Trains.com

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

You might be a railfan if.....

3282 views
40 replies
1 rating 2 rating 3 rating 4 rating 5 rating
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
You might be a railfan if.....
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 21, 2004 9:44 AM
You might be railfan if you........
Daya dream about trains in school or at work
  • Member since
    November 2003
  • From: the Netherlands
  • 1,883 posts
Posted by lupo on Friday, May 21, 2004 9:54 AM
if you drive from Los Angeles to Dallas to show your 4 year old son a Bigboy at the Age of Steam Museum

(yep I know CMW, it's an UP[xx(][:p])
or maybe I'm a yUPpie ?
L [censored] O
  • Member since
    August 2003
  • 6,434 posts
Posted by FJ and G on Friday, May 21, 2004 9:59 AM
you are so fixated on them that your wife leaves you and your dog bites you
  • Member since
    January 2004
  • From: Crosby, Texas
  • 3,660 posts
Posted by cwclark on Friday, May 21, 2004 10:09 AM
you look for railroad tracks everywhere you go instead of enjoying the immediate surrounding scenery...

  • Member since
    August 2003
  • 6,434 posts
Posted by FJ and G on Friday, May 21, 2004 11:17 AM
you enlist in the U.S. Army just to travel to Iraq to see the Najab to Karbala Railroad.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 21, 2004 11:24 AM
Your garage walls are covered in posters of locomotives instead of swim suit models!
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 21, 2004 3:37 PM
You paint your car for your favorite railroad.
You've memorized railroad scanner frequencies
You sit around for 5 hours waiting for a train (I've done that)
  • Member since
    May 2003
  • From: US
  • 1,400 posts
Posted by fiatfan on Friday, May 21, 2004 4:20 PM
You walk away from your wife without a word when given the chance to ride in the cab of a GP38-2 (#424, 8/24/02, 9:15 AM)

Tom

Life is simple - eat, drink, play with trains!

Go Big Red!

PA&ERR "If you think you are doing something stupid, you're probably right!"

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 21, 2004 4:31 PM
You drive the long way home in hopes of being stopped at a rail crossing!
  • Member since
    July 2003
  • From: Whitby, ON
  • 2,594 posts
Posted by CP5415 on Friday, May 21, 2004 6:04 PM
You plan on making an outdoor climbing apparatus for your daughter in the shape of a GP38-2 out of wood.
Complete with operating headlight, cab doors & simulated controls.

Gordon

Brought to you by the letters C.P.R. as well as D&H!

 K1a - all the way

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 21, 2004 7:16 PM
....You actually want to buy a home next to the tracks!
....You build a really tall treehouse for your kids, but plan to use it as a train watching outpost.
....At every four way street crossing on the way to work, you blast out long-long-short-long grade crossing signals, and buy one of those "train horns" advertised in the J.C. Whitney catalogue to do it.
.....For some odd reason, every town you want to move to is a major rail center.
.....You get a factory job just so you can watch the locomotives switch cars all day.

Anyone for "You Might be a Redneck..."?

By the way, Dougal, I want a white truck with a red stripe around it so it looks like a CB&Q F-unit![(-D]
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 21, 2004 7:36 PM
You live in an old Railroad car (such as a caboose or a passenger car)
You go to the local railyard and ask for a cabride
You actually try to order an SD70MAC, and when asked why, you say "Oh, I just want it in my backyard to simulate a real train and practice my photography skills".[;)]
You go to your local GM dealer and demand an SD90
You go to the GE apliance store and demad a Dash-9.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 21, 2004 7:51 PM
You paint your RV Dark Gray with Light Gray Lightning Stripes, and call it the 20th Century Limited.
  • Member since
    July 2003
  • From: Philadelphia, PA, USA
  • 655 posts
Posted by Mikeygaw on Friday, May 21, 2004 9:02 PM
you have a paint scheme nicknamed after you (go Norange!)
Conrail Forever!
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 21, 2004 9:29 PM
If you watch the TRIANS web cam when you should be researching William Shakespeare for a term paper that is due in a week.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 21, 2004 9:47 PM
QUOTE: Originally posted by elias

If you watch the TRIANS web cam when you should be researching William Shakespeare for a term paper that is due in a week.

