99% Invisible - 490- Train Set

Episode Date: May 11, 2022

The greatest mode of transportation is the funicular, which is a special kind of train pulled by a cable that runs up steep slopes. But trains are great even when they're not going up treacherous terrain. And in that spirit: here are some of the most ambitious, fascinating, and downright crazy trains that the world has ever seen.Train Set

This is 99% invisible. I'm Roman Mars. The greatest mode of transportation is the finicular, which is a special kind of train pulled by a cable that runs up steep slopes. But, you know, trains are great even when they're not going up treacherous terrain. I was in Union Station in Denver recently. This is one of the stops in the California's effort, which runs from Chicago to Emeryville, California. And I firmly believe if we introduced more beautiful stations to enhance the romance and more lines to enhance the utility of trains, they could become a key part of our infrastructure again here in the US, like they are in so many other countries. My colleague, Kurt Coleststedt, is also into trains,

so today he and I are going to talk about some of the most ambitious, fascinating, and downright crazy train designs the world has ever seen. That's right, Roman. Today we're talking about trains, only trains, and nothing but trains. All right, then. All aboard.

RADING'S PASSENTERS, THIS IS YOUR CONDUCTOR'S SPEAKING. them all aboard. Greetings, passengers. This is your conductor speaking. Our first stop today is Crush, Texas. Crush, Texas. Back in the late 1800s, most of the land in Texas was pretty sparsely populated, so this huge state had vast stretches that were home to less than five people per square mile. And so trains were critical infrastructure enabling some level of connectivity in these remote places. I mean, even now, I think of a lot of Texas as being pretty thinly populated. So like, I sure I can imagine it was much less populated way back one. Right. So now picture this. way back one. Right, so now picture this. One day in 1896, a town sprouted into existence and a remote part of this wide open state, but it was only temporary. For that day and

that day only it boasted the highest population of any city in Texas. And it was created by a regional rail company designed around a single event in which two trains would be rammed into each other at speed on purpose in front of tens of thousands of spectators. So let me ask you, of course the person to begin with, why did they want to crash two trains into each other other than that would be really, really cool? I mean, that's the main reason, right? Um, the place was called Crush, not because they were going to crush two trains together,

as you might imagine. It was, and I swear I'm not making this up. Actually named after a guy who came up with the idea to stage the crash. A man named William George Crush. to stage the crash. A man named William George Crush. It's like his calling was written into the stars. This is kind of an amazing eponym for the ages. And after an M, as you would say. Yeah.

And William Crush worked for the Missouri, Kansas, Texas railroad, or KT for short. And so Crush became the de facto name of this place that the Railroad company built to house the event. And the collision event itself came to be called the crash at Crush. The crash at Crush. Sunday Sunday Sunday. Wait, actually, what day that week was it? It was September 15th, 1896, which was actually a Tuesday. Okay, okay. Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday, craft at the garage. Your ticket will buy the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge. Yeah, you know, I'm not sure there was seating, but yes, you've got the right idea.

And one of the craziest things to me is that this wasn't even the first time a railroad company had staged and publicized a crash like this. Like I can't, you know, clean to be an expert here, but I don't know of inviting people to watch trains crashing spectacularly into each other is the best way to call attention to, you know, your railroad services. You know, like, I'm sure you want people's association when train travel to be safety and comfort and convenience and things like that, not crashing. Yeah, right.

It seems like a very odd choice, but the economy at the time wasn't doing great. And so the company was open to kind of new ideas about how to make money in other ways. Plus, they had dozens of old decommissioned 50 ton locomotive engines that were basically just gathering dust. So, in part, they figured, hey, why not put these engines to some kind of good use?

So, it really is like a demolitioned RV. They're using old vehicles that they don't really care about. And except for, you know, unlike a demolitioned RV, there's only two vehicles competing and everyone crashes and everyone loses. Yeah, right. Everybody except the railroad company, assuming they can turn a profit. And they kind of cleverly decided to make attendance itself free, but people would still have to pay about $100 round trip in today's money to get two and from crush. And of course, their trains were the best way to get there.

And yeah, right, I see. And probably the only way to get there for most people because it's this remote location inside of rural Texas. Yeah, this remote spot about 15 miles north of Waco where there was no town, no infrastructure, no anything really. And so they picked it apart because it was so remote and undeveloped, plus this particular spot formed to kind of natural amphitheater. So they just led people out in the middle of nowhere Texas, like some kind of turn of

the 20th century fire fest. Here's your cheesy sandwich and a mattress. Well, no, thankfully they were somewhat better prepared on the hospitality front. They drilled wells and they built a train station and laid down temporary tracks to bring in people and they catered food and they hired like a couple hundred cops to keep the piece. And all of this was done with the expectation that maybe like 25,000 people would show up, which is a lot. But in the end an estimated 40,000 or so actually made it to the event. Wow. Okay, so I can totally see the appeal of this as a spectacle. But, you know, I have to to ask like what was it actually safe?

I mean, you know, it's situating an audience next to crashing trains seems more than a little bit of interest. Yeah, so turns out the short answer is no, it was not safe. They had engineers saying it was safe, at least as long as people stayed far enough back, but ultimately it was very, very dangerous. So I'm, well, I'm almost afraid to find out, but in the end, how did Crash at Crush actually go down? It all started as planned. The trains were carefully brought together

to meet in the middle to make kind of a photo op, right? And then they were backed up a couple of miles to their starting points. right, and then they were backed up a couple of miles to their starting points. And then they were kicked in the gear and the operators hop up. That part went fine. Everybody got off safely and the trains got up to their target speeds, which was around 45 miles per hour. But the point of impact, things literally went off the rails because both of the trains

boilers exploded. And when they did, big chunks of metal and what were blasted up into the air began ringing down on the crowd. Three people were killed. And a photographer from Waco who incidentally got some really great pictures. Uh, lost an eye. Oh my God.

I mean, I know times were different then and maybe safety standards were different then, but did people just not see this coming or didn't care? They really believe they'd taken safety precautions to make it work. Like the train cars were all tightly chained together, and spectators were instructed to stand 500 feet or so away. In the end, no one expected those boilers to blow. And with that huge a crowd, I would imagine there was like a lot of panic as well. It wasn't just people being killed by debris. Oh, yeah. There was a lot of chaos at least at first. And people were running away and screaming and doing everything

you'd expect. But wildly enough, as the dust settled, they actually started running back towards the wreck to grab souvenirs and like take photos and things. But what about the people who are injured or even killed by debris, like what happened with them? Well, eventually the railroad compensated them and their families with a combination of cash.

And again, I'm not making this up lifetime train tickets, which I don't know, just seems kind of tone deaf. Yeah. Yeah. I guess. But like, I know something horrible happened, but was it viewed at the time as a catastrophe? Like, you know, did the man with the plan, like Mr. Crush, did they hold him accountable for this horrific tragedy that maimed and killed people for the, you know, just for the sake of spectacle? Well, the railroad company fired him basically

on the spot, but then they turned around and rehired him a day later because the media coverage wasn't actually that bad. A lot of it seemed pretty positive overall. And so despite the tragic consequences of this event, the crash at Crush turned out to be a pretty good marketing campaign after all. Wow. I guess that's what they say. There's no such thing as bad press, huh?

Depressing in this case. But yeah, true. And sure enough, that wasn't even the last event of its kind. For decades to come, crashing trains could be found at carnivals and state fairs across the country. And Crush itself was such a sensation that it even inspired the King of Ragtime,

Scott Chaplin, to write a song about it, the Great Crush Collision March. Well, that is a jolly little tune, maybe a little bit more upbeat than I was expecting from something inspired by a crash. Yeah, and I'm not sure if it's the way that it's being played in this case or just horror modern ears here, but he did make these notes in the composition for other musicians who could play this, specifically telling them how to replicate crashing train sounds with music. Today, the temporary town of Crush is long gone, but train nerds can still visit the site and read a nearby plaque, which is dedicated to the Crushite Crush.

Always read the plaque. Next stop, Rome, Italy. This station is still under construction, so watch your step as you exit. When you think of Rome, you probably think of famous ancient buildings and ruins, like the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Roman Forum, things like that. Right, right. Of course. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. The whole city of Rome is a treasure trove of historical artifacts and architecture,

and tourists only see some of that, because so much of it is still buried below the surface. But all of these wonderful subterranean layers of history to be uncovered have really made it hard for urban planners who are working to expand the city's metro network. I mean, it really does sound like a nightmare. Like as they tunnel, they must run into artifacts all the time. Yeah, they do, especially near the surface. Once they get down to the depth where the lines actually run, tunneling horizontally tends to not be a big issue, but getting down

there and building out the stations and ventilation and all that other near-service infrastructure. That's where they have real problems. Yeah. So how do they get around it? Like all those layers of history that are near the surface? Often, they can't. And these excavations almost invariably become archeological digs. And in at least one case,

the city abandoned a plant station entirely for preservation reasons. And so what happens then? Like, do you just dig somewhere else and try again? Sometimes, yeah. And as a result, these, you know, otherwise seemingly straightforward infrastructure projects often turn into these decades-long endeavors. And they even employ especially certified construction workers who are trained to double as archaeologists to make sure that when they encounter artifacts, everything gets handled properly. I found some bullbrings, I found glassware,

glaminated in gold, depicting a Roman god, some amphory. And sometimes they encounter truly incredible things. Like, not too long ago, they found a whole building complex dating back to the second century. And it was filled with marble floors, ornamental mosaics, painted frescoes, the works, and most of it was surprisingly intact. They should have turned it into a train station. Oh, that would have been great, yeah. So I see that you have two competing forces that are, you know, I'm fully in both camps.

Like I want these archaeological digs preserved. I also want, you know, functional infrastructure and metro lines. It just sounds like a headache for everyone involved. Yeah, it really can be. But there's a silver lining because a lot of these sites wouldn't be excavated at all if it weren't for the cities pushed to expand public transit So in a way historians do benefit from uncovering all kinds of stuff that might otherwise have just stayed buried indefinitely Hmm and in some stations ancient Alex that they find during the construction of the stations are

Visible in these display cases which makes them accessible to tourists and also just kind of a neat thing for everyday commuters. Oh, that's nice. I like that. That you could go to a train station somewhere and see a little museum of what was found in that site. That's cool. Yeah. Attention passengers! Food service has now begun in the dining car. As a building-type diner are striking, the long and thin with chrome accents and rounded corners. Inside their narrow spaces, there's just enough room to walk through and sit down.

In a built world of taller and deeper structures made with stone and brick and steel and glass, diners are kind of strange, but if you understand where they come from, all their curious design features suddenly make a lot more sense. Diners are an evolution of dining cars, you know the ones found on trains. It's not just their name and aesthetic that traces back to railways. Many diners were prefabricated as modular units and specifically designed to be taken by truck or train to their final destination, hence the long and narrow layout. Entrepreneur Jerry O'Mahoney is widely credited with coming up with the diner as it is and

building the first one in 1913. His creations evolved to have that now distinctive diner look, long and narrow sleek and curvy with flashy chrome accents. Many vintage pre-fab diners came complete with counters, stools, tile floors, even restrooms, and they were just transported to the destination and they got hooked up to on-site utilities. In some cases, actual dining cars were also converted into free-standing diners.

And in other cases, diners are simply made to look like classic prefamps for that nostalgic appeal, which, by the way, totally works on me. Next stop, Bangkok Thailand. The train will be slowing down on approach to this station due to unusually high pedestrian activity. We appreciate your patience. One of the largest fish markets in Bangkok, Thailand, is effectively bisected by a train track. And so, vendors flank the rail line, and the name of the place translates to umbrella pull down market. Okay, you're going to explain that name to me, because that doesn't

make any sense. Right, it's a very strange name, but it refers to this very specific feature or arguably bug that fundamentally shapes how this market works. Because those vendors I mentioned, they're not just on either side of the tracks like set back aways. They set up their goods right against the rails. And so shoppers have to actually walk between the rails, where the trains go. The market itself is over a hundred years old. And when it was first put there in like 1905, there was no railroad track. That came later. But even once it was cut in half by a railroad track,

people just kept coming to get their fish, to get their produce. And here's a clip of how it actually unfolds in practice. When a train approaches a alarm sound so that people know to get out of the way and vendors quickly pull back their wares and they lift up their awnings to make sure that they don't get hit by the train.

Hence the umbrella pull down more. Wow, you weren't kidding. Those trains are almost brushed right against the Onyx. Even after they've been retracted. I mean, this system, it seems like you're kind of awesome. It's a creative way to maximize space and a crowded urban setting, but it also seems incredibly dangerous. Yeah, and to some extent, it is really dangerous.

But apparently accents are relatively few in far between. And most of the time, they just involve a train hitting someone's wares, like I got left too close to the tracks, or a table that didn't get pulled back far enough or fast enough. Some vendors though have these particularly clever solutions, like wheeled carts that are set into little tracks that they've created in the pavement, so they can just slide them back and forth away from the rails as needed. in the pavement so they can just slide them back and forth away from the rails as needed. And if you watch that moment of transition, when the train is coming, it is, for the most part, a pretty well-choreographed dance. I mean, still, I don't know if I would cut it that close personally, but it is clear from

these videos that the vendors know what to do and when to do it, you know. Plus, it looks like the train's going pretty slow and it honks a lot. Still, it's just wild that they wait until the very last seconds to get their fish and then just kind of step out of the way. You must really want that fish. Yes, yes.

Supposedly the fish is really excellent. So maybe that makes the risk with it. I don't doubt it. Attention passengers, this train will be bypassing the upcoming stop, as service to this location has been permanently discontinued. I have another short and sweet story for all you train fans. It's about a remote line in Hokkaido, the northernmost island in Japan. There was one rural train stop that was almost entirely unused. By the early 2010s, it was down to just one single regular passenger. She was a teenager, a sophomore in high school, who wrote it twice a day to and from class.

The regional rail authorities were planning to shut the line down into her parents intervened. Certainly they asked, the stop could stay open just until their daughter graduated. They got their wish. The stop did close permanently, but only after she took one final ride to her high school

graduation ceremony. Next stop, the Schlage-Vig Holstein region of Germany. Please note that for island access, passengers will need to switch trains in order to reach their destination. I lived in Germany as a teenager, and I've been back a number of times since then. So between that and the country's epic railway network, it's probably no surprise that I have a ton of train stories about Deutschland. In fact, one of my favorite train lines in the entire country is this little stretch of track that connects the mainland with a tiny island called Nordstrondischmur,

which is located off the coast in the North Sea. And how tiny of an island are we talking about here? It's less than a square mile, but because it's low-lying areas flood regularly, it can only really support about a few dozen residents. And locals refer to this situation as Land Winter or Land Under. I got that one, but I appreciate you translating it. Right, right. I threw you a saw all there. Anyway, to cope with this situation, folks live in homes on these four artificial mountains,

and these mountains are built up so that they stay above the water line. And one narrow gauge rail is the only transit to and from the island. And so I gather that a narrow gauge rail is a little bit smaller than regular train tracks, but can you elaborate on that? Right. So basically a standard train line has rails that are set around five feet apart. Narrow gauge lines generally range from just two to three feet apart. So naturally they're cheaper and easier to make. Wait, this is kind of a little bit of an aside, but like if they're cheaper and easier to make,

why don't you just make all rails narrower than that? I mean, it seems logical, right? But the problem is that narrow gauge lines are less stable and not really suited to modern fast trains, especially. So they're used to actually be a lot of these in Germany, but most of them are shut down or upgraded decades ago. But not this one,

because it serves such a small population, I guess. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So a fun fact to give you a sense of the scale of this place, they reportedly have the smallest school in Germany with just three students. So really, there aren't that many people coming and going, and there's not a lot of demand for standard-sized train engines and train cars.

Oh, so not only are the track smaller, like the trains themselves are like miniature? Oh, yes. And they often look a lot different. Here's the most normal looking one that I've actually seen them use. Oh, I think it's adorable. There's this little train engine, it's pulling a little open top, like the cargo cars. Are they hauling dirt or something? I don't know, but it's also small and cute. And it's like red and green. It kind of looks like, you know, the train going around, seeing those works.

Exactly. And that's just the more standard looking one. Over the decades, they've used a bunch of different designs, like ones that were wind powered, like with sails, and open air ones where you just sit out a little pinch and tug along. And then there's this one that is probably my favorite. Oh wow, okay, so this is just like a bike, with old bike seat, pedaling

and everything on rails instead of wheels. Does that mean that everyone has a kind of like rail vehicle like this that they can get you know two and fro when it comes to going to the mainland in order to get supplies and stuff. Yeah, every household on the island has their own little train for exactly that reason. But there are a few other options for getting back and forth. When the tide is high, boats can dock, and when it's low, people can actually just walk right across the mud flats if they're careful about it. But at

any time, because of the way that rail is raised up on this artificial ridge, they can just get back and forth by train. I mean, I'm still just kind of surprised that people can make do in places like this that flood all the time. Yeah, it is tricky, but they make it work. Like islands in the North Sea mostly subsist on a combination of agriculture and tourism. And the residents of Nord-Standish were, for example, raised sheep among other things. And here's a clip from a guy who walked across when the water was low, an interview to resident. And part of what I love about their exchange is that both of them have these very distinctive regional dialects. And the interviewer launches right in with this very northern German greeting, Moin, Moin.

Moin, hello. Do you know if Hallig Nordstein is Moor as a Boer in the gang, or a chef, or what do you mean? Yeah, he's going to be the next one. Because I know Hallig is going to be the next one. Outdoor-of-the-roof. And one of the things he just mentioned is how he works both as a farmer,

but also has a side job of working on coastal protection. Because in places like this, sea level rise is taking its toll. So they're experimenting with different solutions, and in extreme cases they might even have to take entire buildings down and then raise up the mountains under them and then rebuild on top of that. But some families have lived here for generations. They're really keen on sorting something out so that they can stay on their ancestral land, right?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, it does sound tough. It also sounds kind of amazing what they've been able to do, living out on this island. You know, like, and they get to own a train. You know, it doesn't want to own their own dream. Now, before we leave the North Sea, I do want to switch tracks for just one more minute, because there's this one particularly famous island, a bit farther north,

and it's also connected to the mainland by train, but that's not actually what I'm going to talk about. I first learned about this place in the early 90s when I was a student in Germany. From my first German cassette tape, which was written by the punk band, D-Airstuh. And this particular song, Vestelon, is about a fancy resort tone on this bigger and posher and frankly much more well-known North Sea Island. So basically, it's a parody of these bougie resort colors. He's singing about how he's stuck in Berlin and so he's sitting on a handheld by a lake just wishing and imagining he could be back on Vesterland instead sitting along a nice

sandy beach on the North Sea. und die Pizza und die Nutzung. After the break, our final stop today will be the island nation of Japan. Please pay attention to the rail workers pointing and calling as you exit the train. I'm back with Kurt Kulstad talking about trains. Oh yes, and it would be, of course, criminal to do an episode about trains and not mentioned Japan, with its really rich history of being super innovative when it comes to railways. For example, they have seismometers that signal trains to stop when an earthquake is starting. And as a result, they have basically no train accidents related earthquakes anymore. Huh. I mean, in a country famous for earthquakes, that seems like a vital development.

Oh yeah, definitely. And Japan also just launched a bus slash train hybrid that has wheels for both roads and rails and converts in just 15 seconds. Wow, oh, I love it. Like all the best of public transit rolled into one. Yeah, it's great, sweet. But the main innovation I wanna talk about briefly is this system called Point and Call,

which is not really about how trains themselves are designed but about how railway employees keep them running. And here's a clip showing how this works in practice. Okay, so there are these loud announcements, which of course I cannot understand, but what really jumped out at me is how much the rail employees are kind of gesticulating. It's very dramatic. I take it, this is the point of the point and call system.

But what's the actual point of what they're pointing at? Right. So in short, the point and call method is meant to improve safety on rail lines. Japan did extensive behavioral research to come up with this system. Through testing, they concluded that if their workers associate a habit with more than one sense, for example, if they're physically pointing out a thing while talking about the action that they're performing related to that thing, it can reduce workplace errors dramatically. Okay, so the workers stationed alongside the train point and call out that it's all clear,

like no one's caught in a door. And the conductor points forward before starting that that's a sort of like whole theatrical system of making this operation safer. Yeah, exactly. And it's not just direction. They also point at buttons and gauges and signs and other stuff. And each of these actions is designed to help everybody who's working on the rail system be moral alert and stay on task. I mean, if this works so well, is it found anywhere else besides Japan

if other countries adopted this system? You know, it really hasn't taken off in other countries as much as I would have thought, given how successful it has been in Japan, and it's not totally clear why, but there are places that do use parts of the point and call approach. Like did they just point or they just call?

What do they do? Well, for example, in New York City, Metro Transit Authority conductors have to point at a sign before leaving a station, but they don't have to shout an announcement along with that. Huh. I mean, is it because they feel so conscious or something about the shouting part?

It strikes me as odd. Yeah, I think maybe that's it. And maybe that's why they just stick to pointing. But in any case, there's this pretty goofy video online of a bunch of people who decided to make some MTA agents smile by putting up signs in front of the sign that they're supposed to point at, with phrases like point here if you're dead sexy

and of course operators have no choice they have to point Oh that's some pretty awesome infrastructure fun right right especially for New Yorkers I feel like that's really that's really nice oh I like it oh cool well look for the point next time I'm on a train. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. 99% invisible was produced this week by Kurt Colestead and Martin Gonzales.

Chris Baroubaig was our affable conductor. Music by our director of Sound Swan Real. With additional music by Scott Jopplin and D. Ertsa. Gleiny Hall is the executive producer of the rest of the team includes Vivian Leigh, Emmett Fitzgerald, Jason Dillion, Christopher Johnson, Lashmodon, Joe Rosenberg, Sophia Klatsker, and me Roman Mars. We are a part of the Stitcher and Sirius XM Podcast family. Now headquartered six blocks north in the Pandora building. And beautiful.

Uptown. Oakland, California. You can find the show and join discussions about the show on Facebook. You can tweet at me at Roman Mars and the show at 99PI orc. We're on Instagram and read it too. You can find links to other Stitcher shows I love as well as every past episode of 99PI at 99PI.org. Greetings, passengers traveling between Sirius XM and Stitcher.

Those are our stops for today, but look forward to seeing you on another 99% invisible train soon. you