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Google co-created video of an entire ride of the Trans-Siberian Railway

103 points by mcantelon 16y ago

ctbarna 16y ago
http://www.google.ru/intl/ru/landing/transsib/en.html http://www.google.ru/intl/ru/landing/transsib/en.html -- in English
polyester 16y ago
Reminds me of this, a 7.5hr video of a train journey across Norway: http://nrkbeta.no/2009/12/18/bergensbanen-eng/ http://nrkbeta.no/2009/12/18/bergensbanen-eng/
- thingie 16y ago
  I watched it entirely. It had a great advantage of being taken from the cab, which is quite different experience from anything you can see from a window of a passenger car (of course, you can get something similar at the other side, but in a modern train, most likely a driving car with another driver's cab (unaccessible) occupies that space, and if not, then there are just quite small and narrow windows in the rear door), especially live. It's worth watching even if you already knew the route as a passenger. On the other hand, it had a disadvantage of Bergensbanen being mostly just a long long row of endless tunnels. Seeing a name of the tunnel, it's length in kilometers and then watching 15 minutes of darkness… isn't quite interesting.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
- huhtenberg 16y ago
  Does anyone know of a similar video of the shinkansen journey between two cities in Japan (presumably Tokyo and Osaka)? I showed my dad this Norway video and he brought up the Japanese one, but couldn't remember the details.
- code_duck 16y ago
  I downloaded that giant video (22gb?) on bittorrent and wouldn't you know it, my file is corrupted!
  - kierank 16y ago
    Rehash it.
forkandwait 16y ago
I think this is fantastic, and I might have to have a minimized version running for the next month.
jasonkester 16y ago
Ah, shame. It's in the wrong direction for me. I did the Trans-Siberian a few years ago, but heading from east to west. This really captures the feel of the thing. It's just like sitting on a train, except for an entire week. Of course, for the full experience, you'll need some Russian businessmen who don't speak any English (but understand a little German+) filling you with inexhaustible quantities of really good vodka and crushing you at chess, and you'll need to step outside for ten minutes each day to buy potato cakes and liter bottles of beer (to dillute the vodka). Highly recommended! (+ Evidently when a group of people keeps repeatedly showing up in your country uninvited every few dozen years, you eventually get to know their language. Hence you can get by pretty much anywhere in Russia if you speak German.)
- d_c 16y ago
  Their knowledge of German would be more likely to be a result of the relationship between the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic. Likewise people that went to school in the former GDR all speak a basic or even advanced level of Russian.
  - jhg 16y ago
    Foreign language was a mandatory class in all Soviet schools. Vast majority of schools taught English, few schools had German and even smaller fraction had French.
    - mahmud 16y ago
      Can't speak for Soviet era, but in Tsarist Russia, French was the status language of the upper classes. The allusions to French influence are everywhere in "Fathers and Sons". The novel itself is a meditation on Russian society at the time, specially the two leading intellectual camps, the established landed gentry and the young nihilists who rejected the status quo. Turgenev subtly highlights their shared francophile elements, both types usually educated in France or French schools, or taught themselves French to absorb Western culture for subversive reasons.
tmsh 16y ago
The 'explore the surroundings' is pretty cool also. Not to nitpick, but it'd be pretty awesome if that was all in the same page. And picasa linked up with youtube, real-time (galleries became available in the same page as you progressed).... It's pretty amazing as it is though.
Jun8 16y ago
This is awesome, I always wanted to make this journey but never had a chance.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
jimmyjim 16y ago
I'll bite: why exactly is the Trans-Siberian Railway so significant and awe-inspiring?
- code_duck 16y ago
  Because it goes across Siberia, and Siberia is a vast wilderness? I don't know, personally, but I suggest you watch the video and come back and tell us.
- thingie 16y ago
  Significant… it is. It's an important transport link for the Russian economy, and not only it, it even carries some exports from the Far East to Europe. Also, it's a major engineering work, even though mostly unrelated to usual hacker news topics, it should make it at least somehow significant and interesting here. Awe-inspiring… well, depends. I don't think that a construction and operating of a 10,000 kms long railway line should be dismissed as something trivial and not worth of any attention.
  - jimmyjim 16y ago
    Ah, okay, that puts things in perspective for me. I think it's maybe because I'm in my early 20s, and grew up near railway tracks that this man-engineered structure's value isn't readily appreciable to me.
    - boundlessdreamz 16y ago
      You will probably appreciate it more if you know of the terrain that the train runs on. Laying down tracks that work in siberia is far far difficult than doing it on say continental US soil
- barrkel 16y ago
  The connectivity of the railway is largely responsible for the string of lights through Russia: http://nightearth.com/index.php?lat=43.961191&lng=80.683594&z=4 http://nightearth.com/index.php?lat=43.961191&lng=80.683... If you consider the artificial light emitted at night to be a proxy for density of wealth and economic connectivity, it seems clear that the railway has had a substantial effect.
elmindreda 16y ago
A week of live Half-Life 2 reference art can't be wrong.
trop 16y ago
So good to see something on the web about the beauty, vastness, and mystery of what is out there, rather than about the cleverness of the project's creators.
johnohara 16y ago
Moscow looks and feels difficult. No doubt my impression is just a small fraction of the real story. I was surprised to see so much graffiti. Made me think about what the Russian people have endured the past 250 years and how strong their resolve to persevere must be. Be interesting to see the same video 10, 25, and 50 years from now.

