I completely forgot to record my "thank you to Dunedin Railways" outro. It is a beautiful rail journey on the South Island: pull down the description for a link to their site!
+Carriage of No Return. It’s like the phenomena of zebra crossings sometimes causing more accidents... because people treat it with not enough caution!
This reminds me of when my entire city had no power for about two days meaning that all of the lights at crossings were out. A taxi driver was telling me that nothing happened and the traffic actually flowed better than usual because people were being more observant and letting people in when they needed to rather than when the lights told them to.
That actually ends up being quite common apparently. When something looks dangerous, people tend to be more cautious, which some road layouts actually exploit.
A big train used to pass by my elementary school all the time. Me and a bunch of friends would all have and try to get him to blow the train horn. 9/10 they always did! Train drivers are cool people (:
Once I was in Philly city centre filming a departing CSX train, and to my utter surprise (being from Germany and not used to this) the engineer waved to us and blew the horn.
I have a feeling you'd like Whittier Alaska. The only land access to the town is a 3 mile, single-lane tunnel, used for cars and trains in both directions. There are tolls and massive waiting areas on either end because the direction of the tunnel flips every hour.
@@roblamb8327 It's on a coastal inlet (and was actually founded as a military harbor during WW2). I imagine hazardous materials -- and things that don't fit through the tunnel -- get barged in via the harbor.
That tunnel (Anton Anderson Memorial) was originally hewn out of the rock for the railway. For the longest time, if you wanted to take your vehicle from Anchorage or elsewhere in Alaska to Whittier, for example to take on a ferry, you’d load it onto a train and the Alaska Railroad would transport you and the vehicle to Whittier. They put pavement in the tunnel a decade or so ago, added traffic controls, and made it a dual-purpose tunnel. Trains still use it to this day, because Whittier is the dock that accepts barges carrying railcars from the south (until recently, that was Prince Rupert and Seattle, now it’s just Seattle.)
@@joncalon7508 Interesting, thanks. I visited Whittier in 2016 and loved it, absolutely gorgeous place. The story about it being built as a cold war era base absolutely makes sense, very defensible since there's really only one approach by land or by sea. Funny how now it's almost a social co-op from what I've been told.
This is one of those things that is very safe compared to suprisingly many things, precisely because it seems so dangerous and the hazard is clearly visible. Suprisingly, sometimes adding safety-elements is dangerous, because people tend to trust them more than they actually protect.
Also, it looks like this is way out in the wops where people are used to tight, twisty gravel roads, wash-outs, ford's, stock movements, etc. That motorist who went past was probably a farmer. This isn't in the middle of a city or anything.
Until very recently, there was a shared bridge like this south of Greymouth on New Zealand's west coast. It wasn't just some rural town either, it was the main north-south highway where both the road and train track crossed the Taramakua river over a single bridge. It has since been replaced by separate bridges but it scared the crap out of me every time I drove over it because you're literally driving on a train track for a good 20 seconds with no lights or barriers to warn you of oncoming rail traffic.
There were bells at least from memory. It could be intimidating, but there was no risk in reality, on the odd occasion the train would end up following a car across. The only safety issue with it was the driving surface(presumably largely due to the actual rails), from memory I think a motorcyclist had an accident on the bridge and died.
@@DoubleMonoLR Nope, no bells, just 'Railway Crossing/ Give Way' signs. 😊 I couldn't tell you how many time I drove over that bridge, was sad to see it go to an exclusive rail bridge. Was the same with the old Arahura River bridge too.
New Zealand can be quirky in places, but I absolutely love it. I have travelled over one road/rail bridge but a new road bridge has been built so it is now train only. Well done for showing us this one.
I assume your referring to the Taramakau Bridge part of State Highway 6 on the West Coast. South of Greymouth and near the junction with State Highway 73 to Christchurch.
This actually was a common occurrence on the west coast where the expected road traffic was light (given it was the 1930's when the roads were built) and you needed to minimize the number of expensive bridges across rivers. They are only in the last 10-20 years finally replacing the final major ones, with the Awatere Road Rail bridge (in Seddon, with it's rail over road design) only taking rail since 2007, and the two major ones on the west coast, Taramakau, which got turned into rail only last year, and Arahura which got replaced in 2009, but you can still go on a portion of the original span. Also good to see that at the end of the video you showed the way to go over such a bridge. You never drive on the rails, always to one side.
The Awatere Road Rail bridge was the one that came to mind for me. Just the chance of having a train cross at the same time was exciting to me as a child. I'm only sorry they removed the road decking it would be the perfect place to take photos. Would also be great as a pedestrian cycle bridge.
