Did anyone catch the episode last night where they all ride the Napa Wine train?
Other than a badly pronouced attemp at saying, "ALCO" they got everything right.
Makes me wonder if one of the writers is a train fan or truly hates them. I can't tell which. They sure make a lot of derisive comments about Sheldon's interest in trains and model trains a lot on that show.
Still, I can't disagree with the depiction of train buffs (I told my wife the train buff Sheldon runs into on the show wasn't large enough, looked like he'd had a bath that week and wasn't wearing enough stuff with trains on it), even though I have never even heard of any foamers imitating sounds of specific trains before.

Yes, I saw it.

The writers clearly had some incite in the argot, but "alcoA"? And despite the vocabulary, Sheldon clearly was naive in his questions. What railfan would have wondered if the train was using link-and-pin couplers?

They have burlesqued railfans and model railroaders in three episodes so far. Of course, that is what they do to "nerds" every episode.

Okay, I know this is rhetorical, but I just have to answer.

The one who wants the engineer to physically kick him out of the locomotive...

But in the Big Bang Theory episode, it would have been the conductor.

O lord... Now he is REALLY asking for it. Last time I heard someone called the engineer a conductor, he was quickly and unceremoniously shown the exit.

My wife watches the show occasionally, and she spotted the vintage passenger car interior in a promo spot. So we made sure to tune in (to use an anachronistic term) and I got a big kick out of it, especially when the girlfriend tells the guy that the train has an "Alco FPA4" (the captioning says "Alcoa", but I think she actually says "Alco". The line about "link & pin couplers" was rather weird. I have a family connection to that kind of coupler--my dad had an uncle who lost a hand in a coupling accident back in the bad old days. Then the discussion about the mythical 4-10-4 locomotive sounded like some of the guys we try to stay away from at railfan gatherings. Like the daily horoscope in the newspaper "Should be used for entertainment only."

Welcome to my world. They make fun of geeks pretty much 24x7.

Of course the writers come out of our world. They know geek culture too well, and railfans are just not that rare either.

I'm sure "link and pin" was an editorial choice to be something the public has a chance of having heard of, unlike say Stevenson or type F. It's like Amazon's list of best 100 books is slanted toward books people already know of. In either case they could have been more authentic at the cost of snowing people.

She did say Alco-A [sic], no doubt about it. I DVR the show and listened to it again after thinking I heard it said that way the first time.

I'm glad that people realize they are making fun of railfan/model railroaders on the show. Even the other nerds think Sheldon is an uber-geek because of his interest in trains.

On some other railfan/modeler boards they are actually celebrating the fact that the Sheldon character is depicted as one of them. They must be desperate for recognition.

Being perceived as weird because of my hobby is nothing I haven't experienced all my life, so it's no big deal.

Actually, railfanning carries less of a stigma here in the southeast (Georgia) than it does where I was born and raised in NYC and Nassau County. I think it is because people in the NY metro area think of trains as the commuter cars or subways that they ride to and from work and can't imagine how anyone could have a hobby interest in those things.

The other day I was shooting at a grade crossing with some train buff pals and we started talking about this episode.
I said they went too far with the recreating train sounds part as I'd never seen that before, even among the really bad foamer types.
The other two said they had. Several times.
Yikes.

[quote="p51"]
Here are a group of Foamer from over seas listening to the VVVF motor.

Also don't forget how angree railfans can get in the land of the riseing sun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SMIgGAHAoU

This turned up on my Facebook page; looks like we've been objects to spoof for a while:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml1Yf489BnI