Foamer is an insult that European crews and railfans used to refer to Americans and this term is very pejorative and they use the acronym for it which is very bad when compared to the word foamer. The acronym for foamer uses all the letters to refer to railfans and they're all insults. The f word over-reactive aragant mentally retarded eccentric railfan used to refer to the bad ones and now it is referred to all of us. The railroads of the United States hated and even the railfans of the United States hate the word foamer when it's used as an acronym also train crews don't like being called Shack and please don't like being called Bull because it goes back to the Great Depression when train crews and police actually killed hobos and railfans for trespassing. Jack London's railroad dictionary in the book The Road have left a bad impression on both railfans, the crews who run trains, and the police. This has even been made worse by the movie Emperor of the North which is based on The Road. Railfans do not trespass on Railroad property but some of them do and train crews and police do not brutalize or kill railfans or hobos this is not Emperor of the North and this is not The Road and we are not living in the 1930s. Do not use the word foamer to apply to railfans do not use Shack or Bull to refer to the police and train crews. They are insults and they should not be used in our vocabulary.
geomodelrailroaderwhen in reality these European crews have been insulting us
My experience of German rail crews is that most are friendly.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
What is the real insult is that this thread has been dug up from the depths of 2009!
.
geomodelrailroader. Do not use the word foamer to apply to railfans do not use Shack or Bull to refer to the police and train crews. They are insults and they should not be used in our vocabulary.
I really don't care what you call me. A lousy wikipedia article is not the absolute truth.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
You can make an offensive acronym out of any word... you can also make a complementary one, too. The original term of "Foamer" was NOT an acronym but was the name applied to a steam locomotive boiler that tended to foam too much and cause water carry-over into the cylinders.
It was not intended to be a term of endearment about the engine, nor as a term of endearment when applied to a overly reactive railfan (referring to the fan becoming so excited at seeing train that he/she might start foaming at the mouth).
Those that convert a word to a profane acronym are just exposing their knowledge of profanity. Not necessarily a good indication of a quality education.
Of course... ACRONYM is itself an acronym:
A Coded Rendition Of a Name Yielding Meaning
and so is the plural form:
A Coded Rendition Of a Name Yielding Meaning Sometimes
TRAIN
Totally Reliable And Important Necessity
RAIL
Really Ancient Incompetent Loser
PROGRAMMER (the profession of yours truly)
Probably Ridiculous Old Geezer And Mostly Maimed Egotistical Rube
See?
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Back in the 1990's, I heard a presentation given by John H. White, Historian, prolific author and researcher, and Curator Emeritus of the Smithsonian Institution's Transportation Department. I think this was presented at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg.
He said railfans come in three categories: Glazers, Foamers, and FLAMs.
* A Glazer is one whose eyes glaze over at the sight of a train.
* A Foamer is one who foams at the mouth at the sight of a train.
* A FLAM is a "Foamer, Lives At Mom's".
I didn't say it. He did, so blame him.
Now I have a question: The British use the term "Gricer". Can anybody define it for me? Is it the same as "Foamer"?
Tom
zugmann geomodelrailroader . Do not use the word foamer to apply to railfans do not use Shack or Bull to refer to the police and train crews. They are insults and they should not be used in our vocabulary. I really don't care what you call me. A lousy wikipedia article is not the absolute truth.
geomodelrailroader . Do not use the word foamer to apply to railfans do not use Shack or Bull to refer to the police and train crews. They are insults and they should not be used in our vocabulary.
There you go, Trixie has spoken!
geomodelrailroader Foamer is an insult that European crews and railfans used to refer to Americans and this term is very pejorative and they use the acronym for it which is very bad when compared to the word foamer. The acronym for foamer uses all the letters to refer to railfans and they're all insults. The f word over-reactive aragant mentally retarded eccentric railfan used to refer to the bad ones and now it is referred to all of us. The railroads of the United States hated and even the railfans of the United States hate the word foamer when it's used as an acronym also train crews don't like being called Shack and please don't like being called Bull because it goes back to the Great Depression when train crews and police actually killed hobos and railfans for trespassing. Jack London's railroad dictionary in the book The Road have left a bad impression on both railfans, the crews who run trains, and the police. This has even been made worse by the movie Emperor of the North which is based on The Road. Railfans do not trespass on Railroad property but some of them do and train crews and police do not brutalize or kill railfans or hobos this is not Emperor of the North and this is not The Road and we are not living in the 1930s. Do not use the word foamer to apply to railfans do not use Shack or Bull to refer to the police and train crews. They are insults and they should not be used in our vocabulary.
