Trainspotting unites my family – we share the pleasure of intricate details
My two boys, 17 and 15, are railfans – and their passion has rubbed off on me... I’m a small Black woman wearing a long purple puffer coat over black sequined Dr Martens boots. I don’t look like your stereotypical trainspotter, railfan or ferroequinologist – a white male in an anorak, writing in a notebook, standing at the furthest end of the platform. I do things differently. When I’m travelling on the railway, I always arrive early to take photos or films of trains on my phone. Passersby look bemused. Have they just spotted the only Black female trainspotter in Britain?... I do it for my teenage boys, the real railfans with astonishing, encyclopaedic knowledge about trains, tracks and timetables, who go out on proper trainspotting trips, who talk about little else at dinner in the evening. But I also do it for myself. I love railway stations, the hustle and bustle and possibility of hundreds of destinations and, more importantly, the trains all lined up and ready to go. The ultimate joy is being on a fast direct train...
