Famous rail enthusiasts?

Journeyman · 19 Oct 2018

37201xoIM said:
Don't think we've yet had Chris Donald of Viz fame. His autobiography starts with a childhood recollection of a class 17 Clayton going past his house in Jesmond in pre-Metro days... and he has also owned various ex-railway buildings.

Before Viz, he started his publishing career with a spotting-related zine. Viz is absolutely full of references to railways, always for typically crude comedic effect but almost always 100% accurate!

RailUK Forums

LOL The Irony · 19 Oct 2018

Journeyman said:
You've mentioned the S******** R******! You'll shortly disappear in mysterious circumstances...

Let's just call it the Sierra Romeo from now on.

Taunton · 19 Oct 2018

Calthrop said:
Kipling .... He was also an early "petrol-head" -- took great pleasure in pioneering motoring in Britain and on the Continent.

Very common in the early days of motoring, before the present car-vs-train aggression, for those mechanically minded to be into this. There is more than one pre-WW1 photo of a railway CME with their latest loco behind, and their own, expensive for the time, private car in front of it, possibly one of the first such vehicles in the town.

bastien · 19 Oct 2018

61653 HTAFC said:
I bet he believes in the Strategic Reserve...

He also appears to be anti-HS2, which is totally unsurprising.

61653 HTAFC · 19 Oct 2018

bastien said:
He also appears to be anti-HS2, which is totally unsurprising.

Has anyone ever seen Chris Grayling shedding his skin? I think he might be a lizard-person...

bastien · 19 Oct 2018

61653 HTAFC said:
Has anyone ever seen Chris Grayling shedding his skin? I think he might be a lizard-person...

"Grayling" actually sounds like the name of some x-files type alien! See, it all fits together!

6Gman · 19 Oct 2018

Taunton said:
Very common in the early days of motoring, before the present car-vs-train aggression, for those mechanically minded to be into this. There is more than one pre-WW1 photo of a railway CME with their latest loco behind, and their own, expensive for the time, private car in front of it, possibly one of the first such vehicles in the town.

The originators of the RH&DR were keen motorsports enthusiasts of course.

6Gman · 19 Oct 2018

AlterEgo said:
Somebody has mentioned Portillo already.

And his interest may be regarded as outwith that which would generally be viewed as being a railway enthusiast ...

midlandred · 19 Oct 2018

Southwest93 said:
Follow along from the Famous people on Train I was wondering how many people are enthusiasts?

Many moons ago, I worked with the brother of the drummer from Lieutenant Pigeon. His bag was soundtracks of steam trains, I heard some and they were bloomin' good.

Wasn't he a signalman in the Coventry area (Coundon Road?)

61653 HTAFC · 19 Oct 2018

6Gman said:
And his interest may be regarded as outwith that which would generally be viewed as being a railway enthusiast ...

On the other hand he made a right er... fool of himself on This Week last night. Compared to that, standing at the end of Crewe platforms in an anorak and scribbling down numbers is the height of dapper coolness!

EM2 · 19 Oct 2018

Trackman said:
He rattled off names and numbers of the EM2's and gave 'correct' facts about the Woodhead line.

When the scene where he's trying to remember all the EM2's names was broadcast, this brilliant tweet surfaced:
https://twitter.com/Sarah_Fleetham/status/445663157038882816

@Sarah_Fleetham
Pandora, Electra...Is Roy opening a strip club?! #corrie

EM2 · 19 Oct 2018

We've got to page four without a mention of James May?!

156443 · 19 Oct 2018

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_railfans

Here’s a list on Wikipedia of famous railfans I found, a few have already been mentioned on this thread

Pigeon · 19 Oct 2018

Calthrop said:
AFAIK, for some reason aircraft do not seem to have done much for him.

Aerodynes, perhaps not. Aerostats, on the other hand...

37201xoIM said:
Don't think we've yet had Chris Donald of Viz fame. His autobiography starts with a childhood recollection of a class 17 Clayton going past his house in Jesmond in pre-Metro days... and he has also owned various ex-railway buildings.

Ah, I did wonder... It did always strike me as unusual for a non-railway cartoon that whenever Viz characters went on a train the loco would be of an identifiable British class, and not the usual generic box on wheels.

(Cars, too... although the roof and windows bit is always drawn massively vertically stretched so you can see the occupants' faces properly, the shape of the rest of the body and trim features corresponds to an identifiable model.)

61653 HTAFC · 19 Oct 2018

156443 said:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_railfans

Here’s a list on Wikipedia of famous railfans I found, a few have already been mentioned on this thread

Does the presence of Springsteen and Cash make up for all the garbage that Pete Waterman has inflicted on our ears?

A bit disappointed that nobody has added Roy Cropper to the Fictional Railfans section.

