In Trainspotting, trains represent hope, possibility, and new beginnings. Although trains feature prominently in Trainspotting, offering an escape from the insular and often limiting environment of Leith, they are even more notable by their absence. The book’s title comes from a quote by a drunken old man at an abandoned train station. He approaches Rent Boy and Begbie to ask if they’re trainspotting (watching trains as a hobby), which is a joke because the station is abandoned and no trains run there anymore. A new supermarket will soon replace the abandoned station. Since a train station stands for travel and expanding horizons, the arrival of the supermarket suggests that Leith has prioritized suburban convenience and respectability—the very thing Rent Boy dislikes most. The trains that do remain in the story, like the one that carries Rent Boy to London to get clean or the one that carries Stella to meet Stevie after they confess their love, signify hope and progress, making the absence of trains in the abandoned Leith station a bleak image. As it turns out, the drunken old man in the abandoned station isn’t a stranger but Begbie’s father. Without any trains to get out, he remains trapped to wander the station, just as so many characters in the story remain metaphorically trapped by heroin, alcohol, and other addictions.
Trains Quotes in Trainspotting
The train was nearly twenty minutes late, an excellent performance by British Rail standards. Stevie wondered whether she’d be on it. Paranoia hit him. Waves of fear shuddered through his body. The stakes were high, the highest ever. He couldn’t see her, couldn’t even picture her in his mind’s eye. Then she was almost upon him, different to how he thought of her, more real, even more beautiful. It was the smile, the look of emotion reciprocated. He ran the short distance to her and held her in his arms. They kissed for a long time. When they stopped, the platform was deserted and the train was well on its way to Dundee.
—Ah well, ah’ll leave yis tae it. Keep up the trainspottin mind! He staggered oaf, his rasping, drunkard’s cackles filling the desolate barn. Ah noticed that Begbie seemed strangely subdued and uncomfortable. He wis turned away fae us.
It wis only then ah realised thit the auld wino wis Begbie’s faither.
Ironically, it was Begbie who was the key. Ripping off your mates was the highest offence in his book, and he would demand the severest penalty. Renton had used Begbie, used him to burn his boats completely and utterly. It was Begbie who ensured he could never return.
Trains Symbol Timeline in Trainspotting
