Familiar with Francis Bourgeois? No? You probably aren’t on Tiktok. There, the pseudonymous Bourgeois became a minor internet celeb over the past year due to the popularity of his overly-enthusiastic trainspotting clips.
It’s not hard to get the appeal of the 21-year-old: he’s charming, unashamedly gawky, and incredibly excited about the trains that steam all across Britain.
@francis.bourgeois Class 158s are amazing, if you’ve been on one, you will know they’re good! 😊 #trains #trending #fyp
Bourgeois’ Tiktoks — usually filmed from both his phone and a hilariously unflattering fisheye-like lens angled towards his face — gained millions of views thanks to Tiktok’s infamously addictive algorithm.
Currently at 1.9m Tiktok followers and 1m Instagram followers, Bourgeois was so in-demand that the University of Nottingham student quit his part-time job to focus on trainspotting, his true love.
He even started a Cameo account to sell personalized messages (he’s currently working through a backlog).
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUDPVKPIhqM/
His real name, Luke Nicolson, was revealed in November when he filed to create Francis Bourgeouis Limited. But Bourgeois continued making his delightful train videos, undaunted by critics who questioned whether his enthusiasm for trains was sincere or a mere ploy for views.
Seems like an odd nitpick to me — as long as the content is entertaining, who cares? — but some people have too much time on their hands.
After a couple photos of Bourgeois as a young roadman and model for Brother Models surfaced, though, the Tiktoker finally addressed the subject.
Struggling to come to terms with roadman Francis Bourgeois pic.twitter.com/RmBtMrYJqT
— Joe Gilmore (@Gilology) December 16, 2021
In a video posted to both Tiktok and Instagram, Bourgeois explained that he experimented with roadman style and modeling to fit in.
Trainspotting wasn’t making him any friends and he was lonely, so Bourgeois hid his train adoration for the sake of social graces.
“I sold my model train set to fund my gym membership,” he admits, which sounds ludicrous when you read it but is actually kinda stirring in the context of his speech.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CXl6eXGoOSd/
This matches up with what he’s already said, basically.
“I’ve been trainspotting all my life,” Bourgeois said in a November interview with This Morning. “I sort of suppressed my interest [in secondary school] because it’s not the coolest thing in the world.”
Well, as the interviewer said, it is now.
@francis.bourgeois Reply to @baldidiot here is a video I made in response to the comments I’ve seen saying I’m fake #trains #trending #fyp
Not that Bourgeois doesn’t have other hobbies: he’s been spotted at Warehouse Project raves in Manchester (his own rumored stab at rave music has been dug up, too).
But it’s the trainspotting videos that’ve made him famous and with good reason. The kid just loves trains, man.
Honestly, it takes a lot for me to care about any old Tiktok video — I’m not on the app and barely use social media as is.
But it’s obvious from watching even one of Bourgeois’ Tiktoks that he’s earnestly exuberant about trains and that energy is more than infectious; it’s downright aspirational.
Let him live — preferably right next to the rail yard.
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Author: Jake Silbert