GuanoLad my dad did part of his uni there and all I’ve gathered is that it is bloody cold, and now I also know that they have a steep road and weird bridges I already knew about the bridges tho
There's no reason to believe it's one take. As another commenter has pointed out, if you go to 0:19, you can see a ghost image where two images have been merged. There are also multiple cuts in the video: the cut away to the train at 0:20 and back; the cut to the company building at 0:24. We cut back to Tom at 0:55, away again at 0:59, back at 1:03, away at 1:06, back at 1:10, and that shot ends at 1:20. The longest continuous shot there is about ten seconds.
Tom, I'm absolutely loving the series of videos you're putting out about New Zealand - I'm a Kiwi, but you're showing off parts of my country that I never knew existed!
I had the privilege of going over that bridge on the train in February 2017 while travelling around New Zealand. If you're in Dunedin the Taireri Gorge Railway is a worthwhile scenic trip. There was another road and rail bridge at Little Current, Ontario where you go on to Manitoulin Island, until the railway tracks were removed many years ago.
@@nelsonglover3963 Tom does a lot of neat stuff with that camera. His series "Two of These People are Lying" (a 4 people around a table panel show type thing, well worth a watch) was shot on the 360° camera, with the camera in the middle of the table. It's probably a lot easier to set up than 4+ go-pros, plus if someone moves you can track them after the fact.
@@JohnSmith-dt1tw Wait... I never realized that there weren't any cameras!! You blew my mind! I'm so used to the cameras and microphones I just assumed they were there. Another reason to go watch it again yay!
I find it amusing that I'd guessed it was somewhere in NZ due to the background on thumbnail and the 'sillyness' of sharing the bridge. Yay for more No.8 wire logic. :)
1:08 I recall there was a bridge of this type in Novi Sad, Serbia, over the Danube, built after the previous one was exploded in the Balkan Wars, and decommisioned after the new bridge was opened.
If trains were invented today, we'd never have had platforms without barriers in train stations. Much like this bridge, so long as you're careful it's not a safety hazard.
At modern light-rail stations I've seen idiots sit on the platform edges with their legs dangling above the rails as they wait for the next train. When trains pull in they end up within an inch of the platforms. I personally like having my legs and feet too much to assume that I'll be able to move quickly enough when the train pulls up and that the driver would see me in time to try to stop.
The Taramakau Road-Rail Bridge is even bigger and longer than that. We went on it not knowing it was a thing, and you can imagine how baffled we were when our GPS told us "yes yes, that's the road you gonna take". It's a really unique driving experience in hindsight, but you're not 100% relaxed when you're on it! Luckily there were other cars in front of us, because I don't know if we would have drove on it otherwise. The trains rolling on it are no small ones too..!
You did a video 5 years ago about a manual rail crossing in Canterbury. I realised it's close to my university campus, so I went and had a look the other day
Sri Lanka had two such long bridges built by British during the colonial era. One was the longest rail bridge of Sri Lanka railways. Recently, those bridges were completely allocated to trains and separate bridges were built for the road traffic.
In fairness, on a bus, you typically pass the bus driver on your way off the bus - so it's easy to throw a "cheers, driver!" thank you to them as you're leaving. But, with trains, you don't naturally pass them as you leave, so it's not an easy thing to do. Indeed, if everyone insisted that they had to go up to the driver's cab when they leave the train to say "thank you", then you'd get quite a traffic jam on busy stations and it'd just slow down train operations, as the driver's obliged to wait to allow everyone to offer them their "thank you"s. So I'd guess that the train operators and train drivers would actually say "though it's appreciated, please don't actually do this".
If getting off at the back of a Crossrail train, you'll be 2 football (American or soccer) pitch lengths away from the driver. When I used to get off the back of a TfL bendy bus I considered the driver too far away to thank.
I love these videos you're doing in NZ, I've been watching your channel for quite a while and the added bonus of seeing your videos about the country I call home thrills me :D
The Taieri Gorge railway is a great day out for those who don't know it, very spectacular. There was a one-lane road/rail combined bridge at Connel Ferry near Oban (Scotland) for many years. Since the closure of the Ballachulish branch in the 1960s, it has been road only.
At least you guys have a fence, I've lived places where tracks going down the middle of a city only have a meter's width of dirt on either side and level crossing are just when asphalt got poured around the rails
We have been on that train, they stop just after the tunnel to let passengers off to walk across the bridge so that you can take pictures of the train coming at you and then the train stops just around the corner so that the passengers can get back on. It's a very good trip with some stunning scenery. Dunedin station is worth a visit even if you're not traveling, the ticket hall is incredible.
Lucky to see this. They were common in the 90's. There were still a few road/rail bridges on the west coast when I was there in 2015, but when I visited again in 2018 they were all gone.
As soon as you said road/rail bridge I knew it was going to be NZ. they have many awesome ones up the west coast too but sadly they are separating them as traffic increases so the experience will eventually dry up
In 2002, I rode a motorcycle through the 2.5 mile long, one-lane Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel that connects Wittier to the rest of Alaska. It was tense riding between the two slots for the train wheels, and it was quite scary to ride unexpectedly, under the six, 75 horsepower jet engine-loud, air fans inside the tunnel, only a few of which were operating. The train schedule was not obvious before I entered the tunnel. And there was no traffic for me to blend into.
