Who’d have ever thought that foamers would be explained on mainstream news? Must be a slow news day: http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_c2#/video/us/2012/08/03/tsr-moos-excited-train-gag.cnn I'd never heard of the first video. Funny how this is coming from someone from a museum and that he says he's just going with the same level of 'enthusiasm,' when I'd bet almost any amount that he was mocking the original video kid...

Pathetic. On all counts. In my opinion, this puts a tarnish on all the efforts and hard work of every one of us involved with railroads.

So now anyone who enjoys trains as a hobby will be grouped with this.

Has CNN EVER done a ''nice'' story about some event at a Railroad or RR Museum ?

Have they covered the U.P. 150th or N.S. 30th Anniversary activities ?

This falls into the category that I call ''dirty laundry'' reporting.

CNN can kiss my brake hose until its proved to me that they can do better.

Didn't newspapermen call this the 'silly season' in the old days?

Did anyone mention that the kid involved is almost certainly in the autism spectrum? (I have firsthand experience in dealing with this.) I especially love how they carefully selected clips of his video that contain jumping, jittering, and zoom-pans across crossing signals to make him look more foolish.

Makes me realize what a long time it's been since Tom Snyder's show from the Blue Comet trip, and how much general civility we've lost in broadcast journalism since then.

*resumes slowly banging head on desktop repeatedly*

I posted this on my own Facebook page, and that of the Baltimore Chapter NRHS, with the admonition "Don't. Be. This. Guy." I heard back from a semi-lurker here on this forum who informed me that the individual in question, a friend/associate of his, definitely did it as a spoof, and included a link to the "original" video.

You don't want to know what it was like being in the photo line for Obama's train ride to D.C. in January 2009. A lot of the same syndrome from the spectators, but for slightly different reasons.

I remember one occasion where eight of us were jammed onto a cliff overlooking a trestle on the NKP around sunset and N&W 611 came along, seemingly "putting on a show" of stack talk, smoke, and whistles for us. The one photographer uttered "Oh..... my... GOD....." at the show unfolding before him, then started to repeat it, only to have the caps of three video guys begin savagely beating him, elbows ram his ribs from both sides, and the video guy behind him plant his foot square on the guy's back, ready to kick him over the edge of the cliff....... When we bolted up the narrow path back towards the right-of-way and our cars, the guy was still frozen in fear there. I wonder if he's still there today.

I saw someone like that when 4449 went over Stampede Pass last year for the NRHS convention. As Doyle and friends were positioning the train for the runby at Easton, WA and the photo line getting developed, I got lucky enough to be standing right next to the guy shooting the official video for the chapter. At one point I saw someone being manhandled away from the photo line. I asked the guy on the other side if he knew what the deal was with that, he said he'd seen said foamer doing the same thing as described above as 4449 and train came into town, which ruined the video of everyone standing nearby. The guy got so excited, he not only soiled himself (how anyone would know that, I'd rather not know) but he started jumping up and down, spinning around and yelling, "Oh boy, Oh boy, Oh boy..." over and over.
Annoying as that might be, I thought that was a really crummy thing to do, to give him the bum's rush from the photo line. I mean really, he has as much right to stand there as anyone else! I'm surprised that the police didn't get called for assault!

The first time I encountered the term foamer, was on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. There was a complete definition of the term in an article about Amtrak. (Only foamers were supposed to favor Amtrak.)

Personally, I think the term foamer does railway preservation no good at all. You may know that you are not a foamer, but everyone outside the field lumps us all together.

-Mark

Every hobby has a derisive term for a portion of those in that hobby that the others look down on (think, "Trekkie" v/s "Trekker" for fans of Star Trek). Foamer just happens to be ours.But in some cases, you may think you are not a foamer, but everyone else knows you actually are.

Let me ask this, how do you feel about a representative of a RR museum getting onto CNN for what really is a video mocking a train buff (and a teenager one, at that)?

Last I heard, the Saratoga & North Creek isn't a rail MUSEUM and doesn't pretend to be one. It's a passenger rail operation much like the Grand Canyon RR.

Never mind the "foamer" label, what's really interesting here is the idea of using the "viral video" phenomenon to promote a heritage railroad. It's not just the coverage on CNN, this video was all over Facebook and other social media before it ever caught the attention of CNN. It should be interesting to see what kind of effect the publicity surrounding this video will have on the Saratoga & North Creek's ridership.

We don't get no respect, no respect at all. . .

Actually, the CNN story did explain this was a spoof, and that it was done to get people interested in the tourist road. I'll admit, I wish they'd found something better, but. . .

Doggone, those brain cells just got tickled--didn't we have a very prominent rail enthusiast--one who actually ran some major steam operations--make a colorful quote about how running steam was better than s-e-x?

Actually, that might go over pretty good in today's world--which says something about today's world!!

(Yes, I know who it was, and he probably remembers, too. . .)

Just some tongue and cheek stuff, and the young fella could actually speak and articulate his joy.

However, never trust a man who wears a bow tie.

Gee, guys, is this a historic preservation forum or a political blog???

Mike

I was thinking along similar lines. Why are degrading comments about channel's viewers (and other things) necessary? They don't pertain to the original discussion on this thread.

The folks here associated with preservation organizations that use the forum to take cheap shots at others should expect to reap the results of their efforts. Nobody has any obligation to provide information, answers, support, or donations to anyone else or their organizations. The next time they ask for help allow them find the answers and do the work themselves.

PC

Deleted a few posts to tidy up the thread. If you want to discuss politics, make snarky remarks about people or organizations whose political philosophy differs from yours, or demonstrate your superiority by putting down other people or organizations: GO SOMEWHERE ELSE! You won't be missed.