As I noted in my last post, all of the people who work on the Coaster are men, except one: Cindy, one of the engineers who drives the train. Here is another train/gender-related observation: All (yes, all) of the people I’ve seen taking photos or video of the train have been boys/men.
Without fail, a couple of times a month, I see one man or a small group of guys with a nice camera or video camera on a tri-pod at one of the train stations or along the route somewhere. These aren’t tourists just snapping photos of the local train; they have obviously planned this outing, and probably even know the train schedule.
Since childhood, boys seem to have a fascination with trains. While girls may share this fascination for a while, they seem to grow out of it at some point—probably around the same time they start to love horses or princesses. Some boys never grow out of it, as seen with those who love model trains.
I wonder, though, what do these photographers/videographers do with their footage of trains? Do they have a collection? Is there a website to post such things? Maybe a local train enthusiast group? Maybe I’ll ask one of them if I get the chance. I’m sure there is a lot to this train subculture than meets the eye.
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