There is a Bascule Bridge shared by Cars and Trains in Germany, and it happens to be single Lane too. It's secured by Lights and Barriers though, because there is more Traffic (Road and Rail), the Trains are faster and mostly because German Drivers can't be trusted to act independently. A simple broken Traffic Light literally is an inevitable Crash, because People think it means "green" and blast into the Intersection without even slowing down or looking.
I grew up near one of these in Germany. It linked Anglia and Swansea. I'm not joking those are the two peninsula. I cannot imagine not having barriers to make sure there isn't a train coming the other way.
I can actually think of two more examples of shared train-car bridges: - Porthmadog, Wales: The Welsh Highland Railway enters and leaves along a short road running section across a bridge. - Preston, England: The Ribble Steam Railway crosses over a shared Road-Rail Bridge.
Ah, a classic case of something seemingly dangerous making people cautions, making the thing actually less dangerous, than the safer seeming alternatives.
More than the content itself, what amazes me the most his how Tom can seemingly get so much information out in what seems like one camera take. That's some expert level memorization right there.
Great to see you are enjoying your time in our fair land Tom! Having just returned from a holiday in the UK and Italy I'm very glad to be home and extremely grateful for the simple things New Zealand had to offer, including quirky train bridges and fruit based town monuments (Kiwifruit in Te Puke, Carrots in Ohakune, L&P Bottles in Paeroa). Keep up the good videos!
My grandmother lives on an island with a one-way access road leading toward the bridge. There is an unspoken etiquette: no signs tell you to give a driver coming around the blind turn onto the inbound road a few moments to show themselves before pulling onto the road from the outbound side. Everybody who's been there a while just learns by seeing it happen, and the only time there are ever issues is when both drivers are both a) new enough that they haven't picked up on the fact that the unspoken rule gets everyone where they're going with the least amount of fuss and b) determined not to be the one to back down.
A lot of people e-mail him with suggestions for his video's, but I can imagine a lot of companies like this also get in touch with him, because it's good promotion.
There are only 5 cities with over 100k population excluding the lower hutt. (Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin) so there is not a large selection.
In Portugal we have a similar bridge still standing, the Jafafe Bridge in Sernada do Vouga. The train does go into the bridge *very* slowly, and I believe there are barriers, but still very cool to see.
@@Cookie1994UK I've been on trains over it and driven over it countless times. Yet to see it open for a boat in person though. There's two level crossings either side of it as well which makes it fun if you're driving.
There is a tunnel in Alaska connecting Whittier to Anchorage, the tunnel is the only road and railroad way into and out of the town of Whittier, it is called the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. the tunnel cuts straight through the middle of the mountain that separates the two cities.
The Kazungula Bridge just opened last year on the border of Zambia and Botswana (and Namibia and Zimbabwe - 4 way border!) which is a shared rail/road bridge too.
Perhaps they ought to have added passing places mid-bridge? And/or "No Overtaking" signs? That's the/our British way of taking Health and Safety to excess.
Excellent. "A funny kind of level crossing." That's a good way to put it. I like the way this bridge is managed because it depends on people not being moronic. We need more of that.
The UK used to have a bridge like this at Connel near Oban in Scotland. The railway is now gone along with many others in the 60s but it's still an important road bridge.
I completely forgot to record my "thank you to Dunedin Railways" outro. It is a beautiful rail journey on the South Island: pull down the description for a link to their site!
Tom Scott hi I’m a big fan
another time travel comment
3 Weeks ago. Tom Scott is verified time traveller.
Time travel!
Did you record it on a Thursday? I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Sometimes, things are *so* dangerous that they actually end up being safe - everyone treats it with caution!
+Carriage of No Return. It’s like the phenomena of zebra crossings sometimes causing more accidents... because people treat it with not enough caution!
This reminds me of when my entire city had no power for about two days meaning that all of the lights at crossings were out. A taxi driver was telling me that nothing happened and the traffic actually flowed better than usual because people were being more observant and letting people in when they needed to rather than when the lights told them to.
@@magnusbruce4051 In the states any traffic signal that has malfunctioned must be treated as a four way stop.
That actually ends up being quite common apparently. When something looks dangerous, people tend to be more cautious, which some road layouts actually exploit.
@@theotherwalt And if the traffic is flowing better when they're treated as four way stops, does this mean the traffic signal shouldn't be there? 🤔
"Trains and cars don't usually combine very well"
I'd say they combine TOO well. Once they meet, it's hard to separate the two.
Very easy to separate, the stuff still on the rails is train, the stuff on the sides that is not ballast was the car.
@@crimmy838 Generally yes.
