Train Buffs: The Human Ecology of an Avocation

Abstract

Ecological characteristics of U.S. states and cities were correlated with measures of the geographic distribution of train buffs. As would be expected, state and city population size is the strongest correlate of the absolute number of train buffs. When number relative to population is considered, train buffs are concentrated in affluent cities and in affluent, urban states with primarily white populations and containing the outer fringes of metropolitan areas. These results differ somewhat from earlier results indicating professional groups are concentrated in university towns. Over-all, this study suggests that future research should make a more explicit effort both to identify the social processes involved in ecological relationships and to attain a better integration of the psychological and social structural perspectives within human ecology.