Railfans VS Nonrailfans. Railfans 9 time out of 10 will get picked on by either fellow employees, or classmates. All because they like trains. This usually happens during the 5th grade and steadily gets worse through middle school and high school. Railfans sometimes tries to hide the fact that they like trains. Hopping to avoid attention, while others show it off like a Medal of Honor. Railfans are not the most popular students but they are not the most hated. The teasing can range from a simple disgraceful look in their direction to name calling with names like: geek, trainboy, choochoo boy. Name calling of trains usually goes along with the name calling like: trains are gay, stupid, worthless, and even %$@#!! Sarcasm is common. Comments like, Why do you like trains? You going to be an engineer? How them trains doing? All of these can be stressful, but there are options to let it out. 1. return the teasing, name calling and insults 2. talk to a teacher, guidance councilor, or a parent 3. ask them to stop 4. This should be you last option sock 'em in the mouth and beat the liven day lights out of 'em. On rare occasions there is a need for railfan knowledge. Like for an art project. During that time the 'spotlight' is on the railfan. Nonrailfans ask questions like: m How do you draw a rail? What does an engine look like? Does this look like a train? During that time frame the teasing stops because the nonrailfans think that if by teasing the railfans they will not help them considering that nonrailfnas don't know anything about what railfans specialize in. Confusing an't? As Middle school starts railfans face a whole new set of people and challenges. Like students that are neither mean or nice to the railfans about their hobby. It's like a silent respect because you know more about something they know little of, then there are the students that are nice about your choice of hobby, respecting it but think that it's just a strange hobby and leave it that way. A strange hobby, but there are those students who are every railfans worst nightmare... The students that seem like they are on a crusade against railfans and the hobby, going are tell rumors about something they know nothing of. Which in some cases is enough to send some railfans straight to option #4. Which would work and build you a reputation that if anyone makes fun of trains and you don't like. watch out!!. Now this one that I personally like because I do have a friend who is a budding railfan, and live literally across the street from active tracks of the Genesee & Wyoming. Now there are budding railfans that accept you for who you are and seem interested in the hobby. In rare cases like those it's ok to ask them to come by your house and check out all od the options that come with this great hobby. Like Model railroading Railfanning Volunteering at either a local day care with your model trains, or at a railroad museum Colby Miles
Always had problems, from grade school on up. Hired on Chessie right out of high school in 1979, spent most of the next 9 years laid off. Now I can go to high school reunions with over 27 years seniority under my belt with a career that pays better than most of the jobs the losers I went to school with have. Trains aren't so bad now.
Colby - when I was 14, I joined the local Garrett Historical Society and vounteered at the museum on weekends. It wasn't too long before I had a key and was "in charge" of weekend operations. All through high school I was both a railfan and a model railroader. I really didn't get any real "kidding" by anyone, and if there were occassional comments, I would always be quick to smile and say things like "Some people are interested in sports, car racing, collecting baseball cards - I just happen to like being around 230,000 pound, 1500 horsepower locomotives with huge 16-cylinder diesel engines pulling mile long trains." Of course those were the specs of the old F-7s - now you can tell them all about the GE engines of today which crank out 4,400 horsepower out of 16 and even newer 12 cylinder engines. Tell them about engines that incorporate on-board radar sensors to control the speed of the train at 3 miles per hour while loading coal hoppers at modern mine facilities. Tell them you are interested in GE remote Monitoring and Diagnostic Services that let Evolution series locomotives transmit performance data by satellite for technicians to do real-time diagnostics. Tell them about the on-board computers that monitor and adjust fuel consumption for maximum efficiency and for minimum environmental damage. Tell them about all the magazines published that are dedicated to railfanning and model railroading - and the huge business and industry associated with scale model railroad operations - and that you don't "play" with toy trains, but highly detailed scale models. Today I am an engineer (not a railroad engineer) in the aerospace business. The company I have worked for the past 23 years was just recently purchased by General Electric - Monday I was very happy to post some photos I have taken of some of the CSX, CP, and BNSF GE engines in my office at work. EDIT: I just remembered that when I first went to work for the company I am currently employed by, I actually (indirectly) worked for Dr. Bruce Chubb - the guy that wrote the books on model railroading and electronics such as How To Operate Your Model Railroad. He was the Vice President of Engineering, and my boss's boss reported to him. So those of us that are model railroaders do go places - and can sometimes make money from the hobby!
