train spotting

alternative trainspotting

1. uncountableThe hobby of collecting the numbers and names of locomotives seen at railway stations and other vantage points.

   One of my friends, the one who wept, did vow he'd never visit a bird observatory again and went back to train-spotting.

   1983, Bill Oddie, Gone Birding, London: Methuen, page 108

2. uncountableThe obsessive following of any minority interest or hobby.

   […] trainspotting mentality that thrives on the minutiae of whatever field with little regard for any contextual relevance such detail may have to the wider picture.

   2001, International Record Review, volume 2, page 92