A Montrose trainspotter has turned his hobby into a full-time job, gaining millions of views on TikTok.
Andy Chalmers, 25, started Trains and Travels last year and has seen his updates reach thousands of views.
The former worker at Aldi, next to Montrose railway station, has posted videos about trains and mental health since last year.
He has now quit his job at a shop in the town centre to focus on his social media channel.
Live streams from Montrose rail station seen by hundreds
He said: “It was around four or five months ago when I really started putting in the effort and started to livestream.
“I wanted to spread positivity around mental health and my own battles with it.
“I started doing little bits here and there for suicide prevention charities and carried on from there.
“I used to be into my cars and then I got into bigger engines, especially bigger diesel engines.
“There’s so much history behind the railways and there’s so much to learn.”
Andy has seen his audience grow, with his most popular video achieving nearly 305,000 views.
He has amassed more than 160,000 likes.
He said: “Over the past month or two I’ve noticed a lot more people have been watching my videos.
“When I go live from Montrose, there’s always a few hundred who will tune in to watch it.
“I realised I was making money from brand deals and the live gifting system and I decided to pack in my job and go into it full-time.”
Andy, whose favourite train is the British Rail Class 37, has received messages from viewers across the world.
He said: “There’s a lot of regular viewers who come in for every stream but it changes daily.
“There’s people in the Netherlands, I’ve got supporters from Australia and there’s obviously more local people as well.”
Angus trainspotter becomes TikTok hit
“I’m going to be focusing on the UK mainly as that’s where the history of railways started. I’m wanting to go abroad and go interrailing.
I’ve never been able to afford to go abroad before, but doing something like this has given me the financial means to travel and do what I love.
“Just the other day, I was up in Corrour, on the West Highland Line.
“I made a video on it being the most isolated station.
“It’s already up to nearly 85,000 views on the first couple of days.
“A lot of people do watch because they’re interested in trains, but it’s interesting seeing how many middle-aged men and women watch.
“There’s kids watching and it goes all the way up to people in their 60s and 70s, it’s very diverse.”
Andy revealed he has always tried to work on the railways and that he is happy to finally have a job he loves.
“He said: “The plan is to do long-form content in the future.
It’s still a fairly new journey for me, I’ll need to upgrade equipment and putting in more time.
“I’m doing a collaboration with the Caledonian Sleeper in the next few weeks; they’re going to be taking me to London and back.
“I’ll be livestreaming from Perth and I’m very excited.
“I get hundreds of messages from people with various circumstances regarding their mental health.
“People who have lost family members or are going through a rough time; they say that watching my streams feels like they’re sitting with friends and they find it comforting.”
Conversation