Theoretically speaking, if I was an entrepreneuring billionaire and I wanted to bring back one of the great American passenger trains (Super Chief, California Zephyr, Panama Limited, Empire Builder, City of Los Angeles/San Francisco, 20th Century Limited, Broadway Limited, Powhatan Arrow, Coast Daylight, etc.) to run on a regular basis (let's put it at at least two times a month for a start), which option would be more feasible from an economic/technical/legal perspective?
1. Acquire all of the surviving rolling stock (sleepers, dining cars, dome/observation cars, baggage cars, etc.) from the original consist from private owners, heritage railways, and museums, as well as matching surviving locomotives (can be from ones different railroads since thousands of functionally and aesthetically identical EMD F and E units were sold to all Class I railroads). Renovate them as necessary to make them FRA-compliant, obtain waivers wherever possible. Put them into service as a part-luxury train, part-mobile museum.
2. Commission the construction of a replica consist. Building entirely new streamlined cars from scratch, designed to match the internal and external appearance of its original as much as possible, with changes only being made when it's literally required to make the car FRA-compliant/modern user friendly (updated wiring, HEP, power outlets at seats, WiFi support, replacing wooden paneling with MDF paneling etc.). Motive power consists of custom-built Siemens Chargers designed to resemble the original E and F units (streamlining, bulldog noses, matching paint schemes, etc.) as much as legally possible.
Is riding on top end groupsets if you're not a top end cyclist stolen valor? Or is this sour grapes?
What groupset would you ride if you could get any groupset you wanted for free, but when/if you sold the bike you would have to price it as whatever groupset you ride now. That is, if your financial circumstances were no different and you were subject to the same "rules" as you currently as in terms of other people judging (because we all know unlimited wealth begets shamelessness), what do you choose?
These faggots should be strictly restricted to class F airspace, with well defined dimension and NEVER EVER LEFT OUT, sick and tired of avoiding them. Yesterday while flying a personal Cessna 310 from a buddy of mine and 3 weeks ago on the Dash 8 with the small airliner I fly for. >23 year old co pilot
Why are trainheads so obsessed with the arbitrary distinction of "high speed rail"? Especially in America where we barely have any passenger rail in the first place. Sure it would be nice to have trains that go fast, but wouldn't you rather first have any trains at all? Insisting that all new passenger rail be "high speed" just makes it exponentially more expensive to build and less likely that anything will ever happen. See picrel.
When I visited Vancouver Island I noticed almost all major towns and cities exist on an almost straight line along the coast. I also noticed train tracks along the highway pretty much all the way from south to north. Looking it up, Wikipedia says the railroad service has been suspended due to poor conditions. Why won't the Canadian government restore the infrastructure and invest in a high-speed rail network? Traffic wasn't too bad when I drove there but I imagine a decent railroad would massively cut travel times between cities, potentially making it the better option for commuters. Especially if it can be made affordable. BC is basically China already, maybe they can import some Chinese bullet trains too.
>*combines the aggressive solipsistic entitlement of an exurban helicopter parent SUV karate lessons karen with the sanctimonious humblebrag better-than-you instagram mentality of a childless upper middle class urbanist in your path (literally in your path because it's in your physical path being as expensive and space-hogging as an actual car, while being as slow and annoying and needy and pointless and "look at me" as a dutch bike, in everyone's path) in your path* >*heh, nothin' personnel kid, as in, look at these kids of mine that I am effectively using as human shields, so give me everything in return for nothing or you're a monster and I will have you cancelled for not buckling immediately and catering to my massive sense of entitlement, kid* When did cargo bikes go from being a crusty, get-it-done, no-nonsense niche improvised delivery tool for reasonable humans, to being the single most punchable conspicuous consumption fashion accessory in the history of wheels?
Also, cargo bikes hate thread, and yes I took my meds thanks for the reminder though
A few years ago people starting referring to certain China wheelsets as not just "the best Chinese wheels" or "the best budget wheels" but simply "the best wheels". This year, Winspace released the T1600, a CDM (Chinese Domestic Market) product that costs more than a Madone or a Tarmac. It's UCI approved right out of the box (though you may need to tape some lead weights to it to get it to pass the weight restrictions). Western buyers need not apply, though they no doubt will try.
Western brands were folding right and left before the iron curtain 2.0 was raised, now the "tiro de gracia" has been fired and big companies like Trek are going to go bankrupt because their supply chains have been cut off by Import Substitution Industrialization, a popular third world development tactic pioneered by visionaries like Pinochet and Galtieri.
Is this the end of the western bike era? Will tomorrow's dentists settle for nothing less than Chinese bikes on 100% Chinese groupsets?