LOL
  • Member since
    June 2003
  • From: Colorado Springs
  • 728 posts
Posted by FThunder11 on Friday, May 21, 2004 10:11 PM
the answer to your math problem is lineAC=4400.
Kevin Farlow Colorado Springs
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 21, 2004 10:32 PM
You wonder why everyone wearing "Fighting Illini College Team" shirts look at you funny, trying to figure out what team "BNSF" is supposed to be.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 22, 2004 1:14 PM
I am guilty of all of these:
You might be a railfan if...
...you spend an hour out in rain and hail to get a few photographs which don't look all that wonderful anyway, because it was raining
...you wait seven hours to photograph one train, and don't really mind it
...on a trip to the California coast, you wake up early every morning just to photograph two Surfliners, and spend no time at the beach
...you read five train periodicals and four museum newsetters
...it annoys you that spell check on your computer doesn’t recognize lashup, intermodal, superheater, catenary, or railfan, but does recognize airfreight
...you think of Pacific, Mountain, and Atlantic as locomotive types, not time zones

See you around the forums,
Daniel
  • Member since
    November 2003
  • From: the Netherlands
  • 1,883 posts
Posted by lupo on Saturday, May 22, 2004 1:19 PM
you book a motel near the tracks in San Diego to find out that the close a crossing from 1 at night untill 4 or 5 oçlock in the morning and don't switch of the bell!
ting,ting.ting ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting
ting,ting.ting ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.tingting,ting.ting ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting ,ting.ting
and stay there for tree nights [:p]
L [censored] O
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 22, 2004 2:26 PM
You pray for a train to stop you at the grade crossing and it is answered ( that has happened to me )
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 22, 2004 2:59 PM
if you correct a little kid every time he goes "choo,chooo!!"
  • Member since
    July 2003
  • From: Philadelphia, PA, USA
  • 655 posts
Posted by Mikeygaw on Saturday, May 22, 2004 8:09 PM
...you post here
...you have an account here
Conrail Forever!
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 22, 2004 8:48 PM
if your wife looks at you and says "I wonder what it would be like to be married to a NORMAL guy?" as she looks at you from across the dining room table, OVER your pile of model RRing paraphernalia that sits upon the table!
[#oops]
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 22, 2004 9:58 PM
Some that I'm guilty of:

You try to find street routes that cross the most railroads.

You listen to trains going thru town at night when you can't go to sleep.

You only want to go on vacation to a town if it is a major rail center.

You find yourself doodling route maps of your favorite railroads when you get bored.

  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 22, 2004 11:03 PM
You might be a railfan if...
...you read TRAINS magazine while listening to recordings of steam locomotives and riding VIA Rail, all the while thinking about a GG-1, and consider it multi-tasking
...you consider your car a cab-forward
...you have ever described cars in terms of first generation passenger diesels
...you go to the auto show and spend the day telling your friend about Alco, Baldwin, and Lima after dieselization
...you can tell a Dash-9 from an AC-4400CW from half a mile away
...you can tell an F-3 from an F-7
...you consider steam locomotives to be an orchestra producing music, and resent anyone who links this music to "noise"
...you cry after reading about a railroad abandonned decades ago
...you live in California, but for some reason Acela crews know you on a first name basis
...you dream of "steamization" and "trails-to-rails" [:)]

Other things a railfan might do:
1.) Upon becoming rich, restoring to steam locomotives and ammassing a passenger car fleet, to be used for daily commuting.
2.) Becoming the largest shareholder in UP just to get them to stop charging for the use of their logo.
3.) Buying TV airtime, to be used to educate the general public on the technology of balanced slide valves
4.) Becoming chairman of the ICC, and splitting up BNSF into AT&SF, GN, NP, SP&S, CB&Q, SLSF, and have I forgotten anyone [:)]?
5.) Forming the "New MIlwaukee Road" just to give BNSF some competition, albeit with restored F-units and EP-5's
  • Member since
    October 2003
  • From: Milwaukee & Toronto
  • 929 posts
Posted by METRO on Saturday, May 22, 2004 11:10 PM
E-mailing Daimler-Chrysler and telling them they spelled Geep wrong.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, May 22, 2004 11:16 PM
TrainJunky29, can we really have the Q, GN, NP, SLSF, SP&S, and ATSF back?

With all of the Zephyrs, Empire Builders, N.Coast Ltd., and F-units too?

[:D][^][8D][:O][;)]
  • Member since
    June 2003
  • From: Culpeper, Va
  • 8,204 posts
Posted by IRONROOSTER on Sunday, May 23, 2004 3:04 AM
You slow down at every rail crossing, just hoping.
Enjoy
Paul
If you're having fun, you're doing it the right way.
  • Member since
    April 2003
  • 305,205 posts
Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, May 23, 2004 6:19 AM
..you drive like the Dukes of Hazard while chasing a train to one of your favorite watching spots! [}:)]

Subscriber & Member Login

Login, or register today to interact in our online community, comment on articles, receive our newsletter, manage your account online and more!

Users Online

There are no community member online

Search the Community

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
Model Railroader Newsletter See all
Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox!