Trainspotting Guidebook Author Admits He Made Up Half the Locomotive Numbers

The trainspotting community was rocked this week by the admission of prolific guidebook author Nigel Roster that approximately half the locomotive numbers listed in his best-selling 'Complete Spotter's Reference to North American Motive Power' are entirely fabricated. 'I started with real numbers,' Roster said in a statement released through his publisher. 'But there are only so many locomotives, and the book needed to be comprehensive. So I filled in the gaps. I'd write something like UP 8847 or CSX 3312 and think, surely there must be one with that number somewhere.' The book, first published in 2018 and now in its fourth edition, is carried by an estimated 40,000 trainspotters across North America. Roster estimates that 312 of the 670 locomotive entries are fictional, including seven entirely invented locomotive classes. 'He created a fictitious variant of the SD40-2 called the SD40-2R,' said outraged spotter Cassandra Flagstop. 'I have spent three years looking for an SD40-2R. They don't exist. Nobody makes them. He just added a letter.' The fabrications were discovered when a data analyst in the trainspotting community cross-referenced Roster's listings with official railroad rostering databases and found that 46 percent of entries corresponded to no known locomotive. 'Some of his fake numbers were very convincing,' the analyst noted. 'Others were obviously wrong. He listed a locomotive numbered 000001. No railroad has ever rostered a unit as 000001. That's not how numbering works.' Roster has defended his approach, arguing that the fabricated entries 'keep spotters motivated' by ensuring there is always something left to find. 'If every number were real, people would complete their lists and stop,' he said. 'The imaginary locomotives sustain the hobby. I'm not a fraud. I'm a conservationist.' His publisher has issued a recall and is preparing a corrected fifth edition titled 'Mostly Complete Spotter's Reference.'