A railfan, also known as a “rail enthusiast” or “train buff” in North America, is a person with a strong affinity for anything related to trains and rail travel.
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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.
Railfans get used to the usual patterns of trains in their area, and use scanners to listen in on railroad dispatch frequencies. But it takes knowledge and practice to decipher what you hear on the scanner.
In one study conducted at the BNSF Railway Hobart Railyard in Los Angeles, the California Environmental Protection Agency estimated that residents living near a railyard experienced a higher risk of carcinogen exposure.
The term hobo is a loose one used to define everything from happy-go-lucky train hoppers to large homeless communities (and sometimes derogatorily so). But in its most popular definition, itinerant workers traveling the country by train use the word to describe themselves and their unique and intentional lifestyle.
A railfan, rail buff or train buff (American English), railway enthusiast, railway buff or trainspotter (Australian/British English), or ferroequinologist is a person who is recreationally interested in trains and rail transport systems.
Etymology. From grice, supposed plural of grouse (on analogy to mouse/mice), likening a person who identifies railway locomotives to a sportsman who bags grouse.
The people who do Freight Hopping are known as Hobos. The rail yard security guys who you really don't want to bump into are called Bulls and seeing how far you can get via freight trains and coping with whatever the yards in which you arrive throw at you is called exciting. •
Why do trains sound their horn? Federal law requires the train crew when approaching a road crossing to sound the horn at all public crossings for the protection and safety of motorists and pedestrians regardless of whether crossings with gates and lights are present.
In rail terminology, a railway turntable or wheelhouse is a device for turning railway rolling stock, usually locomotives, so that they can be moved back in the direction from which they came.
The Federal statute which provides that all train and engineer crews must be relieved of duty after 12 hours of continuous service. Hogger (Slang) Locomotive engineer. Hoghead (Slang) Locomotive engineer.
The safest spot in a train, during an accident, is the center of the train, said Mann, who was the principal author of the Federal Railway Safety Act in 1970. Because if there is a front-end collision or a rear-end collision, the damages will be greater at those locations.
The middle of the train is by far the safest for persons. The National Transportation Safety Board does not release comprehensive data on where victims were sitting during fatal train accidents, though some details are available in individual investigative reports.