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Train ferry
- kangnkodos 8y agoIt's time to expand this chart to include trains. https://xkcd.com/2043/ https://xkcd.com/2043/
- kangnkodos 8y agoMaybe add these entries? Train holds car: auto train -> cartrain. Train holds house: sleeper car -> housetrain. Train holds boat: boat carriage -> boattrain. Car holds train: heavy train trailer -> traincar. House holds train: engine shed -> trainhouse. Boat holds train: train ferry -> trainboat. Train holds train: transporter wagon -> traintrain.
- hjek 8y agotraincar is already taken.
- Steltek 8y agoAny chance these will be worth it when NYC is forced to close the Hudson River tunnels?
- devb 8y agoVery doubtful. The NYNJ system is not very high capacity, doesn't have an easy connection to passenger lines in New Jersey, the connecting lines aren't electrified, and would leave passengers in the far south end of Brooklyn.
- crawdog 8y agoPort Costa, CA used to have a train ferry in the gold rush era. If you ever have a chance to visit it's a cool little town. Hidden just south of Martinez in the Bay Area. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solano_(ferry) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solano_(ferry)
- ForHackernews 8y agoI've ridden the train ferry between Sicily and mainland Italy.
- paganel 8y agoThere’s also one in Eastern Turkey on the Van Lake [1], it’s on my to-visit-as-soon-as-possible list [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Van_Ferry https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Van_Ferry
- oh_sigh 8y agoMe too. Rode the train all down the coast from Naples to Taormina in Sicily on the Inter-city. Such an amazing line. Took about 8 hours but totally worth it.
- scottdupoy 8y agoThe Picton ferry between the North and South islands of New Zealand does this too. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interislander https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interislander
- duck 8y agoHad to see this in action: The New York Jersey Rail Car Float Operation from NYC to NJ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWTXrpgYO4Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWTXrpgYO4Y
- leoh 8y agoI have been on a train ferry between Denmark and Germany during trip from Copenhagen to Hamburg. I hadn't looked up the route in advance and it blew my mind. The train just "drove" onto the boat. Then, we could get off and move around on the boat. You could go up on deck and there were a lot of shops.
- Numberwang 8y agoI've been on it many times, didn't really stop to notice it being in any way interesting. The schnitzel on the ferry restaurant on the other hand. mm mm.
- muro 8y agoRostock, I assume on the German side. Took the ferry with my car, was curious about the tracks at the edge of harbour.
- atomwaffel 8y agoI think Puttgarden–Rødby is more likely. It used to be served by diesel ICE trains and it was really fun to ride onto a big old ferry on one of these unusually short ultra-sleek trains, get off the train, walk a lap around it, then go up to the open-air deck and stretch your legs a bit. There’s still a direct Hamburg–Copenhagen connection via that ferry, but it’s now a normal Eurocity.
- warpech 8y agoThere's also the reverse, a boat train: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canal_inclined_plane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canal_inclined_plane. A very old inclined plane makes a nice day trip in Poland.
- keeganjw 8y agoThis world is wonderful.
- warpech 8y agoMore about the inclined plane in Poland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbl%C4%85g_Canal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elbl%C4%85g_Canal (Polish version of this page has more pictures)
- csours 8y agoHow about a bridge for a river? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigable_aqueduct https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigable_aqueduct
- lhorie 8y agoAlso related, lift locks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterborough_Lift_Lock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peterborough_Lift_Lock The Peterborough lift lock tour is pretty awesome, if you're ever in the area. In addition to taking the lift itself, it also goes through the Trent-Severn lock (a smaller, hand-operated lock), and the maria st bridge (a movable bridge that swings sideways to let vessels pass)
- CydeWeys 8y agoIn case you couldn't tell by all the old-timey photos, train ferries are, if not outright obsolete, at least way past their prime. NYC and NJ, for example, used to have hundreds of wharves all along the Hudson and East River for loading and offloading train ferries. They're almost all gone. What killed them? 18-wheel trucks with interchangeable trailers. It turns out it's much easier to handle last-mile distribution using trucks that use bridges and tunnels than to float train cars across rivers. For some related history, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVx59XOZtSA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVx59XOZtSA
- r00fus 8y agoHasn't the standardized shipping container (ie, one container size) over trains also killing the need for train ferries? So migrating from one standard (tracks) to another (container) that encapsulates the previous one?
- NickNameNick 8y agoNot everything fits in the iso container format. Even if it did, you still need to move rolling-stock from one rail system to another from time to time. There's a rail ferry in my city [0], and a couple of link-spans to support rail ferries [1]. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interislander https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interislander [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linkspan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linkspan
- Symbiote 8y agoThe article shows there are several between Scandinavia and continental Europe for freight use. I'd guess they're good for carrying things like wood and ore.
- Gravityloss 8y agoOdd. Since the container is so easy to shift from a vehicle to another, compared to smaller units of transport like barrels or pallets, it should have made multimodal transport more profitable, not less.
- hotcrossbunny 8y agoI'm about 20 years too late, but me and my boys still think it's flipping cool to drive our car onto a train that goes under the sea to France. Love it.
- grahamel 8y agoThere are some great pictures here of the train ferry dock in Dover (UK) http://www.doverferryphotosforums.co.uk/the-dover-train-ferry-dock/ http://www.doverferryphotosforums.co.uk/the-dover-train-ferr...
- antirez 8y agoTrivia: for some reason it is a tradition, when taking the trail ferry between Sicily and Calabria (the one that basically binds the Sicilian island with the remaining of Italy), to eat arancini (stuffed rice balls https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arancini https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arancini) at the bar inside the boat.
- rmason 8y agoThey don't list the SS Badger which run from Ludington, Michigan to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and handles both rail cars and automobiles. I've taken it dozens of times and you can't claim to be a Michigander if you haven't ridden it. https://www.ssbadger.com/ https://www.ssbadger.com/
- ggm 8y agoThe Germany/Denmark one goes past a huge dong/ørsted energy windfarm. Two experiences for the price of one!
- SeaKing1 8y agoA customer of ours pulls trains on barges from Seattle to Alaska. As well as trucks, mining equipment, school busses, fishing boats, etc. It is pretty cool to see the barges stacked tall, and imagine them pulled 1,500 miles to Alaska. The trains drive onto the barge via tracks and are stored underneath the other cargo. Pictures: https://www.alaskarails.org/industries/seattle-dock.html https://www.alaskarails.org/industries/seattle-dock.html
- jonny_eh 8y agoThis was just mentioned in a popular podcast released today called No Such Thing as a Fish. Coincidence? https://overcast.fm/+LJPAHOVYI/19:18 https://overcast.fm/+LJPAHOVYI/19:18
- jontro 8y agoIt'll be interesting to see if the Cuba - US train ferries will be resumed when the "Ongoing embargo" against Cuba is lifted.
- paradoxparalax 8y agoAnd Continental Brazil still doesn't have even one damn thing you can call a passenger's train. It's a Shame. I think the Chinese Railway System will reach Brazil before Brazil even puts one single real passenger's train up...And brazil is almost the size of China...It's unbelievable, and so sad for a brazilian who likes trains. I have spent 2000 hours inside Trains restaurant wagons and smoking area's "wagon-gaps" in China alone, not counting in Europe, and It's so sad to see the state of the passenger's trains in Brazil, It almost makes me cry... :some edited mispelling, some kept.
- paradoxparalax 8y agocan't help with not going a bit on this rant, because it really hurts, so Brazil, please just do like the smart African countries do, let the Chinese bring thousands of workers and then they will go back to spend the Chinese New Year with their families and let a railroad built there, that will work for longer than the lifetime of these workers, and they probably will live longer than what you expect. Come on, there is no point in protecting your workforce if you let your workforce collecting empty cans all day for a dollar to buy the bread of today Anyway!!! You are not protecting anything or any workers, much the contrary, and you still don't get a single working train...It's like Einstein said, there are no limits for Stupidity, indeed...
- dfcowell 8y agoI see you also listen to No Such Thing as a Fish. Anyone who enjoys finding out about this kind of obscure technology, or interesting facts of any kind should give it a listen. It’s up there with 99 Percent Invisible (but far less focused and deep exploration) in terms of interesting, otherwise unlikely-to-discover-organically facts.
- adfm 8y agoSan Francisco’s Pier 43 Ferry Arch is a prime example. Prior to the Golden Gate Bridge and the post-war boom, it quite literally fed the city and surrounding area. The Embarcadero “E” line runs on the old Belt Railroad that connected to Pier 43. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pier_43_Ferry_Arch https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pier_43_Ferry_Arch https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Belt_Railroad https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Belt_Railroad
- wyxuan 8y agoThis is another duplicate from a few weeks ago. I believe many of the commentators talked about how it was nice to see them still in use in parts of Europe and Australia.