, Russia. Railfans taking photos and videos of rolling stock looks over the model railroad display at the Pasadena, California model train club The hobby extends to all aspects of rail transport systems. Railfans may have one or more particular concentrations of interest, such as: • Railway
locomotives and
rolling stock • Still-used or disused railroad lines, bridges, tunnels,
stations,
signal boxes and other infrastructure •
Subways and other local rail transit systems • Railway history • Railway photography • Railway books and
magazines •
Railtours •
Railway signalling • Playing
train simulators •
Railway modelling, both physical and virtual model railroading,
toy train collecting,
live steam and outdoor
miniature railways, and
model engineering. • Collection of railway artifacts, in particular: tickets, timetables, posters, railway paper, route maps, locomotive
whistles, number plates,
builder's plates,
builder's photos, badges, uniforms, railway crockery and other
railwayana. Many items, such as timetables and railway paper (i.e. internal railway documents), are collected for study and not just as collectibles. • Railway art or architecture • Railway operations, economics or commerce • Railway
advocacy and politics relating to railways (in some
democratic countries) •
Railway preservation/restoration •
Level crossings and their infrastructure. This is where the railfan can also be interested in the railroad or "grade" crossing signals. • Monitoring railroad
radio communications with a
radio scanner. The scope of the subject is so large that fans may additionally concentrate their interest on a particular country, town,
railway company, field of operations or era in history – or a combination of any of the above.
Railway photography on the
Tokaido Shinkansen line near
Mount Fuji (JR) Tokyo train center Train photography is a common activity of railfans. Most railfans do their photographing from public property, unless they have permission to use a specific private property owner's land. Occasionally, they run into problems with law enforcement, especially due to
post 9/11 security concerns, because they are sometimes viewed as suspicious. In 2004, for example, the
New York City Subway attempted to institute a photo ban, which was met with fierce opposition and ultimately scrapped. In sharp contrast, the
Port Authority Trans–Hudson (PATH) successfully implemented a photo ban that is still in effect (although it predated the 11 September attacks and the 1993 World Trade Center bombing); it has led to confiscations and arrests on the PATH system. • In the United Kingdom, photography is allowed at all stations on the
National Rail network.
Transport for London, however, does not allow photography without permission and a permit issued by the TfL Film Office. However, photography for personal use, without ancillary equipment is allowed without a permit. The
Tyne & Wear Metro prohibits all photography without written permission from
Nexus, the system's operators. As of 2015, it is the only system in the UK with such a policy. • In Singapore, private photography is allowed at any one time, except those on movie productions or wedding photoshoots, they may need approval from the public transport operators' offices. • Spanish railroad company
Renfe used to ask for a permit, but since 2018 it is not needed. • In
Greece, railway photography is permitted on all networks • In Russia, railway photography is permitted on all networks • In Italy, the Royal Decree n°1161 enacted on 11 July 1941, concerning "military secrets", prohibited all and any photographs and video recordings in and around a number of civilian and military installations, including public railways. Railway photography was largely tolerated by tacit agreement, but could be prosecuted as a felony. The law was repealed by Legislative Decree n°66 enacted on 15 March 2010. • In Germany, allows non-commercial photography as long as no additional equipment such as tripods are used. • In Indonesia,
Kereta Api Indonesia allows photography on a train station and inside the train as long is for private use, on a public area and without ancillary equipment such as tripod and drones. Such equipment must have additional permission from the station master or operating divisions' public relations.
Trainspotting A trainspotter may use a data book listing the locomotives or equipment in question, in which locomotives seen are ticked off. An early trainspotter was 14-year-old Fanny Gordon, who in 1861 recorded the names of locomotives passing
Westbourne Park station on the
Great Western Main Line. The hobby is referenced in Edith Nesbit's 1905 children's book
The Railway Children. In Great Britain, this aspect of the hobby was given a major impetus by the publication from 1942 onward of the
Ian Allan "ABC" series of booklets, whose publication began in response to public requests for information about the locomotives of the
Southern Railway. This category of railfan is cited in a chapter of 1993
Irvine Welsh's
novel of the same name, which the title of the book, as well as the
cult film released three years later, is named after.
Railway trips Bashing In general terms, bashing, a term used by British railway enthusiasts, describes a trip, excursion or holiday primarily involving train travel, usually with the intention of collecting mileage on a train or for covering unexplored parts of the rail network. The practice of bashing dates back to the decline of steam locomotive operations, when more passionate
trainspotters wished to note which steam engines they had travelled behind. Following the withdrawal of mainline steam in 1968, a new generation of bashers took to accumulating mileage behind diesel locomotives; the variety of diesel types, destinations to travel behind them, and the pursuit of clearing classes all fuelled the popularity of bashing. Today, despite the majority of British trains being formed of
multiple units, bashing still remains a popular pastime for railway enthusiasts. "Shed bashing" describes going out to as many
railway sheds or depots as possible. It was very popular in the 1950s and 1960s. As they required a permit that could be hard to obtain, some "shed bashers" were illegal.
Fantrips Many railway preservation groups run special trips for railfans using
restored trains, often on "rare mileage" lines that do not see regular passenger service. These trips are both social events and opportunities for railfans to photograph unusual trains. Chasing a fantrip by road for the purposes of photography is often referred to as "motorcading" in Australia.
Other activities Some enthusiasts combine their interest in trains with the hobby of monitoring radio communications, specializing in listening to radio communications of railroad operations using a
scanner. In some busy rail corridors, local governments have budgeted, constructed and maintain railfan viewing platforms, sometimes part of a park area or nearby rail museum, which they promote along with other tourist attractions. One such example is the
Folkston Railfan Platform along
CSX tracks in
Folkston, Georgia, USA, where viewers can see regular Florida freight traffic, as well as
Amtrak passenger trains, including its daily
Auto Train. In some
democratic countries, such as
Canada, many railfans
advocate politically for expanded railway infrastructure and promote civic engagement that encourages further development of railways. ==Safety==