PaxVobiscum · 20 Oct 2018

I’m sure I’ve seen Nicola Sturgeon shunting stock at Bo’ness when there was no loco available. Certainly looked like her. :smile:

Calthrop · 20 Oct 2018

Pigeon said:
Aerodynes, perhaps not. Aerostats, on the other hand...

I'm no Kipling scholar, though I've read a lot of his work: did he deal with airships / balloons / whatever? I'd be interested to know more.

Pigeon · 20 Oct 2018

Calthrop said:
I'm no Kipling scholar, though I've read a lot of his work: did he deal with airships / balloons / whatever? I'd be interested to know more.

Check out "With the Night Mail" and "As Easy as A.B.C."

Calthrop · 22 Oct 2018

Pigeon said:
Check out "With the Night Mail" and "As Easy as A.B.C."

Thank you -- have Googled these; hitherto totally unknown to me. Worth accessing and reading, I think. He was a complex chap, was old Rudyard.

Scotrail84 · 22 Oct 2018

Victoria Wood. she a Crewe to Crewe trip round most of Britain in a documentary.

37201xoIM · 28 Oct 2018

EM2 said:
When the scene where he's trying to remember all the EM2's names was broadcast, this brilliant tweet surfaced:
https://twitter.com/Sarah_Fleetham/status/445663157038882816

... this being where I wonder whether a class of locos named after stars of the, err, adult motion-picture industry would be all that much worse than some of the dire names we've had inflicted on rolling-stock over the years...

37201xoIM · 28 Oct 2018

Ah, I did wonder... It did always strike me as unusual for a non-railway cartoon that whenever Viz characters went on a train the loco would be of an identifiable British class, and not the usual generic box on wheels.

Indeed - perhaps my favourite was The Bottom Inspectors, one episode of which many years ago showed offenders against bottom hygiene being carted off to a correction camp in a train hauled by a split-box 37...

In similar vein, the cartoons of the excellent Steve Bell which trains always feature identiable types, sometimes making onomatopoeic dieselly utterances by way of comment of their situation. I don't however know whether he's actually a crank, or just a keen observer, a great cartoonist, and someone who cares a lot about the railway!

Speaking of which, for well-drawn GB trains, take a look at Hergé's Tintin and the Black Isle too!

trainmania100 · 28 Oct 2018

I consider myself quite famous, a rail enthusiast also.

Mag_seven · 17 Nov 2019

Rod Stewart:

https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/sir-rod-stewart-reveals-his-epic-model-railway-city.195111/

He's one of rock's biggest stars, but Sir Rod Stewart has finally revealed the fruits of his other great passion - model railways.

In between making music and playing live, Sir Rod has been working on a massive, intricate model of a US city for the past 23 years.

He unveiled it as part of an interview with Railway Modeller magazine.

Matt_pool · 17 Nov 2019

mrcheek said:
Ultraviolence arent the best known band of all time, but their 9 minute epic "Hardcore M-----f-----" is still considered a classic in industrial circles.
The main man behind the band, Jonathan Casey, is a massive fan of trains.

Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden has already been mentioned. Surely the only man on earth to front a rock band, as well as being a qualified airline pilot, and qualified steam train driver.

I never thought that Ultraviolence would get mentioned on this forum!

I saw them live several times back in the 1990's. Absolutely mental!

Bruce Dickinson was known to travel between gigs by train while the rest of the band went on the tour bus.

Conincidentally, the first time I saw Iron Maiden live back in 1992 was at the G-Mex in Manchester, which of course is a former railway station!

33017 · 17 Nov 2019

Matt_pool said:
I never thought that Ultraviolence would get mentioned on this forum!

I saw them live several times back in the 1990's. Absolutely mental!

Bruce Dickinson was known to travel between gigs by train while the rest of the band went on the tour bus.

Conincidentally, the first time I saw Iron Maiden live back in 1992 was at the G-Mex in Manchester, which of course is a former railway station!

I've seen Bruce Dickinson twice when travelling by train - once in Germany and once being met off a down London at Newport a couple of hours before an Iron Maiden gig.

A couple of members of Marillion are or were 'interested', too.

Matt_pool · 17 Nov 2019

33017 said:
I've seen Bruce Dickinson twice when travelling by train - once in Germany and once being met off a down London at Newport a couple of hours before an Iron Maiden gig.

A couple of members of Marillion are or were 'interested', too.

Excellent!

pappleby · 17 Nov 2019

'John Cameron' 0f 60009.

Sir Felix Pole · 17 Nov 2019

Sir David Lean - Film Director (In Which We Serve, Brief Encounter, Great Expectations, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr Zhivago, Ryan's Daughter, A Passage to India etc) described himself as a railway enthusiast, who also made films.

Cowley · 17 Nov 2019

Sir Felix Pole said:
Sir David Lean - Film Director (In Which We Serve, Brief Encounter, Great Expectations, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Dr Zhivago, Ryan's Daughter, A Passage to India etc) described himself as a railway enthusiast, who also made films.

I mean that’s not a bad cv even if he wasn’t!

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