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Trains are great (keep your anorak shit out of here)

13

Posts

  • Lindsay LohanLindsay Lohan Registered User regular
    webguy20 wrote: »
    Portland Maine to Boston was a fun little excursion on my engagement trip, ah, 11 years ago

    I assume the trains are even better now yes?

    I mean, you can still buy beer and sleep so it's better than doing the drive yourself.

    I think when I retire and hopefully have more space in my home than my apartment now I will get into model railroads, either traditional or Lego. They set up a neat one at the mall each year for Christmas and it's really cool but far larger than any space I have currently.

    Ive always wanted to build an N-scale layout. Especially now a days being able to 3d print scenery.

    I had no idea N scale was a thing. I could maybe even find a place for one, but darn they're pricey!

  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    webguy20 wrote: »
    Portland Maine to Boston was a fun little excursion on my engagement trip, ah, 11 years ago

    I assume the trains are even better now yes?

    I mean, you can still buy beer and sleep so it's better than doing the drive yourself.

    I think when I retire and hopefully have more space in my home than my apartment now I will get into model railroads, either traditional or Lego. They set up a neat one at the mall each year for Christmas and it's really cool but far larger than any space I have currently.

    Ive always wanted to build an N-scale layout. Especially now a days being able to 3d print scenery.

    I had no idea N scale was a thing. I could maybe even find a place for one, but darn they're pricey!

    I'd love to build a layout like this with the Coast Starlight.

    bld6qqjermzg.png

    Steam ID: Webguy20
    Origin ID: Discgolfer27
    Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
  • CelloCello Registered User regular
    Duke 2.0 wrote: »
    The DC metro has some deep problems, from the modern day stifling idea of it operating on a profit to its historic effects such as the Green Line I’m on existing to bulldoze black communities in its way. Yet I still like riding it. The brutalist concrete station designs to the raised section peeks at the outer fringes of the city. Not having to actively drive during a 40 minute commute means 80 minutes of fucking around.

    Always had a fantasy of exploring the local neighborhoods of the various line ends, mostly the Virginia ones I don't normally go down.

    I think the brutalist styling is really cool on the metro, and I liked the high ceilings a lot

    I do wish they took the examples of like, Toronto or Montreal though, and made each station have a more visible aesthetic from the train car, because sometimes I was real fucking tired in the mornings and waking up to scramble to figure out what station you were at could be a slight panic sometimes

    Steam
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  • Indie WinterIndie Winter die Krähe Rudi Hurzlmeier (German, b. 1952)Registered User regular
    edited October 2022
    so between the world wars, what was left of the Ottoman Empire was divided between France and the UK, with the caveat being that "these aren't colonies, ok guys? for realsies. the League of Nations (remember that august body?) is giving you guys a Mandate the build these places up to be independent nations, so you gotta. Ok, no supervision, we trust your word as Gentlemen of Honor byeeeeeee"

    and the thing about old fashioned Colonial Imperialism is resource extraction, which at the onset of the 20th century meant railway lines

    so there was a time you could board a train in Vienna and travel from Istanbul to Aleppo where you could decide if you wanted to head on further east to Baghdad and down to the coast of the Persian Gulf, or instead have a southernly jaunt to Cairo via Beirut and Jaffa, maybe take a detour through the mountains to Jerusalem before going to Gaza

    dgay5xas68y0.jpg

    of course things are different now, but you can still find vintage posters from the 1930s in local languages offering ski trips in "The Land of Cedars", which given contemporary politics is capital dublya Wild

    Indie Winter on
    wY6K6Jb.gif
  • GrobianGrobian What's on sale? Pliers!Registered User regular
    edited October 2022
    Cello wrote: »
    Duke 2.0 wrote: »
    The DC metro has some deep problems, from the modern day stifling idea of it operating on a profit to its historic effects such as the Green Line I’m on existing to bulldoze black communities in its way. Yet I still like riding it. The brutalist concrete station designs to the raised section peeks at the outer fringes of the city. Not having to actively drive during a 40 minute commute means 80 minutes of fucking around.

    Always had a fantasy of exploring the local neighborhoods of the various line ends, mostly the Virginia ones I don't normally go down.

