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by kposehn 1320 days ago
Ok, you're subscriber number one then. Anyone else? I'm completely serious. Private Varnish (ie: private railcars) have always been something I love. It would be a hoot to live in one with my fam for a year (if I can convince them).
1 comments

I'm all on this for actually helping physically do this (even for loose definitions of physical, like run a website haha, but I'd imagine someone on HN restoring a train carriage could manage a Wix/SquareSpace/etc site by themselves)... I've wanted to build a steam engine since I was a kid, I thought it would be amazing to design a stupidly modern steam engine and break the world records with it, and this, while this is not a steam engine, it is honestly the closest I'll probably get to any of that dream given how impractical it is ...
People are building steam locomotives, they're are several projects in Britain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_locomotives_of_the_21st_...

That sort of backs up my point though, the majority (all but one!) of the projects are rebuilding traditional steam engines for heritage/historical reasons. The one advanced/modern project was abandoned for lack of interest and done by a private company.

Also I’m in Western Australia… One of the two Australian projects on that page (based in Victoria) no longer has a functioning web page, which is not a good sign given the cost of a website compared to rent for a workshop big enough for a steam engine. The other project is making slow progress over the last decade building a replica of a late 19th century design which while cool and I hope they eventually finish it, doesn’t stoke the fires of my imagination enough to uproot my entire life to move closer so I can physically help make it happen.

Plenty of hobby clubs build wooden boats for fun as a group, why not railcars!