From a proud foamer.
Long before the word "foamer" became commonplace, what I heard being used by most railfans, rail magazine contributors, and editors both on the West Coast and in the Northeast was "foamite." I can't tell you when or by whom it originated, but the earliest example I'm aware of is a photo taken in 1978, which appeared in the 25th Anniversary issue of CTC Board magazine in April 1995. The photo showed a young Dale Sanders and Ken Meeker sitting next to WP track just inside a tunnel portal, with the term "FOAMITE" neatly spelled out on the concrete wall behind them. The caption said it stood for Far Out Advanced Mentally Incompetent Train Enthusiast.
Hello, I'm new to this forum. I have read it for a long time but never posted before. I'm a retired civil engineer (structural design) and live in the city of Essen in Germany. I'm interested in American Railroads since my first visits to the USA in the early 1980s.
Gricer is the description for a trainspotters. In the UK other names are used like anorak, rail buff, and others but not foamer. Here is a link to an unproved etymology of gricer: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gricer
I would realy be surprised if "foamer" was invented in Europe. In Germany we use German terms like Pufferküsser, Nietenzähler (buffer kisser, rivet counters), and others. France has its own French expressions: Ferrovipathe, Ferroviphile. What ever they mean?When I first read of foamer here on the forum I had to google it. I'd never heard it before even on visits in the USA.Regards, Volker (Germany)
When I first read "foamer" here on the forum I had to google it.
When I was in college, in the fifties, I considered myself to be something of a railfan (my history professor, also,was interested in railroads). One day, the treasurer spoke to me about my liking, and said something about my being a rail buff. Believing he was from Iowa (he was a graduate of Coe College), I did not argue with him. (We got along together very well.)
Johnny
I was under the impression that gricer was a phonetic misspelling of a certain English accent, describing a rail enthusiast heading out trackside to "grice [grace] the railway with his presence", spoken in a somewhat sarcastic way. No doubt a suitable acronym from it could be invented but I can't be bothered.
John
John, you might be correct about pronounciation. The Oxford Dictionaries give the following origin: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/gricer
1960s: origin uncertain; perhaps a humorous representation of an upper-class pronunciation of grouser ‘grouse-shooter’.Regards, Volker (Germany)
http://www.deviantart.com/browse/all/digitalart/mixedmed/?offset=10&view_mode=2&order=24&q=arthur+pendragon
Bruce KellyLong before the word "foamer" became commonplace, what I heard being used by most railfans, rail magazine contributors, and editors both on the West Coast and in the Northeast was "foamite."
The story as I heard it was from the mid-1970s, and I think Ross Rowland will remember the exact context - it may take me a while to find the specific reference, which IIRC was a book or perhaps thread about one of the excursions running a Reading T1. The original was either "Far Out And Mentally Incompetent Train Enthusiast" or "Far Out And Mental" something beginning with I, but clearly implied was the pun on 'fomites' (q.v. if your are interested).
"Foamers" came along so much later, in my limited experience at least, that it's likely to be either a backformation or folk etymology of some kind.
Again in my limited experience, the term does not apply to serious 'railfans' or 'train buffs' or whatever, even to rivet counters or tech nerds. It has more to do with the kind of person you see wearing bib overalls and a hat with hundreds of roadname pins, conducting loud conversations and often arguing over minutiae with their compatriots -- as noted in another thread, usually devoid of interest in real-world railroad operations or things railroaders find important. On RyPN there is some further division into 'types', including the kind of person who complains bitterly that numberboard frames are painted the wrong color and then goes on to insist vehemently, and often insultingly, that they be fixed right away.
I like that first French term - 'ferrovi' is likely a slangy contraction of 'ferroviaire'which is things having to do with railroads, and 'pathe' -- as in 'sociopath' -- is probably having an obsessively mental syndrome about it -- I encourage schlimm to provide an appropriate technical term for English. The other is nearly as good (if not as sarcastic) and just means someone who likes railroading, e.g. what we normally mean by a railfan.
Welcome to the Forum Volker! We learn a lot from each other here, well most of the time anyway, and while you're here pay a visit to the "Model Railroader," "Classic Toy Trains," and "Classic Trains" Forums. Admission's free and they're all fun.
