Saturday, April 7th .....

I love it when society opens its arms and accepts people who, a decade ago, would have been shunned and sneered at. I'm talking, of course, of the oddball who collects esoteric objects, or the weirdo with a passion for something unusual, and the eccentric who seems out of step with the rest of the world. England, of course, is the home of the eccentric. Where else in the world would priests of the Anglican Church gather for a fashion parade of church vestments? It’s the home, too, of twitchers and train spotters.


Train spotters are an interesting breed – called anoraks to ensure they understand that the way they dress gives them away. The word conjures images of a sad little man standing on a railway bridge waiting for the 11.16 to pass by so they can note down the number hoping for a glimpse of the 500 Railstar with off-centre bogey wheels (or something like that).

I happened to be on the website of the Powerhouse Museum yesterday and was delighted to see that this august institution has a photographic competition for trainspotters. After all, they have relics there of the NSW General Railways and, no doubt, a faithful following of railway enthusiasts who come regularly to drool over the early locomotives.

The competition has sections for steam locomotives, another for diesel-electric (not a very romantic section, I would have thought), railway infrastructure like bridges, turntables, stations, etc, and, joy o joy, people on the railway. The decision to have that last section is pure genius: a way to build a bridge between the fascination with inanimate railway stock and humanity.

I downloaded a couple of photographs which were last year’s winners and can’t wait for the 2012 results to come out.