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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.
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..."
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!
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
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.
It reminds me Cray supercomputers creator digging a tunnel under his home where he said he would find solutions to his problems while getting visited by elves ;-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Cray#Personal_life
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
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?
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
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
Well, considering that it seems most people are beginning to forget what communist Russia was like, what Nazi Germany was like, what the holocaust was like (and it wasn't just Jews, although they certainly bore quite a bit of it, it seems)...
It seems that we are tending to brainwash young folk to believe a certain thing about society and people (generally, we're good people, and society is good, and we can all reach peace and happiness if everyone just "gets along." And don't criticize me, either). When certain historical incidents don't match up with that general, nice-feeling idea - such as the holocaust, communist Russia, the Berlin Wall, wars in general, communist China, and many-many-many other bad things that have happened... the tendency seems to be to dismiss those incidents at strange, or consider those people to be somehow ... I don't know, less-highly evolved or something?
In other words, we're beginning to forget the past, because it "doesn't make sense" with what we want to think about ourselves.
Sorta like that electrical-shock game show that they did in France recently? the test, that is... people were "outraged" that the game show made them act that way. Because they KNEW they wouldn't have done those things if it wasn't for the peer pressure and game show situation and all that, but a psychological phenomena occurred where they did it even though they didn't want to! ... right. In my book, being willing to do something due to peer pressure means you don't really think it's all that bad to begin with.
But apparently, we think SO highly of ourselves and think we're above these sorts of bad behaviors, and thus - when shown that that is not true - we blame it on something else. Like ... "society" ("peer pressure" or the "game show" or whatever). Psychologically scarring? Sure. It should be. It should make people realize that they are capable of very bad behavior, and need to remember that and guard against going along with it, just because other people are telling them to.
Lots of these running under the Gaza-Egyptian border.
Have gnu, will travel.
Poor old guy didn't realize they were just after his underpants.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
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).