[HN Gopher] Bentley Railbike (2000)
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Bentley Railbike (2000)
Author : Kaibeezy
Score : 118 points
Date : 2021-06-14 09:34 UTC (13 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (rrbike.freeservers.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (rrbike.freeservers.com)
| CalRobert wrote:
| This website makes me happy and brings warm fuzzy feelings like
| opening an old book I haven't looked at for decades. And then
| this " 471259 potential RAILBIKERS have enjoyed this ADIRONDACK
| site since 10 MARCH 2000. "
|
| A webcounter! Echoes of a more fun web.
| mmsc wrote:
| Why in 2021 are websites not available over https?
| relyks wrote:
| Looking at the source, it appears the website hasn't been
| updated since 2014... for a possible reason, that could be one
| g105b wrote:
| It doesn't look like this site was made anywhere near 2021.
| thomasedwards wrote:
| I love that you looked at this website, saw its <table> layout,
| saw the copyright was the year 2000, saw the images with
| terrible drop shadows, the freeservers icon in the top, and
| thought "uh, weird this isn't https".
| defaultname wrote:
| More likely they have HTTPS-only on so it turns into a error
| condition. Thankfully such sites are rare now.
|
| Aside: Paul Graham's blog that is frequently front-paged on
| here doesn't support HTTPS. That has always seemed odd.
| tialaramex wrote:
| I too have HTTPS-only set, it's interesting what isn't
| HTTPS in 2021.
|
| http://www.open-std.org/ is the site that maintains lots of
| documents for the Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1.
|
| Historically both ISO and the IEC worked on IT standards.
| But obviously it's no good if there's an ISO international
| standard for how to encode the letter 'A' as binary data
| _and_ a separate IEC standard for how to do it. In the best
| case this is pointless duplication of effort (these are
| international standards groups, every country is ultimately
| involved) and in the worst case they diverge and there 's
| actual conflict, defying the purpose of standardization.
| So, the Joint Technical Committee does work on this
| intersection on behalf of both IEC and ISO.
|
| Now, the importance of these standards to everybody means
| it certainly can be argued that the site must remain
| forever accessible to those _without_ HTTPS but it 's hard
| to think of any reason to just not implement HTTPS at
| all...
| Ashanmaril wrote:
| It's not even written in React!
| klyrs wrote:
| Now I want a side by side tandem. Not that I could ride it
| anywhere near where I live...
| brnt wrote:
| Ride one from the comfy seat behind your desk!
| https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=PRN-railfilm
| dandellion wrote:
| I clicked the link expecting a larger contraption like those
| paddle boats but with a small desk, so I can take a relaxing
| ride through the countryside while I work remotely on my
| laptop.
| moftz wrote:
| Get one of those under-the-desk bike peddle exercise machines
| and play the video on a TV in the background.
| codeulike wrote:
| The pictures are great
|
| http://rrbike.freeservers.com/Railbikes_and_Railbiking_Pictu...
|
| So nice that these old handmade sites are still around
| codeulike wrote:
| I emailed the chap who runs the site and got a reply! He said
| he simply hasn't updated the site for a while because he's been
| busy doing other things. Great to know he's still keeping busy
| : )
| JKCalhoun wrote:
| The videos are even more impressive. For reasons known only to
| Google, 'rail bike' videos swarmed my YouTube feed a few years
| back. There are some stunning shots of going over trestles --
| GoPro held at arms length over the edge.
| Milner08 wrote:
| Reminds me of the bamboo train in Cambodia. Pretty cool.
| jnsie wrote:
| That is one old-school website. Brought back some fun memories!
| trhway wrote:
| DYI with a bike motor used as a local mode of transportation on
| Russian abandoned railways.
|
| https://youtu.be/M9O1h_PtAo8?t=89 - in this specific case that is
| the only transportation connecting a remote (20 miles) village
| with a town where minimal services are available.
| nicoburns wrote:
| That looks not far off being a community run train!
| throwawinsider wrote:
| Russians response to anything: Can we put a motor to that?
| [deleted]
| kleton wrote:
| Also in the movie Stalker
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rk1PxpZ-hfE
| eCa wrote:
| In similar vein, there's this[1] cool looking thing in Germany.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luttmoorsiel-
| Nordstrandischmoo...
| xwdv wrote:
| Is there a motorcycle version?
| taneq wrote:
| I think it's called a "train"? :P
| caturopath wrote:
| It only becomes a train when there's multiple things in a
| row.
| [deleted]
| avasylev wrote:
| Different design, but in the same spirit there's company in
| upstate NY doing railbike tours https://www.revrail.com/
| philk10 wrote:
| and one that does 4 locations, I did the one in Rhode Island a
| couple of years ago, it was fun - https://www.railexplorers.net
| jerrysievert wrote:
| those are similar to the rail bikes in Oregon:
| https://ocrailriders.com
|
| unfortunately, this particular one is closed, but there are
| others in the state.
| leugim wrote:
| what if the real train comes?
| exporectomy wrote:
| From the pictures, it looks like it has plastic guide wheels
| but if it were conductive to short out the two rails, it would
| activate the signals and any trains will be stopped before they
| reach you.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| Do not _ever_ rely on this sort of safety mechanism. There
| are also systems in use that rely on axle counters and
| bookkeeping - basically, on each block they count the
| incoming and the outgoing axles. When your draisine now is
| either too lightweight to trigger an axle counter or you set
| it on the rails in the middle of a block, the ops central won
| 't know you are there.
| exporectomy wrote:
| Never knew about axle counters. In the UK, they use a
| jumper cable to stop trains in an emergency.