Let me make a guess about "ferroviphile." "Ferro" may come from the French "Chemin de Fer," or "road of iron." Ferro (I think) is the Latin for iron.
"Phile" is a word used in English as well for someone who's enthusiastic about a particular subject, or anything for that matter. "Anglophile" is a term used here in the US for anyone who's crazy about the British or British culture. We've also got Germanophiles, Francophiles, and lots of other philes as well.
"Landwehr?" Wow, the last time I heard that phrase it referred to the reserve army in Kaiser Wilhelm's Germany. Does it have the same meaning now?
schlimmMy experience of German rail crews is that most are friendly.
Had to work with them while in the Army in the 1980's they inspected our tiedowns and bracing of armored vehicles before the train could leave and they inspected the mixed train while in operation......never a critical or angry word from German rail crews. They always gave us compliments on how quickly we got things done (of course in the Army labor is cheap and plentiful compared with DB.....so unfair comparison but...it is what it is).
Ferro is iron. Atomic symbol Fe. Chemin de Fer is common in Canada on Atlas's and Roadmaps as we are officially bilingual and as Firelock pointed out means literally "road of iron" or railroad. A railroad in Quebec is Chemin de Fer, also obligatory in New Brunswick.
A bit nasty there RME! What do you make of poor little ole moi at the NMRA National Conventions wearing my vest with all the patches?
Do not have the bibs and hat adorned with many pins but I do wear a CPR pin and a CNR pin occasionally on my blazers that I wear in my lectures. Of course with the obligatory elbow leather patches, you know to look smarter than I really am. Smoke a pipe too!
Chemin de Fer is the name of a station on one of my NTrak modules just for fun. People ask what it means and I answer "really?"
It is just my last name. In the beginning Landwehr had nothing to do with armies. In the middle ages it were border markers in the form of canals, hedges, walls etc. There were locations named Landwehr too.
Landwehr in the meaning of reserve forces beside the regular army was established much later.
Landwehr as reserve army isn't used anymore.Regards, Volker (Germany)
Thanks Volker, that was interesting!
Wayne
I know and it's mainly the guys from back east, the train crews, and those who have read the book The Road, or watched Emperor of the North you are making it worse. Back East has a lot of gangs and they use a lot of slang and profanity. Back East, overseas, and in Canada and Mexico it does not count as a profane acronym but here in the United States and on the west coast it is a profane acronym. And don't make me say it again it is very very bad most of us railfans​ have autism when the word foamer is used as an acronym it insults us. I am a railfan nothing more I am not the F word, I am not Overreactive, I am not Arrogant, I am not Mentally Retarded, and I am not an Eccentric. I was born a railfan I will die a railfan I am nothing more.
It is mainly those that are owned by European companies originating out of Great Britain and France and mostly out of Spain and Portugal in other words the EU block. These companies being DB transportation, Freightliner, Canadian Pacific, CN, CSX Transport, and Norfolk Southern all railroads who operate in the big cities. There are only two railroads in the United States that don't go through the big cities except Chicago and they don't like the word foamer these being Union Pacific and BNSF. Both of them operate in railfan territory and they have a public relations department they don't go out arresting and brutalizing railfans and they don't kill hobos. But they have asked us to stay off their property and take Operation Lifesaver classes most of us have I have 6 times I was given operation Lifesaver class in Head Start, Elementary School, and High School and I subscribed to the Operation Lifesaver Channel on YouTube and Facebook and Twitter. And I ask all of you to do the same. We are here to photograph and tape trains we are not here to break the law and we are not each of the insults defined in the acronym for foamer. I want all of you to be safe especially those who are chasing 844 this week the last thing I want is people getting hurt or worse arrested I don't want to see any of your obituaries in the newspaper.
geomodelrailroaderAnd don't make me say it again it is very very bad most of us railfans​ have autism when the word foamer is used as an acronym it insults us.
I know a great number of railfans who are not autistic. Watch your generalizations.
The term can't hurt you unless you let it. And, as was pointed out, virtually any word can be made an acronym. I'm sure I could come up with an acronym for foamer that was highly complimentary to rail enthusiasts if I tried.
Many folks use terms to lump together groups of people. If its a group of people they don't "get," they will often use the term in a less than complimentary sense.
