Celebrating one year of ‘We are Railfans’

One of the few pluses to have come out of the Covid-19 lockdowns has been the surge in growth of railway and simulation video games for enthusiasts around the globe in order to stay in touch with their hobby, and each other, while the real trains were largely shut down.

Train Sim World

Heritage railways have sometimes been featured in these games, so offering wide exposure to a younger audience, most notably with the 2018 release of the West Somerset Railway route in ‘Train Sim World’ and the ability to drive virtually the WSR-based fleet of Diesel and Electric Preservation Group’s diesel locomotives, including a virtual gala across the entire 22 mile route and featuring Classes 09, 47, 33, 52, plus guest loco Classes 20, 31, 37, 40, 45 and even a Class 101 DMU.

We are Railfans

In July 2020, during tight Covid restrictions, a new railway initiative was created to try and bring together distinct areas of the railway hobby together called “We are Railfans” which aimed to give renewed interest to people about their railway interests, which can include such video games. And ‘We Are Railfans’ have been adding their support to the ongoing, six-week long ‘Love Your Railway’ UK nationwide campaign too.

While the ‘Railfan’ name is widely used and known across North America, Canada, parts of mainland Europe, India plus Australia and New Zealand, it’s less common in the UK but is a rapidly growing movement and certainly a far cry from the past railway enthusiast stereotypes.

The ‘We are Railfans’ project was spearheaded with a campaign video which has now been viewed over 1.3 million times on YouTube. Narrated by actor Sean Bean, the film is the work of video game developer Dovetail Games who are the makers of the now popular ‘Train Simulator’ and ‘Train Sim World’ franchises.

Over the last 12 months, the project has worked to engage and interact with the international ‘railfan’ audience -- the global size of which is unknown but in 2009 was estimated to be 175,000 people in the USA alone. A wide range of on-line articles have been produced, ranging from the specific histories of the huge, powerful North American steam and diesel locomotives to the quirkiness of British request halts or stops on rural branch lines.

In addition, regular posts on social media platforms asked the established railway enthusiast audience to recall their favourite journeys, share photos or even submit their own content for the benefit of fellow railfans. Regular contributors have included US railroad author and photographer Gary Dolzall, plus ‘We Are Railfans’ own Joe Rogers, who drew on his experience in engaging with a railway audience from his time working at both Pecorama in Devon and the West Somerset Railway.

As part of their support for the ‘Love Your Railway’ campaign ‘We Are Railfans’ shared a selection of heritage themed articles, including this in week one: https://www. wearerailfans.com/c/tags/ heritage?page=1

Week Two - Education

For week two, and the 'Education' theme, ‘We Are Railfans’ asked their 20,000 followers what they knew about their local lines and received a number of responses from US Railfans about the history of their local railroads, plus some resource articles were shared, including a basic guide to Whyte Notation on wheel arrangements: https://www. wearerailfans.com/c/article/visualguide-whyte-notation

‘We Are Railfans’ will continue to post selectively on the remaining four ‘Love Your Railway’ weekly themes of ‘Volunteers’, ‘Family’, ‘Sustainability’ and ‘Future’ in the coming weeks, and have tagged and mentioned a number of heritage lines around the country within the content.

CEO of Dovetail Games Jon Rissik, said: “The ‘We Are Railfans’ initiative is something that I have wanted to get off the ground for many years and I can look back on the past 12 months with immense pride in making it succeed despite Covid-19 restrictions. I believe we offer railfans everywhere a truly unique resource for information and community sharing. The first ‘Railfan Fest’ we held in April this year was a fabulous success and is something that we are looking to repeat and grow over the coming years. Moving into podcasts has also been a wonderful learning experience from our team, and I look forward to us delivering more great content for enthusiasts of the hobby in the months to come.”

Emma Hearn, Dovetail Games’ Head of Brand, who led the ‘We are Railfans’ initiative said: “Having the ‘We Are Railfans’ project live for one year has been an amazing milestone for us, and to see how the railfan community has embraced this incentive since it began has been so rewarding. We have seen clearly how we can help railfans on their journey with this expansive hobby as well as beginning it, and so creating the next generation of railway enthusiasts. With so much to look forward to in the future, we hope that ‘We Are Railfans’, plus the success we have had with the first ‘Railfan Fest’, continues to bring this diverse, vast and knowledgeable audience together.”

In April this year, Dovetail Games’ efforts culminated in their first virtual event - Railfan Fest 2021 - which was organised jointly with the ‘Train Simulator’ side of the business, and otherwise largely separate from ‘We Are Railfans’.

This event, hosted on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, featured the likes of Amtrak, Hornby, PECO, the North Norfolk Railway and film maker Chris Eden-Green, as well as interviews with staff at New Jersey Transit, author Ian Logan and railway artist Tom Connell. The event was well received and drew in 12,000 viewers per day from both the railfan and gaming audiences.

‘We Are Railfans’ also jumped into the Podcast market – an area not frequented often by the railway world - with the ‘We Are Railfans’ podcast. This began with ‘Railfan TV’ chatting to broadcaster and ‘Revolution Trains’ founder Ben Ando about his passion for N Gauge modelling and the excitement over the future development of Britain’s railways.

Further instalments are set to interview a selection of drivers and engineers to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what it is like to be in control of some of the world’s most impressive railway locomotives and machinery. For more information see www.wearerailfans.com