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Famous through TikTok: The cult train fan Francis Bourgeois becomes a Gucci model
“Trainspotter” Francis Bourgeois in one of his successful video clips
© Screenshot Instagram / @francis_bourgeois43
His videos are viewed millions of times on TikTok: Brit Francis Bourgeois is a “trainspotter”, meaning he loves to watch trains. An unusual hobby that has now given him an even more unusual career.
Anyone who thinks railways and trains are great was never actually considered cool. Most of them are older gentlemen who spend hours working on a model railway in an extra room in the basement. Think of Horst Seehofer. Or older gentlemen in survival clothes and with gigantic, expensive cameras on railway lines to photograph an ICE that looks like all other ICEs. Nobody would have thought that “trainspotting” would be a niche that would enable a young person to achieve real fame.
But that’s exactly what the young Briton Francis Bourgeois managed to do. Francis is studying mechanical engineering at the University of Nottingham with the aim of later working for one of the English railway companies. Because he loves trains: he marvels at them with childlike enthusiasm, knows all the specimens, all the special locomotives, all the routes. And because he wanted to share his hobby, he started filming himself and the trains he admired and sharing them on TikTok. The clips, some of which were filmed with a fisheye lens, show the genuine, childlike joy with which the young man practices “trainspotting”. And that sometimes earned him up to 23 million clicks per video.
Francis Bourgeois is infectious with his passion
At a time when bad news, worry and stress surround people, the young Brit’s videos seem to have been just the thing to bring a smile to the faces of those who don’t know anything about trains. Just someone who has a passion, pursues it with innocent enthusiasm, and shares it with the world. Francis Bourgeois became a cult figure on the net, a real celebrity. Just recently, pop star Joe Jonas asked him to come and watch the trains. As expected, the video showing the two train fans was a hit again. “This is the collaboration I didn’t know I needed,” commented one fan.
And now the mechanical engineering student has been elevated to even higher VIP spheres: he has been chosen to be the model for a new collection that luxury label Gucci has created together with outdoor brand The Northface. The promotional clip, in which the new clothes are presented, is of course set at a station and on a train, and Bourgeois gets to play the conductor. He obviously enjoys the role – and is another unexpected highlight of his unexpected internet career.
Sources:Instagram, tik tok, “Daily Mail”