Home Office on Rails

[Chellerz]

This is amazing!!!


A Compact Home Office With Something Extra: It’s Also a Train

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/20/...fXlqwRdw&giftCopy=4_Disclaimer&smid=url-share

 

[Just-Thinking-51]

Weird but not quite amazing.

I really don’t get the 2nd floor access is by ladder. Sorry but I hit the age when a shine floor is of concern to me. (Slip and fall.) Going up a ladder for me to reach my library? Nope.

It’s more of why project.

 

[flitcraft]

Rich folks and their obsessions, again. The most amusing part of the story, though, is the tagline on the column:

Living Small is a biweekly column exploring what it takes to lead a simpler, more sustainable or more compact life..

Yup, building this definitely looks like a contribution we can all emulate in leading a simpler, more sustainable, or most compact life.

 

[Metra Electric Rider]

I found it interesting, but, well, an exercise in fun for someone who can afford it. Certainly a beautiful location and detailed with exquisite materials.

 

[Mystic River Dragon]

A nice small elevator would make more sense.

And in the what’s old is new again category, British country houses often had stairs in the library to reach the higher shelves.

But of course they also had staff who could go up there for you and get the book you wanted.

 

[Chellerz]

I found it interesting, but, well, an exercise in fun for someone who can afford it. Certainly a beautiful location and detailed with exquisite materials.

I thought it a fitting locale for someone inspired by the Empire Builder.

 

[Brian Battuello]

Semantic question - Is anything on rails automatically a "train"? I thought trains had to have multiple units. Of course many people would consider a single DMU on tracks as taking a "train" but in general it implies a series of attached vehicles. It would have been better to call it a "railroad".

Another example is funiculars. They run on tracks but no one calls them trains.

p.s. If he's willing to install and use a horn, and wear overalls, I'm willing to let the "train" thing slide...

 

[TinCan782]

I would prefer a caboose as a home office! Even if it didn't move.

 

[Siegmund]

Semantic question - Is anything on rails automatically a "train"?

The current definition in GCOR (applies to BNSF and UP and many western shortlines): "One or more engines coupled, with or without cars, displaying a marker, and authorized to operate on a main track." The definition on most other roads is similar.

So, there is no requirement for more than one piece of equipment to be involved - but there does have to be an official designation made saying that it's going to go somewhere (this guy presumably is his own dispatcher, and can so authorize a movement), and 'marker' is usually an EOT device on a freight train. I did not see whether this guy has hung a couple of lamps out on his or not.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

He says when his office was just another room his family was always barging in and bugging him. In the past I probably would have missed that part but the pandemic gave me a lot of insight into modern family dynamics. Watching kids and spouses repeatedly interrupt conference calls and business meetings over some minor issue or incident was rather enlightening. I guess building an elaborate "detached office" is easier than admitting your family is incapable of respecting your boundaries and cheaper than a divorce.