 Hello and thank you for joining me Today's video is a little bit different from my usual ones as you can see I'm not out and about because it is the lockdown as a result of the coronavirus situation now what I did and Prior to the lockdown I have been out and about You know as normal every weekend pretty much making videos and I like to always have you know surplus videos So I've always got a few more So that's why throughout the lockdown I've still been able to publish videos, but they've run out. So here we are. I'm now not going outside. I'm at home and I'm having to make videos slightly differently Because I like to try and publish a video At least every weekend what I have been doing during the week. I've been publishing my archive videos Which um, quite a few of you are saying you're enjoying watching which I'm you know, really pleased to hear so their videos What you'll see at the moment would have been filmed by my father when I was a child And then they'll go right up from the early 1990s up till about 2015 really just before Henry's adventure started. So That will go on well until I've run out of archives pretty much So um, there's a lot of them to come they'll be in the week and at the weekends I'll publish um other videos once the lockdown ends. I'll be out and about again for time being I'm here in my house. Um, I can't really go out and about so I thought I would um try and answer a few questions something People do ask me quite a lot whether it's commenting on videos or face to face I get asked this question and that is what is train spotting now Being a train spotter and being a railway enthusiast aren't necessarily the same thing because you get quite a little railway enthusiast who wouldn't call themselves train spotters. So being a train spotter means Going up to a either a locomotive or a multiple unit or a carriage finding the number And ticking it off. Now that is something I do Admittedly certain places. I don't do it anymore purely because I've seen them all so like say the Chilton mainline out of Mariliband I've seen them all the pendulinos formally virgin now of anti-west coast I've seen all of them. So I don't really take too much notice although I do Tick them off if I've traveled on them um for haulage. So to speak so Going back to my earliest days. I didn't really start train spotting till till 2003 it started now before that the way I Took an interest or one of the ways it took an interest in that was with this book here this iSpy book which You know really is quite fun, but it's not actually train spotting It shows you things to look out for so there's a picture of a class 37 And a ship so like it's saying had you seen that or had you seen an intercity had you seen a cathedral from the train So it isn't train spotting But it's kind of in a bit of an introductory thing getting People to look out for things when they go on the train rather than just sit there And go from A to B. So I first started train spotting in 2003. I was at the beckonsfield modereal exhibition I bought this platform five book of diesel multiple units. Now. What happened? I very quickly ticked off all the 165s and 168s coming out of marina, but so I bought this in 2003 And I started off just doing diesel multiple units and I didn't really take Too much notice of various other trains, but then I kind of wanted to expand so 2004 And they're looking a bit worse for where now, but they've been very well used I got the locomotive one did extra multiple unit one and then I also added in coaching stock So I would travel around I'd take the numbers and it was kind of mainly Just around london and the south east and if I went say on the odd holiday to wales, I'd I'd get various other numbers I remember staying near lamb lambista road on the heart of wales line We stayed on a farm and what I do every time a train was coming There weren't many trains there on heart of wales line, but I'd walk to lambista road and get the 153 So that's how I started ticking them off. I then gave up on coaching stock because what I found was um Not so much with the older ones, but with the more modern ones such as mark 3s and mark 4s Which unfortunately some of those are now being scrapped And and I'd say the same about mark 5s, although they weren't even thought of when this book came out I don't take the numbers of them because I'm thinking if I've seen every class 91 or every Class 43 power car, then I must have seen all the carriages. Yes. Okay. There might be one or two I haven't seen but I'm not too bothered. But the one thing I do, you know still look out for um That is coaching stock and is a is the dvt's So the mark 3s and the mark 4s and the mark 5 dvt's I do still spot them So I've gone through various other train spotting books throughout the years not I've moved I've had platform 5s I tend to try and have a different company one each time the one I've got now Is this one st productions now? This is great. It has all the locomotives all the multiple units in britain. It has all the london underground It has all the trams It has all the irish stock. It also has coaching stock But as I said, I only worry about the driving van trailers for that. So that's how I tick them off And I'll show you how I tick them off. There's no right or wrong way different people have different Ways of doing it. So I've just randomly opened it on the page of the class 350s at work out of houston I don't know how well you can see that But I put a little cross by them if I've seen it I've got an x by them if I had them for haulage so the 350s I've seen them all but I haven't had all of them for haulage having them for haulage Basically means I've traveled on them. So if I see a 350 go for a station I don't take too much notice But if I travel on one, I will write the number down if it's two put together I have to walk through to the second carriage or the second unit rather to get the number So I know which ones I've had for haulage because even if you go on the train Say I'm off for a unit like a class 165 If you go on to couple together and you're in the front The unit behind I still count it for haulage because it's still powering the same train In the same way as a locomotive you count a locomotive for haulage When you're sitting behind it in the carriage, but you're not actually sitting in the locomotive There are some very extreme rail enthusiasts who will only Class loco for haulage if they've ridden the cab, but um, unless you're a train driver I can't see how you're going to get that many But if that's what they like to do then, you know good luck to them There