😲
Hirail Truck.
As a locomotive engineer for 23 years I can relate to that !
I love that the train driver waved back. :)
look like it surprised Tom a bit there
They've always waved back to me!
A big train used to pass by my elementary school all the time. Me and a bunch of friends would all have and try to get him to blow the train horn. 9/10 they always did! Train drivers are cool people (:
The countryside is different than the big city. You naturally wave at strangers and they naturally wave back. You know, like real human beings.
Once I was in Philly city centre filming a departing CSX train, and to my utter surprise (being from Germany and not used to this) the engineer waved to us and blew the horn.
Thanks for such an incredible TH-cam channel Tom
Yes Rob
Agreed as well
Fancy seeing Rob Scallon here!!
Wow hi Rob!
What makes Tom's channel so good is that it *is* credible! :D
Look at Tom being nice and waving at the train driver what a nice guy
Only the cool kids waved at the train driver
remember 2 thank ur train driver
@@OrangeC7 I do every time I see Aubrey, but some of the other drivers are long dead, or retired.
I always wave to the drivers, the usually wave back or the hit up the horn and scare the crap out of me
and the train driver waived back!
I have a feeling you'd like Whittier Alaska. The only land access to the town is a 3 mile, single-lane tunnel, used for cars and trains in both directions. There are tolls and massive waiting areas on either end because the direction of the tunnel flips every hour.
Hope there's a river nearby 'cos I think it'd be tricky navigating that tunnel in an oil tanker.
That's what I was thinking. The story about the engineering that went into the tunnel is incredible!
@@roblamb8327 It's on a coastal inlet (and was actually founded as a military harbor during WW2). I imagine hazardous materials -- and things that don't fit through the tunnel -- get barged in via the harbor.
That tunnel (Anton Anderson Memorial) was originally hewn out of the rock for the railway. For the longest time, if you wanted to take your vehicle from Anchorage or elsewhere in Alaska to Whittier, for example to take on a ferry, you’d load it onto a train and the Alaska Railroad would transport you and the vehicle to Whittier.
They put pavement in the tunnel a decade or so ago, added traffic controls, and made it a dual-purpose tunnel. Trains still use it to this day, because Whittier is the dock that accepts barges carrying railcars from the south (until recently, that was Prince Rupert and Seattle, now it’s just Seattle.)
@@joncalon7508 Interesting, thanks. I visited Whittier in 2016 and loved it, absolutely gorgeous place. The story about it being built as a cold war era base absolutely makes sense, very defensible since there's really only one approach by land or by sea. Funny how now it's almost a social co-op from what I've been told.
0:16 That timing with the train horn!
You look like you couldn't believe it yourself! ^^
I feel like it was planned. It's too good to be true
Could have been sound effects edited in
More like that's where trains sound their horn, approaching the crossing, like everywhere else in the world
D G Not in NZ exactly, unless a whistle (horn) board is in place, it’s just well timed.
editing. notice the camera cuts
This is one of those things that is very safe compared to suprisingly many things, precisely because it seems so dangerous and the hazard is clearly visible.
Suprisingly, sometimes adding safety-elements is dangerous, because people tend to trust them more than they actually protect.
Also, it looks like this is way out in the wops where people are used to tight, twisty gravel roads, wash-outs, ford's, stock movements, etc. That motorist who went past was probably a farmer. This isn't in the middle of a city or anything.
On this week's episode of Tom's holiday to new Zealand: trains
We've peaked
It's interesting how Tom is squeezing every bit of his holiday-educational trip into bite sized pieces.
I really like it tbh
Until very recently, there was a shared bridge like this south of Greymouth on New Zealand's west coast. It wasn't just some rural town either, it was the main north-south highway where both the road and train track crossed the Taramakua river over a single bridge. It has since been replaced by separate bridges but it scared the crap out of me every time I drove over it because you're literally driving on a train track for a good 20 seconds with no lights or barriers to warn you of oncoming rail traffic.
There were bells at least from memory. It could be intimidating, but there was no risk in reality, on the odd occasion the train would end up following a car across.
The only safety issue with it was the driving surface(presumably largely due to the actual rails), from memory I think a motorcyclist had an accident on the bridge and died.
@@DoubleMonoLR Nope, no bells, just 'Railway Crossing/ Give Way' signs. 😊 I couldn't tell you how many time I drove over that bridge, was sad to see it go to an exclusive rail bridge. Was the same with the old Arahura River bridge too.
I rode through there on motorbike. Motorcycles don't have reverse gears usually...
@@timconnors But motorcycles can turn in place.
Would that have been the one on state highway 6?
New Zealand can be quirky in places, but I absolutely love it. I have travelled over one road/rail bridge but a new road bridge has been built so it is now train only. Well done for showing us this one.
I assume your referring to the Taramakau Bridge part of State Highway 6 on the West Coast. South of Greymouth and near the junction with State Highway 73 to Christchurch.
