Forgive me if this has been covered before, but I’ve been unable to locate anything on this topic in the last 10 forum pages.
The majority of posters on this site are in/were in the railroading industry, and your opinions are the ones I’m really looking for. What do you think separates a “railfan” from a “foamer”?
I don’t necessarily consider foamer a derogatory term (maybe I’m wrong), but I don’t really consider myself one either. I’ve never worked in the industry, but I enjoy reading and learning about trains. We also have tracks at a school yard close by our apartment; sometimes we’ll walk our dogs there and I’ll bring a camera hoping to photograph a train. Which one would I be classified as?
This is simply a curiosity question. I’ve seen both terms used, sometimes interchangeably, which doesn’t seem quite correct to me. Thoughts?
One widely accepted definition of “foamer” is one who ‘foams at the mouth’ when he sees a train. In general, I think that most will agree that a foamer is a railfan who has gone “over the top.” The problem usually comes with defining where that point is.
I suppose one comparison would be between the guy who reads the box scores every day and goes to the games, and the guy whose car sports team license plates, has team seat covers, named his kid after his favorite player (although more than a few pets are named with railroad themes), and joins his buddies at the game to paint their bodies so to spell out the team name.
If you’re a railfan, railfans are railfans. If you’re a working railroader, railfans are foamers. [swg]
There’s some evidence the term began with railroaders to describe crazy railfans pacing their trains or standing in the rain to take a picture or log the engine in their trainspotting book.
Railfan…An otherwise normal person that enjoys the pursuit of railroad related activities. That could be one or more of many sub interests including but not limited to observing, photographing, reasearching, studying, discussing, modeling or just plain following the railroads of both past,present or future. These people are hard to spot in other circles as they are functional in normal society.
Foamer…One that apparently looses all mental control when one or more of the following occur: 1) they are in the presence of a: A) a train B) railroad tracks (and in some places railroad property(s)) C) a piece of railroad memorabilia or D) a conversation or any other communication related to the subject of railroading. They are easy to detect as most of them are social disaster areas anyway.
Railroader (non railfan)…One that couldn’t care less what the rest of us falling into the other categories think(s) about them or there company. They are the ones that are there to do a job, earn a liveing and make it home safely every day till retirement.
Railroader (closet railfan)…One that typically enjoys there job whether they admit it or not. They are most likely to be industry insider participants of railroad related forums. they are fairly easy members to spot as they typically use aliases (to protect the innocent of course) but are otherwise forthright with there experiences and opinions,reguardless of what the foamers think.
Railroader (and railfan)…one that enjoys there profession and is willing to share there experiences and/or wisdom with the rest of the railfan community. They are easy to spot due to there honesty, integrity and passion for railroading and railroad related subjects while feeling no need to hide there identity.
A railroad fan is someone who likes to learn about railroading, but is not ostentatious about it and could really give a da(r)n less about whether people inside or outside the industry thought it was weird that he or she likes to learn about railroading.
Conversely, a foamer is someone who likes to tell other people how much they know about trains more than they like to learn about them and has an unusual preoccupation with the fact that otherwise normal people inside or outside the industry who have hobbies ranging from baseball to basket weaving to dog breeding to pornography might think it is weird that she or he likes trains.
Perhaps I like to think of rail interests as just a priority hobby…And I’ve had that hobby for 70 plus years. I don’t go nuts about doing it or abusing someone to listen all about it, I simply have that interest.
Those interests are the mechanical…engineering {civil}, aspect of the physical plant…and of course the railroad equipment both modern and that in the past.
I don’t consider that any more unusual than someone with priority interest in football…baseball and all the fine points of each, etc…
As for a name to what it really is: For me it’s simply a priority interest.
For the record, my point regarding pornography is that, paradoxically, some rail fans would rather be caught with pornography than a copy of Trains–a near quote from Trains magazine by the way.
And it is not just railroad related sounds, which reminds me of a funny story. About ten years ago my mother (about 70 then) and I were sitting at a picnic table outside of a fairly famous (in Canada, anyway) hamburger joint on the Trans Canada Highway through Calgary, when what we later saw was a flatdeck trailer semi drive past with a full load of new ties. Over and above the hamburger and chip smells was the smell of creosote on the wind and I noticed it first and started looking around. Then my mom noticed the smell and her head snapped up and started looking around so fast I nearly killed myself laughing. She then looked straight at me and she new exactly, in a really deep way, what she was smelling, but she couldn’t figure out why. She saw the truck first, as it was coming from behind me.
