Attention - the train!

March 15, 2023 5:42 AM

Safety on the railway in Latvia is no laughing matter. (It's all great, but the best is at the very end.) This stop-motion animation produced by Animācijas Brigāde features their long-running characters the Rescue Team. Fancy a trip to London or Greece? Or a spot of Latvian history?

Or how about the history of Animācijas Brigāde itself, founded in 1966 and still going strong. The studio follows in a long tradition of Soviet-era animation; here's Bum i Piramidon, a 1969 short by their founder Arnold Burovs. Burovs' Ki-Ki-Ri-Gu (The Cockerel, 1966) was the first Latvian animated film; he released his last, The Game of Life, in 1990 at the age of 75. Tiger the Cat (1967) blends stop-motion, drawn animation and live action. More examples of his work include Mad Dauka (1968), Cosette (1978), Little Hawk (1978) and Daddy (1986).

posted by rory (11 comments total)

Oh that's a great set of videos. You really can learn a lot about human stupidity by watching railroad tracks.
posted by JanetLand at 7:01 AM on March 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

My little nephew is OBSESSED with trains; I couldn't pass this along fast enough.
posted by orrnyereg at 7:25 AM on March 15, 2023

lovely

shared aplenty
posted by elkevelvet at 7:47 AM on March 15, 2023

So you can open the windows on Latvian train? I want.
posted by charlesminus at 8:01 AM on March 15, 2023

So you can open the windows on Latvian train? I want.

All the trains in Berlin let you open the top windows afaik. Otherwise there'd be nowhere to throw the empty beer bottles. This article doesn't quite do it justice. I tried to dig out a photo of the "don't throw your empties out of the window" sign but nothing comes up.

PS: Let me know if I'm doing the HTML formatting wrong. I'm a long time lurker, first(ish) time poster.
posted by tripsix at 9:35 AM on March 15, 2023 [1 favorite]

I live next to the tracks. This cautionary video is relevant. Trains are loud and scary, and potentially deadly, but are also inherently interesting.
posted by Midnight Skulker at 9:44 AM on March 15, 2023

Delight!
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 11:30 AM on March 15, 2023

This cautionary video is relevant.
posted by flabdablet at 11:57 AM on March 15, 2023

Not only could the windows in the doors of Intercity trains in the UK be opened until recently, but you had to open them and lean out to open the door, which only had handles on the outside. (The doors were locked unless the train was at a standstill, so it wasn't quite as dangerous as it sounds.)
posted by Hogshead at 12:03 PM on March 15, 2023

The cameo by Boris Johnson in the windows one was certainly unexpected.
posted by TedW at 7:31 PM on March 15, 2023

Those links to the Greece and London pieces are to the full-length short films (about 10 minutes each), and worth a look if you enjoyed the railway shorts. They've done a Paris one as well, but I can only find the trailer for it. In a similar vein, here's the full eight minutes of Tornis (The Tower), set in Pisa.
posted by rory at 3:42 AM on March 16, 2023