Buy a train, bridge or tracks from the Swiss Railway
133 points - last Monday at 9:05 AM
Sourcemplanchard
today at 12:29 PM
You can pay Amtrak to haul your train car around[0], so you’ve just got to figure out a way to get the car from Switzerland to the US, and then you can really get around in style.
[0]: https://www.amtrak.com/privately-owned-rail-cars
voidUpdate
today at 12:38 PM
Make sure you get one that matches American gauge and isn't one of the the meter gauge mountain trains
gauge is likely easy to change. Not cheap, but Amtrak demands expensive inspections and refurbishment to run, so the cost of changing the gauge is likely fairly small compared to the other costs.
Off topic, but some trains can even change gauge while in motion: https://www.reddit.com/r/trains/comments/kq6eds/this_is_how_...
This is actually quite a significant technical achievement - for example, a similar project in Japan failed.
Japanese Railways wanted to build a train that can run at full speed (~300 km/h) on the standard gauge (1435 mm) regular Shinkansen lines but also use the narrow gauge (1067 mm) existing lines at slower speed. Those older lines would not have to be rebuilt for the Shinkansen standard & there would still be significant time savings:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauge_Change_Train
This failed to produce a viable train, resulting in falling back to track rebuilds or using relay trains that connect directly from Shinkansen to the local rail line on the same platform.
jeffrallen
today at 3:30 PM
Swiss trains can, but while stopped.
There's a station on the main line that loads full sized cars with tanks on them onto little bougies that take them up into the mountains for training.
Swiss train can do it in motion, the post above is about the MOB train that can go from Montreux (meter gauge) to Interlaken (standard gauge).
user_7832
today at 1:50 PM
Not sure if it directly helps here, but multi gaage railway cars are a thing. Iirc on some European lines, the trains switch their gauge.
Yeah some overnight trains can adjust their gauge on the France/Spain border.
On the China/Mongolia border on the other hand they disassemble the train, lift the train cars up one by one (with passengers inside), switch out the boogies and then reassemble. 3 hour process, you can fully sleep through it and not notice.
lostlogin
today at 6:11 PM
If it’s taking 3 hours on a passenger train, a 5-10 minute transfer seems vastly more efficient.
It’s possible in The Netherlands to charter a private train. I have seen large companies do this for a company retreat. It’s not even that expensive. I remember it being €5000/hour which isn’t a bad way to move 300 employees to the other side of the country.
All European railway operators are legally required to offer this, by the way: it's an open market, so (provided there is physical space) they have to allow anyone to run their own train. Normally this means freight trains, but it also means companies like FlixTrain can attempt to compete with the large national train operators - and of course it allows for one-off charters.
The only downside is that preference is given to regularly scheduled services, and the remaining space is first-come-first-serve, so on the busier routes there's a decent chance you'll have to take a large detour instead, or sit in a siding waiting for a while.
kortilla
today at 12:32 PM
Is there someone that does this frequently with a breakdown in costs and their experience? This sounds lit as a goal for an eccentric millionaire.
dabluecaboose
today at 1:34 PM
There are clubs[1][2] of owners, and they'll generally rent them out to people. We looked into doing it for my bachelor party. Unfortunately, the cost is akin to renting a yacht for the same amount of time (On the order of thousands per day, minimum), so we quickly shelved that plan for an AirBnB.
[1] https://www.aaprco.com/
[2] https://www.rpca.com/
fineIllregister
today at 1:00 PM
I don't have personal experience, but I've heard it's not viable. The biggest issue is that Amtrak offers the service on a "best effort" basis, which means that if the train you want to hook up to is running late (which this frequently are due to conflicts with cargo traffic), they won't hook your car up, and you have to wait for the next train, which also might not be able to hook you up.
There are a few clubs that have cars that do this for a club outing. Members pay a small amount of dues, but the largest cost is labor - you are expected to help rebuild their cars. Most of the club money seems to come from renting the cars out.
The above is what I gather from reading their websites. However there is no club close enough to me for joining to be reasonable and so I didn't verify the above.
mplanchard
today at 12:40 PM
If I ever get to be a millionaire, it’s certainly on my list!
Buy a house first - then make another 20 million, then maybe consider this haha
kirubakaran
today at 3:56 PM
"Mark, do you have live quite so relentlessly in the real world?"
-- Jeremy, Peep Show
Someone should definitely forward this to Kim Jong Un, maybe they also make a custom armored version.
I just want the clocks. Mondaine tries, but they aren't the same. That 58.5 second rotation then pause is quite clever.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_railway_clock
hydrogen7800
today at 1:40 PM
After my first visit to Switzerland, I knew I needed one of those clocks for my home. Unfortunately the ones available are cheap (though expensive) and don't have the second hand dwell at the top of each minute.
Levitating
today at 2:18 PM
I always thought I was just imagine a pause at the full minute.
jeffrallen
today at 3:32 PM
Wait for it, wait for it... Click.
Aaaah.
game_the0ry
today at 1:48 PM
The central clock dependency is cool, but I wonder is there were any problems with latency -- like does the centralized electrical impulse reach a train station 10km away and another one at 20km at the same time? Did they factor that in?
