January 13, 2008
NO ONE WAS EVER EXCITED TO SEE A CAR:
The world's first trainspotter (Tom Geoghegan, 1/09/08, BBC News Magazine)
As the National Railway Museum in York opens a new £4m visitor centre, it claims a 14-year-old in 1825 as the world's first trainspotter.Posted by Orrin Judd at January 13, 2008 9:58 AMLong before Clapham Junction, anoraks and binoculars, trainspotting was born in the North East.
For a 14-year-old boy, the sight of the world's first steam-hauled passenger train in 1825 was a revelation.
John Backhouse, a Quaker from County Durham, wrote to his sisters in London a month after seeing the opening of the Stockton to Darlington railway.
His neatly-written letter includes an illustration of the train, complete with annotations to point out the locomotive steam engine at the front, the freight wagons, the passenger coach and the flags.
Failing to find enough words to describe the exciting new phenomenon, he drew the steam-hauled train that caught his imagination so intensely.
It was a very grand sight to see such a mass of people moving on the road from Stockton to Darlington, 600 people were said to be in, on and about the wagons and coaches! And the engine drew not less that 90 tons!!!!!
There was an excellent dinner prepared at Stockton for the railway gentry. I could tell you a great many more particulars but suppose that you are tired of it by this time.
The letter is a key item in the National Collection housed in the National Railway Museum's new interactive archive and research centre called Search Engine.
Thunderbirds, Camaros and Mustangs, oh my! Watch how people react when they see a cherry 60's sports car park next the them and you'll change that tune OJ.
Posted by: Patrick H at January 13, 2008 1:23 PM(Of course, the true meaning of O.J.'s title will be revealed in due time, but for now, as I understand it, it is puzzling... if not downright wrong.)
Not to pile on, but are there not paintings or lithographs from the early days of the "horseless carriage" or electric cars (circa 1890 or so) which depict the holy ruckus caused by the newfangled vehicle as it rumbles down the dirt thoroughfare? I seem to recall boys in knee britches jumping and roosters fluttering and women covering their mouths (while still incapable of looking away!) and other such scenes painted/sketched by the Norman Rockwell's of their day. (And, I seem to recall written accounts of the stir that such machines caused... or was it after-the-fact hype by the automakers?)
Posted by: Brian McKim at January 13, 2008 1:53 PMGo easy on OJ, he likes him the Lionels. All little boys like big machines.
(Of course, I still have mine).
HO scale rules!
Posted by: Bartman at January 14, 2008 11:37 AMPlane-spotting is far better. More difficult today, but when you can get close (from a designated spot or a hotel balcony), it's great.
The daily Lufthansa from Frankfurt flies over our house to the Charlotte airport (about 8 miles away) every day at around 4:15 PM. About once or twice a week it is an A340. I have taken pictures of it landing (from the picnic area) next to the West Runway) at CLT. My 6 year-old boy still remembers the day the Northwest DC-9 had a compressor stall on the taxiway, and had to limp back to the gate. And we have seen 5 C-130s take off one right after the other, when they were getting in their practice.
I still remember watching B-52s doing touch-and-gos at Travis AFB back in the early 1980s. It was stunning that anything that big, going that slow, could stay airborne.
Posted by: jim hamlen at January 14, 2008 5:35 PM