IT’S OFFICIAL: trainspotting is cool.
I don’t mean the film – that’s packed a punch for 25 years – but hanging around on station platforms scribbling the numbers of locomotives into notebooks.
It’s long been associated with blokes in beige anoraks, but that’s all changed since lockdown.
Pastimes seen as ‘nerdy’, like trainspotting, birdwatching and stamp collecting, are now deemed cool. It is one of the many ‘old-fashioned’ hobbies now enjoyed by six out of ten young adults, says a survey.
The study found many more people aged between 16 and 29 have taken up such a pastime in the last year, with 58 percent claiming that doing so has helped them feel grounded.
This is refreshing news, although I think it will be some time before my 20-something daughters grace the end of the platform at Bradford Interchange to watch incoming diesels.
Along with many others, I used to joke about trainspotters and raise an eyebrow on seeing people gathered beside the tracks, but now I can see the appeal. You’re out in the fresh air with like-minded…
