My five stages of railfanning: 1) Go on bike rides near railroads, begin to watch trains 2) Bring plane spotting camera on next bike ride, take pictures of trains 3) Quit plane spotting 4) During free time, research local spots to see trains to get unique shots 5) Ride commuter rail or Amtrak to different towns to see different trains. So far I'm having fun and probably won't "quit" anytime soon. I'm also still in college.
You forgot stage 6, getting absolutely hooked on railfanning again and trying to find friends that are also railfans again after being out of the community for years, while other aspects of your life suffer you are just trying to chase that initial high again by going out like every weekend lol In all seriousness this is way too accurate and this is some top tier content, I've been railfanning for over a decade now and your channel is super unique in terms of presentation, I hope for nothing but the best for you moving forward. Your content honestly makes my day sometimes :) Still Merry Christmas and here's to 2024 hopefully being a good year for railfans lol
That list pretty much sums up my journey: Stage 1: been into trains since I was little. Stage 2: and Stage 3, which happened at the same time: used a phone to record and upload it to youtube and although I didn't become a foamer, I do like to be quiet when filming. Stage 4: although it looks like I'm quitting, I'm not. I haven't gotten to go out as much because of busy schedules and personal life. Also, the railfan spots I usually go to, I can't access that anymore. Stage 5: Haven't made it that far lol
"Not even accurate" this exact story happened to me, i got into railfanning i was in the fanbase for a while then i left the fanbase for cars, rejoined less than a year later and now im uploading my own content,
Bro this is actually so accurate. Literally it all started out as me looking at trains. Then filming them. Then posting them to TH-cam. Then quitting. And now I have recently regained the passion for railfanning
Haha, thanks OMK, I will try! It can be a little tricky to come up with ideas all the time but I'm trying to put them out at least once a week. Merry Christmas!
2:46 OH MY GOD IM GONNA TEAR UP you don't realize how much nostalgia this song brings to me. in 2016 i uploaded my very first youtube video, and it had this song.
I have been casually watching and observing trains since i was a kid but only started filming and photographing trains a few years ago, as trains became duller and duller i began taking more and more pictures instead of just watching as i think it adds to the fun and photography/filmography is something really fun to do on its own. 10 years ago, i really went out for trains because i found interest in it, but as of now, i go mostly because of the interest in photographing them rather than in seeing actual trains... How long until i reach stage IV? I guess when i will run out of shots and ideas hahaha Merry christmas and happy holidays!
My first phase was that my dad got me into the hobby. He also told me later on that I shouldn't be complaining about the same GEVO's or unit trains since all he saw back then were just the same EMD's or box car consists.
Stage 4,5 are relatable. I quit trains for a while and started getting into planes but now I’m getting back into trains and now I have both hobbies which makes my bank account even more in debt
I only really started in the hobby because of inspiration from many Railfan channels I view, not to mention I was already 19 when I started and I regret not going sooner. At one point early on I was really considering to just give up because nothing was passing by, but I later got over it and continued.(really, I’ve actually cried out of frustration of no trains of any kind passing through) Shortly after continuing I encountered my first special unit. Most of my life I wasn’t even familiar with the whole Railfan thing and naturally got into trains thanks to TTTE, and binge watched several classic videos on YT at the time. As the years went by I kinda lost interest and began focusing on other things, in recent years I would go back to it. I have no care for money and have no plans to monetize in the future, all of my Railfan vids are for plain old fun.
I honestly had no plans to ever monetize but I kind of figured it's a good idea once I reached the threshold, at least just to save up some extra money to help pay for gas and stuff to help get me to different locations and have even more fun. In my opinion, it never hurts to have a hobby that helps pay for itself
Heck yeah buddy another awesome video! I will never quit unless I get extremely bored lol. I’m glad I got my TH-cam name the way it is now, it’s unique and not a common name like productions or something lol. Just my favorite railroad and my first name. The crazy thing is the only reason I tried TH-cam was because I had no internet at my house and was super bored.
