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Pandering journalism. Those rides aren't "scary." They're scenic, of course, and sometimes spectacular. But only the most confirmed acrophobe would call them scary.
notelvis Member # 3071
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I cannot think of any train ride I have ever been on that has been frightening.
Some have been mildly annoying for one reason or another but none have frightened me.
George Harris Member # 2077
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Photo in the news article obviously taken with a wide angle lens to make the trestle look higher.
I do know people that have ridden west out of New Orleans that say they kept their head down and refused to look out the window until the train was across the Huey P. Long bridge. The slow ride up and down the high steel trestle approaches does give panic to anyone with acrophobic tendencies.
A beautiful ride into mountains where all the stops were pulled out for design and construction of a mountain railroad would be the Alishan railroad in Taiwan. It has loops, horseshoe curves and switchbacks. All this on 2'-6" gage track with small coaches pushed by a German built Diesel on the downhill end, except of course when on the uphill end on the reversing move in the switchback. By the way, the train is held together by link and pin couplers, but having air brakes. I strongly recommend this to anyone who is a railfan and is fascinated with mountains and mountain railroading. The line was originally built as a timber hauling forest line.
sbalax Member # 2801
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Once again, I am in awe of the knowledge and experiences of posters here. Thanks, Mr. Harris!
I don't know that I've ever been truly frightened on a train but one of my most "interesting" rides were the train from Cusco to Machu Picchu with the unusual "see saw" maneuver to get down the hill. (This was in the days before the Orient-Express operation.)
Two others that I always enjoyed were the ride from San Jose, Costa Rica to Puerto Limon and also the electric train from San Jose to Puntarenas on the Pacific coast. I often rode the latter to get from San Jose to the town I worked and lived in as a Peace Corps volunteer. It was more expensive but faster than the two busses that I'd otherwise have to take.
Frank in sunny and "they" say soon to be wet SBA
notelvis Member # 3071
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The one here on my bucket list is probably the Darjeeling Himalayan Railway!
Stephen W Member # 6059
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If you're ever in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland try the rack railway from Lauterbrunnen to Murren but only if you don't mind heights!
mpaulshore Member # 3785
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In years past--not recently--certain portions of trips I made on the California Zephyr and the Southwest Chief were what I'd call frightening. I'm thinking particularly of stretches of track in Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas that, at the specific time when I was riding, happened to be at a bad point in BNSF's maintenance cycle, with the result that the cars were slamming and swaying violently from side to side while the train barrelled along at 79 miles per hour. I suspect that poor maintenance of the cars' suspension systems exacerbated their violent motion in many or most of those instances.
At moments like those, if you really think hard about the fact that Superliner cars are 16' 2" tall and 10' 2" wide, and weigh 74 tons, yet are balanced on wheel-and-axle assemblies only a little over five feet wide with only an inch-high flange to guard them from going off the rails, it can put you into a very worried state of mind. Yes, I know that the cars are built bottom-heavy, and yes, I know that the tracks are constantly being reinspected and reapproved for the standard train speed limits, and yes, I know that trains virtually always deal with these rough conditions without incident; but I also know that there have been cases where passenger trains have derailed because of rough trackage, and I assume that for every such incident there are probably a hundred cases where the train comes within a hair's breadth of derailing but doesn't, more or less as a matter of chance.
Too bad the track gauge on most railroads, and the wheel flanges, weren't substantially enlarged back in the mid nineteenth century, when it began to be clear that trains were going to be bigger and faster than had initially been assumed. It'd be almost unbelievably difficult to do any of that now, although I still wonder whether it might not be possible to at least increase the wheel flange height somewhat, at a cost that would be less than the cost of the derailments prevented.
sojourner Member # 3134
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The only time I was ever scared on a train was when we could see a tornado or two from the observation car. That was in Nebraska too.
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