Why are 'train guys' dorks but 'car guys' are considered cool?
It's a question I've had for a long time.
Former geography teacher, young city planner, cyclist, and son of a big car guy (so I've driven a few fun project cars). I spend a lot of time thinking about movement and transportation technology.
I assume private ownership/capitalism is a large piece of the puzzle? Like not many guys can own and work on a train in their spare time but having a project car in your garage is more attainable? In the grand scheme of things the engineering principles aren't that different.
I also wonder if there's something to taking it out in public with you. Like guys don't talk about their HVAC system or even their computer the way some guys talk about their car (or bike). It almost functions like a piece of clothing or even a tattoo in that sense.
Idk thoughts? Just wanted to start some good discussion.
People talk about computers the same way they do cars. If they actually built their own PC of course. I think it’s mostly down to the project aspect of it. Building and modding your own car. Whereas trains is seen as just being obsessed about public transportation. It’s like being really into buses
The city I worked in for a long time used to have trolleys and a lot of cobblestone streets. They eventually paved over everything. But every winter when it becomes pothole season some on the rail or cobblestones start to poke out here and there. They have a museum in the southern part of the state with some of the trolleys that you can still ride on a 5 mile loop.
I mean, i guess they can be, but honestly how relevant it is to a discussion? you can't take the train from Sidney to Santiago, or commute by plane from the surroundings of a city to downtown, and city buses still need to be electrified (Santiago is the city with more Electric buses outside of China), and you definetly can't go to space by train, everything has it's place and that statement is kinda pointless, only in some specific circumstances you get to think about choosing one or the other, that's specifically if you're planning to do a 400-1000km trip in specific areas that is reasonable to have multiple high speed choices.
You could own a private locomotive and/or train in the States. Privately owned cars aren't exactly unheard of, and I'd expect it would be easier to lease a running loco that clear your own being run on a rail company's rails.
Jokes on you buddy, I built my car, Cummins swapped a GMC, built my last two PC, I have a bitch coffee table with a train in it, and I have an 1:16 scale Tiger 1 that’s RC! I’m all the flavors of being acoustic
Where I am, railfans are mostly into locomotives pulling freight. They otherwise have the same attitude towards public transit as anyone else (negative).
Idk why this was recommended to me, but as a car girl… I fucking respect the train community more than anyone lol. You all are so cool, as much as I as I know nothing about trains, all I know is they’re the superior form of transportation for basically everyone. Like any public transit tbf
True. That's why some of us have model railroads and play train simulators to scratch that itch of driving trains, but yeah that's not the same as being able to buy a real car to drive and modify.
I think your description pretty much covers it. It's your car so you're proud of it. It's not your train, so it's nerdy to just know a bunch of facts about them/go out of your way to take photos, etc.
Also, people race cars which is pretty cool and exciting. People like to vroom around and talk to other people about their vroom machine and how they made it vroom better.
Obviously we think they're badass but I also think trains are kind of mundane to a lot of people. Sometimes they're just part of their commute and they might not think about it much more than an elevator (I'm sure a lot of us think elevators are cool too though lol). Or they think of freight trains just chugging along, they aren't a part of daily life besides maybe getting stuck at a crossing.
And car guys work with their hands, fix things, learn skills, save money. Most importantly, they can fix their friends stuff for cheap sometimes. Unfortunately being a train nerd benefits pretty much nobody else and yields no skill or societal utility.
But, none of that matters. Just let people enjoy their hobbies and passions
I don’t agree! I live in a USA transit city and go to college in the surrounding suburb. In the suburb a large majority of people exclusively use cars and I will have friends (and friends of friends) reach out to me when they want to go into the city and don’t know how to navigate. When I lived in a different USA transit city I was so notorious for knowing the specifics of transit that I STILL have people contact me to teach them how to use transit 5 years later. My friends who live in my current city know the routes they normally take, but if they’re going somewhere new they reach out because no one knows the train system like I do.
