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Man Builds His Own Subway
jerryjamesstone writes "Everybody is into rail these days; it is the greenest way to get around next to a bike. Leonid Mulyanchik has been into it for years since before the Berlin Wall fell, since before the first Macintosh, building his own private underground Metro railway system. English-Russia says that he has been doing it with his pension, that it is all legal and approved and that he is still at it. Gizmodo calls it 'Partly the traditional, inspiring, one man against all odds type of persistence, but more the obsessive, borderline insane persistence.'"
Update: 06/02 07:33 GMT by T : And if you're the type to visit Burning Man, you can actually ride a home-made monorail this summer, too.
Remind anyone of The Nite Owl, from Watchmen?
Living With a Nerd
The "greenness" of a train doesn't come close to the "greenness" of a bike. It's not even within an order of magnitude... probably not even within two.
...given the type of construction used and the state of the tools in the tunnel.
"What's the point of going abroad, if you're just another tourist..."
You say it like that's a BAD thing.
I also found it hard to believe this one, too, but at least the Chicago system has a well-documented history. Here there is just a couple photos which clearly indicate very different tunnels, neither of which seems adequate for trains larger than G scale or so; also look at the comments in TFA.
Get off my subway station!
He likes to be called a sandwich artist.
DIGG had the SCOOP on this underground tunnel story... What's it to you?
har har har har har
I doubt anyone who's stood in a British railway station watching a diesel locomotive idling at the platform spewing out black clouds of particulates could really consider them 'green'
Your evidence seems to about on the level of "I know some guy who says ...".
Yes, diesel trains burn diesel fuel, with all the pollution associated with that. The key is that they burn a lot less oil than moving the equivalent amount of stuff via cars and other road vehicles. For the Underground, you're looking at the energy usage of the train versus the energy usage (and other costs) of each person on that train driving their own car.
The health issues are one of the major reasons most major cities make their light rail systems electric rather than diesel.
I am officially gone from
. . . in hearing about my missile silo.
I could tell you that it's the journey, not the destination that matters. I could tell you that after some time you'd be an expert at electronics and would gain so many different valuable skills.
But what would you need skills like that for? It's not in your job description.
...are they monsters?
This guy will at least survive the upcoming nuclear apocalypse, I guess. Should there be any.
I like to think of Digg as a refreshed version of Slashdot without all the bitterness of Linux/OSS diehards lurking in every corner.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
some people single-handedly try to build subways others put weapons on robots. It's all good.
You can't handle the truth.
umm, have you ever been on the underground? and a) seen a diesel locomotive b) an empty train (before around 9pm) c) more than a gap of about 3-4 minutes, if thats not running to capacity, what is?
if you're running trains on a regular basis all day long you can pretty much guarantee that most will be half-empty.
...as opposed to the car, which, based on my observations as a commuter, is typically run 4/5ths empty?
...I'm building my own internet. Yeah. Using whatever I can find, spare copper, terminals, old POS systems, switches, whatever. I don't care that there already is one, and that it will be years behind in technology, I'm just going to do it.
Its not the internet without pr0n. And Goatse. Just saying you got your work cut out for you.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
in soviet russia train builds you!
Not to mention the infrastructure (roads) required to handle the cars.
William “Burro” Schmidt started in 1902 and spent 33 years digging his 2087-foot tunnel through solid rock on Copper Mountain. About all people could get as a reason was that it was a "shortcut."
http://www.desertusa.com/mag05/sep/tunnel.html
~~~~~~~
"You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you." - Atul Chitnis
That's an Israeli comedy by Ephraim Kishon, where a guy digs a canal on a main road in Tel Aviv. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaumilch_Canal
I didn't realize that the Macintosh was as significant an historical milestone as the fall of the Berlin Wall.
It really speaks to how materialistic a society we've become that we define events by the advent of a some product.
Not to mention the fact that one train being maintained by professional mechanics is much, much easier to keep running at peak efficiency that the equivalent number of privately owned cars. Regardless of that the "official" specs are for a car, the average owner isn't a mechanic and is, statistically, well know for not maintaining things like tire pressure, engine tuning, etc. Regardless of whether it's well implemented in the case of London's Underground, if you wanted to improve the situation the first place to do it would be to fix the regular maintenance of the trains rather than add more cars.
Rules of Conduct:
#1 - The DM is always right.
#2 - If the DM is wrong, see rule #1
I could tell you that all of those skills could be acquired in a fraction of the time by checking out a couple good books on electronics from you local library. I could tell you that all of your points are rationalizations to explain away obsessive compulsive behaviors with delusions of grandeur.
But, what would you need reality for. You seem to prefer self delusion.
Rules of Conduct:
#1 - The DM is always right.
#2 - If the DM is wrong, see rule #1
Please, even on old hardware you shouldn't have a problem hosting pr0n, Goatse, and still have plenty of space/bandwidth to host Rick Astley and Tubgirl.
Rules of Conduct:
#1 - The DM is always right.
#2 - If the DM is wrong, see rule #1
Fixes most of the deficiencies of the train and the car.
Uses less than 50% of the energy per passenger kilometer than a train does.
Deleted
Or, you know, a joke.
Is 1563649 a prime number?
Lots of these running under the Gaza-Egyptian border.
Have gnu, will travel.
When I read the headlines, I thought he was building a foot-long sandwich...
And in England we had Fred Dibnah digging a replica coal mine in his back garden.
I doubt anyone who's stood in a British railway station watching a diesel locomotive idling at the platform spewing out black clouds of particulates could really consider them 'green.'
Remember kids: Pollution you can see is 5x worse for the environment than pollution you can't see.
They use diesel on the London Underground?
No
Seriously?
No
Most subways are electric-powered.
So is the london underground.
Heck, most modern commuter trains run off electricity. Third rail, much?
London Underground actually uses a four-rail system. It's one better.
I don't know whether to blame GP for jamming together two discrete concepts (diesel trains and impure subway air) in such a way that a sloppy reader may infer causation, or to blame you for being a sloppy reader ("similarly" != "therefore") and failing to spend five seconds googling to confirm your healthy scepticism instead of spending it posting "Seriously?".
The health issues are one of the major reasons most major cities make their light rail systems electric rather than diesel.
Including London. The GP is, as we say in Britain, talking bollocks. The study comparing taking the London Underground to smoking compared only the mass of the particles in the air -- and the ones in subway tunnels are pretty harmless (dead skin and iron from the wheels/rails).
Diesel trains are still used on some rural routes in the UK, although two of the largest are to be electrified soon (starting this year, IIRC).
I doubt anyone who's stood in a British railway station watching a diesel locomotive idling at the platform spewing out black clouds of particulates could really consider them 'green.'
Remember kids: Pollution you can see is 5x worse for the environment than pollution you can't see.
Especially if it's made up for the shitty tabloid newspapers.
I could tell you that you'd probably retain only 20% of what you read in those books you checked out of the library and in two months time, probably 5%. I could tell you that an expert is someone who's made mistakes, who has bruises to show for his knowledge, and not someone who browsed a book and pondered the problems posed. But, what would you need that information for? You'd just forget anyhow.
Only I can judge you.
Off by an order of magnitude. 26 years x 365 days/year x 1 meter/day = 9490 meters, 9.49 km, or almost 6 miles.
I could tell you that it's the journey, not the destination that matters. I could tell you that after some time you'd be an expert at electronics and would gain so many different valuable skills.
You can tell me what you like; that fact is I already have those skills- and I would yet gain nothing from building my own internet. I think my time would be better spent building something new. Which I in fact am doing.
But what would you need skills like that for? It's not in your job description.
1) You have no idea what my job description is. 2) I do in fact do all these things, and a few more. See above.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
It is only a fallacy from a direct economic standpoint. There's still something to be said for the idea that keeping someone employed will increase (or at least not decrease) his skills needed for a later job, when there's less actual unemployment.
There's also all kinds of social benefits to not having a load of people hanging around all day. See the suburbs of Paris for an example.
Be wary of any facts that confirm your opinion.
That would depend on your car. Mine runs 1/4 to 3/4 empty. I've seen plenty of SUV's that are 7/8 empty. The best I've seen are motorcycles at 1/2 to 0/2 empty. :)
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
I think the meta logic is more interesting... 'emptiness and fullness is a crappy way to compare vehicular efficiency.'
BTW I am building a FTL drive.
There's still something to be said for the idea that keeping someone employed will increase (or at least not decrease) his skills needed for a later job
It's possible to employ someone in making something useful as opposed to destroying something just to make busy-work.
Kudos to this guy for pulling off what many would call an impossible feat. I'm surprised gizmodo had anything good to say, considering they're such trolls I'm amazed anyone frequents their terrible site.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
Who's talking about destroying anything? The OP was talking about moving cargo by bike to battle unemployment. Surely that's useful, in some small way.
Be wary of any facts that confirm your opinion.
Probably more than 3 if you grind them up first.
For what it's worth, when I think of British Rail, I think 'the combination of London Underground and National Rail that permits me to go pretty much anywhere without hiring a taxi.'
As I understand it, it would be far more efficient to burn the fossil fuel to move the cargo than to burn the fossil fuel to grow food to feed to an army of cyclists.
As pointed out by the more rational comments on the story.
1) Its English Russia. Go read the other stories on the site. Now as yourself if its likely to be true.
and
2) Someone posted a link to one of the photos which came from a stock photo service.