*Yes, traindaddy1 is still around. This “older” guy has been having tons of trouble signing in but finally made it. Just want to say Hi! Wish you all a great year and keep posting.
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Its good to know you are still around.
Northwoods Flyer
Glad you finally made it!
There’s a lot of friends having that problem unfortunately.
Speaking of problems, is anyone besides me having problems with this website as in slow loading, lock-ups, and inability to back out of topics to the main page or the main page itself?
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Yep. Exactly as you described.
Thanks Becky! At least I know it’s not on my end!
I offer the following in evidence that there may be a problem…
That AI choo choo ain’t going nowhere!
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Flintlock76. Yes, especially the first time I try to get in.
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I hate the word enthusiast.
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Not enthusiastic huh? 
I was of the impression that the site navigation goes haywire when staff are messing with it – abruptly it will freeze and I have to close the browser window and reopen, or the keyboard won’t release to let you get to the reply button. This added to the pop-up bottom ad window that continues to block access to reply unless you close it twice.
Well, I look at it this way it’s a LOT better than “nut” or “foamer.”
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Would you prefer the older term ‘railroadian’?
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Railfan or Model Rail work for me. Both are pretty old terms in the hobby, and at least the latter seems to have gone out of use, but they are positive terms. Enthusiasm began life as an insult, and its derivative still feels that way to me. Frankly, I’d prefer nut. Foamer is a deliberate insult and unworthy of use in civilized discourse. I have little respect for those who hurl it at others no matter how much they think it is merited. It is Olympus-level condescension.
Speaking of terminology., I am puzzled by the adoption in the hobby press of display in the last couple decades in place of layout. If layout is for some reason problematic, why not use the original–and prototype-origin–word pike?
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“Railroadian” does have a certain antique charm to it! Anyone besides me remember the “Railroadians of America” organization?
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What about Ferroequinologist? 
Or is that just for real-scale train fans?
Railroadian.
Never heard of them but it sounds like an awesome word to me.
I don’t know much and can’t find much about the “Railroadians of America” but I believe they were merged with the NRHS sometime in the late 1990s. If anyone can correct me on that feel free to do so.
They DID put out some fine publications though, three of which I’ve got. “The Pascack Valley Line”, “The Next Station Will Be…The Erie’s Northern Branch”, and “The New York, Susquehanna & Western.” The books show up at train shows and are well worth a look for, the photo reproductions in the “Next Station” series are outstanding.
Just a sample.
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The Railroadians were, as I understand, the earliest formal organization of defined ‘train lovers’. They were the group responsible for preserving Camelback Atlantic 592.
Part of the problem with ‘enthusiast’ is that it’s the ‘e’ in fomite/foamite – the original intentional insult (variant of far-out mentally incompetent train enthusiast). The other real insult, apparently often used by railroad men confronted by wack behavior, is the initialism FRN, where RN refers not to a nurse but a ‘rail nut’, and the F is the same as in RTFM or FRED. (I have never heard it pronounced as ‘fern’ but I may have been sheltered from most of the animosity …)
I cheerfully identify as a railfan by analogy with sports fans - not ‘fanatics’ in the depraved sense, but supporters because they like aspects of something.
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