It's a bird, it's a plane... No, it's a train!
August 28, 2020 10:48 AM Subscribe
These flying trains should be everywhere.
posted by w0mbat at 11:07 AM on August 28, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by w0mbat at 11:07 AM on August 28, 2020 [1 favorite]
Those old 68mm films are amazing. I mean I can understand why they weren't used that much but the resolution is so impressive even a hundred years ago.
I wonder how many of our digital movies will still be watchable in 118 years?
posted by octothorpe at 11:14 AM on August 28, 2020 [3 favorites]
I wonder how many of our digital movies will still be watchable in 118 years?
posted by octothorpe at 11:14 AM on August 28, 2020 [3 favorites]
I wonder how many of our digital movies will still be watchable in 118 years?
Restoration efforts will involve cracking encryption keys.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:24 AM on August 28, 2020 [2 favorites]
Restoration efforts will involve cracking encryption keys.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:24 AM on August 28, 2020 [2 favorites]
I found this clip recently via Denis Shiryaev's YouTube channel. Denis uses neural networks and other techniques to stablize, upres, up-framerate, and colorize footage like this, and it is even more incredible to watch than the source. Highly recommend checking out the other videos on his channel.
posted by srkit at 11:32 AM on August 28, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by srkit at 11:32 AM on August 28, 2020 [2 favorites]
I think I'm already on record here on how much I hate colorizing. Black and white is perfect as it is, it doesn't need to be "fixed".
posted by octothorpe at 11:39 AM on August 28, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by octothorpe at 11:39 AM on August 28, 2020 [7 favorites]
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!
It looks like it should be a ride in the Jules Verne-style Tomorrowland at Disneyland Paris.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:46 AM on August 28, 2020 [2 favorites]
It looks like it should be a ride in the Jules Verne-style Tomorrowland at Disneyland Paris.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:46 AM on August 28, 2020 [2 favorites]
Came in to repeat what srkit said and to mention that the Wuppertal monorail is still there and has been featured on both Tom Scott's channel and The Tim Traveler YouTube channels.
posted by Hey, Zeus! at 11:49 AM on August 28, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by Hey, Zeus! at 11:49 AM on August 28, 2020 [4 favorites]
That's awesome, and great that it's still going!
There is footage of the first electric elevated railway (not the first suspended) filmed by the Lumière Brothers in 1896, but sadly the Dockers' Umbrella (as it was known locally) got dismantled in the 1950s.
All that's left of it now is the odd girder and a tunnel.
posted by amcewen at 12:19 PM on August 28, 2020 [2 favorites]
There is footage of the first electric elevated railway (not the first suspended) filmed by the Lumière Brothers in 1896, but sadly the Dockers' Umbrella (as it was known locally) got dismantled in the 1950s.
All that's left of it now is the odd girder and a tunnel.
posted by amcewen at 12:19 PM on August 28, 2020 [2 favorites]
That's stupendous! Why is this the first time I've seen this? Reminds me of Metropolis which was released a generation later, FFS!
posted by Dub at 12:52 PM on August 28, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Dub at 12:52 PM on August 28, 2020 [2 favorites]
OMG it's still operational. I desperately want to ride it.
posted by cooker girl at 1:16 PM on August 28, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by cooker girl at 1:16 PM on August 28, 2020 [1 favorite]
This thing carries 25 million people a year and has had one fatal incident. In 118 years. Pretty cool.
posted by klanawa at 1:17 PM on August 28, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by klanawa at 1:17 PM on August 28, 2020 [3 favorites]
This thing carries 25 million people a year and has had one fatal incident. In 118 years
Those are extraordinary numbers; that might be safer than elevators?
posted by mhoye at 1:44 PM on August 28, 2020
Those are extraordinary numbers; that might be safer than elevators?
posted by mhoye at 1:44 PM on August 28, 2020
This 12 minute no-narration present day video includes a passenger using a rolling walker. Level entry and exit!
posted by Jesse the K at 2:03 PM on August 28, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Jesse the K at 2:03 PM on August 28, 2020 [2 favorites]
That is wonderful! I love that it is still running today.
posted by agatha_magatha at 3:31 PM on August 28, 2020
posted by agatha_magatha at 3:31 PM on August 28, 2020
This is very much the sort of thing I excitedly envisioned on moving to Vancouver and hearing of the SkyTrain!, which is, don't get me wrong, a great method of transport, just a bit more mundane than the suspended one.
Something about the uprezzing/stabilizing really gives it a game-y feel, it wouldn't be out of place in a BioShock.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 3:49 PM on August 28, 2020
Something about the uprezzing/stabilizing really gives it a game-y feel, it wouldn't be out of place in a BioShock.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 3:49 PM on August 28, 2020
Those are extraordinary numbers; that might be safer than elevators?
Until the 1999 accident, it apparently contended the crown of safest public transport in the world with the Siemens/ThyssenKrupp Transrapid levitation monorail.
