Heresy! Shall we vote to ban Spokker from AU? :lol:
What would you say about people who maintain a
FlightMemory?
Pretty much the same. Counting miles cheapens Amtrak's mission to me. It becomes less "vital transportation infrastructure" and more, "Well, we might as well can these long haul routes because I don't want my tax dollars going to pay for some nerd's happy train fun time mile counting contest."
Do what you want, of course. But I will never count miles. Amtrak is a public good, not some insane hobby.
In other words, I like dispensing advice to new riders, reading advice from others, and keeping tabs on the future of Amtrak. I'm not interested in comparing whose is bigger and I'm creeped out that there are so many who do.
I understand your lack of desire to keep track of miles, and I understand that not everybody is a railfan. But to say that you're creeped out about someone's hobby is a bit extreme, if you ask me.
There are people who like all kinds of things that I can't say I enjoy. Gardening, for example. Why anyone would
want to kneel in the grass, get dirt under their fingernails, have slugs and snails crawl all over them, and spend hours per day tending to a tiny little flower is a foreign concept to me. I simply don't enjoy it. But I respect that some people enjoy seeing the fruits of their labor pop out of the ground.
I like driving cars, and I like feeling a nice, powerful engine under my hood. I like nice car interiors and playing with the technology in high-end luxury cars. But I can't really get excited about the old muscle cars that my dad or a couple of my coworkers are into. But I understand why they like to compare things like 454 big blocks and 327 small-blocks and all that other stuff that I have no idea about. (One thing that I will admit is just
completely foreign to me is the love of NASCAR...why it is riveting to watch cars drive around in circles is beyond comprehension! No offense to any southern boys out here on AU...
)
For me, I grew up literally right next to the Southern Pacific tracks that the Coast Starlight runs on just north of San Luis Obispo, CA. There was something awe-inspiring and almost magical of seeing a chain of half a dozen lumbering locomotives, each weighing several hundred thousand pounds and producing thousands of horsepower, pulling this long, heavy string of cars filled with everything from lumber to paper to cars. It was bigger than me--the same feeling I get when I look up at (or down from) a huge skyscraper.
I'm sorry that you don't enjoy it, but I get a little rush every time I see a train go by or, especially, when I get to ride one. There's just something inexplicably magical and--like I said--bigger than me when I encounter these majestic, huge hunks of metal.
To be called creepy for appreciating that actually, to be honest, sort of offends me. Yes, I may be a nerd, but what's so wrong with being one? And why must something be forbidden from being enjoyed simply because that's not its primary mission?
And it's not all about comparing who's is bigger. There are many different aspects of railfandom, and some people are really into the whole spotting-as-many-different-types-of-equipment-as-you can (the British call this, appropriately enough, "trainspotting," and it seems to be a semi-respected hobby over there). Some people like to compare stats and figures of different engines (that comparing who's bigger thing that you mentioned). Some people like to collect historic railroad information (timetables, lanterns, etc.). Others are into modeling and go to great pains to accurately represent a given railroad or location to the finest detail. Some people are only interested in steam engines, while others are more excited by high-speed electric trains. (Personally, I couldn't give two toots about blowing steam, but watching the countryside scream by at 186mph from a French TGV or even cruising along the Southern Californian beaches parallel to I-5 at 90mph on the Surfliner is, to me, an über-cool experience.)
And I don't think that counting miles cheapens Amtrak's mission any more than people who enjoy cars cheapens their usefulness for transportation. If anything, our evangelism for rail travel, even if we fail to excite others about the fun of trains and only get them to realize that it is a viable option that is more comfortable than driving and could save them money, is something that can only
help Amtrak.
Be careful when you criticize others' hobbies. I hope you didn't intend offense with your post, but it certainly didn't sound like you want to be a friendly member of a pleasant (if a bit enthusiastic) community.