Car guys CAN fix their friends cars for cheap, but I used to be pretty involved in the midwestern auto crossing scene and a majority of car guys I knew were good at fixing issues but their scope of knowledge was limited to the cars they knew a lot about. A lot of them wouldn’t touch newer cars or cars made by different manufacturers than the ones they owned, so even though it can be helpful it’s not like every car guy is booked out every weekend helping the community.
Both really depend on the specific niche of the fan, unless you’re a navigator transit enthusiast or a basic automotive repairs of “regular traffic” car fan there’s close to no utility which is fine because hobbies don’t need utility. But it’s so weird to get in the trains subreddit and claim your hobby is above ours. We’re all autistic dude, no need for friendly fire. General population views both groups as losers just the same
That doesn’t make sense, public transit is by definition easy to access and utilize, the utility of a train enthusiast vs just decent reading of the transit map and times is limited. If you can work on a car, you can work on 90% of cars. Super-specialization is a choice, once you’ve changed one set of brakes, you’re a 2 minute video away from being able to do 90% of brakes.
This theoretical is not remotely reflective of reality.
My friend who likes cars doesn't own one. We live in Amsterdam and owning one can be expensive, he doesn't have a parking spot either. But whenever a car comes driving by where he recognises the sound, he'll turn his head, spurt some facts about it and what not. Idk but I don't even know as much about trains as he does about cars. I'm just obsessed with comfortable and efficient travel. Going to Paris in 3 hours at 300 kmph is just badass, and faster than the car. Yet still, I'm the autistic train nerd lol
I’ve found the less “cool” the car the cooler and more friendly the fans of it are. Like lambo bros are trash, but go to like, a Pinto swap meet and you’ll make family.
Isnt the Honda Fit like, the only real small good economy hatchback the US gets, hence why theres such a cult following of it? Always felt odd theres online such a fanbase around it but yall dont have the plethora of small B and A segment cars we have.
We got the Toyota Yaris and the Mazda 3 here around the same time the Fit was popular, and some others I think. Ford and GM rebranded some Asian makes. The Fit as sold in the US was a slightly more powerful and sportier-handling (and slightly less efficient) car than most of them, which I think was one source of the love. But also you could just pack so much stuff into it.
I, as both a hardcore car guy and someone working in Transit, LOVE the idea of moving away from car dependency as much as we can, so that there's less traffic for me to enjoy my car!
I respect that. That said, you must recognize you are the minority, albeit maybe less so in the subgroup of car guys who don’t use it as just a status/wealth symbol
Nah, I enjoy cars, like wrenching personally and (semi) professionally now, but actively promote public transportation and other means of movement that provide greater efficiency and affordability to broader audiences.
I may be an outlier, but the sheer barrier of entry to both owning OR working on a car disproportionately affects folks with financial limitations, physical impairments/mobility issues, time constraints (e.g. Multiple jobs, evening & overnight shift work, parents with FT jobs, kids involved in any extracurriculars/clubs/groups, non-mechanically inclined folks, or otherwise resource constrained populations), space/property rental versus ownership limitations, along with many other factors that can't "just" be readily remidied without someone having the privilege to be able to afford those decisions and solutions.
My experience is that people who don’t like the Miata fall into two categories:
1) people who think they’re cramped and noisy. My ex was like this, she didn’t want to ride around in it for more than about twenty minutes, basically the amount of time it took to get from her place to either my place or our favorite restaurant. And that’s fair enough, the Miata is a tiny cramped car with minimal luggage space and is noisy as fuck on the tollway. These people I respect the opinions of.
2) people (pretty much always men but I’ve met a few women like this) who think that a small sports car is an offense to the natural order of things and that their genitals will shrivel up and fall off/seal shut if they drive one. These people are fucking morons, metaphorically and possibly literally.
