- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- [email protected]
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (and Neighbors), NYC, 2017.
All the pixels, breakfast not included in room rate.
#photography
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This was captured with a DSLR and a 19mm shifting lens, from a balcony of another building.
It’s mostly an exercise in angles and symmetry. The vaguely wedge-shaped dark cloud that appeared overhead, following the lines of the buildings, created a fortuitous moment.
The Waldorf was closed for an extensive renovation shortly after this was made and just recently re-opened. Many of the rooms have been converted into condo apartments.
The Waldorf-Astoria is perhaps New York’s most prominent monument to jazz age luxury and glamor. It’s been the traditional residence for US presidents and foreign heads of state when in town (the “presidential suite” was meant rather literally there).
Built over the below-grade railyard of Grand Central Terminal, the hotel was equipped with a private rail siding and platform where guests could park their personal railcars(!). (Andy Warhol once threw a party on the platform.)
@[email protected] Private millionaire railway carriages were absolutely the VIP bizjets of the 19th century.
@[email protected] A private platform! I love the idea of that. Feels like something from a steampunk future.
I think I’d prefer a society where the rich and powerful travel in their personal railcars rather than in private jets.
@fritzoids @jgrg It’s ultimately just an RV that you don’t have to drive and with more limited parking options.
@[email protected] @[email protected] I actually looked into this. There’s a small community of people with private railcars. Most are leased out for excursions, but some are owned for personal use.
It’s not THAT expensive to buy one - comparable to the cost of an RV. But the cost of moving it is fairly high, it requires a lot of planning, and you need a place to store it connected to the national rail system (which means either leasing space in a rail yard or owning a railroad siding).
Fun idea, but impractical.
@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] Back when I owned an RV, I always thought it would be cool if the RV had a second set of train wheels that could be lowered on demand, like the rail service trucks do. Best of both worlds, do the long haul travel by getting towed on rail lines, then drive away on normal roads for local stuff and camping.
@fritzoids @jgrg Ringling Brothers circus used to operate two full length trains, which transported both all the circus sets (and animals) and housed most of the staff and performers. They had relationships with all the major freight railroads to move and store the train to all their venues. When they shut down a few years ago, I looked into buying one of the dorm cars. Less expensive than I expected, but there was no way you could get the freight railroads to move and store a single car.
@[email protected] @[email protected] One of the problems is that unlike a car, a plane, or a boat, you can’t move your own train on someone else’s tracks yourself. They have to haul it for you, with crews familiar with and qualified on the specific sections of track you’re moving on. And passenger cars and freight cars don’t mix, which means basically that you have to hire a dedicated locomotive and crew just to move your car. If they’re even willing to do it.
@[email protected] @[email protected]
I’ve seen YT videos with some of these old-timey private cars and specialty cars that people bought up when they got decommissioned. And it looks like so much fun. I understand that there are logistical difficulties, but a private jet also has those.
@fritzoids @jgrg There’s a *huge* infrastructure for handling private airplanes. You can fly to almost any general aviation airport, store your place, get fuel and service, rent a car, whatever you need.
For a railcar, every single time you want to move it, you’d have to deal with people who have never heard of anything like this before. Amtrak has a tariffed rate for moving private cars, but most of the freight railroads (most of the US) really don’t want the business.
