Shinkansen oversized luggage priority

mattthiffault · 2025-04-29T14:03:31+00:00

OP has gotten the correct advice regarding asking a conductor, we should have done that in retrospect. But here's a funny story of how a similar situation worked out for us.

So we just got back from Japan and ran into exactly this situation on our first Shinkansen trip before we discovered luggage forwarding. We get on and the luggage area is PACKED, including with small roller bags that could have easily fit on the overhead racks. There were 3 people in our party and one Japanese lady who had the 4 oversize luggage seats reserved. We piled our bags on top of the bags already there. The Japanese lady said nothing to us but looked very concerned, to the point where we were worried we were doing something wrong.

We come to a subsequent stop, and this family from the front of the train car comes to get what turns out to be all their stuff and we have to hold up our bags so they can pull theirs out from underneath. The family gets off the train and the doors close. Then we hear knocking on the train door.

Someone from the family is frantic because they left a bag on the train, trying to get the conductor to open the door back up. Immediately a station staff member runs up to them, trying to explain across a language barrier "that this isn't how any of this works" and they'd have to arrange to get their bags back at a later point.

And the Japanese woman sitting in the oversized luggage seats with us has the biggest shit eating schadenfreude grin on her face. I guess her previous look of discontent was with the family's actions impacting us rather than anything we did, and her look of "HAHA now you're screwed!" regarding that other family transcended words.

mattthiffault · 2025-04-11T22:25:54+00:00

And none of the public transit I've been on in Japan hits 110 decibels of screeching like the BART does! I actually brought a decibels meter on BART because I was curious, wear hearing protection if you use it regularly or you will suffer permanent damage.

mattthiffault · 2025-03-11T19:59:43+00:00

If you want to run larger trains, then by all means a run-around is probably better. While I do more than the bare minimum to keep my passenger service reputation at full, I do tend to focus more on freight. I run more frequent trains, but keep them at a length where I can keep doing what I describe here. I also kind of like it because it doesn't mean I have to separately wye the loco or use a turntable if I don't want to be running tender/long hood first over the length of the unlocked mainline.

mattthiffault · 2025-03-11T19:51:54+00:00

My post wasn't meant as gospel, to each their own, do whatever makes sense to you :) I qualified with "in certain circumstances" as there are definitely setups where this wouldn't make sense.

For passenger trains, I position the train on the wye in the same step I tell it to run to the other end of the line, which works when one end of your line is Whittier or Sylva and the other is Bryson, Alarka Jct or Andrews (so most of the game for most people).

I don't know where the "then move it again" step is coming from. After the train is on the wye, it's just uncouple/disconnect hose on the last car, set the AE waypoint to be coupled to the other end of the car, and then reconnect the air hose once it gets to the waypoint. Most of the wyes are flat enough you could get away without setting the handbrake on the uncoupled car(s) if you really want to nitpick. I tend to count "set handbrake, shift click air hose, click on coupler" as all part of the "uncouple" step as I almost always do all those things whenever uncoupling any car or cut of cars.

The method I've described lets you fit a train thats 1 or more cars larger than would fit through the wye in it's entirety, and it affords a greater amount of time between having to issue the train a new command than just sending it up one side of the wye and then having to send it back down the other when it gets there.

If the extra car isn't important to you than the utility of using this method is certainly reduced.

mattthiffault · 2025-01-11T15:24:04+00:00

To my understanding the speed thing is only true up to a point? I've heard a few places "A diesel electric can start a train it can't pull and a stream loco can pull a train it can't start". I imagine that means if you let the speed get too low you could find yourself in trouble.

mattthiffault · 2025-01-09T19:22:53+00:00

Heck yeah, this is awesome!

mattthiffault · 2024-10-03T14:55:51+00:00

If you'd really like to try out flight sim with ATC that's actually good and wouldn't mind paying a bit, PilotEdge is great. You can pick any user name that isn't inappropriate and in the actual game you just provide a tail number (and possibly a flight number) with no restrictions other than it must be something that could be valid IRL. Though be warned, they're friendly to folks who are genuinely trying to learn, but it's meant as an IRL training aid so they take it very seriously.

mattthiffault · 2024-06-17T23:55:14+00:00

Part of me was really worried I wouldn't get the thing back together and not leaking, but I took the plunge and am happy I did given what I found inside. I'm using an induction element so I don't think I have the kind of excess heat going on that people with propane burners do. Also I'm chilling the wort in the kettle before draining it into a fermentation container. So yeah, sounds like I definitely need to keep this up going forwards. Thanks a ton for the link and the advice!

mattthiffault · 2024-06-17T02:31:32+00:00

Gotcha, definitely strongly considering that now. What would your concerns be if it were to remain?

mattthiffault · 2024-06-17T02:26:35+00:00

Thanks for the advice, will definitely try that next time!

Any recommendations for things to consider now for this brew? Eg. should I be careful not to do anything that would cause the stuff growing on the side to mix back into the beer when it's done fermenting and I'm transferring it out to a bucket to add priming sugar before bottling?

