Ask HN: What would you do with a 130 ton locomotive?

toast0 · 2024-09-29T20:09:59.000000Z

A locomotive doesn't make a good cafe. You'd want a car with big windows at least. A Caltrain passenger car might work, but even then, kind of iffy.

A locomotive might be nice in a museum or as an art piece at a playground, or for scrap value.

h2odragon · 2024-09-27T15:38:26.000000Z

There's actually numerous small regional freight railways, again. They're hungry for gear and bodging together all sorts of antiques to make stuff run, I gather.

The private collectors of rail stock still exist, but they're getting less common.

The weight is actually easy to deal with: you put the car on a section of rail. This spreads the load over a wide area just as happens when they're in use.

legitster · 2024-09-27T15:38:05.000000Z

> Locomotive engine must be disabled per a state grant funding agreement.

What a dumb requirement. It's like the cash-for-clunkers program requiring the engines to be destroyed.

The service life of a locomotive is effectively infinite - even after their useful freight days are done, they usually get refitted and sent to the developing world, or converted into a fixed power generator.

idw · 2024-09-27T15:54:22.000000Z

Crash into a nuclear waste container, of course https://blog.railwaymuseum.org.uk/operation-smash-hit/

armSixtyFour · 2024-09-27T15:37:22.000000Z

With enough land and disposable income you could build a 1:1 scale model railroad.

hindsightbias · 2024-09-27T15:32:16.000000Z

Playgrounds. To instill an early desire for engineers. They went electric.

brudgers · 2024-09-29T19:05:33.000000Z

Sell it for scrap and use the money to travel.

130 tons is a hefty millstone indeed.