I started out sitting by the tracks when I was a kid, then got a camera for Christmas. I started filming in 2012 (at least that's my oldest surviving videos) and gradually progressed. My channel name is just my name. 100 percent agree about the most boring stuff getting lots of views, P42s get lots of views on my shorts while unrebuilt SD40-2s and even HUs are ignored. The only times I quit was when I couldn't physically railfan (injuries, car trouble, etc.). Anyway, great video as always.
I just started railfanning “full time” in 2019 but before that I would just get happy no matter what train it was and not even care how rare the thing was (I saw a H2 MAC Leader in 2016 and thought it was just regular power) I didn’t get any type of camera until 2018 when I finally started going just to the UP Omaha sub to see what was running.
I watched Thomas when I’m 2 years old stays the same for about a few years like actual Lotus he likes Thomas and is old enough to appreciate the more mature elements now
I saw my second heritage unit 2 days after my first (Lehigh Valley). I wasn't expecting it and my inner foamer was activated. (I began screaming like hell)
I go to a pretty busy csx line and a not-so busy ns line and I sometimes get some pretty good catches . Like today, I caught a meet with csx 1850 l&n heritage unit Link to already uploaded video: th-cam.com/video/oGn2OeO1naE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=BmNR-K8W_sNUkjZX
I’ve always had a fascination with railways since I was like 5 or 6, but only around a year ago I started filming train and posting them, before that I did some train spotting (British version of railfanning), no pictures most of the time, just watching the stuff go by, like my 2nd proper train spotting video ended up being the best performing video of mine, how? I don’t have a clue, but I did enjoy uploading and trainspotting quite a bit so I just continued, and now I’m at a point where I think I’ve done well for myself with this whole thing, and I’m probably gonna continue for a while
Who loves watching this man’s videos and a locomotive is sitting in the middle of the screen talking to you and it gets bigger and smaller while it’s talking to you
Stage 1: gaining interest in trains like Thomas as a kid. Stage 2: getting interested in real trains as a kid, leaving Thomas behind mostly. Stage 3: losing interest in trains after elementary. Stage 4: gaining interest after middle school and rejoining the hobby. Stage 5: joining a train club and starting to record real trains on a phone. Stage 6: getting social media Stage 7: getting a camera Stage 8: growth Stage 9: discovering more about the hobby including the drama Stage 10: ups and downs Stage 11: just enjoying my hobby Stage 12: downfall and loss of interest Stage 13: casually return with a new perspective. While I don’t go for trains as often as I used to, I still enjoy the hobby and still occasionally post online. Got better friends now too.
I started because I was a Thomas the Tank Engine fan when I was younger and got to ride the Thomas train (which sadly doesn’t exist anymore in my area). I also got into model trains and then from there it went to… what if I go see this stuff in person, which was hard because I wasn’t old enough to drive, but I eventually went to college which had a rail line that ran along the backside of the college and got myself a scanner that my dad used for police/fire back in the 90’s and was able to listen for when they were coming. I wasn’t going to put my videos up on TH-cam, but decided to so that I have a place to put all my videos while saving storage space. And that is pretty much where I sit now. Just casually going out to see trains at least once a day. Merry Christmas everyone
This is so accurate for me only 1. I could never walk to find trains, that’s miles away 2. I wasn’t in highschool, I was 5 And 3…wait, there’s nothing else
BNSF 1458: " Time to start posting on TH-cam! You come up with a really unique and original name...." Me: ".........Yeah, I got nothing, sorry, but at least I caught some cool trains!"
I am currently in stage 5. Partially due to my recent interest into Model Railroading, but my connections through TVMRi have pretty much lead me to stage 5.
Mine started off bike riding. There's a levee with a paved bike path parallel along some double tracks where I live and they move slow through there. Its fun to coast along side the engines if they arent going too fast. There's some houses next to the levee with the tracks and they're practically _under_ the trains when they go by and I've always wanted to ask one of those people what their property value was considering a train could crush them and everything inside if one derailed LoL
What about the stage where you start watching railfan youtube videos, think to yourself "hey, this is kinda cool, I might wanna get into this" and then by a stroke of pure luck you start a new job and it surprisingly involves working ON the rails and getting real up close and personal with the trains?