| Symbiote wrote:
| Even simpler, there are systems that use a physical token.
|
| To proceed into a section of track, the train driver/guard
| must physically possess an object, typically handed over at
| a station just before the section, and returned just after.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Token_(railway_signalling)
| bananapear wrote:
| Or another Railbike travelling in the opposite direction?
| viraptor wrote:
| Then you stop, take one off the rails and swap positions.
| robin_reala wrote:
| If it's like the ones I've been on, you either lift them off
| the rails, or if you're just hiring them, sometimes just both
| turn yours the other way and swap.
| PhasmaFelis wrote:
| One of you gets off the track to allow the other to pass.
|
| A normal bicycle can be lifted in one hand. This looks more
| unwieldy but not too much heavier. It shouldn't be hard.
|
| (If two riders are both so oblivious that neither sees the
| other coming from at least a quarter-mile off, they deserve
| to crash.)
| queuep wrote:
| The ones I've rode look like these[0], so in case they are
| running in different directions, you can easily lift up the
| one side with just one wheel on both vehicles, and then just
| push them. Simple and not a heavy lift either.
|
| [0] https://hemomkringvandring.se/wp-
| content/uploads/2020/06/IMG...
| evanb wrote:
| Obviously you must stick to the schedule to allow for passing
| of oncoming or overtaking rail traffic at sidings.
| Kaibeezy wrote:
| Definitely an issue with personal rail travel, whether from
| the opposite direction or an unclearable traffic jam in the
| same direction, and whether two rails or mono.
|
| See also: Shweeb - https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/shweeb-
| how-new-zealands-hy...
| robin_reala wrote:
| Direct quote from the site:
|
| _ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND, you should use railbikes ONLY on
| ABANDONED lines!!_
| FridayoLeary wrote:
| Sounds like the disclaimer they use when selling
| e-scooters... ("this is not for the road etc.")
| robin_reala wrote:
| These are pretty common in Sweden: they're called _dressin_ here,
| which, as is usual for a lot of Swedish words, comes from the
| French. In English it's draisine:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draisine
|
| If you're in Skane I can recommend Romeleasens Dressincykling:
| https://www.dressincykling.se/english/
| viraptor wrote:
| The more permanent, tourist ones are also becoming more common
| in Poland. https://poland.pl/tourism/active-leisure/draisine-
| trips-thro... Similar name is used.
| nkingsy wrote:
| Ha I rode something like this with 2 stroke motors involved
| in Colombia. Everyone just jumps off and removes the car when
| another is coming in the other direction.
| zihotki wrote:
| I doubt it's coming from French since initial invention was
| made in Germany. It's Draisine in Engligh, French, German, and
| in many languages it's called similarly, sometimes with little
| spelling deviations.
| prennert wrote:
| Correct. Wikipedia says it was named after the inventor Karl
| Drais who invented the dandy horse, the predecessor to the
| bicycle. Interestingly, he did not invent the Draisine on
| rails, though, just another mode of transport that in some
| ways is very similar.
| BeniBoy wrote:
| I was a bit confused at first since in French, the word
| "Draisienne" is used for the dandy horse itself. But
| apparently Draisine is also in use in French (first time I
| heard about it, native speaker). You learn new things
| everyday !
| nimbius wrote:
| I have to wonder, what is the scale of a train in Sweden? here
| in the states the vast majority of our locomotives are
| dedicated solely to freight.
|
| Speaking from experience having worked on locomotive engines in
| the past, the sheer magnitude of US rail is difficult to
| comprehend. a fully loaded freight train can weigh north of
| 20,000 tons (18.14 million kilos). They can often times be
| nearly 2 (3.2km) miles long. and heres the reason "rail bikes"
| are illegal in the US:
|
| they can take more than a mile (1.6km) to stop.
| eCa wrote:
| As far as I know, the heaviest trains in Sweden run on the
| Iron Ore line[1]: "68 cars long and weigh 8600 tonnes".
|
| I would surprised if rail bikes are allowed on any 'live'
| track anywhere in the EU.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Ore_Line
| BBC-vs-neolibs wrote:
| Railbikes only go on tracks no longer used for regular
| traffic.
| dang wrote:
| Sorry for the offtopicness but we don't have your email. I
| just saw https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26721647.
| Since your comments have mostly been fine since we banned
| you (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26649016), I'd be
| happy to reinstate your account. However, I think the
| username is a bit too trollish. It's not extreme of course,
| but the audience here is large enough that even small troll
| effects can cause major weirdness. If you want to pick a
| different username, we can change it for you and unban the
| account.
|
| https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comm
| e...
|
| https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&so
| r...
| intrasight wrote:
| I recall researching those about 30 years back. And reading that
| they are explicitly outlawed in the US.
| maire wrote:
| They are not outlawed - but pretty expensive. I imagine you are
| paying for use of the rail.
|
| Check out the Skunk Train rail bikes in Fort Bragg California.
| https://www.skunktrain.com/railbikes/
| maire wrote:
| Here is a discussion of the price. It turns out they raised
| the price by 500%!
|
| https://www.abc10.com/article/news/local/sacramento/railbike.
| ..
| stakkur wrote:
| I'm embarassed to admit I thought this would be a bike that moved
| at the speed of a railgun.
| moftz wrote:
| And I thought it was going to be an old rail bike design from
| Bentley, the car manufacturer.
| CalRobert wrote:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20210609122054/http://rrbike.fre...
| app4soft wrote:
| Thanks!
| nchudleigh wrote:
| I love this website.
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(page generated 2021-06-14 23:01 UTC)