Railway Magazine advert

[prentonmember]

Pleased to see an advert in March Railway Magazine extolling the benefits of RCTS membership

BUT in its headline...

Railfans??

Is that just as bad as being labelled as Trainspotters??

prentonmember

[windsor_lad]

Railfan is more of an Americanism while trainspotter I see as not far short from a term of abuse.

Windsor Lad

[14Bfellow]

Am I not right in thinking that originally the society adverts extolled non members to join "The Brotherhood of Railwayists" ? Far better than "Trainspotters", a term abused by the riff raff media or "Railfan" who is likely to be found at a train station....bad enough having hundreds of their locomotives here.

14B Fellow

[6-6-66]

Railfans seems to be the least offensive of the appellations applied to what most of us consider to be railway enthusiasts. For sure, even allowing for some fairly well known members of the media identifying their enthusiasm for the rail hobby, 'train spotter' still carries a somewhat downmarket tag. One of my pet loathings is to be described as a railway 'buff'. I have never been a delicate shade of yellow and view this in a suitably jaundiced manner.

[Train Spotter]

I would be classified as a TRAIN SPOTTER after spending Saturday 28th February from 0515 to 2350 Train Spotting at Doncaster then on Sunday 1st March from 0800 to 2152 then on Saturday 7th March from 0515 to 2307. I would much rather be called a Railway Enthusiast, its a far more better way of describing the Railway Hobby