I like thinking about how many potential cars my car has replaced on the road by just never being retired. There could have easily been a series of cars in its place getting replaced every five years, but it’s never stopped being driven. There are potentially dozens of cars that it prevented ever being built, if you…

1. Congratulations.

You know that the entire United States was populated by native people before settlers arrived right? You’re just as guilty of genocide if you live in California or New York, it’s just that the West is the only place people even remember someone else once owned it. Native people, and native cultures are more visible…

This is a big misconception that people from the coasts have, that “rural” = “super conservative.” This is a map showing Colorado’s election results from 2016. I’ll give you a hint, Denver is the smallest weird shaped blue county in the upper middle. Every other blue county is very very “rural,” and several have…

As I watch house prices rocket out of any conceivable realm of affordability for me, the only explanation I can think of is that this is a bubble and there must be a massive bust coming. At least that’s what I hope. There’s a particular house I’ve been watching in a rural town here in Colorado, four years ago someone…

I’ve never had strong feelings about these, but yours does look really good.

This is hands down my favorite car being sold in the world today. The Roxor is close, but it’s not actually road legal even where it’s being sold so it doesn’t count.

Not that it would stop him, but they converted it to burn oil.

That’s a pretty good comparison.

The horsepower is measured differently on steam engines. I’ve heard that the horsepower on a Big Boy would actually be closer to 8,000 if measured like a diesel engine. That also doesn’t account for the massive torque of steam engines though. A Big Boy was able to pull a 5 1/2 mile long loaded train by itself.

Seems like everyone replying to this that hasn’t seen this short film about the Cumbres and Toltec would like it. It does a really good job of explaining the special feeling of these places and machines:

I know haha. Your brain just can’t really comprehend the forces involved in pulling 5 miles of train cars with one engine. I think my brain simulator maxes out at 1 mile.

It is different, but a modern truck should still be able to make it over passes like this if the truck is maintained and the driver is being cautious enough. If it wasn’t possible, trucks would be flying off the road every few minutes, this is a very busy corridor.

I couldn’t figure out if Captain Slo(...)ow’s “partially on purpose” just meant “I was trying to drive faster and harder than the car could go.” Her whole comment was pretty confusing without the context of actually knowing her profession.

You may like this film from the 50s about the Big Boy. Lots of great shots of it. I think it’s super interesting.

“How can I figure out how to stick a comment about race into a random article about a train...”

That fact is the same as someone telling you 60 years in the future that a particular car is the last gasoline powered car to have ever been registered. It’s pretty interesting I think.

I’m sorry I misunderstood you, but I don’t think I’m alone in not knowing what you meant by “cal” work.

I was talking about CaptainSloow’s hill troubles, not those of an 18 wheeler. Obviously they’re different.

I laughed when I read