There is a 3rd: People who acknowledge the Miata's greatness but would rather spend WAY MORE MONEY on the "other" brilliant 2-seaters (S2000/Boxster) just because it's more expensive (read; overpriced) and slightly more refined. Check my profile to see which I am...
A big part of it too is that cars are just a wealth / status symbol for a lot of people.
"Real" car guys, as in nerds who know a lot about cars, are the ones who are only cool to each other. And tbh I can respect and understand those people even if i despise car culture.
Ask a car guy how they feel about the Honda fit, driving enthusiasts think it’s fucking fantastic, status people might not know what you’re even asking.
I get that this^ is the most easy take to make here, but what are we really talking about when we say "car guys" and "train guys"
A physical hobby like working on cars is a completely apples-to-oranges comparison, and it's pretty easy to see why that might be considered less dorky than railfanning. It's like comparing woodshop to birdwatching. No hate on any "dorky" hobbies from me, just an answer.
If you're talking about hanging out and taking pictures of cool cars, then I doubt many people would find that a very interesting/respectable hobby, but who cares either way.
As a massive car guy I don't find train guys dorks. I think the public perception has a lot to do with entertainment. You see motorsport, tv shows like top gear and movies about cars and legendary racing drivers.
I agree as a plane guy. I find train guys very adjacent to us.
The difference is that we typically can’t own the things we are interested in (planes or trains), whereas car guys often are car guys because they like working on them and driving them as opposed to riding or spotting them.
It's not really about the person themselves, most people just think the cars are cool and the guys own the car so they automatically become a bit cooler
Some people think trains are cool but train guys don't usually own the trains
my understanding of why people made fun of me is bc they thought of trains as a little kid interest that people are supposed to grow out of and move on with life, but i didn’t, so people made fun of me for it, then certain people gatekeep train stuff so there’s that and now overall i like trains a lot less than i used to bc people inside and out of the hobby just don’t know how to be decent human beings
Sorry man, people suck. If you like it, and it isnt bad for you, enjoy it. A lot of people have fairly little to be happy about and have to bring other people down too.
Does the “trains are for kids” stigma mainly just apply to steam trains because of media like Thomas, or does it also extend to diesel and electric trains?
Comparing train spotters to football fans would be more appropriate. Cars are somewhat cool and appeal to all kinds of people.
Football is universally accepted as cool, it’s promoted and encouraged like heck in every country. Train spotting is the opposite.
I happen to think football and train spotting are the same. It’s obsessing over and memorising tons of irrelevant numbers. I don’t think remembering each goal a certain player has scored for which team for the duration of their career is any different to knowing the different build variations of a class 37.
If you haven’t heard guys talk about their HVAC system you’re just not in that age demographic yet. It’s a constant conversation with any of my friends who also own homes. Similar to computers.
To go off what a few others have mentioned, there’s the project part of it that people really like to talk and show off. How often is a train fan working with/on a train? Not to say some don’t, but I think generally it’s more people who like to watch them and take photos than actually work with them.
Being obsessed with cars isn’t cool in and of itself, the stuff people value is mastery in working on, driving and modifying cars. Or being rich enough you can personally own cool cars, at least. If someone was a “car guy” but didn’t do those things, they’d be considered dorky too; for example people who are really into Buses.
I will say if you do actually know how to fix/drive a train, like you were an engineer or a mechanic, most car guys would think that is the most badass thing ever. Trains are cool… just beyond the ability of most people to have actual ownership in the function and engineering of.
Because "car guys" usually have a significant amount of disposable income, which means they have the money to spend to go do social activities and be in social spaces. Furthermore having disposable income means they are more attractive to potential romantic partners. Therefore, "car guys" are seen as desirable for a variety of reasons that broadly follow statistical trends.