‘Trains and cars don’t usually combine very well’ - There’s an exception to every rule I guess.
I think the problem is Trains and Cars combine too well.
undead890 I think the problem is traincars.
Back to the Future 3.
An unstoppable force meets a very movable object
Ciara Turner the exception is those pickup trucks modified for traveling on railroads
This actually was a common occurrence on the west coast where the expected road traffic was light (given it was the 1930's when the roads were built) and you needed to minimize the number of expensive bridges across rivers. They are only in the last 10-20 years finally replacing the final major ones, with the Awatere Road Rail bridge (in Seddon, with it's rail over road design) only taking rail since 2007, and the two major ones on the west coast, Taramakau, which got turned into rail only last year, and Arahura which got replaced in 2009, but you can still go on a portion of the original span.
Also good to see that at the end of the video you showed the way to go over such a bridge. You never drive on the rails, always to one side.
Thanks for the update. I went down the west coast by bus years ago and was thinking, "But what about the bridges on the west coast?"
I was thinking of the one in Taramakau while watching this! They were still doing roadworks when I was there :)
The Awatere Road Rail bridge was the one that came to mind for me. Just the chance of having a train cross at the same time was exciting to me as a child.
I'm only sorry they removed the road decking it would be the perfect place to take photos.
Would also be great as a pedestrian cycle bridge.
Yay! My home town of Dunedin appears again. Always interesting to see how it's viewed by an outsider.
I like your hometown
GuanoLad my dad did part of his uni there and all I’ve gathered is that it is bloody cold, and now I also know that they have a steep road and weird bridges
I already knew about the bridges tho
@@Frog_Is_My_Name It's a great University. It's a lot like Scotland, with a lot of rain, rolling hills, and rocky cliffs on the coast.
One of my favorite places.
I'm from Christchurch, I went to Dunedin for a concert, really nice place actually!
Nice work nailing that piece to camera in one take! Pressure!
There's no reason to believe it's one take. As another commenter has pointed out, if you go to 0:19, you can see a ghost image where two images have been merged. There are also multiple cuts in the video: the cut away to the train at 0:20 and back; the cut to the company building at 0:24. We cut back to Tom at 0:55, away again at 0:59, back at 1:03, away at 1:06, back at 1:10, and that shot ends at 1:20. The longest continuous shot there is about ten seconds.
Dunedin ~ Dúnedain
Guess New Zealand is really Middle-earth
Close enough!
Much of the LOTR movies was filmed in New Zealand, so you’re not far off!
@@benjaminschultz8046 I think Jetlite knew that when they wrote the comment :P
Dùn Èideann. It’s extremely annoying how they don’t pronounce it at all accurately.
Jetlite it’s Gaelic for Edinburgh! Scottish heritage of New Zealand
I seem to be the only one who’s impressed by Toms timing with just starting to talk and 20 seconds later the train coming out of the tunnel
That's because Jacinda Ardern is famous for making the trains run on time.
Can we just all stop for a moment and admire the perfect timing of the train coming out of the tunnel? :)
@@ragnkja Nevertheless, it had to be challenging to do it properly. And yet so minor thingy :D
It's not perfect. At 0:19, you can see a ghost image where two shots have been blended into one.
I really love that I have watched tom scott for over 1 year now and still keep getting videos in my recommended that I haven't watched
Tom, I'm absolutely loving the series of videos you're putting out about New Zealand - I'm a Kiwi, but you're showing off parts of my country that I never knew existed!
Your videos are always either mind-boggling or heart-warming. Thanx a lot.
Never heart-boggoling? Or mind-warming?
Or both
Grant Craig's wonderful Kiwi accent is mesmerizing.
Thanks for the interesting segments, Tom!
I had the privilege of going over that bridge on the train in February 2017 while travelling around New Zealand. If you're in Dunedin the Taireri Gorge Railway is a worthwhile scenic trip. There was another road and rail bridge at Little Current, Ontario where you go on to Manitoulin Island, until the railway tracks were removed many years ago.
interesting stuff that we only see from you Tom keep going
Where are you inserting it?
@@slipperyslytherin3470 were the like button is
I'm probably the only person commenting here who's actually been over it in a car and that was 30 ish years ago.
How'd you get the cameras on the bridge to so perfectly pan to follow the train? They've gotta be motorized somehow...
GoPro Fusion 360 probably then planning around the sphere in post
@@nelsonglover3963 Tom does a lot of neat stuff with that camera. His series "Two of These People are Lying" (a 4 people around a table panel show type thing, well worth a watch) was shot on the 360° camera, with the camera in the middle of the table. It's probably a lot easier to set up than 4+ go-pros, plus if someone moves you can track them after the fact.
Taran, the only human being that asks about camera setup on Tom Scott’s video
@@JohnSmith-dt1tw Wait... I never realized that there weren't any cameras!!
