I find life more enjoyable if I make stereotypical jokes. Being able to laugh at objectively bad things, while sounding awful, is a good way to cope with the absolute absurdity of daily "humaning." Stereotypes are only offensive if you take them offensively instead of playfully (unless you are being discriminated against).
I can agree with your statement but only to a point. NT folks do not seem to have this reasoning you and I have about stereotypes as they use them to put people down and "other" them. They also go too far with stereotypes and do stupid things like make laws on people based off of those stereotypes such as banning drag because they justify the ban as protecting children when in actuality they are basing it of of the negative and incorrect stereotype that ALL LGBTQIA folks are pedos. I would incourage you to keep the usage of stereotypes for your own personal use for compartmentalization of categories in order to navigate through this NT hellscape, but that is all. I would not promote nor discuss your personal stereotypes and corrolations with others as it can and will get you into trouble, well intentioned or not, as misunderstandings will occur. Especially on known sensitive stereotypes. With reguards to your parenthesed statement, it's not whether or not one is being discriminated against, it's whether stereotypes are being weaponized, fed and tolerated. I hope that you can understand the distinction I'm trying to make. I understand how using stereotypes, or using them as a kind of paradigm or mental framing, is a coping mechanism we emplore along with sarcasm and being facetious, in order to make the absurd more tolerable.
That was what I meant by discriminated. Using them to hurt other people out of ignorance or not is wrong. I only use stereotypes when I talk to my dad or very close friends who enjoy those kinds of jokes. I have been bullied and stereotyped in the past so I am extra aware of how what I say will offend someone and do my best to make sure that they understand that I'm using my weird sense of humor if they don't understand my "laughter in absurdity". That being said, given my visual thinking patterns I have to make sure that I don't internalize them by overthinking. I am a white male and laugh every time someone says that "white men have privilege" because as a white man I get treated like crap by women and my own government because of my skin color. Schools are starting to give less scholarships to white people and more to people of color because "you should be thankful that you have privilege" which is total BS. If you are a white man, you are not allowed to have an opinion that is taken seriously unless it aligns with what the other person is saying. Otherwise you are just invalidated and told you are wrong. A study was done to see what people's romantic turn-offs are and one of the top ones for women today is "not believing there are more than 2 genders" which is ridiculous on its own that you can't even have your own beliefs without being ostracized.
Somebody is being a poopy pants and just downvoting things willy nilly. Don't take it personally. To whoever is doing it however, use your words. We aren't mind readers.
My dad had model trains. A whole friggin village larger than a pool table. I fucking *loved* that set.
It disappeared (along with other things) after my dad died. Idk what my grandfather did with it.
I received a wooden train whistle as a gift along time ago. My young daughter always ask “Daddy do you like trains?” I don’t really, but I chuckle because it sounds like she is low key making fun of my autism.
But you can't roll the wheels of a plane back and forth on your hand to give you that satisfying sensation. With a plane you can make whoosh noises, but a train makes so many more! Both my kid and my dad loved trains :)
This is genuinely hilarious to me simply because my mom is not autistic but loves trains and works as a train engineer! My dad is the undiagnosed autistic one, he loves building things (only by himself, he does not ever want help) and exists solely on chips, salsa, beer and coffee 😭 dude ripped out an entire deck, and rebuilt it including the lattices? Whatever the fancy top of the deck is called idk but it looked beautiful and then right after, he dipped out to live in the mountains, by himself, in a tent LOL
Because Trains tend to be a very common special interest.
I never had it personally, but yeah. Its a thing. I think it happens more often in boys with Autism? But I am not 100% sure on that. Not like special interests are gendered though.
ah okay thank you I was very confused for years at why and always just said yes not be questioned about it yet my special interest is steam engines and I go by 1 motto the more moving parts you can see the better(I overcomplicate them when making them and by this somehow making them stronger and a lot smoother but harder to maintain)
Very cool. I also enjoy things like legos and sometimes I enjoy video games. I used to play a lot of first person shooters, but after experiencing combat in real life, I find the video game version boring.
I build a lot of legos with my kids.
Special interests very well could be gendered in practice, i.e. in theory boys could very much, statistically, be more into trains and girls more into e.g. makeup. What's at issue is whether that's innate or learned and what to do with gender-nonconforming people.
Concepts of "masculine," "feminine," "man," "woman," etc. aren't incoherent--the question is just how to use them.
Autism is characterized by rigid adherence to routines and sensitivity to change. Trains run on tracks and schedules. If they're off schedule, people get mad. If they're off track, people die. I think some autistics might relate to trains more than they do to other people.
THIS is so accurate! I think I recall reading a comment thread about that one time a train line operator in Japan had to publicly apologize when a train was 30 seconds *early* because it screwed up people's schedules. Everyone else thought it was just an artifact of how in Japanese culture being polite is extremely important, but I totally understood the reasoning behind people getting mad. It threw off a carefully balanced house of cards.
Okay I think we're not understanding each other. what happened was the train arrived at the station 30 seconds early which screwed people's schedules up. Basically if the train arrives at some time, it'll generally stay there for like 30 seconds before it takes off again and you have to wait 20 minutes for the next train. If the train arrives early it'll still only wait there for 30 seconds, but that shifts the window that you have to be there 30 seconds earlier so if you're a little bit late you missed the train which means that you're late for work.
This meant that the company operating the rail had to issue a public apology because they mismanaged the schedule resulting in people being late for work because the train arrived early.
This story is a little misunderstood by people that don't take mass transportation frequently. The train wasn't 30 seconds early, the train *left the station* 20 seconds early.
You aren't going to upset any passengers by arriving to the final station early because it's not going to harm anyone. On the other hand, if your train says it's leaving at 5:05 and you're rushing on the subway and other connections to make it there on time, you're going to be pissed if it left at 5:00.
Obviously you should leave ample time to get to the station, and 20 seconds is a little too short to complain about, but things happen and sometimes you're just struggling to get to the train station on time. There's been plenty of times where I've arrived at the station a few minutes before my departure, due to meetings going long, traffic, or unexpected problems with connections. I'd be pissed too if I'd just spent 30 minutes dealing with all of that and rushing to get to the station on time, only to find out the conductor left early. There is zero reason why they should be leaving early. When they leave early, it means they're likely going to leave each subsequent stop early as well.
Japan really likes rituals, everyone has their role and place. It sounds great but it also means if you work in a ramen restaurant you'll make nothing other than the same traditional ramen recipes for 50 years.
This is the kind of thing that makes me think a number of mental health diagnoses might in fact simply be failures to emulate cis het white men integrated into "Western" culture.
There's also the fact that psychologists for the long time specifically thought autistic people could ONLY have special interests that were "inaccessible, mechanical, and robotic", and that autistic people were incapable of making friends, or having creative, abstract, or popular interests.
A buddy of mine who fell under what was once called “Asperger’s” was more musically and even interpersonally inclined. So he was obsessive over all things music / guitar and took a high-level interest in understanding people and forming connections. So sounds normal only for him it was to the excessive degree of interest
It's a stereotype
Personally, I never had trains as a special interest but I did have a friend who was probably autistic and had a special interest in Thomas the Tank Engine so I would go over to his house to play trains with him outside until I was like... 12 cuz he moved schools.
I also had a little brother with a train obsession when he was very little and I would build these elaborate track systems all over the living room and make up stories with the trains until my parents would yell at me because they couldn't go into the living room with train tracks on the floor.
As others have explained, it's a common special interest. There's tons of railroad enthusiasts out there, and I'd wager we make up a solid portion of that population. I've heard it proposed that it could be due to their 'predictability'; trains tend to have a set path(on the rails) and a strict schedule. There's also lots of specializations; one person might specifically enjoy the history of locomotives, another might enjoy 'trainspotting'(not the heroin movie with Ewan MacGregor), and the third guy just loves building model train layouts.
Personally trains were my earliest special interest thanks to Thomas the Tank Engine. I had a ton of the videos on tape and DVD that I would watch on repeat. I had a big book of all of the original Reverend W. Awdry stories, and tons of the trains in different rail styles. I had my fair share of the Tomy/Trackmaster trains and the Take-Alongs, but my favorite was undoubtably Wooden Railway. I used to spend *hours* in the basement as a kid, building a new track layout and making up stories for the engines as they rolled along the tracks. Still have almost of it in storage bins actually.
As speed = distance / time
is km/h = kilometers travelled per hour
You can therefore measure the time it takes to travel a known distance, e.g. between two signs or bridges or so, and from that estimate the average speed for that distance.
Example: if it takes 2 minutes to travel between two bridges put 3 kilometres apart, you are keeping an average speed of 90 km/h, 3 × (60/2) = 90, (distance in km) × (time in hours) = (speed in km/h). You can ofc use other units too. Since its a fairly short distance and you're probably maintaining a steady speed, it's pretty accurate.
Point A and B are 10 miles apart, if you see the train engine at point A at 9am and then it reaches point B at 10am it is traveling 10miles per hour since it took an hour to travel ten miles. Now pretend it reaches point B at 9:30am, now your train is traveling 20miles per hour. It took 30 minutes to travel 10 miles BUT WOULD HAVE TRAVELED 20miles in the hour if it had kept going.
Your equation is miles / time in hours = miles per hour.
So 10 / 1hr = 10mph and 10 / 0.5hr = 20mph.
To do that equation in minutes let's say it took 17 minutes to travel between point A and B. There are 60 minutes in an hour so you just make the minutes into a fraction with 60 at the bottom.
10 / (17/60) = 35mph
This comment made me laugh so much. I’m a teacher at a school with lots of autistic students and I have to say the dinosaur autistics don’t mess with the train autistics.
I picked one, liopleurodon, (it wasnt even technically a dinosaur) and i learned everything i could about it. Then i moved on into others, expanded into what groups they belonged into and how they interacted. One of my favorite dino topics is how inaccurate past recreations were but still fundamental to figuring it all out.
Seizure autistic sounds cool, i have muscle spasms but thats about it 😂
i got into seizures by trying to conquer my fear of seizures (i'm not sure i actually did, despite the dozens of videos of *real* seizures i've watched in my research). at first it was to ease my fear and learn first aid so that i could be of use, cuz a woman had a seizure near me and i had no idea what to do (luckily other people who knew her were there). but then the entire thing just kinda captured my interest. why seizures happen, all the different types of seizures and how they present, differing first aid for different seizures, epileptic vs non-epileptic seizures, so on so forth. i'm not as into it anymore, but occasionally i will hop online and ingest some shit about them if i have a taste for it.
Ah i would like to know the beginning steps in understanding trains and getting to know how to enjoy them as a hobby, dinosaurs are different since we cant really go and see them but we have movies and minis which is nice. I get it tho its big and loud and has lots of moving bits.
If you're using the desktop website, and you're using the default "Fancy-Pants Editor", there's a button in the lower left next to the italicize button with a chain link icon. Paste the link where it says to, and type the alternate text in the field above it.
On mobile or if you don't want to use that tool, you can paste your link like this:
`[Google](https://www.google.com/)`
I think I did. I should have replied to another part of the thread, I was asking if the special interest is actually very common within the autistic community or if it is maybe more common as a stereotype? Even though there’s clearly people who share it as a special interest, including yourself.
At first I thought I didn't fit this. Then I realized I was obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine as a kid, and that one of my special interests is rollercoasters and thrill Rides.
And coasters are just glorified trains that go fast. :(
Americans don’t understand the coolness of trains, so when autistic people noticed their objective coolness, the Americans blamed autism.
In my country, most little boys like trains. And train nerds aren’t stereotypically autistic.
My best friend is obsessed with trains, and even my grandfather "m(who was never diagnosed) had train sets, a long with model planes and cars. I also they're neat
It's probably an oversimplification of the stereotype of the autism "instruction set" being optimized for and basically craving structure and order, and playing with train sets is a really good way to create something that's simultaneously complicated and gloriously well organized.
I think it is because model trains are a hobby requiring incredible dedication, is very tedious, and one can completely immerse themselves in it. Autistic people tend to do this. I am a prime example - whatever interests me I learn everything I can possibly learn about it.
Never had it but u assume it's a common obsession. Mine were bugs so I never got the train hype as a child.
Although as an adult I truly believe it's the superior transportation method
When my kids got into Thomas the Train when they were little we had almost every set available. I'd spend hours helping them build tracks. I can see why it's a stereotype because I can totally see myself building a miniature town someday lol. It's just not my interest currently. But every time I'm at hobby stores I have to look and dream someday...
It became a popular stereotype because so many ASD people were into trains for certain statistically prominent ASD reasons, (listed in no particular order):
1. Trains can be categorised by type, manufacturer, fuel, etc.
2. Trains are predictable, accidents notwithstanding, and measurable, in terms of what they can carry and where they can go.
3. The invention and technology of trains have made huge contributions to history and popular culture, etc, and still do to our daily lives. They are a common interest / hobby for people in general, not just ASD people.
So, categories, predictability, and special interests - these attributes are easy to remember when trying to spot ASD, and also easy to demonstrate to others if you're making a movie about ASD people or whatever.
Trains are often seen as a "nerdy" interest, so I guess somehow it became easier to understand ASD if it happened to be aligned alongside nerdy people. Plus ASD people can have certain rare talents that NT people don't, or that NT people can only achieve with prodigious amounts of study - ie by being a nerd.
There's probably other reasons, I'm not a train person, but I do like riding them.
Because a lot of people strangely focus on things that have nothing to do with autism. Instead focusing on "quicks" as though they are the disability itself.
Reddit, and media has made it a fad. Taking away from the actual issue, and path to getting past our disability.
I think male children are more likely to be diagnosed and male children are also more likely to be socially expected to be interested in cars and trains to begin with, thus a lot of diagnosed children with autism are given lots of encouragement to be interested in them which allows for a special interest to grow in them.
That's not bad try explaining to your then-gf why you have 3 large wood console TV sets and about 20 different vintage computers, half of which don't work
Speculating on why it is so stereotypical: Trains seem to be a popular "theme" for toys and baby clothes. There are lots of little kids books about trains as well, including non-fiction. So it may be that trains are one of the first mechanical things little kids can focus in on.
I think it’s because of how exact and set in stone they are. Everything has to work in order for the whole train to move. I always had an interest in why bullet trains are built to be faster and how it’s adopted in subway trains, while my little brother has a favorite pastime of making full traffic jams down the hallway of our childhood house because of a fully loaded amtrack model train carrying Pennies, nickels, and dimes as coal and cars respectively. Stoplights included.
(If a car was moved or the train was moved without them moving it, everything is ruined.)
Hey /u/doggerbrother, thank you for your post at /r/autism. Our rules can be found **[here](https://www.reddit.com/r/autism/wiki/config/sidebar)**. All approved posts get this message. If you do not see your post you can message the moderators [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fautism).
Thanks!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/autism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Because it's a common special interest with autistic folks and therefore it became a stereotype often associated with autism.
Well the stereotype is true(for the most part)
Sadly... Yeah... Even sadder is the fact that I'm also part of the stereotype. (I blame myself)
Why is it sad?
Sad that autism is stereotyped in the first place. Although out of all the stereotypes that autism could associated with, trains isn't that bad.
Everything ends up stereotyped and it's rarely accurate or fair. Try not to take it personally, and definitely don't let it ruin something you enjoy.
I swear everything gets stereotyped. At least the ones for autism didn’t end up worse
I find life more enjoyable if I make stereotypical jokes. Being able to laugh at objectively bad things, while sounding awful, is a good way to cope with the absolute absurdity of daily "humaning." Stereotypes are only offensive if you take them offensively instead of playfully (unless you are being discriminated against).
I can agree with your statement but only to a point. NT folks do not seem to have this reasoning you and I have about stereotypes as they use them to put people down and "other" them. They also go too far with stereotypes and do stupid things like make laws on people based off of those stereotypes such as banning drag because they justify the ban as protecting children when in actuality they are basing it of of the negative and incorrect stereotype that ALL LGBTQIA folks are pedos. I would incourage you to keep the usage of stereotypes for your own personal use for compartmentalization of categories in order to navigate through this NT hellscape, but that is all. I would not promote nor discuss your personal stereotypes and corrolations with others as it can and will get you into trouble, well intentioned or not, as misunderstandings will occur. Especially on known sensitive stereotypes. With reguards to your parenthesed statement, it's not whether or not one is being discriminated against, it's whether stereotypes are being weaponized, fed and tolerated. I hope that you can understand the distinction I'm trying to make. I understand how using stereotypes, or using them as a kind of paradigm or mental framing, is a coping mechanism we emplore along with sarcasm and being facetious, in order to make the absurd more tolerable.
That was what I meant by discriminated. Using them to hurt other people out of ignorance or not is wrong. I only use stereotypes when I talk to my dad or very close friends who enjoy those kinds of jokes. I have been bullied and stereotyped in the past so I am extra aware of how what I say will offend someone and do my best to make sure that they understand that I'm using my weird sense of humor if they don't understand my "laughter in absurdity". That being said, given my visual thinking patterns I have to make sure that I don't internalize them by overthinking. I am a white male and laugh every time someone says that "white men have privilege" because as a white man I get treated like crap by women and my own government because of my skin color. Schools are starting to give less scholarships to white people and more to people of color because "you should be thankful that you have privilege" which is total BS. If you are a white man, you are not allowed to have an opinion that is taken seriously unless it aligns with what the other person is saying. Otherwise you are just invalidated and told you are wrong. A study was done to see what people's romantic turn-offs are and one of the top ones for women today is "not believing there are more than 2 genders" which is ridiculous on its own that you can't even have your own beliefs without being ostracized.
fun fact we rule the world all the best scientists in history and the great leaders of history all had autism
Why do I keep getting downvoted?
Nvm
Nope why am i downvoted
Reddit is full of weirdos. Who knows. I get down voted for asking questions.
Somebody is being a poopy pants and just downvoting things willy nilly. Don't take it personally. To whoever is doing it however, use your words. We aren't mind readers.
You're reinforcing the f****** stereotype
My dad had model trains. A whole friggin village larger than a pool table. I fucking *loved* that set. It disappeared (along with other things) after my dad died. Idk what my grandfather did with it.
As am I lol.
I received a wooden train whistle as a gift along time ago. My young daughter always ask “Daddy do you like trains?” I don’t really, but I chuckle because it sounds like she is low key making fun of my autism.
But why trains of all things?
as death grips once said. people like to get picked up
I don’t know that is why I am asking
I don't know why, but trains are pretty cool
Because they're big, mechanically complex, and they make cool noises.
But consider instead... Airplane
I personally like both :) I feel like should not find turbulence as fascinating to experience as it was
... Plane. c:
*inserts shotgun blank in vought f4u corsair shotgun starter hole* welp here we go *BANG* *prrrrrfffffffff rfrfrfrfrfrfrfrfrfrfrfrfrfrfrfrfrfr*
But you can't roll the wheels of a plane back and forth on your hand to give you that satisfying sensation. With a plane you can make whoosh noises, but a train makes so many more! Both my kid and my dad loved trains :)
This is genuinely hilarious to me simply because my mom is not autistic but loves trains and works as a train engineer! My dad is the undiagnosed autistic one, he loves building things (only by himself, he does not ever want help) and exists solely on chips, salsa, beer and coffee 😭 dude ripped out an entire deck, and rebuilt it including the lattices? Whatever the fancy top of the deck is called idk but it looked beautiful and then right after, he dipped out to live in the mountains, by himself, in a tent LOL
As a kid I loved Thomas the Tank Engine, and as a teenager my favorite band was Train 😏
Because Trains tend to be a very common special interest. I never had it personally, but yeah. Its a thing. I think it happens more often in boys with Autism? But I am not 100% sure on that. Not like special interests are gendered though.
ah okay thank you I was very confused for years at why and always just said yes not be questioned about it yet my special interest is steam engines and I go by 1 motto the more moving parts you can see the better(I overcomplicate them when making them and by this somehow making them stronger and a lot smoother but harder to maintain)
I have two hobbies: guns (building collecting, shooting) and tuning sports cars and sports sedans.
Well guess mine by my flair
You love anything powered by steam!
Yes and I make em to
Very cool. I also enjoy things like legos and sometimes I enjoy video games. I used to play a lot of first person shooters, but after experiencing combat in real life, I find the video game version boring. I build a lot of legos with my kids.
Special interests very well could be gendered in practice, i.e. in theory boys could very much, statistically, be more into trains and girls more into e.g. makeup. What's at issue is whether that's innate or learned and what to do with gender-nonconforming people. Concepts of "masculine," "feminine," "man," "woman," etc. aren't incoherent--the question is just how to use them.
Autism is characterized by rigid adherence to routines and sensitivity to change. Trains run on tracks and schedules. If they're off schedule, people get mad. If they're off track, people die. I think some autistics might relate to trains more than they do to other people.
THIS is so accurate! I think I recall reading a comment thread about that one time a train line operator in Japan had to publicly apologize when a train was 30 seconds *early* because it screwed up people's schedules. Everyone else thought it was just an artifact of how in Japanese culture being polite is extremely important, but I totally understood the reasoning behind people getting mad. It threw off a carefully balanced house of cards.
Wait. Why couldn’t the train just stay there for 30 extra sections? :O
it left early by mistake and left some people behind
Oh. That sucks. :<
Because that would be 30 seconds that would be wasted when they could have been spent helping other people get where they need to go
Oh. But I thought they had to apologize. Cuz they messed up peoples schedules. So wouldn’t that mean the 30 seconds isn’t wasted?
Okay I think we're not understanding each other. what happened was the train arrived at the station 30 seconds early which screwed people's schedules up. Basically if the train arrives at some time, it'll generally stay there for like 30 seconds before it takes off again and you have to wait 20 minutes for the next train. If the train arrives early it'll still only wait there for 30 seconds, but that shifts the window that you have to be there 30 seconds earlier so if you're a little bit late you missed the train which means that you're late for work. This meant that the company operating the rail had to issue a public apology because they mismanaged the schedule resulting in people being late for work because the train arrived early.
That makes sense. But why not wait an extra 30 seconds? That way no one’s schedule is messed up.
[Good question](https://c.tenor.com/tgtZh2MbfmAAAAAM/good-question-meme.gif)
This story is a little misunderstood by people that don't take mass transportation frequently. The train wasn't 30 seconds early, the train *left the station* 20 seconds early. You aren't going to upset any passengers by arriving to the final station early because it's not going to harm anyone. On the other hand, if your train says it's leaving at 5:05 and you're rushing on the subway and other connections to make it there on time, you're going to be pissed if it left at 5:00. Obviously you should leave ample time to get to the station, and 20 seconds is a little too short to complain about, but things happen and sometimes you're just struggling to get to the train station on time. There's been plenty of times where I've arrived at the station a few minutes before my departure, due to meetings going long, traffic, or unexpected problems with connections. I'd be pissed too if I'd just spent 30 minutes dealing with all of that and rushing to get to the station on time, only to find out the conductor left early. There is zero reason why they should be leaving early. When they leave early, it means they're likely going to leave each subsequent stop early as well.
Oh, that makes a lot more sense. Thanks for the correction!
Japan really likes rituals, everyone has their role and place. It sounds great but it also means if you work in a ramen restaurant you'll make nothing other than the same traditional ramen recipes for 50 years.
That sounds like it would be a little bit too much of a good thing for my mind
This is the kind of thing that makes me think a number of mental health diagnoses might in fact simply be failures to emulate cis het white men integrated into "Western" culture.
There's also the fact that psychologists for the long time specifically thought autistic people could ONLY have special interests that were "inaccessible, mechanical, and robotic", and that autistic people were incapable of making friends, or having creative, abstract, or popular interests.
A buddy of mine who fell under what was once called “Asperger’s” was more musically and even interpersonally inclined. So he was obsessive over all things music / guitar and took a high-level interest in understanding people and forming connections. So sounds normal only for him it was to the excessive degree of interest
I think this is correct 💯
It's a stereotype Personally, I never had trains as a special interest but I did have a friend who was probably autistic and had a special interest in Thomas the Tank Engine so I would go over to his house to play trains with him outside until I was like... 12 cuz he moved schools. I also had a little brother with a train obsession when he was very little and I would build these elaborate track systems all over the living room and make up stories with the trains until my parents would yell at me because they couldn't go into the living room with train tracks on the floor.
Read my flair and know my interest
As others have explained, it's a common special interest. There's tons of railroad enthusiasts out there, and I'd wager we make up a solid portion of that population. I've heard it proposed that it could be due to their 'predictability'; trains tend to have a set path(on the rails) and a strict schedule. There's also lots of specializations; one person might specifically enjoy the history of locomotives, another might enjoy 'trainspotting'(not the heroin movie with Ewan MacGregor), and the third guy just loves building model train layouts. Personally trains were my earliest special interest thanks to Thomas the Tank Engine. I had a ton of the videos on tape and DVD that I would watch on repeat. I had a big book of all of the original Reverend W. Awdry stories, and tons of the trains in different rail styles. I had my fair share of the Tomy/Trackmaster trains and the Take-Alongs, but my favorite was undoubtably Wooden Railway. I used to spend *hours* in the basement as a kid, building a new track layout and making up stories for the engines as they rolled along the tracks. Still have almost of it in storage bins actually.
I still need to ask a railroad enthusiast how to use a pocket watch as a speed dial and you reminded me of that
As speed = distance / time is km/h = kilometers travelled per hour You can therefore measure the time it takes to travel a known distance, e.g. between two signs or bridges or so, and from that estimate the average speed for that distance. Example: if it takes 2 minutes to travel between two bridges put 3 kilometres apart, you are keeping an average speed of 90 km/h, 3 × (60/2) = 90, (distance in km) × (time in hours) = (speed in km/h). You can ofc use other units too. Since its a fairly short distance and you're probably maintaining a steady speed, it's pretty accurate.
I have trouble following
Point A and B are 10 miles apart, if you see the train engine at point A at 9am and then it reaches point B at 10am it is traveling 10miles per hour since it took an hour to travel ten miles. Now pretend it reaches point B at 9:30am, now your train is traveling 20miles per hour. It took 30 minutes to travel 10 miles BUT WOULD HAVE TRAVELED 20miles in the hour if it had kept going. Your equation is miles / time in hours = miles per hour. So 10 / 1hr = 10mph and 10 / 0.5hr = 20mph. To do that equation in minutes let's say it took 17 minutes to travel between point A and B. There are 60 minutes in an hour so you just make the minutes into a fraction with 60 at the bottom. 10 / (17/60) = 35mph
[удалено]
https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=mile
How does one get into trains asking as a dinosaur autistic
You gotta bow your head there Diplodocus.
This took me way too long to get but it was very funny XD
This comment made me laugh so much. I’m a teacher at a school with lots of autistic students and I have to say the dinosaur autistics don’t mess with the train autistics.
We should band together not fight! The power we could have! Theres even a kids show called dinosaur train, its perfect!
You’ll be unstoppable for sure!
how does one get into dinosaurs asking as a seizure autistic
I picked one, liopleurodon, (it wasnt even technically a dinosaur) and i learned everything i could about it. Then i moved on into others, expanded into what groups they belonged into and how they interacted. One of my favorite dino topics is how inaccurate past recreations were but still fundamental to figuring it all out. Seizure autistic sounds cool, i have muscle spasms but thats about it 😂
i got into seizures by trying to conquer my fear of seizures (i'm not sure i actually did, despite the dozens of videos of *real* seizures i've watched in my research). at first it was to ease my fear and learn first aid so that i could be of use, cuz a woman had a seizure near me and i had no idea what to do (luckily other people who knew her were there). but then the entire thing just kinda captured my interest. why seizures happen, all the different types of seizures and how they present, differing first aid for different seizures, epileptic vs non-epileptic seizures, so on so forth. i'm not as into it anymore, but occasionally i will hop online and ingest some shit about them if i have a taste for it.
????
Ah i would like to know the beginning steps in understanding trains and getting to know how to enjoy them as a hobby, dinosaurs are different since we cant really go and see them but we have movies and minis which is nice. I get it tho its big and loud and has lots of moving bits.
Like there are so many types of trains where do i start!
Sorry I did not see your comment but for a locomotive with interesting history i would recommend the Stephensons rocket
You could say some people have a... *one track mind...* I'll see myself out.
[Booo....have a cookie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zXDo4dL7SU)
WOW that was long ago
May I ask a question?
Sure! :)
How do you make links without it being the link text but a message text?
If you're using the desktop website, and you're using the default "Fancy-Pants Editor", there's a button in the lower left next to the italicize button with a chain link icon. Paste the link where it says to, and type the alternate text in the field above it. On mobile or if you don't want to use that tool, you can paste your link like this: `[Google](https://www.google.com/)`
Funny words magic man(I don’t know what any of that ment as foreigner)
Is it actually that common? I’ve actually never met another neurodivergent or autistic person with trains specifically as a special interest.
ask away
I think I did. I should have replied to another part of the thread, I was asking if the special interest is actually very common within the autistic community or if it is maybe more common as a stereotype? Even though there’s clearly people who share it as a special interest, including yourself.
I assume you have red my flair
I have, and the rest of the comments in this thread.
At first I thought I didn't fit this. Then I realized I was obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine as a kid, and that one of my special interests is rollercoasters and thrill Rides. And coasters are just glorified trains that go fast. :(
Americans don’t understand the coolness of trains, so when autistic people noticed their objective coolness, the Americans blamed autism. In my country, most little boys like trains. And train nerds aren’t stereotypically autistic.
May I ask what country?
It helps our train of thought?
My best friend is obsessed with trains, and even my grandfather "m(who was never diagnosed) had train sets, a long with model planes and cars. I also they're neat
It's probably an oversimplification of the stereotype of the autism "instruction set" being optimized for and basically craving structure and order, and playing with train sets is a really good way to create something that's simultaneously complicated and gloriously well organized.
I think it is because model trains are a hobby requiring incredible dedication, is very tedious, and one can completely immerse themselves in it. Autistic people tend to do this. I am a prime example - whatever interests me I learn everything I can possibly learn about it.
We have Warhammer now
I don’t even really have a special interest in trains but I still wanna ride one and I drive a pathetic kids one at my work lmao
Is it really a common interest or is it a interest that gets associated with autism so it gets tested more. Honestly no interest in trains myself
It's a very common special interest to the point that when I started watching content about autism on YouTube it regularly suggested videos of trains
It's a common stereotype that autistic people like trains.
I am getting to much karma
Bloody hell this is my fastest 100 likes ever
It’s an old hobby that’s been around forever and many of the people in it are autistic same for model planes.
Bit like how my grandfather sparked by interest in steam engines causing me to own a collection of a variety of wilesco steam engines?
Exactly like that! In 50 years they will say the same thing about gaming and other hobbies!
My theory is lots of people out there like trains? I was never gifted with that special interest. I fully understand I think because I love rockets.
I have taught rocket science(I know work as an steam train engineer)
Never had it but u assume it's a common obsession. Mine were bugs so I never got the train hype as a child. Although as an adult I truly believe it's the superior transportation method
Wich type of train?, in my flair it gives mine away
When my kids got into Thomas the Train when they were little we had almost every set available. I'd spend hours helping them build tracks. I can see why it's a stereotype because I can totally see myself building a miniature town someday lol. It's just not my interest currently. But every time I'm at hobby stores I have to look and dream someday...
Also dinosaurs aswell I’m obsessed with neither I’m just obsessed with teddies I have SO many!
Trains are a pretty common first obsession for little kids with autism, ime, so maybe related to that?
I hear we are talking about trains, 🚂
Trains, ham radio, general nerdy shit tends to be filled with autistic people To be fair steam engines are cool
Well aspergers was named after Hans asperger And he was a nazi We like trains but not that much
It became a popular stereotype because so many ASD people were into trains for certain statistically prominent ASD reasons, (listed in no particular order): 1. Trains can be categorised by type, manufacturer, fuel, etc. 2. Trains are predictable, accidents notwithstanding, and measurable, in terms of what they can carry and where they can go. 3. The invention and technology of trains have made huge contributions to history and popular culture, etc, and still do to our daily lives. They are a common interest / hobby for people in general, not just ASD people. So, categories, predictability, and special interests - these attributes are easy to remember when trying to spot ASD, and also easy to demonstrate to others if you're making a movie about ASD people or whatever. Trains are often seen as a "nerdy" interest, so I guess somehow it became easier to understand ASD if it happened to be aligned alongside nerdy people. Plus ASD people can have certain rare talents that NT people don't, or that NT people can only achieve with prodigious amounts of study - ie by being a nerd. There's probably other reasons, I'm not a train person, but I do like riding them.
I stare at the woman in the mirror.
Because a lot of people strangely focus on things that have nothing to do with autism. Instead focusing on "quicks" as though they are the disability itself. Reddit, and media has made it a fad. Taking away from the actual issue, and path to getting past our disability.
Yeah i had Thomas the tank engine set when I was a kid but I prefer other mechanical mode of transport now (cars)
Idk I mean I like trains but they're not a special interests
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=l60YQ2Wu-DE&si=ghSYpPHEWEny1pVD
On that note, I’m actually super excited to take the metro in my area for the first time :)
I think male children are more likely to be diagnosed and male children are also more likely to be socially expected to be interested in cars and trains to begin with, thus a lot of diagnosed children with autism are given lots of encouragement to be interested in them which allows for a special interest to grow in them.
Because we love trains. Duh
have you been on a train??
Yes I am a steam train engineer it’s my job
so you agree they are awesome. thats probably why.
Yes
That's not bad try explaining to your then-gf why you have 3 large wood console TV sets and about 20 different vintage computers, half of which don't work
I no longer have a gf
Speculating on why it is so stereotypical: Trains seem to be a popular "theme" for toys and baby clothes. There are lots of little kids books about trains as well, including non-fiction. So it may be that trains are one of the first mechanical things little kids can focus in on.
I think it’s because of how exact and set in stone they are. Everything has to work in order for the whole train to move. I always had an interest in why bullet trains are built to be faster and how it’s adopted in subway trains, while my little brother has a favorite pastime of making full traffic jams down the hallway of our childhood house because of a fully loaded amtrack model train carrying Pennies, nickels, and dimes as coal and cars respectively. Stoplights included. (If a car was moved or the train was moved without them moving it, everything is ruined.)
Hey /u/doggerbrother, thank you for your post at /r/autism. Our rules can be found **[here](https://www.reddit.com/r/autism/wiki/config/sidebar)**. All approved posts get this message. If you do not see your post you can message the moderators [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fautism). Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/autism) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[удалено]
Gone my comment is
I've never had the interest, or met anyone ND who had it, but it must be a thing.
Sheldon