Photographer Oleg Gordienko captured images of an amazing train tunnel in Ukraine. As you can see from his portfolio at the link, he’s used it as a romantic backdrop for wedding pictures.

Link -via My Modern Met

The daily commute got a lot more interesting recently when life sized lightsaber hand rails that actually light up were installed in Tokyo trains to promote the Star Wars: The Complete Saga DVD release.

If they’d been installed in trains in America’s major cities, they would have been summarily ripped off and sold on craigslist Ebay, so I doubt we’ll see a promotion as cool as this in the U.S. any time soon. Head over to the link to see what Japanese commuters thought of this bold promotional gimmick.

Link -via DesignTaxi

In 1975, Marcia Weber bought a caboose made in 1909. Over the past thirty-six years, she’s gradually turned it into a functional home with indoor heating and plumbing. There are beds, a full kitchen, and even a washer and dryer. See more photos of this amazing home conversion at the link. Link -via Craft | Photo: Marcia Weber

YouTube user BlackMoonCGI took a huge risk parking over railroad tracks. It’s a good thing that he thought of a solution at the last second! -via Doobybrain

Japan has at least two stationmaster dogs, with the latest being a shaggy off-white Akita named Wasao. Already somewhat of an animal celebrity in Japan for his “busa-kawa” (ugly-cute) characteristics, Wasao was the ideal choice to be Tourism Stationmaster of Ajigasawa station in far-northern Aomori prefecture. Get that? TOURISM Stationmaster… they aren’t big on subtlety up in Aomori.

Read about all of them at WebEcoist. Link -via Fark

The Schienenzeppelin, built in Germany in 1930, was a revolutionary locomotive. This streamlined metal tube was pushed by propeller in the rear:

Conceived and built in 1930 by the German rail company Deutsche Reichsbahn, the Schienenzeppelin was a design alternative to the streamlined steam locomotives of its day. It was a slippery, lightweight construction at 20 tonnes, running on but two axles, powered by a 46-liter BMW V12 which was later used to power the light bombers of the Luftwaffe. The engine’s 600 horsepower were channeled into a massive ash propeller, tilted at a 7? angle to produce downforce.[...]

Originally good for 120 mph—comparable to the fastest streamlined steam locomotives—the Schienenzeppelin topped out at a magnificent 140 mph in the summer of 1931, a speed record which stood for 23 years and which has never been surpassed by a gasoline-powered locomotive. Unfortunately, the train never made it into production. Problems with propeller safety and reliability prevented it from attaining mass production and the speed record prototype was dismantled in 1939, on the eve of World War II.

Link | Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Link – Via The Robb Report

The monkeys, aged seven months and three months, were dressed in blue uniforms made from traditional local fabrics complete with mini hats before being formally appointed station masters and “special city residents” by the local mayor.[...]

It is not the first time in Japan that animals have found themselves at the helm of a railway station: Tama, the tortoiseshell cat, is famous in Japan as a longstanding station master of Kishi station in Wakayama prefecture.

Link via The Presurfer | Photo: Kyodo

“The new record of 416.6 km per hour shows that China has achieved a new milestone in high-speed train technologies,” Zhang Shuguang, deputy chief engineer of the Ministry of Railways, was quoted as saying.

The rail service has been largely unsuccessful in attracting customers due to high ticket prices. Its managers hope that this new record will counteract that problem.

Link via Popular Science | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user occam used under Creative Commons license

The six-seater train – made out of garden furniture and salvaged train parts – was powered by an electric motor and even had its own refreshments car in the shape of a crate of beer.[...]

Police however had to call in a helicopter to find and follow the makeshift train as the police cars could not follow it along the tracks.

The helicopter pilot was able to radio ahead to other officers who set up a makeshift barrier at a station to stop it.

Link via Ace of Spades HQ | Photo: Police News

Design Boom has a huge gallery of the most beautiful works of subway station and tunnel architecture across the world. Pictured above is the Solna Centrum metro station in Stockholm, which opened in 1975. Shades of red dominate the artwork of the station, which depicts the social concerns of 1970s Sweden.

