What is "trainspotting"

n. (alternative spelling of train spotting English)

Trainspotting may refer to:

• Trainspotting (hobby), an amateur interest in railways/railroads
• Trainspotting (novel), a 1993 novel by Irvine Welsh
  • Trainspotting (film), a 1996 film based on the novel
    • Trainspotting (soundtrack), two soundtrack albums from the film
• "Trainspotting", a song by Primal Scream from their 1997 album Vanishing Point

Trainspotting is a 1996 British black comedy crime drama film directed by Danny Boyle, and starring Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle and Kelly Macdonald in her acting debut. Based on the novel of the same name by Irvine Welsh, the film was released in the United Kingdom on 23 February 1996.

The Academy Award nominated screenplay by John Hodge follows a group of heroin addicts in a late 1980s economically depressed area of Edinburgh and their passage through life. Beyond drug addiction, other themes in the film are exploration of the urban poverty and squalor in "culturally rich" Edinburgh.

The film has been ranked 10th by the British Film Institute (BFI) in its list of Top 100 British films of all time. In 2004 the film was voted the best Scottish film of all time in a general public poll.

Trainspotting is the first novel by Scottish writer Irvine Welsh, first published in 1993. It takes the form of a collection of short stories, written in either Scots, Scottish English or British English, revolving around various residents of Leith, Edinburgh who either use heroin, are friends of the core group of heroin users, or engage in destructive activities that are implicitly portrayed as addictions that serve the same function as heroin addiction. The novel is set in the late 1980s.

Famously described as "the voice of punk, grown up, grown wiser and grown eloquent", the novel has since achieved a cult status, added to by the global success of the film based on it, Trainspotting (1996), directed by Danny Boyle. Welsh later wrote a sequel, Porno, in 2002. Skagboys, a novel that serves as a prequel, was published in April 2012.

The Trainspotting soundtracks are two soundtrack albums released following the film adaptation of Irvine Welsh's novel of the same name. The first was released on July 9, 1996. The comparatively huge fanbase for both the film and the original soundtrack prompted a release of a second soundtrack on October 21, 1997. This second soundtrack included songs from the film that didn't make the cut for the first album, as well as songs that didn't appear in the final film, but were involved at earlier stages or were used as inspiration by the filmmakers. The popularity of the first volume led EMI to reissue and continue to press it from 16 June 2003.

In 2007 the editors of Vanity Fair magazine ranked the original Trainspotting soundtrack as the 7th best motion picture soundtrack in history. It was ranked #17 on Entertainment Weekly's 100 Best Movie Soundtracks.