A Tale of Two Generations: Railway Enthusiasts
By Ray Yam
In the opening of the Kwun Tong Line extension of MTR on 23 October, railway enthusiasts’ ecstasy in celebrating the event was caught by the media, inadvertently giving attention to the often-overlooked community, a group of railway enthusiasts old and young.
Hong Kong’s railway enthusiasts are not held in high esteem because the interest of trainspotting is definitely a minority in the city. The life of running around town taking pictures of trains and collecting nothing but railroad memorabilia is the life of a nerd to many. Both enthusiasts of older age and young alike found their interests not particularly appreciated by the public, not even local railway companies.
It is said that since the former Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation’s network merged into the MTR in 2007, much operational information formerly available to enthusiasts are suddenly classified and it is much more difficult to participate in discussions as employees from the MTR, some active members of the community, have been barred from discussing their work life in public.
“As a railway enthusiast, I think it’s better to bear in mind that the MTR is a public company and any news against its reputation could lead to financial loss,” said Aaron Kei, a young train enthusiast, commenting on the MTR’s attitude to trainspotters.
Kei has been interested in railways since primary school, “It was around that time when the MTR bought the new Korean-built trains to be used on the then newly-built Tseung Kwan O Line. All these new stuff triggered my curiosity on local railways, which developed into a passion over time.”
In discussing his interest with fellow trainspotters, Kei discovered that popularity of the hobby had been growing over the years, but the growth also created problems since some “enthusiasts” were divisive and reluctant to appreciate differences in other railway enthusiasts.
“They were naïve in their thoughts, and acted inappropriately in MTR properties,” he said “which is why I think it’s understandable that the MTR was not actively promoting such cultures – We the enthusiasts were also partly to blame.”
But Kei believed the worst days were behind as the MTR had been less hostile to enthusiasts in recent years. Although much information remains confidential, the company has held PR events which allowed trainspotters to participate, such as a public tour around Whampoa Station on 22 October, one day before its official opening.
Similar to Kei in this front was Christopher Ko (alias), also a railway enthusiast in his twenties and had been in love with railroads since his childhood.
“It is increasingly easy to call more enthusiasts to participate in a certain event, such as ‘exploring’ new rail lines and stations, now that communication has become easier, and it is a sight hasn’t been seen in years,” Ko said.
While Kei preferred discussing his hobbies with other enthusiasts, Ko’s enthusiasm had been focusing on creating railway-related works, such as designing signs based on existing templates used by the MTR, and playing railway simulation games as entertainment.
“There wasn’t enough room in my home for a model train set or even flyers collected from different MTR stations, so my enthusiasm relies heavily on the digital world,” Ko said, explaining his passion in his hobby.
One of the games Ko enjoys playing is a train simulator called BVE, in which players would be driving whatever trains on whatever routes he desires or, if he is talented enough, driving on a route created by the player himself, “This game basically turns my room into a train cabin and I get to taste what it is like to be a driver without leaving my room,” as Ko put it.
Although technology allows him to embrace his enthusiasm within metres of his bed, the twenty-year-old is still keen on going on a trip abroad to study railways of other countries.
“If I had the chance, I’d like to visit Japan and Great Britain,” Ko said, “because the railway system utilized by Hong Kong is mostly inherited from the UK and improved. The signalling system on the East Rail Line, for instance, is an improved form used by British Railways in the 1980s and if the MTR is reluctant to disclose information about it, a trip to the UK would help one learn a lot.”
As for Japan, Ko was amazed by the complexity and efficiency of the nation’s railroad network. He wanted to understand that efficiency and suggest potential improvements to the Hong Kong’s network.
Japan’s railways have a different approach to coping with passenger traffic demand than Hong Kong. While Hong Kong uses more trains to try to meet the demand, Japan’s approach calls for squeezing as many passengers as possible into existing trains, thus utilizing a train’s capacity to its maximum.
While younger generations of railway enthusiasts prefer studying modern or future railroading technologies, an older generation in the community has shown more interests in nostalgia, as 57-year-old Yam Hing-sang put it.
Yam, born in a time when steam locomotives were fading quickly in Hong Kong, said his enthusiasm with trains stemmed more or less from the regret that he never saw a steam engine hauling trains in Hong Kong, “By the time I was old enough to have memories, steam in Hong Kong was a thing in the history books.”
Yam posing in front of a JS-Class Steam locomotive, 1998
Luckily for the 57-year-old, Yam was able to experience the joy of riding a steam train in nearby Mainland China first-hand.
“It was the 60’s and steam engines were still used on some mainlines in Mainland, including the one running between Shenzhen and Guangzhou, albeit only on trains stopping at every station on the line,” he said. “It took eight hours to finish the journey but the spectacle of an express train whizzing pass you was awesome, so was the scene of a steam engine.”
Such was the beauty of a steam locomotive that Yam could vividly recall the scene at Guangzhou where he walked up to the front of the train and saw the headlamp on the locomotive illuminating the path ahead. The immense glow of that light remained with him since then, more than 50 years after steam engines had vanished from Guangzhou.
The enthusiasm remained, but Yam had very few ways of entertaining it because trainspotting was virtually non-existent in Yam’s days, until the 80’s and 90’s.
“By the time I was
old enough to have
memories, steam in
Hong Kong was a thing
in the history books.”
-Yam, Railway Enthusiast.
30 years after his first encounter with steam trains, Yam renewed his hobby by first entertaining the idea of owning model trains and later joining other fellow enthusiasts on trips to search for the few remaining steam engines operating in China at the time.
Yet with increasing dieselization in Chinese railways, Yam found it difficult to see steam in action and after a final trip as a member of the Hong Kong Railway Society in 2000, he focused more on model trains and had not embarked on a trip similar in nature since.
For Yam, model trains also served as a means to communicate with fellow enthusiasts. In 1995, he became the first president of the Hong Kong Model Railway Association, a small group of model train enthusiasts who would gather to exchange their knowledge on different types of model trains regularly.
Yam’s first-time visit to a steam locmotive’s cockpit, during a trip in 2000
“The purpose of the Association was simple – to make communication between friends easier,” Yam said. “And our routine activity was having a gathering per week, a habit I have kept since.”
As popularity grew, the trainspotter community were becoming larger and more diverse. Yet the three enthusiasts showed, the fundamental elements of the community had changed little – the need to share the enthusiasm with fellows and the wish to broaden one’s view on his interests, etc. All of these elements merely changed form.