    I think the brutalist styling is really cool on the metro, and I liked the high ceilings a lot

    I do wish they took the examples of like, Toronto or Montreal though, and made each station have a more visible aesthetic from the train car, because sometimes I was real fucking tired in the mornings and waking up to scramble to figure out what station you were at could be a slight panic sometimes

    There is one subway line here in Berlin where each station is tiled with a unique color. It's really nice if you have learned them.

    Also my hometown has pretty great public transport. We have subways, light rail (goes on it's own track and doesn't interfere at all with roads. Basically it's a subway that's overground. But sometimes it goes underground. And some of our subways are overground. I don't know where I'm going with this), trams (has their tracks either on a shared space with cars or separate in the middle of the street but still has crossings and traffic lights etc), buses, actual good cabs, bad cabs (uber) and also regional trains are sometimes worth it for the longer distances because the city is so big.


    Actual trains in Germany are fine. We like to complain a lot and Deutsche Bahn has some serious problems but also it's still better than many other countries.
    The EU is now forcing train companies to make a system where you can book international tickets easier, that's gonna help a bit with reducing air traffic, hopefully.


    Edit: public transport outside of the cities is terrible. I once was on a business trip to some engineering firm in the heart of Bavaria. And the ICE was super fast and then we changed to some regional train which was fine and then we ended up at a station in the middle of nowhere that only had a parking lot and nothing else. Nice fields and mountains around though. And the bus goes only in the morning or afternoon to accomodate schools. We had to call a taxi from the next small town or wouldn't have been able to go anywhere.

    Grobian on
  • DepressperadoDepressperado I just wanted to see you laughing in the pizza rainRegistered User regular
    if I'm gonna have a train, it'd be Art Deco all the way, the swoops

  • DouglasDangerDouglasDanger PennsylvaniaRegistered User regular
    Trains are great

  • Mortal SkyMortal Sky queer punk hedge witchRegistered User regular
    I'm one of those people where, I think cars and especially motorcycles are cool, love the sensation of driving a vehicle, and also hate feeling societally mandated to drive places

    thankfully I live really close to Penn Station in Baltimore so getting to like, Philly or DC or NYC via train is easymode (at least at certain times of day) and bus service in the center of the city is reasonably good along the north-south axis, but even still the amount of casual tasks I need my own wheels for is kind of stupid (it doesn't help that my partner has zero intention of learning to drive and won't get on my motorcycles, so driving's effectively become my main household chore)

    I miss living in Japan a lot, because my ideal vehicle combo would be one small motorcycle and a train pass

  • ShadowhopeShadowhope Baa. Registered User regular

    This seems relevant to my interests, because
    6ovtaincjqfe.jpeg

    Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
  • The Cow KingThe Cow King a island Registered User regular
    Posting from a train right now

    icGJy2C.png
  • The Cow KingThe Cow King a island Registered User regular
    edited October 2022
    I took the same train home and didn't take the free section toll road because it's pointless

    I'm yet again getting mad at a highway that was agreed upon just finished and is useless privately owned and tolled and I was like 8 when this was given the a ok and was finished 2 years ago lmao

    Coulda had at least one good ass train from Ottawa to Toronto shaking my god damn head

    The Cow King on
    icGJy2C.png
  • japanjapan Registered User regular
    tynic wrote: »
    Elvenshae wrote: »
    Okay, so, I know an anorak as a jacket.

    What is it in this sense?

    ED: Also, taking the train the NYC later this year. Beats all hell out of flying there.

    UK slang for a trainspotter

    The anorak, as modelled here by Alan

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6B3so5iWyKw

  • SorceSorce Not ThereRegistered User regular
    I wish trains were more convenient for me, because I like riding on them and not having to worry about the usual BS of travelling.

    sig.gif
  • honoverehonovere Registered User regular
    All train travel in northern Germany was stopped yesterday for several hours because someone cut an important comms line in North Rhine Westphalia and then cut the back up line in Berlin several hundred miles away. Like they lifted heavy concrete lids from manholes and knew exactly where to cut what. Wild shit.

    https://www.euronews.com/2022/10/09/germany-railway

  • RMS OceanicRMS Oceanic Registered User regular
    edited October 2022
    EO5F2EZWAAUV8zX?format=jpg&name=small

    This does not spark joy

    RMS Oceanic on
  • SnicketysnickSnicketysnick The Greatest Hype Man in WesterosRegistered User regular
    japan wrote: »
    tynic wrote: »
    Elvenshae wrote: »
    Okay, so, I know an anorak as a jacket.

