Train Enthusiast Francis Bourgeois’ Excitement For Malaysian Locomotives Is Infectious
Francis Bourgeois was giddy with excitement to see the Class 22 and 29 trains during his trip to Malaysia.
- Francis Bourgeois visited Malaysia for BBC Travel Show, riding the iconic Jungle Railway and marvelling at century-old bridges and abandoned locomotives.
- He was genuinely shocked by the intensity of railway enthusiasm in Malaysia, connecting with local train enthusiasts and a station master with big dreams.
- The highlight of his trip was seeing a Class 29 freight train, which gave him actual goosebumps, proving his love for trains is wonderfully real.
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There’s something infectious about watching someone light up over a hobby they truly love. Many viewers felt the same when popular train enthusiast Francis Bourgeois (real name Luke Magnus Nicolson) beamed brightly during his trainspotting trip to Malaysia.
Filming for BBC Travel Show, Bourgeois started his journey by the Northeastern border of Thailand, where he jumped on the iconic Jungle Railway. It was his first time in Asia and he was truly buzzing with anticipation and excitement for his trip.
He loved seeing the Jungle Train pass through the 100-year-old Guillemard Bridge, a black single track railway truss bridge, in Kelantan. His love for trains was shown when he spotted an old, abandoned Class 22 train. Bourgeois said the Class 22 train brings him back to his childhood and he noted that it was built by English Electric. He giddily explored the train interiors and could mimic the exact engine noise of the train.
During his trip, he met up with local train enthusiasts, including Kai, and Faisal, the president of Malaysia’s first official railway fan club. He got to ride the Jungle Train with Faisal across the Guillemard Bridge at night and enjoyed the rural landscape scenery.
While trainspotting with Kai and other enthusiasts, they were invited to view a private collection of railway photos from the past lovingly curated by the station master at Rawang station. The station master said it’s his dream to create a mini museum for trains in Malaysia and to share stories of them. Both Bourgeois and the station master shared that they loved the sound of the Class 22 train.
Bourgeois admitted he was shocked at the intensity for railway enthusiasm in Malaysia and it was so nice to see that it’s not only limited in the UK.
The highlight of the trip for Bourgeois was seeing the Class 29 freight train carrying a sugar load drive past the station. He shared he had goosebumps on his arms when the train passed by.
He then travelled to the Bukit Bintang area where he saw the monorail for the first time and described the sight as “infrastructuregasm.”
It was so much to take in. I could just sit there in a camping chair and have a drink and I’d just be happy.
Francis Bourgeois after seeing the monorail and walking around Bukit Bintang.
He also made his way to Penang, where he admired the lantern lights at the Kek Lok Si Temple before his trip ends.
How did Francis Bourgeois start trainspotting?
Bourgeois’s love for trains started when he was three years old. He was obsessed with wooden toy train sets and Hot Wheels toys. His grandmother gifted him his first model railway set at age four. His passion for trains never waned, although he did have to tone it down when he was bullied by his peers in school.
He went on to study mechanical engineering in university. His trainspotting hobby was rekindled during the Covid-19 restrictions and he frequented the Pot Lane overbridge in Berkley on the edge of Frome.
In 2020, he and his brother started shooting videos and posting them on TikTok. He adopted a pseudonym to keep his two personas separate and it keeps him feeling “a bit more protected” when making videos. His initial videos were mostly fake interviews and comedic doctored videos of himself conversing with celebrities over Instagram Live.
He went viral for his reaction to seeing a GB Class 73/9 locomotive, also known as the Dick Mabbutt. The video accumulated 12 million views. His second viral video was when he reacted to seeing the arrival of a British Rail Class 377 train travelling from Littlehampton to Southampton Central. In this video, he waved at the train driver and fell out of his chair, and it garnered over 6 million views. The rest as they say, was history.
He has since been invited on live TV shows and has written his autobiographical novel, The Trainspotter’s Notebook, published in 2022.
@francis.bourgeois Here is a Southern class 377 running Littlehampton to Southampton Central #trains #trending #fyp ♬ original sound – Francis Bourgeois
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