The Train [Appreciation] Station -- All Aboard the Friendship Express

[Bigdog]

I thought of this thread today and remembered a possibly appropriate video.

It looks like the train is running on top of a gigantic sphere that itself is rolling across the landscape, but the direction of motion is opposite of what one would expect from the sphere's direction of rotation

[Princess Flufflebutt]

It looks like the train is running on top of a gigantic sphere that itself is rolling across the landscape, but the direction of motion is opposite of what one would expect from the sphere's direction of rotation

~magic~

[DaikatunaRevengeance]

WOO

[Perpetual Motion]

[Fizzbuzz]

I'm bumping this thread because I just got on Amtrak's California Zephyr as part of a trip to eventually get back home. It runs from San Francisco to Chicago, passing through cities like Salt Lake City and Denver, and through some very snowy parts of the Sierra Nevadas and the Rocky Mountains. Once I arrive in Chicago I'll then be continuing on to Washington, D.C.

Going through such remote terrain means I will have little or no access to the Internet, but I'll upload pictures when I can. It's supposed to be a beautiful route.

[DaikatunaRevengeance]

have a nice trip!

[DaikatunaRevengeance]

i wonder if those train cars were by the budd company? they look like the stuff budd made

[Fizzbuzz]

i wonder if those train cars were by the budd company? they look like the stuff budd made

Amtrak's trains that don't need to go through New York City use Superliner cars, which according to that article are based on the Budd Hi-Level cars. Amtrak had the Superliners built starting in the '70s.

[DaikatunaRevengeance]

neat!

[Bigdog]

I'm bumping this thread because I just got on Amtrak's California Zephyr as part of a trip to eventually get back home. It runs from San Francisco to Chicago, passing through cities like Salt Lake City and Denver, and through some very snowy parts of the Sierra Nevadas and the Rocky Mountains. Once I arrive in Chicago I'll then be continuing on to Washington, D.C.

Going through such remote terrain means I will have little or no access to the Internet, but I'll upload pictures when I can. It's supposed to be a beautiful route.

That's amazing. I've been blessed to ride that train a few times in my life, but it was all a very long time ago.

[Bigdog]

also, since this thread was bumped, I'll take the opportunity to say that I still randomly pull out the Big Boy videos on my phone and watch them. It's like I can't believe they were real.

[Fizzbuzz]

Train travel is such an odd experience. It feels like a mode of transportation that got stuck in time, one that remains by sheer force of will despite our love of aircraft and cars. A lot of the towns you pass through feel that way as well, like they didn't benefit in the way so many of our big cities did, and that the train is their main link remaining to the world. At least these towns usually have good enough cell phone service for me to make posts.

Despite how antiquated it feels in concept, train travel also feels like an incredible luxury vs. flying. There's none of the heavy security screenings, in coach you're not packed in as tightly as possible, and if you spring for the sleeper car you get your own little room! I myself am in a roomette for this trip.

[DaikatunaRevengeance]

you also get to see more scenery than with a plane, like i love planes and all but the really cool stuff doesn't happen at cruising altitude, it happens on landing and take off when you can see things on the ground clearly. Unless it's night, the lights are really pretty at night.

edit: ok, i forgot that it's actually pretty cool to see clouds at that height, too

but still it's fun to see hils, roads, towns roll by when you're on a train.

[Perpetual Motion]

Trains feeling antiquated is only because the USA largely abandoned the system and leaving it a niche, luxury thing, as you said. Places like Europe and Japan have pretty modern and extensive rail systems that offer great alternatives to driving a car when it comes to traveling medium-long distances.

[DaikatunaRevengeance]

serbia's railways have been ruined through a lot of gross mismanagment and financial problems from the 90s (maybe even late 80s) ownard, which has left them in a sorry state. The impression i always got these days is that people here regard trains as a cheap and shitty thing that you only take when you have to and that a car is what you really want.

[DaikatunaRevengeance]

i'm sure both countries would change their opinions on it if the railways were allowed to develop into something

[Perrydotto]

meanwhile the German train company has so much money at their disposal they don't actually know how to use it right

[Perpetual Motion]

It's so weird that the completion of the Trans-Continental Railroad is such an important part of American history (both as an achievement and as a culmination of numerous exploitations and atrocities), but capitalism and the auto industry basically conspired to make it as inconvenient as possible for the layperson to use quite successfully, so now it's mostly just for shipping heavy cargo.

[Bigdog]

Bumping to say that there's currently a train simulator bundle on the humble bundle

[Octavia]

Bumping to say that there's currently a train simulator bundle on the humble bundle

[DaikatunaRevengeance]

choo choo