MetaFilter posts tagged with Train

Bergen to Oslo from your armchair

Beautiful Screaming Lady — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 20:25:14 -0800

On 27th November, Norwegian broadcaster NRK broadcast a 7.5 hour documentary showing every minute of the scenic train ride between Bergen on the Norwegian west coast, crossing the mountains to Oslo. Now, after removing all extraneous interviews, music clips and fancy trickery from the documentary, they are offering the entire, clean, 7 hour continuous front-camera version for free Creative Commons download. All 22Gb of it. Here's a fantastic 10 minute taster on YouTube.

The Story Of The 1987 CN Nepisiguit Sub Runaway Train

srboisvert — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:46:19 -0800

Stick with 'er Wiener! On March 9, 1987, a well-known derailment occurred here when a runaway CN train journeyed from Brunswick Mines to just short of the wye. There was a mixup in communications and engineer Wesley MacDonald ended up with more cars on his train than he thought, and the brakes on the engine alone were unable to hold the consist on the grade in the Brunswick Mines yard. Great radio show about the accident that we previously discussed here.

Soul Train

phrontist — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:01:31 -0800

Soul Train (wiki) has a youtube channel. Lots of great performances here, but in particular I recommend The O'Jays, Sly and The Family Stone, Stevie Wonder, The Stairsteps, and the Jackson 5. What really makes it worth watching though are the clips of the Soul Train Line dancing to hits of the day, artists like The O'Jay, Curtis Mayfield, War, and The JB's.

Hand-built bullet trains, made-to-order

armage — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 06:08:51 -0800

Yamashita Kogyosho (jp) is a small manufacturer of about 30 people based in Kudamatsu, a city in Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan. Like many small urban factories (so-called "machikoba"), they specialize in precision metalwork under contract to major corporations. But Yamashita Kogyosho is special: they create the noses for bullet trains. By hand. (relevant scenes begin at 2:54 in the video above) Kiyoto Yamashita, the founder, began by hammering out the nose cones for the original 0 Series Shinkansen in 1963 for Hitachi. Yamashita Kogyosho craftsmen have since created the noses for the N700 Series and 500 Series Shinkansen, the Taiwan High Speed 700T Train, and the 500 kmh experimental maglev train, among others. Today, the man in charge of actually crafting these nose cones is Jiro Kunimura. Using sheets of aluminum only a few millimeters thick, it takes him approximately three or four weeks to complete one 15 meter-long nose, and he and his team can produce up to 20 per year. Yamashita and his company were recognized in 2007 by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry with the Monodzukuri Nippon Grand Award, which recognizes unique contributions to Japanese manufacturing. Monodzukuri (or monozukuri) literally means "the making of things," but in Japan refers to an entire way of thinking about manufacturing and the economy. However, the company's chief concern isn't orders -- they have enough for the next three years -- but rather passing on these unique skills to the next generation. It takes ten years to master the technique and only constant practice makes perfect. Interested? They're recruiting.

Train vs. Tornado. Guess who wins!

P.o.B. — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 19:17:13 -0800

Have you ever wondered what happens when a freight train drives through a tornado? Let me show you (2:01 SLYT)

I thought the Train would never come -- How slow the whistle sang --

ocherdraco — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:38:29 -0800

"There is at least one technology in America, however, that is worse now than it was in the early 20th century: the train." Why trains run slower now than they did in the 1920s.

Good Morning America, How Are You?

mattdidthat — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 12:26:35 -0800

Union Pacific's steam locomotive No. 844 has a rich and storied history. Delivered in 1944, No. 844 pulled the Overland Limited, the Los Angeles Limited, the Portland Rose and the Challenger. When diesel locomotives began pulling passenger trains, No. 844 was transferred to freight service in 1957, and in 1960 it was held for special service. Today, No. 844 travels the country as Union Pacific's "living legend". Here's its schedule. If you're in the Bay Area, No. 844 is on display today, from 8a to 6p at the Oakland yard.

The Forbidden Railway - a train trip to Pyongyang

dunkadunc — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:56:35 -0800

In September of 2008, two Austrians traveled 13,000km by rail from Vienna to Pyongyang - without asking permission and going through the official Koran travel agency. Travelling via Slovakia, Ukraine and Russia, they chatted up North Korean border officials, were invited to eat lunch by North Koreans on the train, spent 36 hours without a guide, reaching areas not normally accessible to tourists. Travelogue with photos: Vienna-Moscow : Moscow-Barnaul : Barnaul-Irkutsk : Irkutsk-Skovorodino Skovorodino-Khabarovsk : Russia-DPRK : Tumangan Kilchu-Pyongyang 1 : Kilchu-Pyongyang 2 : Pyongyang & Mt. Myohyang Arirang Games, &c. : The Demilitarized Zone

How to Toilet Train Your Cat

thbt — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 08:50:58 -0800

Don't like scooping cat litter? Toilet train your cat.

Great station cafes

MrMerlot — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 03:49:51 -0800

The Gare de Lyon in Paris has Le Train Bleu. Grand Central Staion in New York has a superb Oyster Bar; Washington Union Station has this neo-classical wonder; while Prague this prime example of art nouveau; Helsinki, meanwhile, offers something suitably democratic. With cafes as good as this, railway stations become destinations in themselves.

Rhode Island to NYC in 3 minutes

pupdog — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 04:58:18 -0800

Tech Columnist Andy Ihnatko takes us along for the ride. For a recent trip from Kingston, RI to the East Village, Ihnatko set up a Nikon Coolpix 6000 to take a picture every 30 seconds - out the train window, then around his neck. The result is a great time lapse journey.

Geared Steam

Artw — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 09:41:33 -0800

On a traditional steam locomotive the pistons drive the wheels directly via cranks. An unusual looking series of variants, the geared locomotives, took a different approach - using gears and driveshafts, giving them an advantage in traction at the cost of speed, making them ideal for steap grades and tight curves of logging railroads. The most common was the Shay Locomotive (video), with it's vertical pistons. Other variant included the Climax (video, seen at the Mount Rainier Scenic Railroad) and the Heisler, which had it's pistons in a V-formation (video). Many examples of the geared locomotive can be found at the Northwest Railway Museum.

The World's Safest Railroad

tellurian — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 14:54:40 -0800

The Subway Sun and The Elevated Express &reswere posters used to inform passengers travelling on the IRT. A couple that tickled my fancy - the unlikely to happen Sociability Limit and an Obnoxious Custom. [via]

Chuff, Chuff, Chuff, Chuff, Wooo! Woooo!

fearfulsymmetry — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:04:54 -0800

Seventy years ago today a world land speed record was set that has never been broken... on July 3, 1938 LNER Class A4 4468 Mallard reached the giddy speed of 126mph. The Mallard was built by Sir Nigel Gresley (designer of the famous Flying Scotsman) to snatch back the record from Nazi Germany. The train itself is now retired at the National Railway Museum. Here's a simulation of the famous event.

Gone, like a train...

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 06:26:00 -0800

There's just something so pleasing about watching a mixed freight train go by. Here are several versions of the classic train number, "Wreck of the Old 97": Hank Snow Johnny Cash Roy Acuff Boxcar Willie The Seekers Flatt & Scruggs with... the Beverly Hillbillies! This clip features Johnny Cash once again, but the video is a crude CG reenactment of the crash. and finally, this old recording by ??? features yet another curious (and even more crude) CG reenactment of the crash... Train song lovers might also want to check out my FPP from earlier this month on The Wabash Cannonball.

Trainrider

GuyZero — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 15:14:18 -0800

Trainrider : How to surf on a train - at 330 km/h.

RFK Funeral Train

doug3505 — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:10:47 -0800

RFK Funeral Train A moving audio and photo account of photographer Paul Fusco's experience on the RFK funeral train to Washington DC. {via NYTimes Magazine}

This enormous red circular carriage will never fit onto the tracks!

goodnewsfortheinsane — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 07:57:51 -0800

Train tracker.

Live Japan Rail Cam

brownpau — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 13:28:17 -0800

Railway TV. Live video from the front of a train in Japan. More info (translated).

See the World

zabuni — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:26:07 -0800

A window to the world by car or train. Passingby: Videos uploaded to Youtube, showing various parts of the world, from the vantage point of someone just passing by. (Flash, video, youtube link)

Teen saves life, with help from Mythbusters.

micketymoc — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:56:27 -0800

Paging asavage, congratulations are in order. Thanks to quick thinking and an episode of Mythbusters, 14-year-old Julian Shaw saves a man from death by train. "[As the train roared past] the noise pierced your ears and there was a suction that pulled us in… I'd seen that on MythBusters, so I stayed right back and pulled Mark back towards me."

Throw the tourist from the train.

Bovine Love — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 13:06:30 -0800

Throw the tourist from the train. Ejected from a train for refusing to stop taking pictures from the train. Well, for not stopping anyway; the refusing part is unclear. The nation is now secure.

Railway of Bones

parudox — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 23:36:08 -0800

Dead Road - Museum of Communism in the Open. "It was one of the most ambitious projects of the Stalin era, known as the 'railway of bones'. At least 10 people a day died during the four years of its construction [actually 1947-1953], but unlike most of Uncle Joe's grand designs it was never completed and now sits unfinished in the tundra, an icy road to nowhere." The transpolar railway was built by labour camps^ 501 and 503 and construction was stopped after the amnesty following Stalin's death in 1953; 800km, about half, was built. Some sections are currently in operation, but much is abandoned: depot and locomotives in Dolgoe, Dolgoe itself, labour camps, more spectacular decay. (Previously: Norilsk, which was supposed to see an extension of the line.)

Travelling cross-country by train

joeclark — Sun, 13 May 2007 09:52:53 -0800

“Why the hell the train?” and other questions answered “The real terror is the Three+ Sheltered Old Men, because they don’t sleep and they don’t have normal conversations. They’re completely sporadic: An observation is made, perhaps it is agreed on, then anywhere from two to 45 minutes pass before the next one. That’s the random non-rhythm your brain will feed on... and you’re never going to relax or get any sleep.” As for “train love”? “Ask yourself, do you really want this? Your potential train buddy is travelling by train. What the hell is wrong with this person? After two days on the train... [y]ou’re not at your Personal Best™”

Accident Prone

Chinese Jet Pilot — Thu, 03 May 2007 09:06:49 -0800

I hope STS-117 isn't delayed by this train wreck like it was from that hailstorm last March.