An invisible train is set to be on Japanese tracks by 2018, in an effort to blend the carriages into the landscape.
The train sports a semi-reflective surface which gives the illusion of invisibility when it is speeding across the countryside.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/04/12/invisible-trains-to-speed-through-japan/
Hey, I've got a name for it!
"The Silver Sausage!"
Seriously though, how do you railfan an invisible train?
Will crossing accidents or pedestrian/MOW worker fatalites go up, since no one can see it coming?
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
An invisible North American train Haiku:
Cross buck crossing
Black coal cars in black of night
Car beneath crushed a terrible sight
Will Claude Rains be the engineer?
Good one Chuck, wish I'd thought of it!
After all the efforts the FRA has been making to make trains MORE VISIBLE in this country.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Just guessing here, but I wonder if this camouflage was done in response to complaints about seeing the trains by the folks it passes by.
I don't see where this would be a problem on a dedicated, crossing-free ROW.
What's needed is a system that will make the train "invisible" when there's no crossing danger, but very visible when needed.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Klingon cloaking device, Version 2.0
Won't need help at keeping crossings and foul zones clear, phasers and photon torpedos should do the trick.
How would you even know you had an invisible train? How did Wonder Woman know she had an invisible airplane? (didn't see that one coming, did ya?)
Use a polarizing filter when photographing the invisible trains.
Victrola1 Use a polarizing filter when photographing the invisible trains.
Semper Vaporo
Pkgs.
Would you board an invisible train through an invisible door? OUCH, THAT HURT!
Norm
BOB WITHORNSo how would you find the invisible door on the invisible train?
The invisible man knows.
(The Shadow do.)
Only the outer shell is invisible - once the doors open, you can see inside the cars... (Thanks, Megamind)
Since it's Japan, you won't have to look. Just queue up along the lines painted on the (high) platform and the door will open right in front of you.
Then some dude in a black uniform will pack you in with the rest of the sardines...
Chuck (remembering Shinjuku)
mudchickenKlingon cloaking device, Version 2.0 Won't need help at keeping crossings and foul zones clear, phasers and photon torpedos should do the trick.
If it's version 2.0, I'd expect it to be not only a cloak, but a phase. So the train would pass right through cars at crossings.
Ok, I'll stop.
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
Was this built for Wile E. Coyote by the ACME company?
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
Murphy SidingWas this built for Wile E. Coyote by the ACME company?
No, that would probably involve gravity, rather than optics.
Yeah, Good ol' Wile E. never seemed to understand the Gravity of any situation.
Semper VaporoYeah, Good ol' Wile E. never seemed to understand the Gravity of any situation.
Oh, he came to understand it QUITE well, in time... he just never figured out how to bribe Chuck Jones the way Bugs did with Daffy, to get the Acme gravity 'un-fixed'...
At first I thought the date of this news item was likely to be April 1.
Tom
ACYAt first I thought the date of this news item was likely to be April 1.
That would more likely have been for the inflatable train...
although it still has to be said that no railfan April Fool's joke yet has quite come up to the standards of the Strasburg Railroad pinball special story ... oh, wait...
Forgot that Chevy Chase could be a passenger.
ChuckCobleigh Will Claude Rains be the engineer?
Don't let the Invisible Man near visible trains. (01:58 into video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFtbiFgaAiM
RME- Strasburg Pinball... say what?
54light15 RME- Strasburg Pinball... say what?
http://www.strasburgrailroad.com/on-the-train/cars/pinball-pendolino/
Strasburg has almost turned April Fool's jokes into an art. This year they made a post on facebook saying they were cutting Reading #1187 in half for an 'educational display, showing the inward workings of a steam locomotive.' That one really got the foamers going.
Not April Fool's, but his one on RYPN was pretty good too: http://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=12305&hilit=Linn+Moedinger+addresses&start=0
A comic collector in our midst! Awesome! 12 cents, so that should be around 1967?
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