Railfan Fan Wrote:
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> How many decades has this lament been repeated?

This time is different. Broadband internet has permitted this narcissism to exist. Then there is sites like railpictures.net with their photo of the day, week, whatever. New railfans entering the hobby are fooled into believing it's one big photo competition. They think you need a camera to be a railfan.

I met a young railfan (13 or 14) with his mother. The kid thought the only way to be accepted was to take good photos and post them to the internet. Here he was with a camera and tripod stressing out over the quality of his shot. Very tragic in my book.