You know you're a railfan if...
Posted: Wed Jan 10, 2018 4:39 pm
I've always enjoyed these types of lists personally, so I wrote this list and posted it on Facebook recently. After some thinking, I decided to post this list here so y'all can enjoy it and even add to it as well. So here it is:
You know you're a railfan if...
- When other people open up the photos on their phones, they have pictures of their kids/relatives/pets/etc., but when you open up the photos on your phone, it's just pictures of the trains you recently caught.
- The local railroaders know you by name.
- You can get to any crossing on the local railroads, even the most remote ones, without needing a map.
- You also know the quickest route between any two points along a local railroad.
- When going anywhere, you plan a route that lets you cross/parallel railroads the most.
- You always look both ways at a crossing to see if a train is coming, but for different reasons for most.
- When looking at a crossing on Google Maps, you can easily (and usually accurately) identify what equipment it has.
- You have multiple hard drives on your computer just for all of the pictures and videos you have of trains.
- Your family wants to go down to Auburn to see the Auburn Tigers play, but you want to go with them just to railfan the local CSX line.
- When watching older videos of the Georgia Central back when it still had the ex-Southern U23Bs, you get nostalgic for them despite never having ever been to that railroad in your entire life.
- You plan & take trips to states hundreds of miles away just so you can go to a railroad line up there.
- You also stop at other railroad lines along the route between your destination and your house.
- You want to get a dash-cam just so you can record trains while driving.
- You know all of the best spots for viewing a CSX yard in a town west of yours.
- You also know the best spots for viewing the block signals at the ends of the yard, and regularly drive past them when out there just to see if a train is coming.
- You help run a website & forum just for railroad crossing signals.
- You spend more money on gas to go watch trains than you spend on gas to get to work.
- Your distant relatives tag you in pictures and videos of trains they share on Facebook.
- One of the main reasons you enjoyed high school was because the school was located right next to a rail line.
- You always sat at a table closest to the windows facing the tracks in the lunchroom.
- In the one class you had with a window facing the tracks, the teacher wouldn't let you sit next to said window to keep you from getting distracted.
- You shot your first picture of the first heritage unit you ever saw from one of the windows in another class.
- You can tell about when a railroad installed the signals at a crossing just by looking at it.
- When talking with another railfan about trains, you and him are making perfect sense to each other but the non-railfan friend one of you brought along quickly gets lost.
- You know the names of every railroad line in your area, and the names of railroad lines that aren't anywhere near your area.
- You own multiple railroad crossing bells and are looking to get more.
- You have been to a town that no-one's ever heard of (or can locate by themselves on a map) just because it has a cool railroad crossing.
- You have also been to a spot in the middle of nowhere where there isn't even cellphone reception just to record a railroad crossing.
Any others that I missed? If so, feel free to add them.
You know you're a railfan if...
- When other people open up the photos on their phones, they have pictures of their kids/relatives/pets/etc., but when you open up the photos on your phone, it's just pictures of the trains you recently caught.
- The local railroaders know you by name.
- You can get to any crossing on the local railroads, even the most remote ones, without needing a map.
- You also know the quickest route between any two points along a local railroad.
- When going anywhere, you plan a route that lets you cross/parallel railroads the most.
- You always look both ways at a crossing to see if a train is coming, but for different reasons for most.
- When looking at a crossing on Google Maps, you can easily (and usually accurately) identify what equipment it has.
- You have multiple hard drives on your computer just for all of the pictures and videos you have of trains.
- Your family wants to go down to Auburn to see the Auburn Tigers play, but you want to go with them just to railfan the local CSX line.
- When watching older videos of the Georgia Central back when it still had the ex-Southern U23Bs, you get nostalgic for them despite never having ever been to that railroad in your entire life.
- You plan & take trips to states hundreds of miles away just so you can go to a railroad line up there.
- You also stop at other railroad lines along the route between your destination and your house.
- You want to get a dash-cam just so you can record trains while driving.
- You know all of the best spots for viewing a CSX yard in a town west of yours.
- You also know the best spots for viewing the block signals at the ends of the yard, and regularly drive past them when out there just to see if a train is coming.
- You help run a website & forum just for railroad crossing signals.
- You spend more money on gas to go watch trains than you spend on gas to get to work.
- Your distant relatives tag you in pictures and videos of trains they share on Facebook.
- One of the main reasons you enjoyed high school was because the school was located right next to a rail line.
- You always sat at a table closest to the windows facing the tracks in the lunchroom.
- In the one class you had with a window facing the tracks, the teacher wouldn't let you sit next to said window to keep you from getting distracted.
- You shot your first picture of the first heritage unit you ever saw from one of the windows in another class.
- You can tell about when a railroad installed the signals at a crossing just by looking at it.
- When talking with another railfan about trains, you and him are making perfect sense to each other but the non-railfan friend one of you brought along quickly gets lost.
- You know the names of every railroad line in your area, and the names of railroad lines that aren't anywhere near your area.
- You own multiple railroad crossing bells and are looking to get more.
- You have been to a town that no-one's ever heard of (or can locate by themselves on a map) just because it has a cool railroad crossing.
- You have also been to a spot in the middle of nowhere where there isn't even cellphone reception just to record a railroad crossing.
Any others that I missed? If so, feel free to add them.