The planners coined its somewhat inexact name, "Schwebebahn" (literally "hover-rail"), specifically as part of the project's sales pitch, so along with the filming of it, it seems they were savvy marketers of the idea from the get-go.
Oddly enough, when it was originally conceived and built, Wuppertal wasn't even a city yet: the line's original name was the "Schwebebahn Barmen-Elberfeld-Vohwinkel". (In fact, the first town named Wupperthal is actually in South Africa, put on the map a hundred years earlier, by two Rhenanians from the Wupper valley, and ancestral home to rooibos tea - but that's a whole nother story.) I was wondering about why this province of Germany would be the home to such an original invention/construction (apparently only preceded by H. R. Palmer's elevated rail system), and it turns out it's to do with the fact that this collection of towns were woven along the winding bights of the river, and no other transportation solution really fit the valley's morphology in a way that would be compatible with the existing buildings and roads. That, early local industrialisation, the recent construction of a new power station, and the fever-dream of the inventor of sugarcubes.
posted by progosk at 3:50 PM on August 28, 2020 [3 favorites]
Until the 1999 accident, it apparently contended the crown of safest public transport in the world with the Siemens/ThyssenKrupp Transrapid levitation monorail.
The planners coined its somewhat inexact name, "Schwebebahn" (literally "hover-rail"), specifically as part of the project's sales pitch, so along with the filming of it, it seems they were savvy marketers of the idea from the get-go.
Oddly enough, when it was originally conceived and built, Wuppertal wasn't even a city yet: the line's original name was the "Schwebebahn Barmen-Elberfeld-Vohwinkel". (In fact, the first town named Wupperthal is actually in South Africa, put on the map a hundred years earlier, by two Rhenanians from the Wupper valley, and ancestral home to rooibos tea - but that's a whole nother story.) I was wondering about why this province of Germany would be the home to such an original invention/construction (apparently only preceded by H. R. Palmer's elevated rail system), and it turns out it's to do with the fact that this collection of towns were woven along the winding bights of the river, and no other transportation solution really fit the valley's morphology in a way that would be compatible with the existing buildings and roads. That, early local industrialisation, the recent construction of a new power station, and the fever-dream of the inventor of sugarcubes.
posted by progosk at 3:50 PM on August 28, 2020 [3 favorites]
Designed by Eugen Langen and offered first to the cities of Berlin, Breslau and Munich who all turned it down
You're right, that's really more of a Wupperthal idea!
posted by Jon Mitchell at 3:56 PM on August 28, 2020 [9 favorites]
You're right, that's really more of a Wupperthal idea!
posted by Jon Mitchell at 3:56 PM on August 28, 2020 [9 favorites]
The much smaller, non-suspended Morgantown PRT had its first serious injury this year after more than 2 million rides, due to a rock slide.
But much like Wuppertal, there were unique geographical constraints that make it an viable alternative to cars.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:12 PM on August 28, 2020
But much like Wuppertal, there were unique geographical constraints that make it an viable alternative to cars.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 4:12 PM on August 28, 2020
Designed by Eugen Langen and offered first to the cities of Berlin, Breslau and Munich who all turned it down
You're right, that's really more of a Wupperthal idea!
Die Hauptstraße still is cracked and broken!
Es tut mir Leid, the mob has spoken!
posted by The Underpants Monster at 5:54 PM on August 28, 2020 [6 favorites]
> I found this clip recently via Denis Shiryaev's YouTube channel. Denis uses neural networks and other techniques to stablize, upres, up-framerate, and colorize footage like this, and it is even more incredible to watch than the source. Highly recommend checking out the other videos on his channel.
previously :P
posted by kliuless at 10:40 PM on August 28, 2020
previously :P
posted by kliuless at 10:40 PM on August 28, 2020
I love the little details of everyday street-life in old films. At around 40 seconds (and in the still frame in the article) there's a couple of boys walking a couple of wagon wheels down the street. They're just the right height to hold onto the axles! It's surreal to think about someone going about their everyday life in 1902 oblivious the fact that millions of eyes all around the world would be watching them 118 years later via technology that would have appeared completely alien and fantastical to them. And even stranger to think that the technology passing them overhead would still seem fantastical to many of us.
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 1:52 AM on August 30, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 1:52 AM on August 30, 2020 [4 favorites]
Thank you so much for parsing that! I watched that a couple of times trying to figure out what's going on.
posted by bq at 8:14 PM on August 30, 2020
posted by bq at 8:14 PM on August 30, 2020
I remember that thing from this movie
It also features quite prominently in a couple of Wenders films.
posted by progosk at 1:10 AM on August 31, 2020
It also features quite prominently in a couple of Wenders films.
posted by progosk at 1:10 AM on August 31, 2020
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Thanks so much for sharing, this was beautiful and amazing.
posted by hippybear at 11:01 AM on August 28, 2020 [1 favorite]