Gricer
Created | Updated Jan 28, 2002
This is the trainspotting equivalent of a grockle.
During the last half of the last century, or perhaps even before then, this hardy species were often seen at ends of windy railway station platforms or other vantage points where they could note down the number/ name of the railway locomotive as it passed them. Typical uniform was the duffle coat and woolly "tea-cosy" hat. The recording equipment was basic, being just note-pad and pencil. Better equiped gricers would also carry on them binocculars and a pack of biscuits.
Nowadays, the duffle coat has been replaced by an anorak, cagoul or some other wind-proof garment. The notebook is rarely seen as it has been replaced by a portable recording device or even a video camera. The pack of biscuits may occassionally be substituted by a pack of crisps. If you see a gricer dressed in a pin-stripe suit wielding a clip-board the chances are he belongs to the Industrial Railway Society (IRS for short). Though much maligned by other railway enthusiasts, the members of the IRS are instrumental in maintaining records as to the whereabouts of the old remaining stock which are now often stored and preserved by private individuals or by tourist steam railways, both in the UK and overseas and the results of their observations are regularly published in railway stock handbooks.
From the word gricer has evolved the verb to grice, litterally meaning to go observe the goings on at railways and taking pictures of anything that grabs them. They can also be notorious for getting in the way of operation which incurs many a warning whistle or "hey, you...", but on the whole their hobby is "mostly harmless". The more serious gricers actually get involved in the activities of railway running and preservation and now and then allow themselves the luxury of having a grice at other peoples' railways.
During the last half of the last century, or perhaps even before then, this hardy species were often seen at ends of windy railway station platforms or other vantage points where they could note down the number/ name of the railway locomotive as it passed them. Typical uniform was the duffle coat and woolly "tea-cosy" hat. The recording equipment was basic, being just note-pad and pencil. Better equiped gricers would also carry on them binocculars and a pack of biscuits.
Nowadays, the duffle coat has been replaced by an anorak, cagoul or some other wind-proof garment. The notebook is rarely seen as it has been replaced by a portable recording device or even a video camera. The pack of biscuits may occassionally be substituted by a pack of crisps. If you see a gricer dressed in a pin-stripe suit wielding a clip-board the chances are he belongs to the Industrial Railway Society (IRS for short). Though much maligned by other railway enthusiasts, the members of the IRS are instrumental in maintaining records as to the whereabouts of the old remaining stock which are now often stored and preserved by private individuals or by tourist steam railways, both in the UK and overseas and the results of their observations are regularly published in railway stock handbooks.
From the word gricer has evolved the verb to grice, litterally meaning to go observe the goings on at railways and taking pictures of anything that grabs them. They can also be notorious for getting in the way of operation which incurs many a warning whistle or "hey, you...", but on the whole their hobby is "mostly harmless". The more serious gricers actually get involved in the activities of railway running and preservation and now and then allow themselves the luxury of having a grice at other peoples' railways.
