There is still a dedicated group of fans who tirelessly record locomotive numbers and collect frame numbers (or other identifying information) to trace the history of the locomotives. You might even say this is what the hobby entails for them, and short of taking the occasional trip to go photograph locomotives, they spend more time with databases and spreadsheets than they do trackside. The Loconotes Yahoo group (remember those?) still has over 1000 members and is active. There are other smaller group specializing in even deeper locomotive history discussions and tracking.

As I always tell friends and family, "If you've met one railfan, you've met one railfan." Interests in this hobby are so varied, it is quite often that you can have two people meet who have absolutely no common interests in trains other than the connection it has something to do with railroads. One guy only likes steam and will only venture trackside for mainline steam; the other wants to sit at the busiest freight line in the area and will instantly upload the photos he takes to social media. And each one thinks the other is weird... ;-p

Mike Derrick