"The World's Most Famous Railfan" (well, at least online) garners a BBC News interview.

https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-69053034

Has anybody here seen this guy's videos besides me? On the one hand, he brings a lot of publicity to rail enthusiasm. On the other hand, his shtick is absolutely wince-inducing, seemingly all but set out to confirm every last negative stereotype of intelligent but autistic, developmentally-impaired individuals as rail enthusiasts. It's not helped by the freaky, fisheye-lens videos of his grinning face as trains pass. (Well, the article and some of his videos show a living, breathing girlfriend who's very easy on the eyes, so likely that's all an act for the cameras. . . . or she's our heroine.)

At least one of his videos I blundered upon detailed a chase of a steam special, with maps and graphics showing the progress of both the train and the chase vehicle (he wasn't driving).

That fish eye lens pointed down at his face that he loves to use so much just weirds me out in ways I can't figure out. Personally, I don't like his stuff, but to each their own.

If you don’t love him the correct response is “ok boomer” - seriously the guy is brilliant, fun, and makes rail-fanning interesting to the general public. The comments about his girlfriend are all kinds of creepy but that’s to be expected.

There are two ways to look at this guy's video productions, and "okay boomer" is only one of them.

Yes, he brings attention to the hobby of railfandom. He does help explain and highlight such enthusiasm to non-railfans. He's somewhat fun and delightful, and he has legions of "followers."

The other approach: He makes all of us that like trains LOOK autistic--oh, sorry, "neurologically divergent"--whether what he's doing is a contrived act or not. There are undoubtedly people who watch him just to laugh at him and his antics (and, by extension, us?).

We went through some of this a decade or so ago when the character Sheldon Cooper on The Big Bang Theory was depicted, however clumsily and inaccurately, as a railroad buff. Maybe it brought much-needed publicity to the avocation--but they used one of the most off-putting characters on television to do it. And, just like "Francis Bourgeois," there are people who love that show and people who hate it, and it's fair to say they both have something of a fair point, pro or con.

There's any number of such programs and programming that become a similar double-edged sword. Almost any time a producer for a television show shows up at a heritage railroad for a "documentary," you run the risk of being presented completely "off-message," be it a travel series, a PBS "what to see in your state" show, or whatever. We can all say "there's no such thing as bad publicity" (and certainly the Nevada Northern's Mark Bassett would agree, seeing their "engineer for a day" program shown on TBBT), but if all they ever show of you is that Thomas or Polar Express event, and none of the history or effort, what have they really shown? A Disneyland attraction?

Off-putting, yes, but very funny, and they do the best they can on research, much better than the average show for the general public does when it comes to railroading.

https://youtu.be/KSXP8tkWdtM?si=IH4ij-W-62ZbZDvN