a person who collects the numbers of railway locomotives
2. informal
a person who is obsessed with trivial details, esp of a subject generally considered uninteresting
Examples of 'train spotter' in a sentence
train spotter
Macaroons have brought out my inner train spotter.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
Suitable for the hardened train spotter and amateur passenger alike, it is a glorious celebration of the pioneering history — and romance — of the railways.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
Obsessional train-spotters if you believe this guff.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
I did crosswords, slept and watched train spotters.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
The jazz world is awash with stamp collectors and train-spotters, those well-intentioned folk who know the catalogue number of every bebop record made since 1946.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
For people like me, that is to say biographers, historians and other royal train-spotters, this is a delicious prospect.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
We are train spotters with malice.
Times, Sunday Times (2008)
I know mathematicians will tell you numbers are beautiful and the key to life, the universe and everything, but train spotters say much the same.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
Take these people out of the woods, put them at the end of a train platform, and you've got train spotters.