I live here in England, it’s great for train spotting and all other things, it’s not like America where all you see is diesels we see diesels, steamers and rarely electrics we also have tons of museums about the railway.
Im 100% a state 3 guy, and the 10-20-1000 Views comment was SO acurate, Most of my videos get 5-20 views, but my first, as of the time of writing this its over 11,000!!! Like i want to know what the algorithm did to push my video of some railbikes being truned around To literal THOUSANDS of peoples screens.
Another great video really enjoy the breakdown of stages lol never thought of it before what stage you are. I just do it for fun and enjoy the trains I see. Have a great day and enjoy trains 😎🚂🫵 Merry Christmas 🎄
I have a question. What would happen if you say, instead of just being someone who likes trains, you actually want to participate in the industry? I am taking Railroad training courses, and I plan on working for the railroad (most likely a local Class 3).
why did i make this
oh and no i'm not a high school dropout stay in school kids
no idea
Cause you ran out of ideas and I didn’t have any for you :)
Cause it’s christmas
I don’t know, why did you?
Because you’re a genius! Or because it’s Christmas! Actually maybe your just going insane, it happens to the best of us.
Stage 6: sell your soul to a railroad company
I’m going straight from stage 1 to 6 lol
Stage 7 : Get excited over nothing, like MRL 4314.
My five stages of railfanning:
1) Go on bike rides near railroads, begin to watch trains
2) Bring plane spotting camera on next bike ride, take pictures of trains
3) Quit plane spotting
4) During free time, research local spots to see trains to get unique shots
5) Ride commuter rail or Amtrak to different towns to see different trains.
So far I'm having fun and probably won't "quit" anytime soon.
I'm also still in college.
What if I'm A Planespotter And Railfan?
can definitely agree, i still do enjoy watching planes tho and rockets
i can't unsee the fact 1458 has a ":3" face.
Guys if you don’t see it it’s the ditch lights and the cut bar
why does it actually look like it.
Once I get my driver’s license, I’ll fan the rails like a fan on the rails!
I blew a traction motor trying understand this.
w move fr lol
You forgot stage 6, getting absolutely hooked on railfanning again and trying to find friends that are also railfans again after being out of the community for years, while other aspects of your life suffer you are just trying to chase that initial high again by going out like every weekend lol
In all seriousness this is way too accurate and this is some top tier content, I've been railfanning for over a decade now and your channel is super unique in terms of presentation, I hope for nothing but the best for you moving forward. Your content honestly makes my day sometimes :)
Still Merry Christmas and here's to 2024 hopefully being a good year for railfans lol
then i saw a train that had a es44dc on the front a dash 8 on the back and a gp38-3 and i was hyped and started again
Stage 6, get the cops called on you by supposedly “fIlMiNg PriVate ProPerty” by some karen
Hahahaha
I was actually stopped by a cop one time almost 2 months ago.
"five stages of grief- I mean uh
Railfanning"
Bro knew what he was doing 💀💀💀
Whats your favorite type of locomotive my favorite is the ES44AC
Do you like the 747 @bnsf 1458
That list pretty much sums up my journey:
Stage 1: been into trains since I was little.
Stage 2: and Stage 3, which happened at the same time: used a phone to record and upload it to youtube and although I didn't become a foamer, I do like to be quiet when filming.
Stage 4: although it looks like I'm quitting, I'm not. I haven't gotten to go out as much because of busy schedules and personal life. Also, the railfan spots I usually go to, I can't access that anymore.
Stage 5: Haven't made it that far lol
Why is this kinda accurate
"Not even accurate" this exact story happened to me, i got into railfanning i was in the fanbase for a while then i left the fanbase for cars, rejoined less than a year later and now im uploading my own content,
My life is layed out right here
Except giving up on school
@@bnsffan6584 That's good
@@BNSF1458 I want to work for the railroad so at some point in the near future I'll go from railfanning to being on the train
3:02 we get tons of ex csx dash 8’s
Bro this is actually so accurate. Literally it all started out as me looking at trains. Then filming them. Then posting them to TH-cam. Then quitting. And now I have recently regained the passion for railfanning
To be honest, I didn’t actually scream at the top of my lungs when I started Railfanning lol
I've been through all 5 stages several times LMAO!!! Too Good George, keep making these videos, they are the BEST!!! Merry Christmas!!! OMK
Haha, thanks OMK, I will try! It can be a little tricky to come up with ideas all the time but I'm trying to put them out at least once a week. Merry Christmas!