Take the term "geek." Folks who have a lot of tech (or other specialized) knowledge will take the title with a bit of pride - recognition of their knowledge. There's even a business that includes "geek" in their business name. Yet some folks use the very same term with derision.
And I have heard folks called "train geeks."
When I the word "foamite" I think of American LaFrance Foamite, a predecessor name for the well known American LaFrance fire apparatus builder. It has to do with one way of making fire extinguishers work, and is prominently included on items built by that company during the period.
If you want an idea of what most people envision when they hear the term foamer, check out this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqvwnxgxazY
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Larry, does anyone like that show up at the Adirondack Scenic Railroad?
It's embarassing to hear such.
Geomodelrailroader,What is your definition of a TROLL?
And, Emperor of the North is a great movie, I don't give a fat rat's petoot what you think!
tree68 When I the word "foamite" I think of American LaFrance Foamite, a predecessor name for the well known American LaFrance fire apparatus builder. It has to do with one way of making fire extinguishers work, and is prominently included on items built by that company during the period.
http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/f/foamite_childs/foamite_childs.htm
BigJim Geomodelrailroader,What is your definition of a TROLL? And, Emperor of the North is a great movie, I don't give a fat rat's petoot what you think!
I have to agree with Big Jim and his position! As a retired, old, fart, I tend to have positions that are contrary to mainstream thought(s?); and I speak what is on my mind. The 'less-seasoned' members of the current generation, seem to wear their feelings on their sleeves, many do not grasp historical context or that significance of what has gone before; at the same time, they apparently, want to turn over rocks to find things to be offended by.
There is a semi-appropriate, Latin saying that many of the younger generations might look to for advice about life and what it does as one ages.
"...noli illegitimi carborundum..." The Etyomology of which, Is generally attributed to Gen, "Vingar Joe" Stillwell who learned its meaning from British Intelligence sources during WWII... Was further modernized by Barry Goldwater and also Jimmy Hoffa, who used it as: ".... noli illegitimi carborundum/" Don't let the [Bast......] grind you down..." Lessons yet to be learned by those who have not lived long enough, or fought for, the things that mean so much to many...
MiningmanA bit nasty there RME! What do you make of poor little ole moi at the NMRA National Conventions wearing my vest with all the patches?
It was a bit snarky, wasn't it?
It's more the 'activity' that goes with, and can often be spotted from a distance by, the pins and 'historic railroader' attire conventions that makes the 'foamer' distinction. When I was in high school, we had a railroad club (under the auspices of Karl R. Zimmermann), in which we had a couple of underclassmen we called 'junior railfans' -- kids who thought a fine activity was to put spare change on the rail for the Metroliner to convert to souvenirs. Problem was, when they were seniors they were still junior railfans...
Mind you, some of the archfoam -- the famous trainsandhawksfan 'heritage unit' video that produced the parody response being a capital example -- is so 'over the top' it's almost high camp fun. I have to wonder if the real problem is when aspects of railfanning "we" don't particularly value or respect become emphasized by others, to what seems to be a 'socially inept' degree...
May also be highly relative, of course: I remember John Dvorak's column in PC Magazine about 'only nerds know how to run WordPerfect' ... and being a little miffed at the 'review' of the Diesel Spotter's Guide in Playboy Magazine. And I do tend to get upset when various danes don't get technical details of railroading right...
So yes, it's probably a 'spectrum', perhaps shaded by inmates of the ferroequinological/siderohippological community making some of the taxonomic distinction. (I remember the more blatant examples of 'problem' types being described as "frothers" which is a bit more expressive of the rabid encepalopathy stereotype.)
tree68If you want an idea of what most people envision when they hear the term foamer, check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqvwnxgxazY
If you want an idea of what most railfans (including the person who made the above parody) envision when they think of foamer, see the original:
(Best to watch this and then watch the parody above so you can pick up on all the little tropes...)
Note how he self-identifies as a foamer without shame - how healthy is that?? I'm not going to criticize enthusiasm.
cx500I was under the impression that gricer was a phonetic misspelling of a certain English accent, describing a rail enthusiast heading out trackside to "grice [grace] the railway with his presence", spoken in a somewhat sarcastic way.
This is pretty good, but I thought the British sarcastic sense came from grouse-hunting, the idea of trying to 'make a good catch' of something unexpected, and coming home with a good 'bag' of sightings...
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