I'm revisiting this idea for next year's grant process. Clearly there are some issues with the track and the playa, but I don't agree that "This project has challenges" should equal "this project should not be attempted because it has challenges". This year I'm refocusing on placement and safety, th...

As you may already know Gerlach belonged to the railroad until they sold it to the town's residents. I believe passenger rail service ended in the 1970s, possibly with nationalization. It's worth noting that the movie "Bad Day At Black Rock" takes place in a town where the train no longer stops, but...

The grant is denied! Thanks for all your suggestions... and no thanks to all the nay-sayers who just stopped by to poo-poo my ideas. Criticism is not participation! With that kind of attitude perhaps it was for the best. Oh, because Burning Man chooses its grants based on how nice the artist is. Th...

All right, the idea is pretty cool but I also think is best done without the tracks. Okay, I've said this before, but the train without the tracks- i.e. an art car that looks like a choo-choo with a bunch of trailers behind it- has been done before. Many times. Hundreds of times. The tracks are the...

The grant is denied!

Thanks for all your suggestions... and no thanks to all the nay-sayers who just stopped by to poo-poo my ideas. Criticism is not participation!

http://www.humancar.com/synchguideway.htm

Humancar has a real-world-compatible human-powered light rail implementation.

[quote="LeChatNoir"]Looking at the rail plans, it appears that the rails are pieces of 1/4â€

It's amazing to me how little people have contributed to this idea, and how much people have just stopped by to shit on it. >> Materials and cost: It's great that you have the cars and all that, but how are you going to source 3 miles of steel track and ties? The cost alone would probably eat up the...

Some quick math: Rail efficiency over riding in cars: 25% savings Round trip: 650 mi Avg MPG: 15? Price per gallon: $3.10 2010 Population: 51,454 Average gas price paid per participant to attend from the Bay: $134.33 If 50% lived in the Bay and took the train rather than driving: Total gas price of ...

Unless your track is totally enclosed, art cars would not fare the worst - I can only imagine the bike wrecks it would cause - particularly in low visibility. Have you seen the track design, at non.primate.net/brrr/ ? It is recessed and flush like a street crossing in the city. The tracks will be i...

Through a strange set of circumstances we already have the locomotive, equipment (passenger and freight cars), and driver for a rental train from SF (more likely Emeryville) to Gerlach. We even have some private car owners who would surely be down for the ride. You can, if you have a rail-legal pass...

I suspect this is what BM may do if they bite on this at all. The track is the major expense and I've set up the budget so they can scale it as big or as small as they like.

The cross brace ("sleeper") issue has been discussed. The 1 3/8" deep divots they sit in will be filled with a rake. The artists involved each have a half-decade on DPW Playa Restoration crew. Smoothing over a few bumps in the playa is nothing compared to cleaning up a burnt-couch-stuffed abandoned ...

Say, that's a great idea! The "Poo Poo Train". I'm sure there's been a Burning Man camp with that theme already. I'm sure no matter where it goes the bathrooms will be a popular stop. That'll help with turnover. I'm sure some people are going to want to sit on that thing all day but I think if folks...

The original idea was to provide some transportation to Walk-in-camping for those attendees who had hitch-hiked to the gate. However, this isn't my favorite plan either because it doesn't really service the city as mass transit. If there aren't enough people to move the train, it won't move. That's ...

The placement of the track is totally up to the organizers. There's no way anyone could do it without their approval, anywhere. By "Gate" maybe I'm thinking "Greeters". But, again, it's not up to me, it's up to Burning Man.

I hope it works out, but seems like a huge undertaking. What about converting the train cars/engine to wheeled vehicles, then you can drive it anywhere you want? I know that kind of sidesteps the community construction aspect of it but you'd still get to haul people around on a train. Maybe the con...

We did this by tossing a tarp into a rented U-haul trailer and buying a pallet of corn starch. -when transporting, it sloshed all over the place, unless we slammed on the brakes, in which case it acted like a solid load - we held dance-offs to see who could stay on the surface the longest - little k...

Mudpuppy and Mdmf, you raise excellent points. This is clearly the largest impediment to doing this. 1) We're hoping that our flush, non-intrusive design will be acceptable for vehicle access. As for the trench, there is much more trenching done for the power grid. Alternately, fencing the whole thi...

[quote="skibear"] The demand would be high so a lot of cars might be needed. (don't know if their deadline has passed for this year) [/quote] The deadline is in a week. The nice thing is that the cars represent a tiny portion of the total cost and so can be scaled to need, or, added-to by other part...

Hello, I have come to introduce the proposal that I have been working on for the 2011 Burning Man event. This is an idea that has been tossed around burn barrels for six years. I propose to install a 3.2 mile pedal-powered railway in Black Rock City to serve as mass transit. [url]http://non.primate....