🤣🤣🤣 love it, Merry Christmas
You should railfan the Norfolk Southern railroad in your homestate. On Christmas Day
ah yes because norfolk southern has so many lines nearby
@@BNSF1458 okay I bet Norfolk southern would love that have you met a Norfolk southern railroad police officer
2:46 OH MY GOD IM GONNA TEAR UP
you don't realize how much nostalgia this song brings to me. in 2016 i uploaded my very first youtube video, and it had this song.
First thing I found when I looked for "sad music" in the audio library lol
lol, my first ever video was me playing roblox in october of 2016@@BNSF1458
I have been casually watching and observing trains since i was a kid but only started filming and photographing trains a few years ago, as trains became duller and duller i began taking more and more pictures instead of just watching as i think it adds to the fun and photography/filmography is something really fun to do on its own. 10 years ago, i really went out for trains because i found interest in it, but as of now, i go mostly because of the interest in photographing them rather than in seeing actual trains... How long until i reach stage IV? I guess when i will run out of shots and ideas hahaha
Merry christmas and happy holidays!
Yeah I started taking a camera out with me as soon as they started getting duller around here as well haha
i second the railfan to photographer pipeline!
My first phase was that my dad got me into the hobby. He also told me later on that I shouldn't be complaining about the same GEVO's or unit trains since all he saw back then were just the same EMD's or box car consists.
Stage 4,5 are relatable. I quit trains for a while and started getting into planes but now I’m getting back into trains and now I have both hobbies which makes my bank account even more in debt
Im honestly happy when I see any train with any type of power. Merry christmas dude!
I only really started in the hobby because of inspiration from many Railfan channels I view, not to mention I was already 19 when I started and I regret not going sooner. At one point early on I was really considering to just give up because nothing was passing by, but I later got over it and continued.(really, I’ve actually cried out of frustration of no trains of any kind passing through) Shortly after continuing I encountered my first special unit.
Most of my life I wasn’t even familiar with the whole Railfan thing and naturally got into trains thanks to TTTE, and binge watched several classic videos on YT at the time. As the years went by I kinda lost interest and began focusing on other things, in recent years I would go back to it.
I have no care for money and have no plans to monetize in the future, all of my Railfan vids are for plain old fun.
I honestly had no plans to ever monetize but I kind of figured it's a good idea once I reached the threshold, at least just to save up some extra money to help pay for gas and stuff to help get me to different locations and have even more fun. In my opinion, it never hurts to have a hobby that helps pay for itself
Heck yeah buddy another awesome video! I will never quit unless I get extremely bored lol. I’m glad I got my TH-cam name the way it is now, it’s unique and not a common name like productions or something lol. Just my favorite railroad and my first name. The crazy thing is the only reason I tried TH-cam was because I had no internet at my house and was super bored.
Thanks for watching!
@@BNSF1458what’s your favorite Amtrak heritage unit?
At 2:58 kid looks like ‘’OMG A HERITAGE UNIT OMG’’
2:20 then 92k views on a video of a train in different colours
Almost perfect!! I never quit railfanning though (but it's early and I'm old, so who knows). This was the video that got me subbed :)
I started out sitting by the tracks when I was a kid, then got a camera for Christmas. I started filming in 2012 (at least that's my oldest surviving videos) and gradually progressed. My channel name is just my name. 100 percent agree about the most boring stuff getting lots of views, P42s get lots of views on my shorts while unrebuilt SD40-2s and even HUs are ignored. The only times I quit was when I couldn't physically railfan (injuries, car trouble, etc.). Anyway, great video as always.
