Question: Why is the film called Trainspotting? Is it meant to be a drug reference or something?
michael g
16th Feb 2004
Trainspotting (1996)
Answer: Train is sometimes used as another word for heroin.
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Answer: Trainspotting is a hobby where participants try to spot and document as many different types of trains as they can, and as a group, reconstruct the routes and schedules of shipping and rail companies. It's a bit like bird-watching, but with trains. Irvine Welsh, who wrote the novel, has compared this hobby to heroin addiction, in that both seem pointless, confusing, and unpleasant to outsiders, but make perfect sense to enthusiasts.
They are called track marks, and heroin is called train. Train spotting, the needle marks that make tracks in your skin.