You blew my mind!
I'm so used to the cameras and microphones I just assumed they were there.
Another reason to go watch it again yay!
Probably a gyro-stabilised camera attached to one of the smoothest and most precise tracking systems available; trained human hand/eye coordination.
Now Takumi can finally challenge the train driver from polar Express in an epic drift battle, pushing both characters to their driving limits
STATION TO STATION!
Internet needs to make it happen
Multi-track drifting?
@@Scrogan there's only a single track tho so Takumi has an unfair advantage
Ratel.H Badger I mean NZ is 3ft 6 so we have a issue...
A new driving strategy, let the train win.
Alastair Ward The train always wins.
Fully welcoming this channel becoming "The Weirdness of New Zealand Show"
The world didn't know it needed a "The Weirdness of New Zealand Show"....but ohhhh lord we did
I find it amusing that I'd guessed it was somewhere in NZ due to the background on thumbnail and the 'sillyness' of sharing the bridge.
Yay for more No.8 wire logic. :)
well, it's in the south hemisphere...
I wonder if Tom will visit the Otira tunnel?
Yes love it!! Most of this is things i didnt know i was living close to😂
1:08 I recall there was a bridge of this type in Novi Sad, Serbia, over the Danube, built after the previous one was exploded in the Balkan Wars, and decommisioned after the new bridge was opened.
It's a very acute-angled level crossing.
I am a Railfan in the US (I film trains) and it’s nice to see other countries trains.
If trains were invented today, we'd never have had platforms without barriers in train stations. Much like this bridge, so long as you're careful it's not a safety hazard.
At modern light-rail stations I've seen idiots sit on the platform edges with their legs dangling above the rails as they wait for the next train. When trains pull in they end up within an inch of the platforms.
I personally like having my legs and feet too much to assume that I'll be able to move quickly enough when the train pulls up and that the driver would see me in time to try to stop.
@@TWX1138 : That gives new meaning to ‘Mind the gap’!
@@TWX1138 Sounds like they need to install more benches
The floor is also an option. Not a great option, but better than in front of a train.
And southern England would never have had 'third rail' (750 volts) electric railways.
The Taramakau Road-Rail Bridge is even bigger and longer than that. We went on it not knowing it was a thing, and you can imagine how baffled we were when our GPS told us "yes yes, that's the road you gonna take". It's a really unique driving experience in hindsight, but you're not 100% relaxed when you're on it! Luckily there were other cars in front of us, because I don't know if we would have drove on it otherwise. The trains rolling on it are no small ones too..!
Remember to always thank the train driver and be a good boi like Tom
You did a video 5 years ago about a manual rail crossing in Canterbury. I realised it's close to my university campus, so I went and had a look the other day
Discovered your channel a couple of days ago, and Ive been binging the whole lot. Incredibly interesting stuff. Keep up the great work Tom.
Sri Lanka had two such long bridges built by British during the colonial era. One was the longest rail bridge of Sri Lanka railways.
Recently, those bridges were completely allocated to trains and separate bridges were built for the road traffic.
New Zealand drivers better be trained in handling this road, or they might be... Well, train'd.
nice one
NZ drivers are barely trained at all. You don't have to spend even 1 minute at a driving school
@@bremCZ What you got against them, Ms.?
@@LetsGoGetThem The lack of driver training of course.
@@bremCZ Why, Ms.?
We always thank the bus driver, but noone thanks the train driver...
In fairness, on a bus, you typically pass the bus driver on your way off the bus - so it's easy to throw a "cheers, driver!" thank you to them as you're leaving.
But, with trains, you don't naturally pass them as you leave, so it's not an easy thing to do.
Indeed, if everyone insisted that they had to go up to the driver's cab when they leave the train to say "thank you", then you'd get quite a traffic jam on busy stations and it'd just slow down train operations, as the driver's obliged to wait to allow everyone to offer them their "thank you"s.
So I'd guess that the train operators and train drivers would actually say "though it's appreciated, please don't actually do this".
@@klaxoncow ...hmm,
thank the train driver, but be late?
*_A small price to pay for salvation._*
If getting off at the back of a Crossrail train, you'll be 2 football (American or soccer) pitch lengths away from the driver. When I used to get off the back of a TfL bendy bus I considered the driver too far away to thank.
@@琥珀-u3o you must be from London I'm guessing?
I love these videos you're doing in NZ, I've been watching your channel for quite a while and the added bonus of seeing your videos about the country I call home thrills me :D
The Taieri Gorge railway is a great day out for those who don't know it, very spectacular. There was a one-lane road/rail combined bridge at Connel Ferry near Oban (Scotland) for many years. Since the closure of the Ballachulish branch in the 1960s, it has been road only.