is no right or wrong way to be a train spotter It's however, you know you want to do it The only thing you can't do is say look at a loco Say if you see a loco on the telly thing I'll tick that off Although that said there is something some people do. I don't do it. Maybe one day Man is virtual spotting. So if you look at this old book here the old Ian Allen ABC So it has all the steam locos. This was is a replica of a 1944 book What some enthusiasts do Is they might go through say books Or magazines and look for these locos in a book or magazine and tick them off as seeing it in a book or magazine I kind of get that but um If you're if i'm spotting say the real loco's in this if I saw a picture of one in a magazine That I would not count as seeing it But if the local I suppose doesn't exist and you know you find it in a magazine or a old book I kind of see that so That's the main line stuff when it comes to heritage railways. It's pretty much the same thing I have this book here. So this has all the standard gauge Locomotives and multiple units and then going on to narrow gauge and miniature have this one This has all the narrow gauge and miniature rolling stock Now it does get more complicated with narrow gauge because the fact they're small lands and even more so miniature There are locos that people don't know about people build locos dates. They might not necessarily everything exists in here I've been because as you know, I visit miniature railways when we're doing my miniature railway Britain series Which obviously is also on hold because of the lockdown but once lockdown ends We will be back to visiting miniature railways, but there are locos that don't appear in here. So um I also have this miniature. But this is the platform five one, which is really good as well So sometimes you might not you'll find one in one but not the other so it gets quite complicated miniature railways But um, you know, I do I'm trying to tick them all off and I'm sure I'll do it eventually And then train spotting it's um, it depends how far you want to go with it. Now. I also include Europe I include trams and trains of Europe So have these two books one of Eastern Europe one of Western Europe So if I go to Budapest or anywhere in Europe, I am looking out for trams I'm not too interested in metros, but I will look out for trams. I don't do buses I don't do trolley buses some people do which you know is great for them And then when I go my favorite country in Europe is Hungary. So here's my Hungarian spotter's book Love ticking off the v43s. I've had quite a few for haulage And I don't think I'll see all of them because I've already scrapped some of them You know, they are 45 years old some of them, but you know, it's great when you get a Hungary and these are everywhere So Hungary is a great country I've got an Austria and Switzerland one which I haven't seen so many of Um, I haven't been done much of Switzerland yet, but I'd love to in the future See quite a lot of Austrian locos in Hungary because they come over the border And then there's the Balkans east. So I've hardly ticked any off in that I've only ticked a few Romanian locos off in the one trip I did to Oradea a couple of years ago And then I've also got one on the Balkan south now Been to parts of former Yugoslavia. So I've ticked a few off and what's exciting about this one Is it's got working steam in because there is steam in Bosnia and when I went to Bosnia in 2015 I was able to tick some working steam off. So I like to say I'm one of the youngest people That can actually remember real working steam because if you go to Bosnia the steam there It's not for tourists. It is because they just have never modernised. So when you go there, it's like I'm seeing an image living long after its day Um, and I don't know how much long it'll go on for but I'm so glad I went and saw it before it faded for the last time So really that's um, I mean I could go on. I've got one on Benelux railways German railways French railways I've also got one on european preserved locos and That's another thing. This happens with Britain as well There's a lot I had as a child or before I was too worried about them retrospectively ticking off So as I go through my archives, I'm like, oh, I saw that locos now. All right, I can tick that off So it doesn't matter when you saw it. You can still tick it off as seeing it. So, um That that is how I do train spotting now. I also Um, we'll talk about that in another video But as I do train spotting, I'm also track bashing. So if you want to know what that is watch out for the next one But it's not I don't tend to just spend all day sitting on a station Some people do and that's you know, if that's how they want to do it, that's fine I'm more of a because I like other things. I like churches and castles and going for walks I tend to do my train spotting on the move. So I'll say by a Wayfarer ticket for Manchester or travel car for london I'll travel all around and I'll just tick off the trains that go when I get to a main line railway station Or in london or if I get to Manchester Piccadilly live full line street I'll run around all the platforms and jot the numbers down then In my notebook here and pages and pages and pages of numbers And so that's how I do it and then I'll tend to go off and I'll do something else Maybe go and look at the castle make one of my other Henry's adventures videos or go to a miniature railway and um, you know I'll tick some stuff off in a miniature railway book. So that's basically how I do train spotting I like so I do train spotting at the same time as doing quite a few other things So I hope um, I've given you an insight there into what train spotting really is and you know When you're say traveling on the train to work, you know, why not um, not this one This one here Why not buy one and just see if you can see all of your local commuter trains because I reckon most people to go to work On the train. They've probably seen every train on their local line. They just don't know it. So there's a thought for you Anyway, hope you enjoyed this video Um, as I said something completely different. I've never done a video like this before but as we're in lockdown I'm having to adapt a bit. So hope you enjoyed it. Thank you very much for watching Please do feel free to like subscribe and comment There will be more miniature railway videos when we come out of lockdown And there'll be a lot more of my other videos castles this huge railways canals. You name it I'm hoping to make videos of it in the future. So thank you very much for watching and goodbye