2:30 for me i got 600 views from a KCS unit on a BNSF train, and you couldn't even see the locomotives to this day idk how
I just started railfanning “full time” in 2019 but before that I would just get happy no matter what train it was and not even care how rare the thing was (I saw a H2 MAC Leader in 2016 and thought it was just regular power) I didn’t get any type of camera until 2018 when I finally started going just to the UP Omaha sub to see what was running.
I watched Thomas when I’m 2 years old stays the same for about a few years like actual Lotus he likes Thomas and is old enough to appreciate the more mature elements now
like how bro used basically all his gevo clips for stage 4, very accurate
As someone who lives right on a cpkc mainline, it's right in front of my house, I was railfanning since I was able to walk.
I saw my second heritage unit 2 days after my first (Lehigh Valley). I wasn't expecting it and my inner foamer was activated. (I began screaming like hell)
This is accurate! Great Job! 👍
Yay! I’m at stage 3 right now!
I go to a pretty busy csx line and a not-so busy ns line and I sometimes get some pretty good catches . Like today, I caught a meet with csx 1850 l&n heritage unit
Link to already uploaded video: th-cam.com/video/oGn2OeO1naE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=BmNR-K8W_sNUkjZX
So relatable! (I started liking trains because I rode a Class 380 or 320/318 pretty much daily)
Can't stop won't stop
i feel called out, thank you
ErM aCtUaLlY iM a YoUtUbEr AnD iM iN sChOoL
ok
I’ve always had a fascination with railways since I was like 5 or 6, but only around a year ago I started filming train and posting them, before that I did some train spotting (British version of railfanning), no pictures most of the time, just watching the stuff go by, like my 2nd proper train spotting video ended up being the best performing video of mine, how? I don’t have a clue, but I did enjoy uploading and trainspotting quite a bit so I just continued, and now I’m at a point where I think I’ve done well for myself with this whole thing, and I’m probably gonna continue for a while
Who loves watching this man’s videos and a locomotive is sitting in the middle of the screen talking to you and it gets bigger and smaller while it’s talking to you
Hey, I’m not from the area, and I’m not sure if your aware, but UP 1988 leads MCBIT. Hope you’ll be able to catch it!
Thanks!
It’s 4:30 AM on my birthday when I’m watching this, thanks for another awesome release 1458!
Happy Birthday
@@BNSF1458 much apprecizted
Stage 1: gaining interest in trains like Thomas as a kid.
Stage 2: getting interested in real trains as a kid, leaving Thomas behind mostly.
Stage 3: losing interest in trains after elementary.
Stage 4: gaining interest after middle school and rejoining the hobby.
Stage 5: joining a train club and starting to record real trains on a phone.
Stage 6: getting social media
Stage 7: getting a camera
Stage 8: growth
Stage 9: discovering more about the hobby including the drama
Stage 10: ups and downs
Stage 11: just enjoying my hobby
Stage 12: downfall and loss of interest
Stage 13: casually return with a new perspective. While I don’t go for trains as often as I used to, I still enjoy the hobby and still occasionally post online. Got better friends now too.
YEAH WE GOT ANOTHA ONE!!!
You got us with those stock train channel names🤣🤣
I started because I was a Thomas the Tank Engine fan when I was younger and got to ride the Thomas train (which sadly doesn’t exist anymore in my area). I also got into model trains and then from there it went to… what if I go see this stuff in person, which was hard because I wasn’t old enough to drive, but I eventually went to college which had a rail line that ran along the backside of the college and got myself a scanner that my dad used for police/fire back in the 90’s and was able to listen for when they were coming. I wasn’t going to put my videos up on TH-cam, but decided to so that I have a place to put all my videos while saving storage space. And that is pretty much where I sit now. Just casually going out to see trains at least once a day.
Merry Christmas everyone
This is so accurate for me only
1. I could never walk to find trains, that’s miles away
2. I wasn’t in highschool, I was 5
And 3…wait, there’s nothing else
Oh like I named my self Pasco Rail Productions named after Pasco Washington. Im a stage 3 railfan
Haha it's perfectly fine
Why not do a video on the real life polar express? Catch a locomotive with lights? Something like that for a special.
