British Railway Enthusiasm - (Studies in Popular Culture) by Ian Carter (Paperback)

About the Book

The first book to study railway enthusiasts in Britain. The postwar train spotting craze swept most boys (and some girls, despite railways being coded as a male business) into a passion for railways. These people invigorated different sectors in railway enthusiasm's life world - from railway modelling to Britain's huge preserved railway industry.

Book Synopsis

Now available in paperback, this is the first academic book to study railway enthusiasts in Britain. Far from a trivial topic, the post-war train spotting craze swept most boys and some girls into a passion for railways, and for many, ignited a lifetime's interest.

British railway enthusiasm traces this post-war cohort, and those which followed, as they invigorated different sectors in the world of railway enthusiasm - train spotting, railway modelling, collecting railway relics - and then, in response to the demise of main line steam traction, Britain's now-huge preserved railway industry. Today this industry finds itself riven by tensions between preserving a loved past which ever fewer people can remember and earning money from tourist visitors.

The widespread and enduring significance of railway enthusiasm will ensure that this groundbreaking text remains a key work in transport studies, and will appeal to enthusiasts as much as to students and scholars of transport and cultural history.

From the Back Cover

This is the first academic book to study railway enthusiasts in Britain. Far from a trivial topic, the postwar train spotting craze swept most boys and some girls into a passion for railways, and for many, ignited a lifetime's interest.

British railway enthusiasm traces this postwar cohort, and those which followed, as they invigorated different sectors in the world of railway enthusiasm - train spotting, railway modelling, collecting railway relics - and then, in response to the demise of main line steam traction, Britain's now-huge preserved railway industry. Today this industry finds itself riven by tensions between preserving a loved past which ever fewer people can remember and earning money from tourist visitors.

The widespread and enduring significance of railway enthusiasm will ensure that this ground-breaking text becomes a key work in transport studies, and will appeal to enthusiasts as much as to students and scholars of transport and cultural history.

About the Author

Ian Carter is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Auckland