Our apartment is across the river from the railroad track. And not just any railroad track; it’s part of the very first transcontinental railroad ever built anywhere. I can look out my living room window and watch the trains go past. My wife says our rent is probably a little lower because of this, and my mind boggles at the thought. Do we get a discount because it’s in a low crime area too?
One thing I see quite frequently is trains full of “FEMA prison cars” which have been cleverly disguised as articulated Auto-Max cars, used to transport automobiles. It’s a good thing that a few kooks hardworking independent investigators have alerted us to this threat, as large numbers of railfans and model railroaders all across the country have been fooled by this clever ruse.
Apparently, the government has purchased 102,000 of these “prison cars,” most of which are kept on hidden sidings out of public view. That’s a lot of hidden track! (By way of comparison, according to Wikipedia, Union Pacific owned a total of 94,284 freight cars of all types at the end of 2007. BNSF had 85,338.)