I can't just spawn one lol
@@BNSF1458 and I can't give better ideas because I live in El Cajon where the only "trains" I see are gevos mostly.
BNSF 1458: " Time to start posting on TH-cam! You come up with a really unique and original name...."
Me: ".........Yeah, I got nothing, sorry, but at least I caught some cool trains!"
I am currently in stage 5. Partially due to my recent interest into Model Railroading, but my connections through TVMRi have pretty much lead me to stage 5.
Aw man, I’ve gotten called out again lol.
2:13 I'll admit, for the first few months of my channel, it was named Burlington Northern 325. 😂
That wouldn't have aged well 💀
You know a TH-camr managed to save the locomotive that became the mascot of his channel.
Maybe the same can happen here :)
Mine started off bike riding. There's a levee with a paved bike path parallel along some double tracks where I live and they move slow through there. Its fun to coast along side the engines if they arent going too fast. There's some houses next to the levee with the tracks and they're practically _under_ the trains when they go by and I've always wanted to ask one of those people what their property value was considering a train could crush them and everything inside if one derailed LoL
Stage 4 is just living along the CN Superior sub.
its been years and I am still on stage 1 🤣
The TH-camr name thing is actually spot on
I am a rail fan but there’s not enough trains in my area
I have been through all five Stages I have no footage of me Railfanning when I was in Louisiana
What about the stage where you start watching railfan youtube videos, think to yourself "hey, this is kinda cool, I might wanna get into this" and then by a stroke of pure luck you start a new job and it surprisingly involves working ON the rails and getting real up close and personal with the trains?
1:59 Feels like I never caught on to this trend, luckily
In all honesty, this is exactly how it went for me 😂
I’m usually a causal railfanner
My name is original, right?
I'd say I got to the first step, third step and then the second step. Lolll
one time in the same spot i also saw a cp gevo wich i never seen befor and even 3 bnsf engins, all on the same place i saw my dash 8 and gp 38-3
I actually started at casual railfanning, bypassed stage 2, and went straight to stage 3.
Idk if I'll make it to parts 4 and 5
Nice! Great video
I started out railfanning because I had nothing better to do, kept doing it and didn't quit
So relatable
I live here in England, it’s great for train spotting and all other things, it’s not like America where all you see is diesels we see diesels, steamers and rarely electrics we also have tons of museums about the railway.
❤amazing
People compare me to Peter Dinklage when it comes to "watching trains"
0:57 I just keep it simple. I just put my phone camera on 4K 60 and film lol my shots come out extremely good though.
Im 100% a state 3 guy, and the 10-20-1000 Views comment was SO acurate, Most of my videos get 5-20 views, but my first, as of the time of writing this its over 11,000!!! Like i want to know what the algorithm did to push my video of some railbikes being truned around To literal THOUSANDS of peoples screens.
This is So True For me
Don’t forget the stage where you learn to hate the community and railfan by yourself.
Another great video really enjoy the breakdown of stages lol never thought of it before what stage you are. I just do it for fun and enjoy the trains I see. Have a great day and enjoy trains 😎🚂🫵 Merry Christmas 🎄
Also can we get the Roblox train developer in the types of railfans series, I'm a hybrid of a Railfan and Roblox trains creator.
Absolutely accurate... except for my channel being named after a relatively obscure fictional character 🤣
I went from stage 1 straight to stage 3 and now I’m gonna stay at stage 3
That's what they all say
Merry christmas BNSF 1458 i hope you have a wonderful new year
Lovely
I can rarely see trains because their isn't a lots of tracks in my area so im excited even when i see a gevo
I have a question. What would happen if you say, instead of just being someone who likes trains, you actually want to participate in the industry?
I am taking Railroad training courses, and I plan on working for the railroad (most likely a local Class 3).
This is to true ❤❤❤❤❤❤😂
I’m basically a level one railfan tbh
Pretty accurate man 😂
Interesting i seem to have skiped stage 2 and moved straight to 3 and haven't been able to move forward, i see this as a win
Are there any trackers that could show me locations of freight trains?
Oh yeah. Definitely guilty of the naming
2:38 as a TH-camr myself this is accurate