Link via Fast Company | Photo: flickr user Erwyn van der Meer, used under Creative Commons license

Photo: Norfolk Southern

Norfolk Southern’s NS 999 electric locomotive runs entirely on 1,080 12-volt batteries and produces 1,500 horsepower. From the company’s press release:

NS 999 is an entirely electric locomotive that uses a lead-acid energy storage system comprised of 1,080 12-volt batteries to operate in railroad switching applications without the use of a diesel engine and with zero exhaust emissions. The plug-in locomotive also can regenerate dynamic braking energy through a system provided by Brookville Equipment Company. The recovered dynamic braking energy continually replenishes the energy storage system, and uses this recovered energy for tractive effort in rail operations. The batteries are carefully monitored and controlled through an elaborate battery management system to assure safety and maximum battery life, and when fully charged NS 999 is able to operate three shifts before recharging is required.

Link via Popular Science

Photo by Russos

No, not Double-Dutch, and not quite Bungee jumping.  The kids these days and their fads- EnglishRussia has an interesting series of pictures of the group rope-jumping craze sweeping the country.

As illustrated above, a group simultaneously jumps from a bridge (as a train bears down on them), clinging to ropes that swing them up towards the other side.  No details on what kind of injuries this involves, but the line tangles don’t look encouraging.

Link

Oobject does it again with another brilliant list comprised of 15 of the world’s most magnificent (and FAST) high speed trains and railways. Simply a must see.

In America, we’re used to driving. In fact, we thrive on it. However, in other countries, high speed rail is a key factor in getting people where they need to be. Some trains in existence can cover an entire country in a matter of hours, while the best we have is Amtrak’s Acela Express, a service that the Japanese and French laugh at for hours on end. Explore the world of high speed railways with us and be sure to vote on your favorite.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by vveneziani.

At 5:54 AM on Wednesday June 14th, 2006 two Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains were involved in a head-on collision.

One of the locomotives had a camera on board that captured the incident. While no one was killed in the incident, the crews in the train with the camera on board were seriously injured.

If you look closely, you can see someone from the other train bailing out shortly before the collision (0:43 in the clip)

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by if.

Our two “translators” (they were about 30-40 years old) then wanted to see our passports. They thoroughly checked our visas and asked for where we were going and for what purpose (I answered by pointing on the Korean word next to the words “Purpose of entry” on my visa…). They asked for our nationality and I had the impression that they initially didn’t exactly understand from what country I was from. I don’t know how Austria is said in Korean language, and they didn’t seem to know the Russian word “Avstriya”. I finally tried to explain by drawing a map and saying that “Avstriya” is “nedaleko” (close) to “Germaniya”…
They sat quite a while with us and asked us also what was our job, what we knew about North Korea, how our media is reporting abouth North Korea, how we think about the United States, whether we have been there or were planning to go there, what we were thinking about Kim Jong Il and so on…of course we answered diplomatically.
However, they were always friendly and we had the impression that they were also very interested to talk with Europeans. Maybe it was the first time in their life they could do that.

The entire site is fascinating for train enthusiasts. If you are only interested in the North Korean part, you can skip ahead. Pictured is the Demilitarized Zone, which they visited from the northern side. Link -via reddit

At Warrington Bank Quay Station in the UK there are designated places for travelers to kiss, and not to kiss.  Taxi drivers complained about kissing couples taking too long in the drop-off zone, so Colin Daniels, the chief executive of the Warrington Chamber of Commerce suggested putting up No Kissing signs to prevent traffic congestion.

So now if you want to kiss, you have to go over to the Kissing Zone, several yards away from the drop-off area.  You can see the BBC News video here.

“It was all a bit of fun. But now Virgin Trains have agreed to put them up as part of the refurbishment. They may seem frivolous but there is a serious message underneath.”

–Colin Daniels, Warrington Chamber of Commerce

Link – via arbroath

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Marilyn Terrell.

Japan has painted a number of their trains with some really amazing anime art, including Pikachu, Doraemon  and the Anpanman one above.

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Employees at the Takashimaya department store in Osaka have created four reproductions of world-famous paintings using 320,000 old train tickets obtained from the nearby Nankai Namba station.

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