as well as passenger trains, or is your interest primarily passenger?

    • http://www.stevevance.net/ Steven Vance

      It’s primarily in passenger trains. I also really like monorails. I’ve built two monorails with K’NEX: one suspended (SAFEGE style) and one straddle (Alweg style). I also have a Disney model monorail.

      I like watching freight trains go by, and I never get upset when my trip is delayed. (I think freight trains get a little more attention on Flickr than passenger trains.)