Cambodia: Homemade Bamboo Trains
February 20th, 2014Via: YouTube:
Cambodia has one rail line. It is not well built, not maintained, and generally unsafe. For that reason, Cambodia no longer operates heavy trains. The people, however, have created an inexpensive and lightweight system to travel safely on the rails. These bamboo trains are pushed by small gasoline engines, and roll on two axles. They can be removed from the railroad or assembled in about a minute flat.
Got to admit, this made my day. I should start building mine now, you know, beat the rush. Living in The Gorge I could use a sail when I’m out of fuel.
Living in the gorge you could also see any other traffic coming from miles away.
I live about a half mile from an old railroad station. They finally removed the old station house a couple of years ago. I still think it would be awesome to be able to catch a train there. Maybe I’ll have to make my own train – the “Cedar Shuttle” perhaps.
Meanwhile, every few years they launch another monorail project. It never works because they would need to build a giant bridge across the canal.
Of course there’s a perfectly usable 70 year old heavy rail bridge right next to the old railroad station…