Trainspotting V Plane Spotting

[fergie]

just been debating about the two hobbies which is the saddest and why,whats the difference???

[BRL]

Neither are sad I am afraid.

You will find most airline captains started out with an interest in spotting and look where they are now, flying around the world being paid a lot for it too.

As for trainspotters they have the same enthusiasm as plane spotters, whatever floats you boat at the end of the day really.

Bit of a silly question though if you ask me, you will get spotters in every conceivable mode of transport that has a number/reg. What you think is sad there are many will think not.

[chiglet]

One guy at work photographs Police cars. He travels all over the country to photograph the same car in the same markings that he can see in his local nick. :rolleyes:
Another chap buys Eddie Stobard slippers. :{
watp, iktch

[ComJam]

OK.........aircraft spotting i can understand, interesting machines of various types etc..... but, I still don't get the appeal of writing down registrations i a little notebook....

Trainspotting on the other hand..........no sorry don't get it! I might just about have got it when it came to old steam engines with a bit of "character", but diesel / electric trains....huh?!

Now then.........BUS spotters.........oh yes, they do exist, i saw one the other day at the bus station in EDI! :confused:

[Avman]

Whatever, at least they don't go around mugging little old ladies. Let them be. They are no threat to society. Anyone for totty spotting?

[Wycombe]

...one only has to briefly tour some of the more well-informed spotting newsgroups (many of which are run by people in the industry) to find that a fair number of their contributors are pilots, and all manner of airline and airport workers....

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

If you have to ask why you'll never understand the answer. If you think plane spotters are sad, how about football supporters? I can see absolutely no possible reason for their interest but I accept that we're all different... except they're more different than the rest!!

I started plane spotting 50 years ago.... then stopped writing numbers down during much of my working life. My wife was also a spotter in her younger days in the RAF (and you wouldn;t believe the hassle she got in those days - security is non-existent today by comparison). Recently we resurrected our interest and have visited many small aerodromes for fly-ins and spent hours standing near 27R at Heathrow photographing aircraft and, yes, collecting numbers. For us it is interesting to see how many of the really old aircraft we saw so long ago are still around - just one reason for writing the numbers..

Many of my ex-colleagues in ATC are spotters. At a recent Popham Fly-In I met three - two of whom were from my old watch at Heathrow Tower!!

[Bear 555]

Heathrow Director,

Couldn't agree more! 'Football spotting' Why?? As for Cricket, Snooker...... the list is endless, but all are guaranteed to upset someone - and at the same time enthuse someone else.

As for security, try being an 'enthusiast' living in Saudi Arabia! The 'Athens 12' story wouldn't have a look in compared to the reception you are guaranteed in Riyadh/Jeddah whilst simply watching aircraft - even inside the airport terminal as a bona fide traveller or working there during the course of routine business. One can only contemplate the outcome of producing a notebook or camera....

regards to all,

Bear 555

[MerchantVenturer]

I don't know if I am a spotter or not.

I enjoy seeing aircraft fly, especially the take-off and landing stages. I nearly always look up (when practical to do so) when an aircraft passes overhead. I occasionally go to my local airport 'to watch the 'planes' at times when I'm not travelling from it. I have never been a collector of aircraft numbers although the different types with their varying capabilities do interest me.

I am also interested in other forms of public transport, particularly trains and buses, although not to the extent that I 'follow' civil aviation. Again, I have never collected loco or bus numbers, not even as a kid fifty years ago.

Finally, I am a great football, rugby and cricket fan - I played all three when young, football to a minor semi-pro level.

I am either one of the saddest individuals around or someone with a wide set of passive interests.

[paulc]

Heathrow Director,

which Popham event did you attend ? - it is my local GA field and go to most of the fly-in there (taking pics & transportor of large white tent for local aviation soc)

[PaperTiger]

Does this (http://www.answers.com/topic/internet-troll) help answer your question ? :suspect:

[False Capture]

Nothing wrong with writing down aircraft registrations. I love recording aircraft registrations in my book ...... along with P1 hours!!!:}

[ozplane]

Like most chaps of my age I started with trains and still remember watching the Coronation class Pacifics pounding up Shap Fell with "12 on". Bit like Concorde taking off. There was also a bit of Lowryesque art in watching little tank engines shunting things at Crewe. Progressed to aircraft as Squires Gate (Blackpool) was handy after school and here I still am with 700 hrs, a PPL and an Airtourer. I'm still pals with one of my train-spotting chums but like Heathrow Director I don't collect numbers any more.
With a background like that I can just about understand the chaps who used to collect the names of the artics that Eddie Stobart used to run. BTW if you have kids in the car it's a good game to have 2 teams, one to spot Eddie Stobarts and one to spot Norbert Dentressangle trucks.
I'll get my coat

[False Capture]

"BTW if you have kids in the car it's a good game to have 2 teams, one to spot Eddie Stobarts and one to spot Norbert Dentressangle trucks." ... or get one team to spot cop-cars and the other to spot speed-cameras!

[redfield]

Totty Spotting? Wonder how Ian Allan or JP would get around producing a fleet list for that.....:}

[LGS6753]

Blokes who enjoy watching other blokes wearing shorts, getting in a sweat (playing "football) worry me. They would presumably not be interested in the far more interesting totty spotting.

I've been totty spotting since puberty (4th December 1963).......

[fergie]

totty spotting isnt bad,but you get no where by just hoggling,you got to chat to them and get to know them.

[GOLF-INDIA BRAVO]

Fergie
Trust you have a black book to record them in or at least log phone numbers

G-I-B

[Avman]

Totty spotters don't wear anoraks either. Just macks :} :E .

LGS6753, I note that you, like me, are an experienced totty spotter. How many "pots" have you made? :D

[bombhead]

Evening all.

first time post,and new to forum.

I used to be a rail enthusiast, (since 3 corner trousers)now working for a freight comp,trains do not interest me much.
Along with the associated stigma,i decided to follow on with aviation as my main interest,along with photography.

bombhead

[BRL]

Hi Bombhead, welcome, what do you do for the rail company?

[bombhead]

Morning BRL,

I am a trainman (glorified guard) for a freight company,(Red team)
Based in London.

bombhead

[Wino]

Spotting was something new to me when I came to live in theUK, having never observed it in the USA. After a few months in the UK I came to a conclusion about spotters (that may be born out by Heathrow's comments)

Knowing how important WWII was to the brits, I came to the conclusion that the spottrs were still on the payroll since world war II and that the government simply forgot to take them off the rosters.

At the same time I realized that when they took down the road signs or moved them around to confuse the german invasion force, that they simply never put them back up.

Cheers
Wino

[fergie]

:mad: