Conversely, no train has ever been speeding in a schools zone, jumped a curb and killed a bunch of kids.
this post was submitted on 12 Apr 2026
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Yet. There's still more juice to squeeze in the exciting world of trains.
jumped a curb
I mean, they do that sometimes. Particularly in countries with poorly maintained tracks.
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I live a couple blocks from train tracks that are used for freight, they pass every 2 hours most of the time, and run 24/7. They shake my building when they pass, and I can hear them blast their horn for road crossings with the windows closed. All this to say trains themselves are nothing special to me as a thing that exists.
I got to ride a subway (in Boston) for the first time back on like 2018-2019 or so, as a very much mid 30s woman, and even I got super excited for it. Like visibly, kid-seeing-train-for-first-time excited. My partner took a pic and titled it excitement. Dick.
Then last year I took a train to Chicago and wouldn't you know, exactly as excited the entire time. Only half of that was because I didn't have to drive in a big city.
I want trains!!! I want them to be fast and plentiful. I want to see trains all over the place, stopping in every single town. And I want them to do more than freight! Freight is good, don't get me wrong, but we could do so much more, we used to do so much more!! The freight lines still have all the old passenger stops along them, most of them are still in decent shape but have been converted to storage or businesses, but that could be fixed pretty damn easily.
I’m sad that we used to have trains but now I have to drive everywhere because rich people fucking suck.
I'm gonna be taking a 4hr train with a friend tomorrow, it'll be fun :D
As someone who lives near trains, this just gave me an idea. Why don't we have speakers located at each stop? Then, the conductor can trigger those directional speakers as needed. If those aren't working, then they can hit the "wake up the whole neighborhood" horns.
Most railway crossings should be grade separated. It's more infra but removes chance for any human error (and horns)
They sort of already do that with the rail crossing dingy bells and lights, but both usually happen if the crossing apparatus is present. I think its required here?
On a side note, I had to take a weird back way home the other day, due to highway closure, and found a house that has its own small scale private rail crossing with the drop bars and dingy bells and lights and everything, due to the rail hugging the road on the wrong side for them. It was very cute.
Humans are idiots, and the whole point is to keep them alive anyway. They can’t claim they didn’t hear a blast from the train horn.
A few years back they were trying to improve train safety after idiots in Florida kept ignoring the gates and getting run over, so they started using horns again in my town
But the interesting part was the compromise. They decided a better safety option was to build medians at every grade crossing, so idiots can’t drive around the gates. No more horns again permanent infrastructure, nothing active or clever needed
Do kids in european countries get as excited about trains given they are super common? I feel like my kids get excited because they rarely see trains, they’re kinda special.
Not sure if Portugal is the type of European country you imagine, but last month on a train I sat one row ahead of a child that would excidetly exclaim "another train!" (in Portuguese) every time one passed outside the window. Adorable!
... given that they are super common?
Oh man, I think it's the other way around. In Japan, the country with the highest rate of passenger train usage in the world, rail fans are a well-known category of nerd.
At one station, there was a mini museum and display of children's train artwork. Saw kids proudly posing in front of it for their parents to take pictures plenty.
Thanks for that link, that's so cool. I know of otaku in general, but densha otaku are new to me.
By the way the perfect kiss, that's referenced in the first paragraph there, looks like this:
Train boop
There's also a long-running series of train simulator games, of Japanese origin, that had specially produced controllers for PlayStation 2.
Just like Japan has the ‘Air Traffic Controller’ series, when Western titles seem to have ended in the nineties.
Tractors are ultra common and yet kids go bonkers for them
A large part of humanities has breasts and men still party hard if they get to see some unexpectedly. Probably some women as well.
Trains are cool because they're trains, not because they're rare.
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Trains, Traktors, Excavators, Bicycles, streetcars, wheel loaders, trucks, dump trucks, street sweepers, garbage trucks...
Regardless of how common those are, my toddlers will loose their shit every single time.
Yes, my 4yo will point it out excitedly every time he sees a train.
There is always a first train and the same first reaction
Croatian here, and yes (at least speaking for myself).
I think kids are always excited by new stuff, and if it's big or complex stuff the excitement generally increases accordingly. Buses, trams, excavators, trains, planes, firetrucks, road rollers, cranes. And then as they get used to them the excitement either subsides, or it just keeps getting more and more specific.
So for a European kid who at some point starts traveling by train regularly, it either subsides quicker, or it has more of a chance to get specific, because they start noticing the differences between the trains they use, and possibly the tracks if they use multiple kinds. This eventually results in lots of train nerds among grown ups.
By the way, now I'm wondering, is the hobby of building and maintaining and running model trains on model tracks in a fixed installation at home common in the USA? I know at least three people who do that here in Switzerland, it's not like sports or something, but for the large effort it still seems relatively common to me.
One colleague at work has all the train models ever used by Rhätische Bahn in his collection now. That's a regional train company that only serves mountainous regions by way of narrow (1m) tracks in one corner of Switzerland, but it's still a big collection.
Ironically, I think a lot of people expect the allure of “Oh wow, you have an F-150! What a beast! What an American icon! You are so big and strong.” Yet they’re so common now, it often gives a distorted inverse image.
teach em young, railfan makes for a happy life
Bad arguments. Kids love Ferraris and all sorts of show-off, asshole cars, that doesn't make them a good solution for transport.
(I am aware I'm taking this too seriously)
When was the last time you got a Ferrari for a ride share though?
My kid points out freight trains, but not the LRT, so what point is this trying to make?
We're all still reeling from the plague that killed off every child except for yours.
my kid has told me he wishes to ride a city bus one day, and a train, and a plane, idk how he feels about boats though.
Your child yearns for the simple hobo life.
So true
However, as a middle aged guy that took his first Waymo... I did point and say: "Holy shit, my first robotaxi!"
That quote reads perfectly in NJB's voice.
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