I just started to really get into the hobby so I never had to put up with the teasing at school. I think that most of the people that do the teasing are having their own insecurities about being accepted at school so they do that by putting other people down. These people at school probably don't have a real understanding about trains and the culture around them. Unfortunately we don't live in a perfect world so we have to make the best of the situations. Cheers,
I went through this as well. Just basically ignored the bums who picked at me. Enjoyed my hobby. Funny thing is, now that I am an adult, some of those who did the picking became railfans, and model railroaders themselves.... Life has its odd twists and turns! Boxcab E50
Never really got picked on when I was a kid. Lots of my friends liked trains too or were at least tolerant of them. My wife & kids used to tease me about my affection for trains but when I dropped my first "real" paycheck(after my student status)in my wife's lap, the teasing stopped. Now at my age, I am envied by many friends and acquaintances because I collect RR.Retirement,which is much better than their Social Security. With our pensions and funds, my wife & I do rather well. The house is paid off and we own two cars. The railroad helped me get that way. CT
Wow.. I really was not expecting this many post so quickly!! lol. And you know what? what I post at the top most or all of those things have happend to me.. Now back in December I had a history project due. My class was learing about the Civil War my project was on Trains. My diarama got some good comments from some of class mates and I got a 100 on it, so I hope my friends that do tease me about the hobby will learn to understand that it's what I like and I yes I did rub it in on my friends about my grade.
Congratulations on your project and your grade,Colby. Keep up the good work! As you can see, you can get a lot of valid information from the working and retired rails. Hope to read more from you in the future! CT
Never had a problem in school or anywhere else for that fact. I guess coming from a railroad family might have had something to do with that. I just never let anything like that bother me anyway.
Nah, you're just different from all them. Kids with no imagination and outside interests tend to harass those like you who have imagination...they're jealous. Face it, you're a "Nerd". I mean that in a nice way, because I was one too and got harassed in school. BTW, I became a computer systems engineer, was involved with John Glenn's Mercury flight, the Apollo Program, Robots, and Navy ship controls. Being a Nerd is a lot more fun. :teeth: Well done on your diarama and grade! Nerds do more neat things. :thumbs_up:
It happened to me when I was at high school. At least I'm out of it. Just pray for me when I get into college. I may go through it again.
Im in 8th grade and no one has ever made fun of me.Im trying to git my friends into the hobby.I think they kinda like trains now.
ok. So kids with imgination get pick on by kids without imagination.. but still I'm a bit worried.....
I had the same problem. I wasn't a problem until 8th grade when I some people really got on to me about it. It went off and on until the end of highschool. I found that the people in college are more mature about than highschoolers and they just really care what I do. The one thing that really irritated me though was that people would always ask me if I wanted to be a conductor. Somewhere along the way kids got the idea in thier heads that the person who drives the train is known as a conductor. I would always correct them and tell that the engineer drove the train and the conductor was in charge of the train. It seems that most people non-train savvy people automatically think that an engineer is some one builds buildings. I also drew a lot of trains in school and I was always asked if I draw anything else besides trains. I told them that I could but that I liked drawing trains the best. But No matter how hard anyone tried nobody in school got me riled up. Which I am assuming is what they wanted. But I made them even more mad by just acting they wasn't there. Thats my little rant on this, I glad to know I wasn't the only one with problems during school. But for the last three years I've been in college I haven't had a problem.
I never really got picked on that much in school. For liking trains or otherwise. I guess it was more because I have this inherent ability to get along with "difficult" people than the fact that I was tough. It has been my observation that the types who would pick on someone for wearing an engineer's cap are the same one's who would pick on just about anyone for just about anything. They do this out of jealousy, insecurity, or in their narrow scope of thinking use one's passion or individuality in a derogitive way in an attempt to somehow elevate themselves. Fact is, in the 6th grade I met a lifelong friend simply because I was reading Model Railroader in the school library and he noticed. It was a doubly good thing as he had a sister who was pretty hot too;~) As I grew into my teens, trains took somewhat of a back seat to hot cars and hot girls. When you get your driver's licence at 16, it changes you because you now have access to the whole world. Or so it seems anyway. Unfortunately my friend from middle school liked drugs more than trains then. We're still aquaintences now but only in passing. He has cleaned up but without trains we really have nothing else in common. The layout my dad and I had built years before was still in the basement but only getting attention from me during the dead of winter. I never would have dreamed of showing it to any girlfriend I had for fear of her thinking I was a nerd. After high school I still liked trains but hardly had the time for them. When my dad died I was 23. My mom made me tear down the HO layout in our basement citing that I "would never use it anyway". I kept most of the locos and rolling stock and after my dad's death focused myself on the painting and detailing aspect of modelling. My uncle had a killer HO layout that took up all of his basement and on the friday nights I did not have a date, I was over there running trains. (but still would never tell a girlfriend what I was doing) My uncle was an excellent modeller and in many ways helped me to be the modeller I am today. We often attended NMRA meetings and did hobby shop tour-de-forces together and he liked it when I would drive as I always had some flashy souped-up car that he would get a kick out of riding in. Sadly in later years my uncle developed Parkinson's disease and had to give up model railroading completely. One of the toughest things I have ever done was to have to help demolish his layout. A couple years later my uncle died and i still swear it was not the Parkinson's that killed him but the fact that he could no longer persue his passion. Sad... In recent years I also found out that a girl I dated in my early 20's liked trains too. We were re-united through a mutual friend just before I was to be married to my present wife. I don't remember how it came up in the conversation but I guess I figured that at 29 and engaged, it was safe to come out of the closet, or basement as it were. My wive would most likely tell you that she would not have been that attracted to me had she known I was a train lover. Heck, at that time I probably wouldn't have liked what I had seen either if I saw myself tooling around in a souped-up convertible wearing a choo-choo charlie hat and red bandana. But it wouldn't stop me from doing it now.
MEClover I would like to say that I understand the issues that you are dealing with, but I have never had to. As a young middle school aged kid, I was 6'4" tall, 200 pound kid that most other kids were afraid of. I never did anything to make them feel that way, it was just my size. As I grew up, I have had to deal with those that make me wonder if the air they breathe is a waste. I have been ridiculed for my submarine service in the US Navy. The 100 guys go down and 50 couples come up thing. After the navy, I have encountered those who deceive, put down and make others look bad in a lame attempt to better there position. At times, I have wanted to thump some of them, but that's not my style. I don't believe violence solves anything. I have my model trains and enjoy sitting trackside taking pictures. I wear my train caps/shirts/hoodies with pride. When asked why I like trains, I ask questions back like why do you like your boat? Besides, what's not to like about something that weighs over 400,000 pounds, grunts and groans and belches smoke. My son, now a junior in college, has experienced many of the same things and feelings you have expressed. During high school, he started to say "just keepin it real". After a while, I asked him why he kept saying this. He said it was how he chose to live his life. Be real to himself. He decided what was important to him and was going to be true to it. He was and is a big jock, soccer and lacrosse. He also enjoys the arts. Photography, playing the clarinet, all types of music. He took a lot of crap for his artsy side, but never wavered. He choose to judge people on who they are, not what they like and dislike. Fat, skinny, short, tall, black, white, who cares as long as they were true to that which is important to them. As long as they did not change just to fit in, it was all good to him. To this day, he is still keepin it real. My wife asked who I was talking to and she read you posts. She is a teacher and has just about seem it all in school. She suggests that you talk to anyone that you feel comfortable talking to, a teacher, parent, clergyman etc. It is good to vent and get things off your chest so to speak. Also, try to ignore the crap. Most kids get tired of teasing someone when it has no effect on them. Once they see it does not bother you, they will move on to someone else. You may even find that they are the ones 10 years from now that are feeling intimidated by just about everything. Decide what is important to you and stay true to it. Just some advice from someone who wants to be sittin trackside, keepin it real.
This is a great thread - and I hope some of you younger guys can pick up a pointer or two from us "old" guys. I wore an "engineer's" cap from the the time I was 14 or so and then off and on all through school. It was my trade mark. I started working in a grocery store when I was 15 to help pay for my railroad hobbies - model railroading and railfanning/photography. I do kind of regret that when I was 17 I started to spend more of my money on girlfriends - the other day I was looking at some photos I took when I was in high school at the peak of the Chessie System of the mid-1970's and thought that if only I had pushed more film through my cameras back then... But then again, I guess the money and time spent with girlfriends wasn't all wasted. I never had any negative comments from girls I dated - my "steady" girlfriend in high school had a younger brother that was a model railroader. Later on when I was in my twenties, I would sometimes get a comment like, "How cute! You still play with trains!". Then I would explain the whole business of scale model railroading, operations, scenery techniques, etc. When I met my wife, both her older and younger brothers had dabbled in model railroading, and she told me that she always thought that she would have liked a train set for Christmas more than dolls and stuff when she was a kid. After we were married and settled in our condominium, I got right to work building an HO layout in the basement - with her help - and then about a year later this little guy showed up. I have some nice pictures of him operating that layout - denim coveralls, train hat, and pacifier firmly in use.
In Jr. high and High School my best friend and I (Family Lines System) were BIG Rail nuts, chasing any thing that went thru our town or area. We also had a model RR that we had started in about the 3rd or 4th grade. We caught a little slack about it, but never had any real trouble.Back in the early 80's handheld scanners were fairly rare(and primitive, by todays standards) but we carried his with us everywhere we went, including HS sporting events. Don't let anyone get too ya, keep your head up and just remind them that most of the stuff that they own or eat has been on the rails at one point or another :thumbs_up:
