Railfans who call themselves "trainspotters" make an effort to spot every piece of rolling stock known to exist for a particular railroad company. To this end, they collect and exchange detailed information about the movements of locomotives and other equipment on the railway network, and become very knowledgeable about its operations.

The equipment of a trainspotter consists, generally, of a data book listing all the locomotives or other equipment in question, in which locomotives seen are ticked off; a notebook and pens, to note down sightings to transfer into the book at leisure; and an infinite supply of patience. More advanced trainspotters sometimes use a tape recorder instead of the notebook. Modern times have seen the addition of the cellphone and/or pager as an essential tool of communication with others in the hobby, while various Internet mailing lists and web sites allow for the exchange of information as well. There are also websites which allow spotters to record and cross reference their sightings with other spotters. One example is LocoScene and another is RailSpot.

Train spotters at Norwich stationA development from trainspotting is the haulage enthusiast or basher. These individuals are not content merely watching trains; instead, the aim is to ride on them. Some attempt to ride behind or in the cab of as many locomotives as they can, marking them off in a book just like a regular trainspotter. Still others are only interested in certain types and classes of locomotive. Others attempt to cover as much of the railway network as they can, these people are usually referred to as gricers or track bashers. More variations for reference to trainspotters are Stoats, who spend most of their time on one station only, (also known as Veg), Cranks who are particularly attracted to one type of train and make sure they see all of its workings and Neds who rely on 'Gen' (which is information about railway workings) to go out, and go out for every special move and tend to ignore the regular happenings on the lines.