#no current plans to buy a shed but if Kato re-releases theirs in the red crossrail livery I might start to wonder

[trainsinanime]

For the ask game: Do you think RL railway enthusiasts are comparable to internet fandom?

Yeah absolutely. Now, it's not identical to say an anime or French TV show fandom, it has its own expressions and experiences and industry behind it; it's comparable to internet fandom in the same way that sports or car enthusiasts are comparable to internet fandom. Very different, and yet very much the same.

Railway enthusiasts have their own unofficial fan lingo. If I talk about a shed, a Ludmilla, a Quietschie (squeaky), a Hamster, Taurus, Ferkeltaxi (piglet cab), Swiss crocodile, or similar, those are all trains and many rail fans will know exactly which ones I mean (I have all of those on my model railroad, except for a "shed" because those are just ugly).

Rail fans also have fan art, most famously in the form of model railroads which can be anything from fun toys to intricate pieces of artistic expression, but also drawings, paintings, classical music (thanks Arthur Honegger) and so on. Train photography is also a huge field. I used to do lots of that.

And these subcultures intersect, but aren't identical. There are plenty of model railroaders who don't care about actual railroads at all, and vice versa. In model railroading, it's also divided by which scale or scales you have. I use N gauge, the smallest practical one (Z heads you know I'm right), and someone who models European 0 gauge - I really have almost no point of contact with them. Let alone American O gauge (yes, one's the number, the other is the letter), with their Lionel and third rail, that's a part of the hobby that is a complete mystery to me.

You also absolutely get big fan events. I sat out the ones in Friedrichshafen and Leipzig, but I was at the one in Göppingen this year, which was simultaneously massive and one of the smaller ones I've seen. It's not the same as a "fandom con", there is nobody there cosplaying a Czech freight car (well, except for me), and there are no autograph sessions for famous creators (except for Hagen von Ortloff sometimes), but you do see (invited) clubs bring their model railroads. There are also a lot of shops around for model railroad stuff and railroad memorabilia. My personal favorite: The bin at the Lemke stand. I got some really fun stuff there, including e.g. the Quietschie.

Compared to internet fandoms, the whole thing tends to skew older; the median rail fan is a retired white man. There are also more classic infrastructures, like official clubs with official meeting hours and so on. Not really my style, to be honest, but it exists. It's also a field where classic printed publications still hold a lot of sway, some aimed at fans of the real thing, some aimed at model railroaders, some at both, some at specific sections of any of these groups.

That being said, there is also a huge internet component. I'm not really active there, because e.g. the Drehscheibe-Online forum is incredibly interesting but also every other thread devolves into a flame war immediately. But it is a huge thing.

Rail fan culture doesn't necessarily look like the thing that came out of Star Trek fanzines to bulletin boards to eventually Tumblr pipeline, it has its own distinct history and expressions. But at the end of the day it is the same thing: We narrativise the things we're interested in, and we identify with them, and we seek others who we can share that with. And that sparks creativity, and it sparks people who try to make money off of it, and it absolutely sparks flame wars and people identifying with certain teams and so on. It's fun!