Re: the meaning of gunzel

["Kerry" <kerry@capebyron.com>]

I was a student at Jannali Boys High [Sydney] in the mid to late 60's.
Myself and friends used to call ourselves train fans. Gunzels were kids who
didn't fit well into the social scene. They generally had out of date "short
back and sides" haircuts. They had the look that they were dressed by their
mothers. They were often physically different, over or under weight, oily
skin, pimples or wore thick glasses. They also didn't seem to care that the
public knew that they had a love affair with railways. They would also sit
on railway stations with notebook and pencil taking loco numbers. They were,
in a way, social out casts, eccentrics.

Back in the mid 60's you generally didn't make it public that you were
interested in trains. If  you did, you'd get some weird looks. You certainly
didn't mention it to females of the same age you were romantically
interested in. In those days trains were considered dirty, smokey, noisy
things. They were old, worn out and slow. You certainly didn't use them when
you could drive or get a lift in a motor car. You went everywhere in your
Morris Minor, VW, Ford Zephyr or  Holden. It was still considered OK to use
trains to go to work, but that's all..

With the help of a teacher who was a railfan from the UK, we started the
Jannali Boys High, School Boys Railway Club. We only had a few meetings
before it was abandoned. Kids with no interest in trains would turn up to
the meetings, just to heckle. They called us trainiacs.  The whole school
thought we were a joke.  The social pressure forced us into hiding. But the
gunzels didn't care, they continued their public life of loco spotting
unperturbed.

As steam disappeared, the rail system modernized, and the public became
nostalgic over steam trains it has become acceptable to admit to being
interested in railways. If you went to Europe in the mid sixties, you went
there to take pictures of churches and castles. If you were to open a photo
album full of pictures of steam trains and railway equipment on your return,
your (non rail fan) friends would probably tie you up and send you off to
the mad house.

Kerry Whitfield
kerry@capebyron.com



"David McLoughlin" <davemcl*PISSOFFSPAMMERS*@iprolink.co.nzzzzz> wrote in
message 3AD91AAC.528C@iprolink.co.nzzzzz">news:3AD91AAC.528C@iprolink.co.nzzzzz...
> Some anonymous poster wrote:
>
> >I heard on ABC news radio today that the meaning of Gunzel derives from
> > the fact that in the olden days of rail fanning the old guys who used
> > chase the steam trains called the new railfans that were only interested
> > in the diesels "gunzels". In hebrew the word gunzel means goose, there
> > fore the new, inexperianced railfans were gooses or silly for hat they
> > did?  What do you think?
>
> According to the MTUT FAQ:
>
> GUNZEL - a transit, especially train fanatic. GUNZEL. According to Bob
> Merchant, editor of the Australian enthusiasts' journal "Trolley Wire,"
> the term was first used by Sydney Tramway Museum members in the early
> 1960s to describe certain  enthusiasts in the state of Victoria
> (Australia) who took their hobby a bit too seriously. The term comes
> from the film "The Maltese Falcon" in which Elisha Cook Jnr, played
> Wilmer, Sydney Greenstreet's twisted gun-slinger (gunsel in American
> gangster slang). The film has been described as one in which there
> wasn't one decent person in the whole film.  The gunsel in the film was
> what we would describe today as a "Gunzel", a bit thick to say the
> least.  Before Puffing Billy (a heritage steam train in the ranges
> outside Melbourne) issued their "Gunzel Pass" a few years back, their
> president, Phil Avard, checked with the STM as to the meaning of the
> word and its origin.  Phil, being a bit of a film buff, understood
> immediately and the pass was issued.  Originally, one did not call a
> person a Gunzel to their face as it was a bit derogatory. The term
> Gunzel in the Australian sense was first used by Dick Jones, Don
> Campbell and Bill Parkinson, all of whom are still members of the STM.
> The term has since been picked up by New Zealand, UK and some US
> railfans. See also ANORAK.