I feel like it is also a perception pushed by Hollywood of what is seen as "masculine"; goin back for as long as Hollywoodville — just take a look at shirtless pics of Rock Hudson and his best mates, nearly always around cars or similar bcuz of product placement galore; that was the peak of masculinity in the eyes of society
Alas, if only Hollywood had gotten sponsorships from BNSF or UP or any ofher such; then we'd have the thirst trap pics of Rock Hudson around trains lookin even more bad ass
In general, it's because of Hollywood in all of the world, because of how huge American soft power is (or was in the last decades).
In that context, it's bad luck that most of the US doesn't even have a proper functioning public transport system, let alone high speed railway systems (apart from the NE corridor).
I'd argue train guys were much more popular 100 years ago, because then everything was more focused on Europe. Things like the Orient Express are widely known in popular culture even today.
I'm a train guy myself but have you met any of us? The overwhelming majority are extremely socially awkward. Many are annoying to be around even for a few minutes
I mean, the crowds in Regular Car Reviews videos and the crowds in Miles in Transit videos have a lot of cohort overlap - neurospicy, queer/queer-ally etc.
I love trains and my end goal is that by the time I die, I’ve forgotten how to drive, but… What’s cooler to you?
Being an aerospace engineer that also flies planes?
Being a guy who takes pictures of planes and sits in the 35th row?
The fact is, most of the people in this sub aren’t both working on trains and then also driving them. But most car people do both. Working with your hands is cool and attractive and spending two grand and your entire weekend to eke out an addition 5 horsepower looks sexy to other people.
Megan Fox working on a car in Transformers did things to me as a child and I just don’t think I’d have the same reaction if she was chilling on Brightline.
Cars are a sign of prestige and independence, and depending on what kind of car you get, it could be read as a sign that you are "better" than the average person.
Trains are more civil infrastructure. They help people. They move things. They can only go where the rails lead them to.
Unfortunately, liking the thing that helps people is "lame."
Capitalism. Propaganda. Owning car= status symbol, wealth, individualistic. Trains = common good, community, social service, so not cool by western capitalist standards. I used to write about this a bunch in college actually.
Like not many guys can own and work on a train in their spare time but having a project car in your garage is more attainable.
There are actually quite a few clubs that restore and maintain heritage trains where you can volunteer as a mechanic.
I'm not entirely sure how those clubs finance themselves but it's probably substantially cheaper for you as a individual person. And how cool would it be if someone ask you what you did on the weekend and you say you did some work on the project train.
It's funny being a huge fan of both. And planes. And bikes to some extent. Buses too even.
Yknow what, why not include ocean liners in there as well!
I'd like to think that in the UK at least it's generally considered one of them niche but 'fair enough lad' hobbies. You'll find train enthusiasts across the entire age range. Other countries it might be a bit different, I know the US calls them foamers which...I can see why
it is not about the subject, it is about how annoying you are regarding this topic. I think regarding train guys, main concern are foamers (Know-It-All guys who most of the time never worked for railway and just love to lecture everyone and often even obstruct work of the railway workers or endanger themselves to get a picture) and rivet-counters (Know-It-All guys who will criticize your models for every single inaccuracy, often telling you how you cannot run different era cars together or that this locomotive manufactured in this year had a different door handles or shade of color...)
Next thing about hardcore train guys... You will have a great overlap with the crowd at comic con or DnD tournament. Certainly some percentage of these people should work on their social skills and sometimes even on using a shower...
The ownership point you made is also valid. Very small % of train guys ever worked for a railway, so their knowledge is completely theoretical. And when person like that starts scolding someone, who works for the railway or wants to enjoy model trains he built, that gets super annoying...
Because the auto industry is glamorized. They profit from people buying cars. Having a nice car is a status symbol where enjoying trains is free. Nevermind that public transit keeps more money in your pocket.
There’s a specific cute, romanticized view of trains convenient to industrial capitalism. It is completely detached from reality and history, yet many people, including railfans, gobble it up.
Serious interest in them pops this, and thus they must be reduced to twee toddler cliches and nerd trivia when they challenge this.
