Autism And Model Railways.

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I found this while looking for something else...

http://autismworksltd.blogspot.com/2015 ... ivity.html

Interesting.

Even though I'm not in UK, I do know who that is and that publication, even have a couple issues of it when it was carried in a bookstore in nearby city;

I got as far as laying my own HO track, but then got into custom car models, and then slot cars. As an adult, I discovered a group of like-minded people working to improve bicycles and making impressive progress. I used to look at the big rack of various model maker's magazines, and anticipate a big section devoted to specialty parts and builder's news. With so much going on in the world, I am mystified by all the energy going into ignoring the future.

Trains and ASD. In the U.S. scale model trains is a low key hobby for a few on the AS, not so much for some in Japan. There is a ostracized group in Japan known as Otaku that emerged in the 1980s, among their personal interests is trains, riding trains, photographing trains, collecting railroad memorabilia, and of course collecting scale model trains, but of course there is a problem with Otaku and trains and that is the social stigma that is attached to the word Otaku. Otaku are considered to be socially inept, obsessed with their hobbies, disinterested in sexual relations, etc. It has come to the attention of a few psychologists (outside the U.S.) that Otaku have similar characteristics as found in ASD, imagine an entire subculture based on ASD, in the U.S. ASD is individualistic and not a socio-cultural based community.

Of course, there is no disagreement on your post-90s definition of Otaku stripped of its negative connotations by Japan Inc for the sake of world wide consumption of Japanese media. I am talking old school definition of Otaku when it was a term of derision in Japanese society based on characteristics similar, if not identical to ASD of a culturally visible group of people with interests that included (in the 1980s) anime, science fiction, audio equipment, and of course trains. What you call "fandom" was originally termed by the Japanese as "nekura-zoku" ("the gloomy tribe") before the name "Otaku" was coined in the magazine Manga Burriko in 1983 to discribed ASD type behavior and characteristics that Japanese NT found "repulsive." Today (21st century) in countries outside Japan the original term "Otaku" has lost its sting and is merely a term for consumers of Japanese media, though many Japanese find it astonishing that Americans would refer to themselves as "Otaku."

MIT once had a huge model railway, built by generations of enthusiasts. Then they learned how to automate the operations using the earliest computers, and became computer nerds. They were a lot more fun when usage required programming.

What is the connection between ASD and trains? And for that matter, what is the connection between ASD and Otaku?

I do not know about Atauko as I am not from Japan, but from what I have read, model railways (Model railroads) is the most popular special interest of those who are on the spectrum, and I was also told that here in the UK being a bicycle mechanic is said to be one of the most popular jobs outside of computers for those with autism. Both of these I have or am involved in *Shrugs sholders* as I have not been assessed yet.