I’ve lived in Japan for forty years. While I would not consider myself a train enthusiast, it’s hard not to get affectionate about them after having ridden them for so many years. My four-year-old grandson, who lives with me, is definitely already a fan. He can identify dozens of different trains and train lines, and currently his favorite song is about railway crossings [1]. It helps that we live a five-minute walk from one of the busiest places for trains in Japan [2].
For his birthday last month, I bought him a huge, incredibly detailed picture book about trains [3] that we have been reading together. It will be interesting to see how his interests evolve as he gets older. Fans tend to focus on particular aspects of trains—riding them, photographing them, recording their sounds [4], learning their schedules, etc.—and there are terms for each type of enthusiast [5].
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NN_EZA8lX4
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4po1SlK0c0
[3] https://zukan.gakken.jp/live/train_new/
[4] https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%E9%9B%BB%E8%BB...
[5] https://japanrailtimes.japanrailcafe.com.sg/web/article/rail...