Rich
Apparently the Chicago Tribune had some column inches to fill, and nothing better to fill it with.
As far as a real insight into the railfan culture, the reporter didn’t have a clue to start, and obviously still doesn’t. Sort of like trying to figure out how people become baseball fans by interviewing some people in the left field bleachers. You might get some cute stories, but very little solid knowledge.
I wonder what the same media master would have come up with at a free-mo meet, or an NMRA convention. Judging by this article, I’d rather not find out.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
It’s truly unfortunate that railfans nationwide have been smeared by this event. And unjustly, at that. For no matter how stupidly the kids behaved, the responsibility for that accident rests solely on the head of the commuter train’s engineer. Any idiot that would play with his phone like that while he was supposed to be in control of the train full of passengers, whose lives were in his hands… Well, there really isn’t a punishment harsh enough for him. His death in the accident was fortunate for him.
Oh, and the author of that article in the L.A. Times definitely had his head in an anatomically improbable location.
Well, I will say for myself as a teen railfan, this whole situation is best put as a kick square in the well anyhow…it isnt right railfans are streotyped this way let alone teen railfans. Everygroup has the ones that stick out and seem to ruin it for the rest. If this hobby dies for any reason, we might be seeing it. The way the media views us a like some sort of underground cult. It just isn’t right, just isn’t. I try to influence all of my teen railfans or modelers to be as respectable as possible because we arent just representing ourselves but the whole hobby. Teens have become basically the main target of this whole scene both from non-railroad enthusist’s and fellow enthusist’s. I have actully seen overall teens are treated probably the best on this form and welcome, because we all want this hobby to move forward, I think we should work for ways to gain respect of teen’s in this hobby, but also more respect of the hobby to the rest of the world. Just my 2 cents. Mike
Gunzels???[%-)]
Well aren’t railfans sinister. An obscure and secretive cult with nefarious intentions. Zombie-like, needing the fix of seeing a train…waiting in the bushes to send engineers sudden, subversive messages.
That’s the sense. That had to be the dumbest article I’ve ever read in mainstream media.
Yeah,that’s why we are some times flip off and yell at to "GET A LIFE DUMB A --! by the passing train crews.
But,on the other hand,a friendly wave,a bottle of water toss down on a hot day along with a employee time table makes up for the occasional rude crew.
Of course railfans has always been looked down upon and misunderstood…
What else is new?
Some geezers do not like reality but that is what is happening. Tender sensibilities. For years there have been rail fans talking and discussing rail fan sites, reporting marks on rolling stock, taking and trading photos, in print and now online. There are forums where trains spotting is discussed ad naseum.
In California, train fans like to moon passenger trains. There are model figures being sold for layouts depicting this. Not something I care for but this is reality.
Go to You Tube and search for videos on this subject and you will find many.
Do a Google search on this issue and you will get many hits.
There are railroad web cams you can watch if you get bored. I live a few miles away from a CSX railroad yard and many good days there are quite a few train watchers. A elevated platform is there to help keep people out of the yard as well as railroad police in the area.
Horseshoe curve is a better known train spotting area. Horseshoe Curve Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society.
Rich
Yeah, that one mystified me, too. [%-)] Not so much the word, but its useage. The term “gunsel” was used in the movie “The Maltese Falcon”, and, according to the story that I heard, was inserted into the dialogue by Humphrey Bogart - he used it to describe Sydney Greenstreet’s hired gun Wilmer. The intention was to “slip one over” on the censor, who, because of the “gun-” in the word, took it to mean some kind of a gun-toting gangster. In reality, it’s Yiddish slang for a “kept boy”, in a homosexual context. I don’t know the origin of the useage to describe railfans, though, but it suggests to me that it’s a not entirely flattering misnomer. [:-^] Of course, some may disagree. [swg]
Wayne
Apparently an Aussie term.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gunzel
http://www.railpage.org.au/ausrail/99may/msg00403.html
These foamers are everywhere…
People watch airplanes, why are they not made fun of?
What other businesses get “fans” out to watch them go about there daily work? Sports not included.
strip clubs!
They’re not. They’re looked at as possible terrorists these days…[:-^]
Always entertaining to read this comment (and variations thereof) when someone doesn’t like a news story.
Yes, gunzels. I must say how very surprised I was to see the term used in an American newspaper article. Gunzel is very much an Australian term. Funny thing is, it’s a word that’s used mainly by tramway enthusiasts, and to a lesser extent railfans - it’s anything but a mainstream word, which makes me wonder how the Chicago Tribune got onto it.
And FWIW, the Wiktionary account of its origin is essentially correct. Two of the founding members of the Sydney Tramway Museum, Bill Parkinson and Richard Jones, coined the term to describe a particular group of Victorian tram fans way back in the 60s. Since then the word gunzel has become common usage among trammies all over Australia.
(And Parko and Jonesy are still around, they’re still active tram preservationists, and they’re highly amused by the whole gunzel thing…)
Cheers,
Mark. (Also a Sydney Tramway Museum member, and a gunzel!)
What is there to like about this story? It’s pure *****! Chuck’s comment is a valid one…
Mark.
You may not like the story, but I don’t believe I saw anything factually inaccurate in it.
I can’t comment on whether there are factual inaccuracies - although I’d bet London to a brick that the claim that engineers have taken to calling Fullerton “Foamerton” is pure journo BS - and I suspect that Chuck’s objection to the article had nothing to do with that, either. The sneering and dismissive tone of the article is more likely to be what bothered him.
I can understand his feeling that way, but I personally couldn’t give a toss how journalists and the mainstream media portrays railfans or their interest. These are people who make a living by advertising dogfood and tampons…
Mark.
No, the “Foamerton” comment is correct.
What’s baffling to me is how people are taking this article as being dismissive. I didn’t find it to be so, nor did I feel it was “sneering” in its tone.
It seems we all interpret these things differently.