"Level crossings are worse"
Well if New Plymouth is anything to go by they're a hole in a fence so yes, I suppose they are 😅
At least you guys have a fence, I've lived places where tracks going down the middle of a city only have a meter's width of dirt on either side and level crossing are just when asphalt got poured around the rails
We have been on that train, they stop just after the tunnel to let passengers off to walk across the bridge so that you can take pictures of the train coming at you and then the train stops just around the corner so that the passengers can get back on.
It's a very good trip with some stunning scenery.
Dunedin station is worth a visit even if you're not traveling, the ticket hall is incredible.
That's so cool!! 👌
Lucky to see this. They were common in the 90's. There were still a few road/rail bridges on the west coast when I was there in 2015, but when I visited again in 2018 they were all gone.
I've visited New Zealand a couple of times. It really is a quirky weird country like no other and my God is it gorgeous.
Yessss! that timing of the Trian was perfect! Thank you for having such attention to detail Tom!
As soon as you said road/rail bridge I knew it was going to be NZ. they have many awesome ones up the west coast too but sadly they are separating them as traffic increases so the experience will eventually dry up
i love how train driver waved back at Scott, when that train was passing by
You basically live in New Zealand now Tom
In 2002, I rode a motorcycle through the 2.5 mile long, one-lane Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel that connects Wittier to the rest of Alaska. It was tense riding between the two slots for the train wheels, and it was quite scary to ride unexpectedly, under the six, 75 horsepower jet engine-loud, air fans inside the tunnel, only a few of which were operating. The train schedule was not obvious before I entered the tunnel. And there was no traffic for me to blend into.
the train coming into view over the hill is just - the most comedic image somehow
As dangerous as it sounds in concept, its great to see how peaceful this is in practice!
Not dissimilar to Connel Bridge
near Oban. The bridge wasn't wide enough for both trains and cars, so it worked more or less like a level crossing.
This is the coolest bridge! It reminded me a little bit of the Anton Anderson Tunnel in Alaska, where cars and trains share a 4100m tunnel
There is a Bascule Bridge shared by Cars and Trains in Germany, and it happens to be single Lane too. It's secured by Lights and Barriers though, because there is more Traffic (Road and Rail), the Trains are faster and mostly because German Drivers can't be trusted to act independently. A simple broken Traffic Light literally is an inevitable Crash, because People think it means "green" and blast into the Intersection without even slowing down or looking.
Loving these videos from my home in NZ : )
I grew up near one of these in Germany. It linked Anglia and Swansea. I'm not joking those are the two peninsula. I cannot imagine not having barriers to make sure there isn't a train coming the other way.
Tom should do a series called Amazing Potential Disasters.
Thanks for showing all these cool oddities Tom! The world is full of neat little features and you're allowing people to see them all.
All bridges should be like that. I'm tired people driving into moving traffic and assuming it will stop.
Kiwi Rail in New Zealand. 🚅🚃🚃🚃🚃
Love greetings from Graz Austria 🇱🇻
Level crossings are worse... I can believe that, people will pay way more attention to this.
I can actually think of two more examples of shared train-car bridges:
- Porthmadog, Wales: The Welsh Highland Railway enters and leaves along a short road running section across a bridge.
- Preston, England: The Ribble Steam Railway crosses over a shared Road-Rail Bridge.
I forgot about both of those for a moment! Saw another comment about the Preston one but forgot the name of it
Theres one in Chicago too
Ah, a classic case of something seemingly dangerous making people cautions, making the thing actually less dangerous, than the safer seeming alternatives.
@Jordan Rodrigues conveniently, in this case, the only thing on the other side is a couple of farms, so that's mostly a non-issue.
@@laurencefraser there's also a nice river and picnic area abut you'd have to know about it, it's miles from anywhere.
More than the content itself, what amazes me the most his how Tom can seemingly get so much information out in what seems like one camera take. That's some expert level memorization right there.
It's the other Way around. Research Informations and write a Script, so you know what to record and be efficient at it.
That is cool!
Mad respect for the effort put into the camerawork of this video, Tom.
Good video! Hope you're having a great time here in NZ, Tom!
Maybe you can do a video or two here in Wellington!
That is a great train trip in the spring. The other train/car bridge in NZ is on a main highway, lots of traffic.
That is now rail only. New road bridge opened. That is located just south of Greymouth
I can imagine some action movie scene taking place here
A car just making it through while a train is coming from other side
Great to see you are enjoying your time in our fair land Tom! Having just returned from a holiday in the UK and Italy I'm very glad to be home and extremely grateful for the simple things New Zealand had to offer, including quirky train bridges and fruit based town monuments (Kiwifruit in Te Puke, Carrots in Ohakune, L&P Bottles in Paeroa). Keep up the good videos!
LAZER KIWI should have won.
"Sorry, I screwed up my line. Could the train come back and drive over again?"
One-take Tom...