    What is it in this sense?

    ED: Also, taking the train the NYC later this year. Beats all hell out of flying there.

    UK slang for a trainspotter

    The anorak, as modelled here by Alan

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6B3so5iWyKw

    oh good I am glad I'm not alone in immediately going to this place

    7qmGNt5.png
    D3 Steam #TeamTangent STO
  • CelloCello Registered User regular
    I am taking the train to Toronto next week for one night and then back again

    I will report in on the experience

    Steam
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  • japanjapan Registered User regular
    For real soon I will be living within walking distance of a train station again for the first time in years and it's going to be great

  • V1mV1m Registered User regular
    EO5F2EZWAAUV8zX?format=jpg&name=small

    This does not spark joy

    Grrrr Beeching :s

  • RMS OceanicRMS Oceanic Registered User regular
    V1m wrote: »
    EO5F2EZWAAUV8zX?format=jpg&name=small

    This does not spark joy

    Grrrr Beeching :s

    More a result of partition and political oppression and the Troubles

  • CelloCello Registered User regular
    I should also mention that last time I took Via to Toronto, a rail attendant spent a bunch of his shift making balloon animals for the kids

    I took a picture to show my pals, and then he came back and said "I heard you were taking photos of me? Well here's another one!!"

    And he posed with, as I recall, a palm tree in one hand and big clown-ish glasses on his face

    (One of my pals farther up the car sent him back to me, haha)

    Absolute railway hero

    Steam
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  • RMS OceanicRMS Oceanic Registered User regular
    On the bright side I took a train trip from Belfast to Derry and the coastal route once you go past Coleraine is real purdy and train nerds should check it out sometime.

  • 3cl1ps33cl1ps3 I will build a labyrinth to house the cheese Registered User regular
    honovere wrote: »
    All train travel in northern Germany was stopped yesterday for several hours because someone cut an important comms line in North Rhine Westphalia and then cut the back up line in Berlin several hundred miles away. Like they lifted heavy concrete lids from manholes and knew exactly where to cut what. Wild shit.

    https://www.euronews.com/2022/10/09/germany-railway

    So...heist? Heist.

  • The Cow KingThe Cow King a island Registered User regular
    3cl1ps3 wrote: »
    honovere wrote: »
    All train travel in northern Germany was stopped yesterday for several hours because someone cut an important comms line in North Rhine Westphalia and then cut the back up line in Berlin several hundred miles away. Like they lifted heavy concrete lids from manholes and knew exactly where to cut what. Wild shit.

    https://www.euronews.com/2022/10/09/germany-railway

    So...heist? Heist.

    We have a ghost train on the tracks I've repeat we've lost it it's gone it could be anywhere!

    icGJy2C.png
  • ShadowhopeShadowhope Baa. Registered User regular
    V1m wrote: »
    EO5F2EZWAAUV8zX?format=jpg&name=small

    This does not spark joy

    Grrrr Beeching :s

    More a result of partition and political oppression and the Troubles

    It happened in a lot of places.

    Here in Atlantic Canada, we have an excellent trail system built on the old railway line.

    Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
  • japanjapan Registered User regular
    This is cool



    I used to get the train past this very location every day, in the before times, when it was a vast expanse of concrete used as an ad hoc car park

  • DirtyboyDirtyboy Registered User regular
    Have some tiny trains.

    Beautiful CAMERA TRAIN RIDE through the natural America | Miniatur Wunderland

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rrv23zO3S7U

  • Brovid HasselsmofBrovid Hasselsmof [Growling historic on the fury road] Registered User regular
    Cello wrote: »
    (One of my pals farther up the car sent him back to me, haha)

    This sentence made me curious. I'm imagining 2 possible scenarios.

    1. You are friends with these people but, like, not very good friends. Bad enough friends that you don't want to sit near them.

    2. You are such a friendly person that any person sharing the same public transport as you automatically becomes a friend.

  • CelloCello Registered User regular
    Cello wrote: »
    (One of my pals farther up the car sent him back to me, haha)

    This sentence made me curious. I'm imagining 2 possible scenarios.

    1. You are friends with these people but, like, not very good friends. Bad enough friends that you don't want to sit near them.

