Can people become obsessed with trains?

Question

My cousin had some major problems. As well as quitiing his job and living at home to go watch trains, the fiddling with model trains and those "radios" to hear the train drivers takes up all of his time. He had no women in his life and has stopped washing and is overweight now. he even belongs to a club of all men (suspicious really), I thought he was the only train nut. What in the world is going on here. Do some people take trains too far?

Answer 1

The answer is a profound YES! Ever since I can remember I have been obsessed with trains and railroads of the USA in general. In 1963 I got my first Lionel train set at the age of 4, (still have it and yes, it still works).

My obsession took me through modeling several scales: N, HO, G, and the latest, O scale, of which I have collected dozens of locomotives and over a thousand freight and passenger cars. No layout to run them on, but I do have credit card bills that exceed my monthy house payment and now work 2 jobs in order to pay off my train bills.

Not only did modeling interest me, it wasn't enough. I also became a dealer so I could buy things at cost. When I quit the dealership game, my job as a broadcast engineer got so bad I quit and got hired to work at the roundhouse for the Canadian Pacific in St. Paul, MN. Within 5 months I was promoted to Conductor, but eventually quit due to being away from home too much and I'm now back into broadcast engineering once again. I LOVED my job at the RR and I'd still be there if they paid better at the roundhouse.

I have to say the obsession is waning as today's trains are not as exciting to me as the ones of the 60's and 70's and the burden of my collection is wearing me down. Just keeping track of it is an incredible task.

If your cousin only recently became interested in trains and was not "obsessed" from birth like I was, there may be cause for alarm and may need professional help...I should have gotten help years ago! Most guys who get into this as a hobby find that it gets old after a while and priorities have a way of getting put back into perspective.

Hope this helps, take care.
KK

Answer 2

Yes, the obsession is not a rare thing. It may have been caused by the model railroading and not having a girlfriend. In model railroading, you want your trains to look as realistic as possible so you watch the real ones and tapes and photos of the real ones so you can get an idea of what yours are supposed to look like. Don't worry, for many men it's a phase that passes. Also, meeting the right girl will cause a man to forget everything else in his life. I went through a similar phase. I used to do "Chinese food by the train tracks" on Sundays where I would go buy a huge plate of food and go watch and listen to the trains at the local rail yard. It passed for me cause I became obsessed with aviation and that led to my carreer in aircraft maintenance. I'ts bad, yes- you get it bad when you get it and it's good that you worry for him but he should be fine at the end.

Answer 3

HI Naomi, been there, done that, got the proverbial T shirt. When you have browsed the attached link I think you will find your cousin is only mildly afflicted. I did this for many years. During the late 1970s & early 1980s this almost exclusively British phenomenon was at it's peak with perhaps 200 'top men' the only end to it all is when all your locomotives get withdrawn from service!

ps-there are a few women that do this, I've known of 4 in the last 25 years!

Answer 4

Yep, there are rail fans that follow trains all around the country taking pictures, they usually have scanners so they know more about what is goin on than the employees do. We call em "foamers" because they6 start foaming at the mouth whenever they are close to a train. Not a bad hobby I reckon, I would rathter be fishing but then I been RRing since 1972 LOL.

Answer 5

if you just want to watch trains going by, that is cool, many of us do. STAY OFF THE TRACKS, stand at least 25 feet away from tracks too, or even farther. as far as laying down on the rails, WHY? if this is really a desire, go to a railroad museum, at least then the train equipment is braced to stay still. never never lay down on an active rail line, youll never know when a train is coming or from which direction or its speed. now, i hope that you are not considering a train hit as a way out in suicide. please, if you are feeling such, talk to your school counselor or your best friend or someone else - PLEASE! even if life looks bad, or probs with parents, or you are in depression, or whatever, it is temporary, and as you get older, you will find that good times come back too, altho' perhaps with help of counseling. i've been there in thatdark depressive suicidal mind, and now, i am glad to say that i stuck around, ive ended up being successful and happy in life once i got out of high school and away from those idiot kids and my idiot parents. if in the end, that you really do still do suicide, please just do it by yourself and leave the trains out of it. too many pedestrian and auto fatalities occur anyway, without you purposely adding to the problem. if you purposely commit suicide with the train, you are being selfish thinking only of yourself. you would have no regard whatsoever for the engineer and his psychological state, the other train crew, the paramedics/firefighters and coronor who would be picking up pieces, or for any of the passengers on that train or any other train on that route, and for the ticket clerks and people waiting at every single station up and down the line for delayed trains. a trespasser fatality usually will delay trains at least 1-2 hrs while the tracks are closed for cleaning up your body parts. so please, be safe around rails, keep off the tracks, and if you need, get some help. you will find that someone will care how you feel, and will miss you if you go off this world.

Answer 6

Hello,
Read this ebook here http://www.goobypls.com/r/rd.asp?gid=416. It's the only good resource I found online about train models with a step by step guide to plan and build a model railroad.
Cheers ;)

Answer 7

People can become obsessed with ANYTHING.

Though I think your cousin has taken it to a point of near mental-illness if he's no longer bathing and neglecting his nutrition.

I'm a model railroader, and do SOME "train-spotting" for research on my equipment, but I'm married, I am hygenic and trim... I play with my kids and love doing OTHER things as well.

I LOVED the answerer who suggested getting him a job with the Railroad to break him of the habit !!

Answer 8

There are train-spotters, but not that extreme. He probably needs help. He must feel he is in a situation that he can't escape, hence the obsession. The best thing you could do for him is to get him involved in socialising any way you can, since he seems to want more social contact than he has at present.

Answer 9

Anything can become an obsession if a person takes it too far... perhaps trains were a way for him to escape his life and now it's become his life, why don't you take him out to lunch and talk to him, he may not even realize how far in he's gotten.

Answer 10

Yes, I am obsessed in trains. I video clip them as they go back and forth.

I use a Kodak Easyshare C533 Digital camera.