103 points by mcantelon 16y ago

http://www.google.ru/intl/ru/landing/transsib/en.html http://www.google.ru/intl/ru/landing/transsib/en.html -- in English

polyester 16y ago

Reminds me of this, a 7.5hr video of a train journey across Norway: http://nrkbeta.no/2009/12/18/bergensbanen-eng/ http://nrkbeta.no/2009/12/18/bergensbanen-eng/

thingie 16y ago
I watched it entirely. It had a great advantage of being taken from the cab, which is quite different experience from anything you can see from a window of a passenger car (of course, you can get something similar at the other side, but in a modern train, most likely a driving car with another driver's cab (unaccessible) occupies that space, and if not, then there are just quite small and narrow windows in the rear door), especially live. It's worth watching even if you already knew the route as a passenger. On the other hand, it had a disadvantage of Bergensbanen being mostly just a long long row of endless tunnels. Seeing a name of the tunnel, it's length in kilometers and then watching 15 minutes of darkness… isn't quite interesting.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
huhtenberg 16y ago
Does anyone know of a similar video of the shinkansen journey between two cities in Japan (presumably Tokyo and Osaka)? I showed my dad this Norway video and he brought up the Japanese one, but couldn't remember the details.
code_duck 16y ago
I downloaded that giant video (22gb?) on bittorrent and wouldn't you know it, my file is corrupted!
- kierank 16y ago
  Rehash it.

forkandwait 16y ago

I think this is fantastic, and I might have to have a minimized version running for the next month.

jasonkester 16y ago

Ah, shame. It's in the wrong direction for me. I did the Trans-Siberian a few years ago, but heading from east to west. This really captures the feel of the thing. It's just like sitting on a train, except for an entire week. Of course, for the full experience, you'll need some Russian businessmen who don't speak any English (but understand a little German+) filling you with inexhaustible quantities of really good vodka and crushing you at chess, and you'll need to step outside for ten minutes each day to buy potato cakes and liter bottles of beer (to dillute the vodka). Highly recommended! (+ Evidently when a group of people keeps repeatedly showing up in your country uninvited every few dozen years, you eventually get to know their language. Hence you can get by pretty much anywhere in Russia if you speak German.)

d_c 16y ago
Their knowledge of German would be more likely to be a result of the relationship between the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic. Likewise people that went to school in the former GDR all speak a basic or even advanced level of Russian.
- jhg 16y ago
  Foreign language was a mandatory class in all Soviet schools. Vast majority of schools taught English, few schools had German and even smaller fraction had French.
  - mahmud 16y ago
    Can't speak for Soviet era, but in Tsarist Russia, French was the status language of the upper classes. The allusions to French influence are everywhere in "Fathers and Sons". The novel itself is a meditation on Russian society at the time, specially the two leading intellectual camps, the established landed gentry and the young nihilists who rejected the status quo. Turgenev subtly highlights their shared francophile elements, both types usually educated in France or French schools, or taught themselves French to absorb Western culture for subversive reasons.

tmsh 16y ago

The 'explore the surroundings' is pretty cool also. Not to nitpick, but it'd be pretty awesome if that was all in the same page. And picasa linked up with youtube, real-time (galleries became available in the same page as you progressed).... It's pretty amazing as it is though.

Jun8 16y ago

This is awesome, I always wanted to make this journey but never had a chance.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

jimmyjim 16y ago

I'll bite: why exactly is the Trans-Siberian Railway so significant and awe-inspiring?

code_duck 16y ago
Because it goes across Siberia, and Siberia is a vast wilderness? I don't know, personally, but I suggest you watch the video and come back and tell us.
thingie 16y ago
Significant… it is. It's an important transport link for the Russian economy, and not only it, it even carries some exports from the Far East to Europe. Also, it's a major engineering work, even though mostly unrelated to usual hacker news topics, it should make it at least somehow significant and interesting here. Awe-inspiring… well, depends. I don't think that a construction and operating of a 10,000 kms long railway line should be dismissed as something trivial and not worth of any attention.
- jimmyjim 16y ago
  Ah, okay, that puts things in perspective for me. I think it's maybe because I'm in my early 20s, and grew up near railway tracks that this man-engineered structure's value isn't readily appreciable to me.
  - boundlessdreamz 16y ago
    You will probably appreciate it more if you know of the terrain that the train runs on. Laying down tracks that work in siberia is far far difficult than doing it on say continental US soil
barrkel 16y ago
The connectivity of the railway is largely responsible for the string of lights through Russia: http://nightearth.com/index.php?lat=43.961191&lng=80.683594&z=4 http://nightearth.com/index.php?lat=43.961191&lng=80.683... If you consider the artificial light emitted at night to be a proxy for density of wealth and economic connectivity, it seems clear that the railway has had a substantial effect.

elmindreda 16y ago

A week of live Half-Life 2 reference art can't be wrong.

trop 16y ago

So good to see something on the web about the beauty, vastness, and mystery of what is out there, rather than about the cleverness of the project's creators.

johnohara 16y ago

Moscow looks and feels difficult. No doubt my impression is just a small fraction of the real story. I was surprised to see so much graffiti. Made me think about what the Russian people have endured the past 250 years and how strong their resolve to persevere must be. Be interesting to see the same video 10, 25, and 50 years from now.