Dispatches from the Middle Circle

Swedish Stridsvagn 74 light tanks loading onto railcars

The 74 always looks so tall and narrow, were they at all prone to rolling over?

@amtrak-official

Time for a fun fact: The trains run off linux!

Also nobody has a favorite airline

ドクターイエロー。

Doctor Yellow is going to retire! Nooo! 😭 It's supposed to be good luck to see this yellow train, because it's rare and unpredictable.

Frank Tashlin was a MASTER at demonstrating comedy through parallels and juxtaposition, which was a prominent component of his ‘30s cartoons (much to their success). not only are the music arrangements, typography, and general attitudes different, but the filmmaking too. the first train has lots of fast cuts and dynamic camera angles which makes it feel more sporadic, more energetic, more streamlined and more engaging visually. Porky, on the other hand, is all one long, slow, bloated shot, which feels comparatively and purposefully uninspired and boring.

Women want one thing and it's quite obvious, A large affordable interconnected North American Rail Network

There's a stairway to heaven and a highway to hell, but the midnight train goes anywhere. Trains are clearly the superior transit method.

2014-02-08

THIS 👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻

The point of public transit is that it serves as a public service. Public services should be free and paid for by government fully. The over reliance on fare revenues is one of the key factors in the poor Maintenance and reliability on our systems. Public transit like Metros, Light rails, Trams, Busses and Commuter rails should be free and we shouldn't arrest people for fare evasion

Fun Fact: Amtrak legally has priority over freight trains, the issue is there is no governing body to enforce this and because freight trains have gotten so long, they can't fit on the sidings made for Amtrak trains to pass them, leading to many delays on train travel

this is not a fun fact

Fun Fact: Amtrak can not legally charge freight companies a tax for delays as it is technically a private company despite being government owned

And, if you want to do something useful about these sorts of issues, there is a good advocacy group that works to better train service and for things like enforcing the rules on the freight companies:

Seriously, joining advocacy groups is so important, it's how we fight for a better future

@amtrak-official

Also like, transit doesn't need to make a profit, it creates money by allowing people to move easier. We dump hundreds of billions into the interstates and they have never made a singe cent of money back for us because we know the money created by allowing for the movement of individuals outways the money spent

Hell yeah the US just gave like 8 billion dollars in funding to intercity passenger rail. Including some HIGH SPEED RAIL?!?!?!??

can't overstate how massive this is, i used to work in rail and US trains were so pitifully underfunded that my employer wouldn't even bid on those projects because it wasn't worth the time. This is actually putting us on the level of other countries that invest in transportation as a public service??? And 8 billion? Like this could actually really make some massive change.

@amtrak-official

Yeah, I announced this yesterday and that was one of the most exciting days for US rail in years

hell yeah, here's a source from the department of transportation, dated dec 8

HIGH SPEED RAIL HIGH SPEED RAIL

🚂 | source

Do you guys  remember that one scene in INCEPTION where the train just appears on normal street? ANd people were like OOHH thats so COOL!

Welcome to my hometown where  its just normal…because there is one special railway going like this through the city.. CHOO CHOOO

Imagine not knowing about this and seeing a locomotive in the rear-view mirror

(photos not mine)

Unfortunately the tracks were disconnected in the fall of 2022 so its no longer a thing

Train enthusiasts have to be the most scary yet admirable people there is, they know everything about every single locomotive and railcar in their region/country, down to their date of construction, previous owners, modifications and even color schemes.

It’s like if car enthusiasts could tell you at a glance the entire history of a random car on the road, it’s just fascinating to see how much they can tell you about trains.

Plus they’re the reason why there’s such extensive and well organized catalog of pictures of trains, it’s basically impossible not to find a online image of a specific engine or railcar because of them.

The train fandom is probably the least toxic fandom in the history of the world. I've never met an asshole train enthusiast, they're just so pure and genuine and happy to share their hobby and joy.

My great grandpa used to run a roadside museum with art and antiques, and while I don't know the specifics, one of the attractions was a small mining train engine from the 1800s about the size of a truck. The museum was demolished when I was a kid, but we have most of the attractions still, except for the train because someone pulled up in the middle of the night and stole the freaking train. If I could get pictures from my grandma, do you think someone could identify it?

Post it man, I’m sure someone will be able to tell us its name.

This is the train in question, also the only pic I have of it. I would greatly appreciate some help identifying it or any information. It disappeared around 2008-12 (I was really little and don't remember the details) maybe, in Arizona, although I shouldn't give more details for security reasons, so ask in DMs if u need.

Any train experts that can help us out?

Train enthusiasts have to be the most scary yet admirable people there is, they know everything about every single locomotive and railcar in their region/country, down to their date of construction, previous owners, modifications and even color schemes.

It’s like if car enthusiasts could tell you at a glance the entire history of a random car on the road, it’s just fascinating to see how much they can tell you about trains.

Plus they’re the reason why there’s such extensive and well organized catalog of pictures of trains, it’s basically impossible not to find a online image of a specific engine or railcar because of them.

The train fandom is probably the least toxic fandom in the history of the world. I've never met an asshole train enthusiast, they're just so pure and genuine and happy to share their hobby and joy.

We can all take a lesson from the train hobbyists.