She says “What kind of way to run a railroad is that, they don’t even use flatcars anymore?” I have to admit I didn’t know they shipped ties by truck myself, at that point in time. We have had a good laugh about that a couple of times since. Some things we just won’t forget.
As for the term “foamer,” didn’t this mutate from the term “foamite,” which originated on the West Coast when certain somebodies associated with CTC Board magazine scribed “FOAMITE” inside a tunnel wall as an acronym for Far-Out Advanced Mentally Incompetent Train Enthusiast? At least that’s the story that was presented way back when in black and white on heavy, glossy paper.
I don’t worry about what other people think, especially those who feel an abject need to hang silly labels on others.
My enjoyment comes from analyzing the history of the railroads in this country, and visiting once-vibrant towns abandoned by railroads to see what’s left behind, both the physical plant as well as the aftereffects – indelible imprints left on the community.
So I guess that makes me a railroad history buff – with a dry chin.
What, no one has mentioned railroad buff? I came to describe myself as a railfan (even after I learned that this use of “fan” is derived from “fanatic”), and I was surprised to hear my college treasurer describe me as a “railroad buff.” One day, I was in his office, conversing with him and the assistant treasurer, and he spoke of me in that way. I was young and ignorant, but I did not correct him (excusing him in my mind because he was not from the South, but from Iowa), just as I never corrected the college president for spelling my name “Johnnie” (he was three years younger than my mother).
When traveling by rail, I do not press myself on the railroad people, but I enjoy talking with them when the opportunity arises. I do wear a Southern 4501 tie clasp, and that has opened doors.
Funny you mention “buff.” Those who are interested in fire trucks, etc, are usually referred to as “fire buffs.” I don’t think I’ve ever heard the term “fire fan.” I’ve heard “rail buff” and “train buff” before, though.
I think rail buff sounds a little more genteel than rail fan - perhaps connoting those who have an interest in trains, but don’t necessarily seek them out.
Ye Gods! [:O] You mean there’s more than one of us out there? I’m always driving or walking through a town, usually a small farm town, to see what’s left behind, and try to figure out what was there. It’s sort of like being a railorad archeologist sometimes.
Chad, I like your analysis of the different groups! [8D][tup]
I would definetly classify myself as a railfan. When I’m near railroads, it’s hard to act “normal” around other people, especially when I have a camera… But I would call that normal railfan behaivor, not foamer-like. But nowhere near the closet. But when there’s no actual railroads around, I act like a normal person, even if there’s a lot of railroad photos - just not a real railroad. I get a lot of grief from family members and close friends at the slightest mention of railroads though…
According to people who aren’t us, we’re all freakin’ nuts anyway. I would personally be somewhat offended by “foamer” because I have not heard it used in a good sense. I consider myself a railfan, train buff, or I just call myself a train fanatic. If the shoe fits, after all… I have been into trains for many years so let them say what they might, it’s a fine hobby. Never foamed, but have turned a few heads with my reaction to various trains in the past.
That’s what I get called at school although replace the freekin’ with the F bomb. I do get kind of foamerish sometimes. Especially if there is a SD70M around. But I don’t think I’ve ever foamed at the mouth. I get really shakey as the train goes by though. So I guess I could be called a train shaker.
Yes, “buff” does sound better, perhaps. I don’t know if going into Bristol after supper to watch the N&W take the Pelican out to Roanoke counts as seeking out the train, but occasionally, when I felt I had the time to do it, I would take the seven o’clock bus (it came up on the campus) in and go to the north end of the station to admire the J that was there, waiting for the eight o’clock departure time. Some times I would walk back (two miles), and some times I would take the eight fifteen bus back and walk up the hill to the campus. During the summer, I would at times walk in and back out to watch the southbound Birmingham Special arrive (due in at 1:05 in the morning) About the only time I could see the Tennessean was on a Saturday in the summer, and then, again, it was to see the southbound train.
The treasurer was a good fellow, despite his upbringing ( he certainly talked faster than anybody else at the college). Apparently, he took good care of the funds trusted to his care, and invested wisely such funds as were available for investment. His small son was not really popular with some students. On one occasion, one of the students was painting the treasurer’s house, and the boy was standing inside the front door and bothering the painter with his talk. When the breaking point came, the student opened the screen door and made one or two swipes with his broad brush on the front of the boy. I was NOT that student, but I did help paint most of the buildings on the campus (I even sat in the kitchen window of the president’s house, painting and having a pleasant conversation with the president’s mother-in-law).