My grandmother lives on an island with a one-way access road leading toward the bridge. There is an unspoken etiquette: no signs tell you to give a driver coming around the blind turn onto the inbound road a few moments to show themselves before pulling onto the road from the outbound side. Everybody who's been there a while just learns by seeing it happen, and the only time there are ever issues is when both drivers are both a) new enough that they haven't picked up on the fact that the unspoken rule gets everyone where they're going with the least amount of fuss and b) determined not to be the one to back down.
Never expected a semi-railfanning video from Tom Scott, nice work!
I need more
Always happy to see a new Tom Scott vid
just one thing: How do you come up with all the ideas/places for your videos?!
Do you have people researching for you?
Anyways, keep up the good work!
A lot of people e-mail him with suggestions for his video's, but I can imagine a lot of companies like this also get in touch with him, because it's good promotion.
There are only 5 cities with over 100k population excluding the lower hutt. (Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin) so there is not a large selection.
@John Citizen Hahaha jokes on you, you live in Dunedin like I do probs not, our architecture is amazing.
In Portugal we have a similar bridge still standing, the Jafafe Bridge in Sernada do Vouga. The train does go into the bridge *very* slowly, and I believe there are barriers, but still very cool to see.
There's a swing bridge in Preston in the UK similar to that, Tom. Although as you say it has barriers and warnings.
You beat me to it. I've seen a train on the bridge but I've never been there to see it open for a boat to go through
Oh I think I’ve seen that one somewhere! What a crazily impressive bridge it is, a combination of a swing bridge and level crossing...
@@Cookie1994UK wait then how do they make sure the railway track is aligned when the bridge is lowered?
@@Cookie1994UK I've been on trains over it and driven over it countless times. Yet to see it open for a boat in person though. There's two level crossings either side of it as well which makes it fun if you're driving.
@@taygadesign It locks in to place I believe. I've driven on it countless times and it looks almost perfectly aligned every time.
I really appreciate the timing of that shot. Respect.
At 0:24 my derpy brain read "Home of George Takei railway" for a second. Oh, my.
Wrong the Taieri Gorge. Taieri is pronounced "Tie-we."
There is a tunnel in Alaska connecting Whittier to Anchorage, the tunnel is the only road and railroad way into and out of the town of Whittier, it is called the Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel. the tunnel cuts straight through the middle of the mountain that separates the two cities.
How did they perfectly time the train horn with Tom's monologue???
Edit: 0:18
Tom timed when the train would arrive, paused monologue for the horn
Edit the horn into the monologue.
The Kazungula Bridge just opened last year on the border of Zambia and Botswana (and Namibia and Zimbabwe - 4 way border!) which is a shared rail/road bridge too.
The Taramakau Road-Rail Bridge south of Hokitika in New Zealand is an even weirder example of this
Sadly it's recently been replaced
@@HerrSchnapps Is that really true? Such a shame! are there any sources for this? Are there now to bridges?
Yup, you can see it on street view in Google Maps
Love how short but informative your clips are. Congrats, nice channel
The train always has the right of way, even if it doesn't, it will make it's own right of way. The train never loses.
Ah unless there is dynamite
@@SassyP17 Or another train,,, loaded with dynamite.
In Alaska, there is a small town called Wittier, and it's only road link is a single-lane tunnel, and it's shares between cars and trains.
I seriously hope nobody has been in a hurry and tried to go ahead of the train
Here's the thing, I don't think they would on a damn bridge, people do try on level crossings.
Not a New Zealander here, but someone has, I'm sure of it. :/
Perhaps they ought to have added passing places mid-bridge? And/or "No Overtaking" signs? That's the/our British way of taking Health and Safety to excess.
People don't usually try that a second time
I love these small and interesting videos. I hope there are many more to come!
No!! Tom your greying! Its ok we still love you no matter what ❤️
Enjoying the 'kiwi tour' Tom - being from the south island myself - it's nice to see!
0:04 "the rules are simple"
YOU LAUGH YOU LOSE
Well you already know what happened to me
Excellent. "A funny kind of level crossing." That's a good way to put it. I like the way this bridge is managed because it depends on people not being moronic. We need more of that.
The one lane car that shares trains and bridges
The cars-bridge trains that lane one shared and
There's a bridge in Preston, Lancashire, UK next to the marina that's a swinging bridge and used by trains, yachts and normal road use
That thing doesn't half shake when it's a steam train going over
What a neat place! I wonder what the design load for the bridge is.
It's a rail bridge that's had a road surface added to it, so will be high.
The UK used to have a bridge like this at Connel near Oban in Scotland. The railway is now gone along with many others in the 60s but it's still an important road bridge.
Tourists: Trains have right-of-way? Not on my watch!
Also tourists: _Gone. Reduced to atoms_
Train: “I’m about to end this man’s whole career”
Tourists: Tries beating the train to it
Thanos: Snaps the universe
There is a very similar setup to (and from) Whittier, AK. The Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel...