On the career track: Train enthusiasts a growing community in S'pore, some go on to work in public transport sector

SINGAPORE — When Aniq Hazim was in primary school, his English teacher once gave a lesson about public transport. Looking at the picture of a train on his textbook cover, Aniq uttered: “Siemens C651”, the train's exact model name. 

Surprised, other students and the teacher asked Aniq how he knew about this particular train model. He replied that he had been learning train models and their names on the internet. 

Aniq is 17 years old now, and some things have not changed. TODAY met him recently at Commonwealth MRT Station. Upon seeing the thumbnail-sized visage of the train appearing at a distance, he said: “KHI C151”, its model name.

Aniq can now identify train models just by looking at their headlights.

He is one of those commonly known as "train enthusiasts" — people who take a keen interest in trains. Many of them start out young and some go on to turn their hobby into a career.

Whenever a new train model appears on the scene, the enthusiasts would be among the first to witness its debut.

When SMRT recently launched the Alstom Movia R151, Aniq was down at Tuas Link MRT Station at 6.40am to spot it, along with other train enthusiasts.

While some members of the public have criticised features of the new train, Aniq said it looks very detailed and “perfect”. 

Besides celebrating new arrivals, Aniq also likes to bid farewell to carriages that have served the network for a long time.

Two years ago, Aniq and 14 of his friends went to a scrap yard in Tuas to witness a decommissioned train being dismantled. 

“The most brutal thing was that they smashed the glass of the train… I was in tears because it was my favourite train, and it was the last one on the North-South Line in 2021,” he said. 

GROWING COMMUNITY OF TRAIN ENTHUSIASTS

Aniq, who hopes to become a train captain, is a part of an active and growing community of train enthusiasts in Singapore. 

Mr Matthew Ng, who runs the train enthusiast website SGTrains, said that the website started back in 2011 as a forum of about 150 people. The community has grown since. SGTrains recently integrated a Telegram bot, where around 400 people share trainspotting information. 

Besides trainspotting, these enthusiasts take photos and videos of trains, chase decommissioned trains to the scrap yard and share facts about the MRT network.

Some even build train simulators on gaming platforms like OpenBVE. 

They also get invited to public events where they get to talk about their passion.

Last month, Mr Ng was invited to the Singapore HeritageFest to give a talk about the history and evolution of the North-East Line. The 27-year-old is a recent graduate from Lasalle College of the Arts, with a degree in electronic music. 

In November 2022, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) invited Mr Ng and other train enthusiasts to set up a booth at Orchard MRT Station for the Thomson-East Coast Line Stage 3 opening event, where Mr Ng shared his knowledge and displayed his collection of train models, MRT system maps, builder plates and fare cards.

For Mr Adiel Rusyaidi Ruslani, 21, and Mr Xavier Ang, 20, their shared enthusiasm for trains fostered a long-lasting friendship.

They met in secondary school when they were both part of an astronomy club. The two became friends when they discovered each other’s passion for trains and started trainspotting together.

Mr Ang’s interest in trains started when MRT services in the North-South and East-West lines simultaneously broke down in 2015.

He wondered what could have caused such a major breakdown and started to study the technical aspects of trains, like how the signalling system enables automation. 

Mr Ang said he is particularly interested in trains because “a lot of people take trains every day, so the trains have a huge impact on people’s lives”. He is due to begin his studies in electrical engineering at the Nanyang Technological University. 

Mr Adiel studied communications at Ngee Ann Polytechnic and is currently doing National Service. His goal is to cultivate a deeper connection between public transportation and the community, harnessing his background in communications. 

The two of them interact with other train enthusiasts online, mostly on Discord servers. One Discord server that they are part of has over 300 train enthusiasts. 

WHEN PASSION BECOMES CAREER

Mr Ng, the webmaster behind SGTrains, said that several train enthusiasts have gone on to work with public transport operators like SMRT, SBS Transit and LTA.

He knows around eight public transport enthusiasts who are now directly involved in daily operations. 

In recent years, Mr Ng has been seeing large numbers of young train enthusiasts, some as young as primary school students.

With Singapore actively developing the train network, he would not be surprised if some of them turn their passion into career.

“Train enthusiasts know that there are a lot of things that are going to happen in the next 20 to 30 years, and they feel that it’s a passion and also a job opportunity,” he said.  

Responding to dismissive comments towards train enthusiasts on social media by some netizens, Mr Ng said: “I think every individual has their own unique hobby and passion, and I don’t think it is very nice to make fun of a passion of something, no matter what it is."

“So even though (trainspotting) is a very uncommon hobby, show compassion and spread love, not hate.” 

For Aniq, train enthusiasm is also about showing appreciation to the public transport operators. “SMRT does a good job, and I appreciate them for their hard work 24/7,” he said.