Paper short abstract:

"Playing" with model trains, trainspotting, and collecting railway memorabilia are popular hobbies of countless children and adults all over the world. Focusing on Germany, our project explores manifestations of railway enthusiasm from classic model trains to nostalgic narrow-gauge railways.

Paper long abstract:

Although the railway has lost much of its former prominence as the most important means of transportation in the Western world, it is still of major significance for uncomplicated and sustainable everyday mobility. Most importantly, it has preserved great emotional value for many people. Especially small and vintage trains, be it children's toys, classic models or "real" narrow-gauge railways, are popular objects of nostalgia and fascination for the complex world of railway construction and operation.

Reminiscing about the "good old days", circulating "inside knowledge" in clubs and associations, hunting for the last steam engine, or creating idyllic landscapes along small scaled tracks: Popular appropriations of railways are as diverse and multifaceted as are their agents. And while railway enthusiasts are often perceived as slightly eccentric, aestheticization of, and romanticizing about, (small) trains nevertheless provide the basis for a multitude of popular hobbies.

In this cooperative project, nine students of the MA-programme in Cultural Anthropology at the Georg-August-University in Göttingen (Germany) have enquired into the significance of various manifestations of "small" trains in different social and historical contexts.