Now where's that guy on our forum that loves to show those pics off the sides of bridges? In fact, IIRC, there was a forum on guardrails on bridges (and the lack of) that he showed some neat way-down shots. It really is something to get to look straight down off teh sides and see stuff way below you. Quite a feeling.
I've been over 3 of the 12 lines in the pic series and didn't find anything scary about any of it. Back in the '60's I did a lot frieght riding while going to school at the U. of MT in Missoula. On one trip I was on top of a bulkhead flat loaded with Celotex, taking movies of our head end on the other side of a horseshoe curve. Crouching on my haunches and with the camera to my eye and concentrating on the F units in front, I wasn't aware of what was going on under my car. All of a sudden the car started to rock a lot more than normal, so I looked down -- and found myself on top of a rocking car going around a curved trestle about 200' above the ground! I sat down in a hurry!
The scariest roads I've been on (not including some REALLY narrow logging roads), is coming up the east side of the Sierra's just north of Yosemite and back again -- on both roads north of the park. Coming UP out of NV the road was really narrow and had me in 2nd gear (out of 5). There was NO ground cover except for scatterd sagebrush, and when you got to a switchback, all you could see over the hood was sky and the tops of few roadside weeds. It was about 1,000 feet to the bottom if you missed the turn -- not a good thing to do. I went really slow. Flatlanders would have brown pants! Believe it. I've been in some pretty steep country and never was scared, but those 2 roads were probably the scariest I've seen.
None of them look like they would hold a candle to the Alpine Tunnel route of the D.S.P.&P.
Specifically, the 'bar scene' in the Mos Eisley Cantina in the "pirate city" of Mos Eisley on the planet Tatooine, no doubt . . .
- PDN.
A couple of years before the first theatrical release of the George Lucas film Star Wars, I rode Amtrak coach-class from Oakland to Los Angeles. The bizarre-looking, strangely-dressed, unbelievably rude passengers and "Hollywood Wannabees" who each had their own private agendas - and didn't care who they offended - made for one scary trip.
After I first saw Star Wars, I later came to realize that perhaps those folks and the extra-terrestrials that were on board the train that day may have served as an inspiration for some of the movie characters Mr. Lucas created.
West of Sydney Australia there is a tourist ride that is on rails and descends at about 70 degrees or so. You are nearly standing up when you lean back in the car. I rode it and it was quite a rush. I think it was once used for some mining operation and is on the side of a nearly vertical slope.
Modeling the "Fargo Area Rapid Transit" in O scale 3 rail.
Scary is in the mind of the beholder. I've been over stretches of railroad in several countries which would make a mountain goat consider alternate routes, and have wished that I could ride on others that I've visited pictorially. Every time, my feeling was, "I'm glad I didn't have to build this!" I was never uncomfortable about my own safety.
OTOH, there are some motor vehicle routes in mountainous terrain that had me making buttonholes in my seat cushion as both driver and passenger...
Chuck
Hello everybody,
this is what I read on AOL a month or so ago. What do you all think? These rides sound fun and interesting.
http://travel.aol.com/travel-ideas/galleries/scariest-train-rides?ncid=AOLCOMMtravdynlprim0704&icid=webmail|wbml-aim|dl6|link3|http%3A%2F%2Ftravel.aol.com%2Ftravel-ideas%2Fgalleries%2Fscariest-train-rides%3Fncid%3DAOLCOMMtravdynlprim0704
Frank
"If you need a helping hand, you'll find one at the end of your arm."
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