Railfan Article on CNN

Just saw this today...

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/05/08/ra ... _travelfri

FOLKSTON, Georgia (CNN) -- Rain or shine, 80-year-old Cookie Williams plops himself on the wooden viewing platform perched over double train tracks. Cookie Williams, 80, watches a CSX freight train chug by on a typical Tuesday afternoon. On this warm May afternoon, a patient Williams sits slouched, legs crossed and arms relaxed, donning his vintage CSX railroad company cap littered with miniature train pendants. He is waiting for a train. A scanner, listening for oncoming train signals, crackles in the background as it picks up some conductor chatter. He waits some more. "A lot of people in this town thought I was on the kooky side," said Williams, who is retired from the paper and pulp industry. "But I love it. I've loved these trains ever since I was a kid."

I guess we're all a little "kooky"!

Nice, but not really specific to New York State...

It has everything to do with NY, PA, VA, CA and every other state in the Union also including foreign countries. This post just reinforces that we are part of a vast network of individuals who love trainage for whatever reason. State lines and borders don't exist. If you like trains, it doesn't matter where you are.

Let it ride.

SST wrote:It has everything to do with NY, PA, VA, CA and every other state in the Union also including foreign countries. This post just reinforces that we are part of a vast network of individuals who love trainage for whatever reason. State lines and borders don't exist. If you like trains, it doesn't matter where you are.

Let it ride.

I agree with you.

Didn't know this had to be New York specific, perhaps I'm confused?? Anyway, railfanning is alive and well all around the world. It's actually a growing hobby here in Japan, with new converts among young people and women (though interests vary in this very diverse hobby- I think female fans are less interested[thank God!] in the "rivet counting" aspect prevalent among males that has often been lampooned). I've read that Japan has the highest number of railfans in the world- at least 300,000, which is roughly the combined circulation of the two most popular railfan magazines here (there are many more mags, however).