Isn't that propagating with around the speed of light? Switzerland is only about 1 light ms wide so even if they only have one master clock instead of one per train station the latency should be negligible especially in the 1950s.
The speed of light is copper wires is fast enough that you don't need to factor this in. At least not for human purposes.
madaxe_again
today at 1:57 PM
I know the Swiss are known for punctuality and timekeeping, but I don’t think anyone is going to notice a 33μs delay to their train.
A similar option is available in North America (1).
Very niche, and it’s run by Larry Paikin, 93-year-old father of legendary Canadian journalist Steve Paikin.
(1) http://www.locomotives.ca
Curse you. Now I have a new objective in life.
For those of this persuasion in the Montreal area we have https://exporail.org
tacostakohashi
today at 12:49 PM
What a charming little website!
If I was filthy rich, I'd buy a plot of land near a railway line (that is at least attached to the main lines), build my own siding, and buy one of DSB's IC3 MUs[0], maybe also an IR4 MU[1], so they can together ride on electrified and non-electrified tracks. Then refurbish their interior, install as many signal compatibility systems, and, for the IR4, have it support as many overhead voltage systems as possible. I have a soft spot for the MF/ER class trains.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSB_Class_MF
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSB_Class_MF#IR4_%22InterRegio...
That is exactly how the Halton County Railway Museum near Toronto came to be. A bunch of dudes bought an old streetcar (tram) to save it from the scrappers and built a track on some property to have fun driving it around. https://hcry.org/
I have 13 acres. My dream is to have a homebuilt rail system around the land. Probably can't afford professional stuff so I'll have to get creative.
Most people do this as part of a club. You join the club and combine everyone's money to buy the things needed, and then everyone in the club can enjoy it.
embedding-shape
today at 5:23 PM
"Clubs" as a thing is such a great concept, and if you feel like there is some humanity missing because of all the things going on, they're real places with lots of humans and humanity in them. They work great for lots of things, from trains, computing, music to boats, puppets, gardening and whatever else. If there is no club where you live, you'll surely find at least one other member if you start it yourself :)
AnimalMuppet
today at 12:46 PM
Or maybe donate it to the Illinois Railway Museum (irm.org) so that they could run it for more people than just yourself.
user_7832
today at 1:55 PM
If we're doing hypotheticals, why not both?
999900000999
today at 1:54 PM
If I was rich I’d go to a small town in a developing country and create a monorail. I’d buy up a 4km by 4km plot of land and create a car free city ( aside from emergency vehicles).
Free public transport, bikes and shoes for everyone
stevekemp
today at 6:06 PM
I've sold monorails to Brockway, Ogdenville, and North Haverbrook, and, by gum, it put them on the map!
kylehotchkiss
today at 4:57 PM
Mumbai has a Monorail.
How has that worked out?
panick21_
today at 2:09 PM
Monorails suck and are properity garabage. Is a recepy for bad transit at increase cost.
This. The general concept of "terrible public transport tech disguising as a good & novel idea" has a name: gadgetbahn.
Some things are actually interesting and useable (as kinda normal human being, without the need for a new bridge or train)
thazework
today at 4:10 PM
thought these would be NFTs but i guess we're not in 2021
PeterStuer
today at 1:45 PM
Unfortunately no HO scale, so that's a pass for me.
kylehotchkiss
today at 4:56 PM
Wow CA HSR should just buy these and put them down between the lanes of the 5.
voidUpdate
today at 12:37 PM
Is it pickup only, or do they deliver as well?
They can likely arrange delivery for a fee, you would need to ask.
MrBuddyCasino
today at 1:03 PM
When SBB has a bridge to sell you, you should pick it up in person.
When London Bridge was sold in the 1960s it was also on the buyer to pick it up from its original location and transport it to the US
I remember the day I decided to finally go see the London Bridge and I drove over it three times trying to find it.
hydrogen7800
today at 1:49 PM
I have to look this up each time I am reminded of it, to make sure it's not some absurd urban legend.
garyfirestorm
today at 12:28 PM
Do they ship internationally
DubiousPusher
today at 3:12 PM
If you're in the US and this excites you, you'll probably enjoy GSA auctions.
https://gsaauctions.gov/
I came quite close to buying a tube carriage a couple of years ago but it was slightly too long for where I wanted to put it.
classified
today at 1:49 PM
Holy fuck, they do have a bridge to sell you. Although it's only available from 2027-04-01. April fools?
It's available from 2027-04-01 to 2027-05-01, so basically deconstruction will be done during April. The bridge seems to be legit from 1876. Local news says they'd rather sell it to someone for cheap to support circular economy than throw it into the trash. https://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/sbb-verkauft-historische-brueck...
You might be able to make a good deal here, buy a bridge for 100 bucks.
But please note that the bridge will be available without the guard rail / fence, parts of the concrete might be missing, and the rust proofing needs a refresh!
kylehotchkiss
today at 4:58 PM
Do you think the Swiss have time for April fools?