h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I posted this in the 'nicknames' thread, where it wasn't really appropriate, and a Girl called Ben kindly explained how to start this new thread..

Trainspotters will go to great lengths to spot diesel railcars and passenger carriages as well as bog standard diesel and electric locomotives. These guys (they are always guys) are known to people who work in the rail industry as 'gricers' or 'cranks', and are regarded as generally harmless but a bit intense.

There are some who concentrate on London underground trains (undergricers) and there are even some (I'm not making this up) who grice Manchester trams, even though there are only about 35 of them and they are virtually all the same. I don't know if they have them anywhere else or if they are just an English phenomonen. Maybe it's worth starting a new thread, but I'm not sure how to go about that...

So if you see a researcher with 'gricer' in his nickname you'll know what he gets up to at the weekend!

Have you also come across the other phenomenon - "The bus spotter"?

Now I know that train spotter are well established in the cultural history of Britain (Do they have them anywhere else?) but - Bus spotters!!!! - Aren't buses all more or less the same? and aren't there too many of them?

No - its no good - I just don't understand

Were i live the buses are names after famous people to encourage this kind of activity, we also have lots of people hit by buses too! Ummm wondering why? i would be interested to if this is another bizarre British thing.

The internet has brought numerous hitherto unknown bizarre British pastimes crawling out of the circuitry, perhaps the most alarming of which is pylon spotting. There is a UK website, which has been running for a few years now (I think), which selects a different pylon every month and exhibits it in its glory for the world to see. I can't put the address here, of course, but if I say the site is [url removed by moderator] site, it shouldn't be too difficult to work it out.

I kind of assume that it's a joke of some sort. But, then again, we *are* a rum lot...

I thought it couldn't be true but it is! I found the site but December's pylon comes from Tasmania. Either this is international weirdness or there are pylon spotting holidays being organised.

Pylons will never look the same again.
Thankyou Lear for brightening up an evening that was turning depressing.

Wazungu, I'm afraid a closer look at the 'pylonofthemonth' site reveals that the latter explanation is the correct one. Yes, we're taking our obsessions on holiday with us. (Mind you, haven't we been doing that for hundreds of years now... )

Wazunga, the next time you're having a really depressing evening read the backlog to the 'what's in a (nick)name's thread (promoted above by the founder of this conversation) and then tell us all what a wazunga is. I double-dog-dares ya - !
I know there's a river called the wazu, cuz I hear people saying 'up the wazu', so maybe a wazunga is a native of the wazu region?
Or it may also be a musical instrument.

To return to trainspotting (bit of threadiquette ) Crewe Station is a wonderful site for spotting trainspotters. It has a large resident colony & migrant visitors. No chance of gricers though, or twitchers for that matter.
I blame parents on car journeys: "First one of you to spot a "Z" number plate gets a crisp."

And talking of obsession - I've been back to the pylon site. I read the wonderful Pylon Polemic No.2. Now I'm having flashbacks of all the great lines of pylons I saw last week striding across France. (The pylons that is, I drove.) This obsession could be catching & and has now retrospectively been taken on holiday with me.

jwf - I'll think about that dare but I deny any links with Kazoos or being up the Wazu!

I can quite understand the fascination of pylons, as I worked for a company making overhead lines for 5 years. Each pylon is made to measure and a lot of work goes into the engineering, depending on the consistency of the ground it is built in, the distance to the next pylons, the type of bushings used, the voltage of the line, and many many other factors. To watch them being constructed is also fascinating, especially in Africa or Indonesia, where the locals just run around at incredible heights.

One other very typical British hobby, that I have never heard of elsewhere, is brass rubbing.

I looked up 'anorak' (first I had to look up dicksunary) and it says:

1. a coat - specifically designed for outdoorsy types, hikers, birdwatchers, lots of pockets, 'duck' water-proofing, expensive...

2. obsessive hobbyist


UHm ..no I had no point to make, I was ..y'know ..just curious.

peace
~jwf~ (who stops the car and collects flat rocks from the side of the highway to add to his dry rock walls)

I notice, without any great surprise, that the pylon site is an official member of the 'Loser Site' WebRing. It also has a link to a site called 'worstoftheweb', which gives ordinary people the chance to compete and actually win something for a change. Does my heart good to see all these benevolent people providing such invaluable public services, for the general benefit of humankind...

Thinking about it, I suppose collecting internet addresses could be seen as a kind of modern day equivalent to trainspotting. Ah well - at least I'm keeping up with the times...

According to the pylon site (yeah, been there again)number collecting airplane spotters exist too . That's all bulk public transport covered bar Ferries, escalators & elevators. I vaguely remember seeing something on the Caledonian MacBrayne Ferry web site that indicated they have some sort of fan club. I was looking for timetables of course.

Internet addresses v roadside rocks? Internet addresses for me.

I think pylon of the month is wonderful. I was told about it at work (by a bloke who is not actually a trainspotter, but who knows far more about steam engines than he needs to) and through it found worst of the web, and now I've discovered that the earth is hollow, who lives inside, and how, (ourhollowearth, fill in the 'urly' bits yourself), I've seen proof that Smurfs are communists, I'm much better informed about conspiracy theory - it's all marvellous! I think it's the weird bits of the web that make it so interesting - it doesn't matter how far out you are, if you've got a PC and a phone you can have a website.

Incidentally, I had occasion to visit Blackpool railway station today. I was talking to a couple of members of platform staff, and an intense looking chap with a ponytail came and asked if he could go spotting down the end of the platform. He was not given permission (they can get in the way, standing down the end of the platform looking like they are about to jump in front of a train), but I felt he wasn't serious - he didn't have a notebook, or a camcorder, or a still camera, or even a cassette player to record the sounds the trains make - he wasn't even wearing an anorak! I don't know how he expected to be taken seriously.

One can never know enough about steam engines (the railway locomotive being but one variant application) and the construction of dry rock walls. You never know when such knowledge is all that prevents humanity from sliding into barbarism. A good rock wall and a steam engine will see you through many a nuclear winter.

I remember there was unbelievably a program on TV about pylons spotters - the really worrying thing is I actually watched it!!

My favourite of the 'weird' pusuits which I believe is unique to England is 'worm charming'. Competitors are given a marked-out area (approx. one sq. metre) and they have to see how many worms they can 'charm' out of the ground in a given time. Most people use a fork and gently vibrate the soil, which excites the worms and draws them to the surface. There are very strict rules and the use of aids such as water are strictly forbidden. (There was a TV program on this as well).

Perhaps I was a bit harsh about steam engines. I'm fond of old technology and steam engines are rather wonderful. I don't care a fig what number is on the side, though.

I think I saw a programme about worm charming too - it must have been the same one, there can't have been two - but I always assumed I must have imagined the whole episode and put it down to a dodgy mushroom omelette.

Bog-snorkelling - now there's another weird pursuit, which I think is also mainly an English thing. I saw a TV programme about that, too. For those who haven't come across it, it is exactly as described - snorkelling in a bog. Competitively, I believe, although I have no idea what the rules are.

I have read about a lot of weird things that could be fun, as long as you don´t get too serious. Like snail racing and pig throwing.

One thing I find weird is people collecting number plates. They write down the number plates of the cars they see. But there are certain rules for what they are. Why not just begin the book with AA1111 and then AA1112 and onto ZZ9999. Much easier.

Firstly an apology - I've done run a search on bog snorkelling and found that the world bog snorkelling championship is in Wales - sorry, Welsh people. The worm charming championships are at a primary school in England though. Go on, search for it - you know you want to!

I remember about 15 years ago there was a number plate craze in one of the tabloids. It was a sort of game (not a good one) - the idea was that you looked out for a car with a number plate with the single digit 1 - it didn't matter what the letters were. Once you spotted '1', you looked out for 2, and so on up to 999. It had to be in order.

This sounds, and is, utterly boring and pointless, but like many utterly boring and pointless activities it begins to exercise a strange fascination, and it is easy (and dangerous, if you are driving) to get obsessed. I remember making a special trip (only of about 2 miles, but even so) to see a car which I knew had the number 34. I gave up (came to my senses) at about 120, but one of my friends actually made it to 999, which took him a good couple of years.

I recommend you not to try this at home.

When I done run my search I just did it. Or ran it. Still can't make up my mind.

That's the sort of thing that can drive a fellow to the brink of madness. I have to hold myself back when I hear about these tempting new pastimes - it's a slippery slope once you're on it...

Talking of all things slippery. My dictionary defines 'bog' as 'wet spongy ground'. How on earth could anybody snorkel through spongy ground, wet or otherwise? I assume we're not using the other meaning of the word, of course - that is to say, 'a lavatory'. That would be even worse. But, wait a minute - now I come to think of it, snorkelling through faeces calls to mind a scene from a well-known film... which goes by the name, erm, 'Trainspotting'.

I knew we'd get back there eventually...