    2. You are such a friendly person that any person sharing the same public transport as you automatically becomes a friend.

    I would love to say it was 2, but it was actually just that we joined this trip fairly late (it was initially an engagement celebration trip for the friends up-car and they invited us to party in Toronto with them), so our assigned seats were all over the place

    Steam
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  • Anon the FelonAnon the Felon In bat country.Registered User regular
    edited October 2022
    Late May, my wife and I flew out to Chicago and spent a few days rambling around that fun city. Then we got on the Amtrak and took the line to Seattle. We got a sleeper cab.

    One of the singular best life experiences. We read, we talked, we listened to music and watched the world roll by. We got off the train talking about how great it was and we were for it.

    Trains rock (and obviously roll). If you can take a friend or partner on a long "let's spend the night on this thing and wake up somewhere new!" I highly recommend. Damn the cost and any anxiety.

    Anon the Felon on
  • ShadowhopeShadowhope Baa. Registered User regular

    I was walking along the Dartmouth waterfront today, and a train rolled by. A minute or two later, I saw a young family walking with their kids.

    Kid who looked like he was about three: I wannna go, wanna go see where, where the train stops!

    The apparent dad: Uh, that's way down in Eastern Passage.

    Kid: YESSSS!

    Dad: ...we're not walking that.


    I got a kick out of it.

    Civics is not a consumer product that you can ignore because you don’t like the options presented.
  • CelloCello Registered User regular
    Train update:

    ylm28zws4ixb.jpeg
    z60mwf9tc5h3.jpeg
    o6xk2ke4bzrc.jpeg

    Train to Toronto in economy class! I boarded from my neighbourhood station instead of the one downtown. This meant I could basically show up 10 minutes before the train arrived and be confident I wasn't going to miss it

    If I did miss it though, at certain tiers Via will reschedule you to a different train, no fee extra (this has saved me once in the past!). You basically pop on, put your luggage in the big compartment at the front of the train, and then saunter back to your seat

    On the way down we had a newer car, so, individual arm rests and more comfortable headrests! The way back is unfortunately one of the older cars with a single arm rest, but they're at least big enough to not be uncomfortable

    I did get there a little earlier (20 minutes instead of 10) for the return trip because they have you line up at gates at Union Station. I don't really mind though, architecturally the main station is really quite pretty (though the gates are less so these days unfortunately)

    Steam
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  • KnobKnob TURN THE BEAT BACK InternetModerator mod
    I've only ridden a passenger train once. The train stations on either end were underwhelming, but the train ride itself was very nice. Comfy seats, lots of leg room. Not a ton of other people either. Infinitely better than any bus, plane, or subway ride I've had.

    Constantly bummed that our rail infrastructure means riding more trains is basically never an option for me.

  • CelloCello Registered User regular
    They are out of chocolate milk

    Nevermind, trains are bullshit now

    Steam
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  • Kane Red RobeKane Red Robe Master of Magic ArcanusRegistered User regular
    Used to take the Metrolink from Oceanside to Anaheim fairly frequently, very relaxing compared to the drive up the Five.

  • V1mV1m Registered User regular
    Cello wrote: »
    They are out of chocolate milk

    Nevermind, trains are bullshit now

    I miss the days when they would still let you take a bottle of wine to drink on the train.

  • japanjapan Registered User regular
    KEVIN SPEED



    Honestly this sounds awesome, if it works, and you live in France

  • GrisloGrislo Registered User regular
    V1m wrote: »
    Cello wrote: »
    They are out of chocolate milk

    Nevermind, trains are bullshit now

    I miss the days when they would still let you take a bottle of wine to drink on the train.

    Wait, they don't let you bring alcohol on trains where you're from? Then how do you do train drinking?!

    This post was sponsored by Tom Cruise.
  • tynictynic PICNIC BADASS Registered User, ClubPA regular
  • V1mV1m Registered User regular
    Grislo wrote: »
    V1m wrote: »
    Cello wrote: »
    They are out of chocolate milk

    Nevermind, trains are bullshit now

    I miss the days when they would still let you take a bottle of wine to drink on the train.

    Wait, they don't let you bring alcohol on trains where you're from? Then how do you do train drinking?!

    They prefer to sell it themselves. In plastic cups.

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