First trainspotter

The earliest confirmed trainspotter was Fanny Johnson (UK), who in 1861 – at the age of 14 – began keeping a journal entitled "Names of the engines on the Great Western than I have seen". In the journal, she recorded the numbers of the various locomotives that passed on the tracks near her home in Westbourne Park, London.

Trains and railways have always attracted the attention of dedicated enthusiasts. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, curious members of the public were known to hitch rides on industrial wagonways, such as the Kitty's Drift underground railway in Newcastle, and the opening of the first public railways attracted crowds of thousands.

Although there is widespread evidence of public interest in this prominent new technology, there are no documented cases of individuals methodically noting down the names or numbers of the trains they saw until Fanny Johnson's journal. Moreover, the comprehensive nature of the list she compiled (which included the names and numbers of all the Gooch broad-gauge locomotives active on the Great Western Railway at the time) makes it clear that Fanny Johnson was deliberately setting herself up near the line to keep watch, not simply noting names she happened to see while out and about.

The original journal kept by Fanny Johnson does not survive, but select pages were reproduced, along with a general description of its contents, in a 1935 edition of the Great Western Railway Magazine.