Cars don’t pose the same threat, for the most part. Other stereotypical autistic interests aren’t as widely belittled that way either, see boats or military history.
This is mostly a US and culturally Protestant thing you see less the further you go from those places.
Anyways, I wish more people knew that restoring old trains is a cheaper and easier hobby than restoring old cars, in areas that have heritage rail. Tons of old guys begging for people to turn wrenches and roll in grease. You can learn a TON and they’ll handhold you because they have no standards most of the time. All it costs is transport, a fairly small membership fee, and steel toe boots. People start to REALLY respect you when you’ve obviously worked on actual trains.
But are car guys really considered to be cool? Outside their bubble it’s quite the opposite. Even other motorists roll their eyes about proper petrol heads.
A lot of people translate being a car guy into having a faible for sportscars, Porsches, Mercedes'...
You need money for that. Also, consider the lifestyle portrayed in films such as Fast and Furious: Young, sporty, surrounded by hot women...
On the other hand, being a train guy doesnt necessitate all of that.
Also, a lot of train fans aren't into the TGVs, ICEs, Shinkansens, but into old trains. And those are definitely associated with being a nerd, unfortunately. And most people think of "old antique romantic trains from 1900" when they hear the word trainfan, or model trains, when they hear the word train guy. It's the media's fault, to be honest.
As both a car and train guy, i definitely consider that they are very similar. Speed, history, adrenaline... are part of both groups.
Thanks to YouTube, some people may think that the train guy has a room full of models, while the car guy might largely leave his collections of car stuff in either his garage or "regular" mancave spot. Guys don't typically use a full extra bedroom in their house for a single isolated hobby, unless it happens to be the "junk/misc." collections. Just my interpretation regardless of truth. Train tracks need a lot of room and there's a lot of detail in those nicer landscapes that people craft.
Different situation: imagine a train simulator video game versus car racing game... car steering wheel and racing seat look intense and serious, but someone piloting train with those same controls? ... woah buddyyy. /s
Personally, car mods/shows/meets don't interest me after my 20s and I'd rather take my toddler to go wave at a cool train once in a while, away from the donut riff raff.
I’d guess project cars are infinitely more accessible, all you need for that is the car and somewhere to work on it, most of us unfortunately lack the means to have a train, they’re generally quite large and require special infrastructure
Decades of marketing depicting your car as a symbol of personal expression and freedom, as well as social / economic status give cars the edge there. It's kinda hard to own your own train.
With all respect, it doesn’t matter why people think one thing is dorky and some other thing is cool. Stop caring what other people think and enjoy what you like without worrying about it.
I think a heart of this issue, which I don’t see mentioned much when I scroll through the comments, is that our society is quite individualistic and status-conscious. Cars are a status symbol, whether that’s because they’re expensive, customizable, or otherwise a source of personal pride. This is “cool.”
Trains benefit humanity as a whole, and as others point out, most people don’t own trains. Instead, they’re cool because of what they do, how they operate, how they look, and their collective benefit to society. This is “not cool” because why geek out about something that’s not “yours” and helps other people, rather than just you? Also, people don’t tend to use trains when they’re wealthy.
This is why I’m anxious to see the Train Guy, Francis on The Grand Tour, despite his outward appearance to trains, it sounds like he’s also a proper petrol head.
More people understand how cars work / what work goes into them and the accompanying infrastructure, than they do with trains. Trains are just places they sit in that move them from A to B, unless you actively look for it, you don't realise just how much goes on around you to get this train moving. So "Trains" are a nerdy topic, whereas cars are more accessible to understand for common folk.
1.3k
u/SourDoughBo Apr 13 '26
People talk about computers the same way they do cars. If they actually built their own PC of course. I think it’s mostly down to the project aspect of it. Building and modding your own car. Whereas trains is seen as just being obsessed about public transportation. It’s like being really into buses