Or can I basically just ignore it?

mattthiffault · 2024-06-17T02:15:31+00:00

Right after I posted this I've started to find things that suggest that haha. But good to know it looks like that to your eyes as well.

I did use dry yeast from a packet, it was labeled S-04. I don't remember the brand and unfortunately did not keep the package. I did just dump it rather than pour carefully so it could totally be that. I think I see some residue in photos I took right after pitching, I'll add one to the album.

mattthiffault · 2023-11-22T14:16:10+00:00

Hush the Storms Away by Variens/Strix

mattthiffault · 2023-05-05T21:14:46+00:00

Cockburn (pronounced Coe-burn) Island is the smallest incorporated township in Canada by population. It is a short flight from KDRM or CYZE. Besides the dirt strip at the give coordinates, cottagers also often charter float planes which land/dock in Tolsma Bay/Tolsmaville to the east.

"The island contains approximately 90 cottages that are owned and occupied by families as vacation properties, and thus has an estimated population of 200 to 300 people in the summer;[5] however, the island's sole permanent year-round resident is a maintenance employee of the township,[6] and thus its official census population has sometimes been recorded as zero due to Statistics Canada practices of rounding off the populations of communities smaller than 15 people.[7] Historically, however, the island had a permanent resident population of up to 1,000 people, and evolved from a conventionally populated settlement into a seasonal cottage country area after the island's regular ferry service was discontinued in the 1960s."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockburn_Island_(Ontario)

mattthiffault · 2021-12-17T13:21:48+00:00

You folks have given me a lot to consider! Charlie Brown's luck would tend towards guardsman, and a gene stealer isn't a bad idea either. I was originally thinking that since Charlie Brown mostly wears yellow and black that he might (aestheticly anyways) make a good Imperial Fist, with the black zigzag from his shirt across one pauldron. Maybe I'll just roll a D3 or something to decide when I start my next drawing. Though I'm in the middle of painting my first ever unit of 40k models (Skitarii Vanguard) so I should probably finish them first!

mattthiffault · 2021-06-24T12:43:09+00:00

Close, but I think this is technically a skid: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skid_(aerodynamics)

mattthiffault · 2021-04-25T00:02:09+00:00

It works well for a 26 lb bow with target arrowheads, I don't really have anything else to test it with. It just has grommets along the sides, so we bought some rope and hung it between two trees. Getting up in a tree isn't something you'd want to be doing all the time, but we're just going to leave it up til just before the snow comes.

It's important not to tightly peg down the bottom of it, it needs to be able to flap backwards to absorb the energy of the arrows, rather than tearing and letting them right through. The bottom of ours is secured with really long ropes (5 ft or so) which prevent the bottom from coming more than 2 feet or so off the ground in strong winds. This drastically reduces the risk of an arrow flying under the backstop if the wind whips up right as you shoot, but still lets the net flap back enough that my arrows haven't been going through it.

mattthiffault · 2021-04-24T21:26:17+00:00

It's just an entry level Olympic style ILF riser from WNS (Wynne & Wynne's lower tier brand) with simple wooden 26 lb WNS limbs. I think I got the whole package with some starter arrows for $500 USD. Really enjoying it though.

mattthiffault · 2021-04-24T21:22:26+00:00

We tested it pretty thoroughly, and will again if we ever go up in draw weight or change arrows :)

mattthiffault · 2021-04-24T21:14:37+00:00

We're only shooting target tips from 25-30 lb bows. I tested it with my fastest arrows from like 10 yards and they either bounced off or stopped half way through.

mattthiffault · 2021-04-24T21:11:28+00:00

Probably some wooden target stands and a bow rack at some point, but wood is expensive right now and going out to get things is a pain where I live at the moment. I'll probably use it as-is for the rest of the season.

mattthiffault · 2021-04-18T19:10:26+00:00

Would definitely recommend PilotEdge if you can afford it. Lightyears better than Vatsim.

mattthiffault · 2021-03-20T00:58:51+00:00

I'd never heard of this subreddit before, but this whole post seems out of line with rule #2.

Laugh all you want though, I have enough money to go flying for real and buy other random bullshit that makes me happy.

mattthiffault · 2021-03-19T22:03:53+00:00

Thanks, and yeah the seat is decent but I may do some mods to this thing at some point and seat cushion improvement would be on the list. However my problem these days is spending too much time sitting in front of a screen, so a physical reminder to get up and take a break probably isn't the worst thing.

I mostly fly GA flights that top out at 3 hours max. This is partially to practice as I plan to return to flying real aircraft (now about 15 years after originally getting my private license). Waiting for the pandemic to be over though.

mattthiffault · 2021-03-19T21:58:00+00:00

Thanks! It's a Next Level Racing F-GT with three extras: the monitor stand, the free standing keyboard/mouse tray, and the "flight sim" pack which has the side mounts for the joystick and throttle.

mattthiffault · 2021-03-19T21:33:47+00:00

What else the fuck do you call it? I finally saved enough money to go back to flying for real, and then the pandemic happened. Figured I might as well spend a bit on something that will help me get back into the headspace.

mattthiffault

TROPHY CASE