Vintage train fan excited about rare vintage train is the new "Double Rainbow" (video)

[Video Link] Double rainbow, all the way. Oh my god. (via Newley Purnell)

Update: CNN's Jeanne Moos uncovered the even funnier story behind "Double Trainbow," here. And the original it lovingly parodies, by "foamer" and excitable railfan Mark McDonough, is below. His YouTube channel is a thing of beauty.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

MORE: double rainbow • fandom • Funny • lol • oldtime • trains • video • vintage

More at Boing Boing

Ants and Stars: Bruce Sterling and Jasmina Tesanovic visit the Sardinia Radio Telescope in Italy

The Snowden Principle

Wild Rumpus

“Take the best orgasm you’ve ever had… multiply it by a thousand, and you’re still nowhere near it.”
- SomeGuyNamedMark
  
  I wish I could get this excited about anything.
Tony

To his credit, that is a sweet looking train.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Andy-Murdock/783770273 Andy Murdock

Somehow, his voice makes me not like trains as much as I did before the video started.
- disky00
  
  Eeeeuggh! EeeAAAAAAhhhgggh!!
- SomeGuyNamedMark
  
  Omg the train to Park St is here! OMG! Look at the scratched windows! OMG! The old drink bottle rolling on the floor, the stained seats. This is awesome! This guy next to me has his ipod cranked to 11 so I have to hear it. YES!
mccrum

It’s hard to mock such naked, incredible excitement like this, pretty rare in the world these days.

Somehow I think the internet will find a way however.
- Paul Renault
  
  OK, here it is:
  Y’know, this might actually looks realistic if the other people in the video would turn around when the supposed filmmaker screamed.
  - http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
    
    If I were there I’d probably avoid making eye contact.
    - SomeGuyNamedMark
      
      You’d have to film him so it would be a mobius strip of awesomeness. Him posting a vid of himself freaking out over a train, you posting a vid of him freaking out while filming trains. Round and round it goes…
      - http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
        
        And I could be screaming back at him, about how excited I was to be witnessing such an excited train fan.
        
        “This guy is AWESOME! AAAAH!”
Mike Norman

Almost.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeYz66XgAxI
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=664712145 Eric Plumb

Seems it’s a phony, a hoax, or rather a clever marketing remake of the actual “train guy” Mark McDonough to drum up interest for this rail line. McDonough’s actual excitement shown in his video shows what true “foamers” experience while viewing a heritage engine.
- inedible
  
  Yeah, this is far too similar to this video, but I’m pretty sure it’s a different guy. Also, they’ve both been waiting months, and finally got one on camera for the “first time”.
  
  If I’m not mistaken this is the original:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhYXNwvcl6A
disky00

Can someone explain why trains are cool? I’ve never understood what people enjoy about them. They haul people and things on a predetermined path, usually fairly slowly, and they make a loud noise sometimes. I just don’t understand why people find them interesting, and I would legitimately appreciate an explanation.
- taghag
  
  why i like trains:
  - beautiful hardware (check out the nose on the train in the video!)
  - reliability (the predetermined path you mention is a plus for me – you know for sure where you’re going)
  - speed (also thanks to the rails, they can go faster safer than any form of land transport)
  - stability (and again thanks to the rails, i can read a book and drink a coffee… while traveling at high speed)
  - efficiency (at their best, railway systems identify a common need/goal and fulfill it, using much less energy than individual transport units)
  - logistics (the fact that many cities/countries have hundreds of trains organised to show up at different stations day and night at coordinated times is amazing)
  - humanity (designing, building and maintaining a decent train system is a huge human achievement made over many years of collaboration)
  - SomeGuyNamedMark
    
    One of my best experiences in Turkey was taking the overnight train from Istanbul to Ankara. No boarding b.s., being able to sleep like a human being, the soothing steady thunk of the rails, seeing the landscape go by close up, dinner and breakfast in the dining car. Nice.
- Symbiote
  
  I think @taghag writes why railways are cool, not the railway vehicles, which I assume is what you meant.
  
  In which case, it’s probably for similar reasons as why people think ships, cars, bikes or aeroplanes are cool; though I’ve never found any of these to be interesting — the purpose of the vehicle is more interesting.
  
  I like railways, since round here they usually carry people at least as fast as cars can (often much faster), but they’re quieter, more spacious and I can do what I want while travelling by rail. My interest in the vehicles goes about as far as “hey, I went to Exeter last week, and the carriages now have LCD screens in the seats”.
  - taghag
    
    ”I think @taghag writes why railways are cool, not the railway vehicles, which I assume is what you meant.”
    
    gah, that’s true! i’m such a public transport fangirl that i totally forgot about the trains in my enthusiam! :)
- t3kna2007
  
  This guy is just hamming it up. (Hilariously .. he’s good.)
  
  But as to why people are into trains, as far as I’m concerned, it’s not about the diesels. Fuck the fucking diesels. Steam or go home.
  
  It’s like a living being. It’s like standing next to a living, breathing, snorting dinosaur in harness, its superheated flanks looming over you, wreathed in smoke and steam, hissing and straining, eating coal, breathing fire and leaving soot and cinders and sulfur in your eyes. It’s like a great beast, a genuine behemoth. This is Ray Bradbury territory. Those capable of awe will be awestruck; those capable of fear will be afraid. If you’d ever stood too close to a crossing while one of these bore down on you screaming out of the night, you’d understand completely.
  - humanresource
    
    Has anyone created the Steampunk Porn genre yet? If not, go on and be a pioneer. I think you’ve found your calling.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      A GIS with SafeSearch turned off will answer that question.
    - t3kna2007
      
      Are you saying my prose is .. overheated? ;)
  - alfanovember
    
    The streamline-era diesels are pretty, but steam is magic. Just last month I rode the Arcade and Attica near Buffalo, NY. For the pull home, they couple the engine to the open air seating car, where you can stand at the rail and get the full harnessed dinosaur experience from a few feet away.
    http://www.arcadeandatticarr.com/
    
    And to add to Taghag’s list: As an amateur new urbanist & supporter of transit oriented development, trains are an integral part of what makes A Place Where Humans Want To Live, and historically, they did so in an economically sustainable manner.
    
    http://dc.streetsblog.org/2012/05/21/the-value-of-value-capture/
    
    Consequently, I get enthused about vintage train hardware because now, 75 years into the Suburban Experiment, it is a tangible relic of something that humanity got right.
- rasterops
  
  One Word – Engineering
- http://www.epinardscaramel.com TokenFrenchDude
  
  Slowly ? Have you ever seen a French or Japanese train ?
- ashypete
  
  My dad has worked on trains for his entire adult life and he always found train enthusiasts funny, weird or disturbing. In fact I never had a train set as a kid nor any train toys… And one of my favorite experiences with my dad was when went to a train hobbyist show. He was shocked and appalled and weirdly fascinated…
http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair

IT’S A BL-2 AHHH AHHHH AAHHHH

ahhh
Orthodoxcaveman

I get like this over vintage porn.
- invictus
  
  Youtube awaits you.
- Todd Fife
  
  Don’t you mean “heritage” porn?
  - Orthodoxcaveman
    
    It could be the next Ken Burns Academy Award winning production.
    - jerwin
      
      slow pans over glossy black and white photos, stopping just before the nipples are shown?
opcws

I dunno about parodying another video, but I’m entirely certain it’s Nicholas Cage.
- http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/TGZ75URQ6DKTCNXV3RV36ZKALQ Matthew
  
  I don’t think the acting was *quite* bad enough to reach Cage’s level.
  - http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
    
    ‘Bad’ isn’t quite the right word. I’m not sure what the word is, but it’s unique to Cage – and IMO although it is kinda shitty, it’s good shitty.
    
    Vampires Kiss was… well, it was amazing.
    - opcws
      
      Cage, when he wants to, can be excellent at doing super-cheesy parody stuff. Like in Kick-Ass, when his dead-on tribute to Adam West’s Batman was the best thing about the film.
      - http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
        
        That’s kind of what I mean I guess. He’s not a ‘bad’ actor, he just as a very specific style of acting that can sometimes be mistaken for bad.
        I think.
        
        Either way I like the guy. I forgive him his handful of genuinely terrible films… actually I even like those.
      - bobkat
        
        Have you seen Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans? Herzog’s decision to cast Cage is spot-on for this very reason. The movie calls for a bizarre affected hammy actor in the lead role, and Cage shines brilliantly.
http://twitter.com/Luke1972 Luke

Double trainbow
http://www.facebook.com/people/James-Agenbroad/100002463876063 James Agenbroad

I guess because I used to go to work behind an E9 every day in the late 80s, it doesn’t do anything special for me. The BL-2 is sweet, though.
Loafer

I thought it was Seth McFarland doing an impression of Nicholas Cage acting as a train enthusiast
pjk

Had no idea Mitt Romney was such a train enthusiast.
- http://twitter.com/wilmcdaniel wilmcdaniel
  
  That was no Mitt. That was 100 percent Howard Dean.
s2redux

Yah, typical. My unit is also a 1953 Heritage model, and this is pretty much the reaction I’ve come to expect.
- Lexicat
  
  Huh huh. . . you said “unit.”
snagglepuss

At 1:01 ” This is Special. THIS IS SPECIAL.”

Awesome. That will become an audio tag heard ’round the internet. Or at least at places where blase hipsters need a snarky “witticism” to insult something popular.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/TGZ75URQ6DKTCNXV3RV36ZKALQ Matthew

I think this is the guy who announces the gymnastics competitions for NBC.
http://twitter.com/strugglngwriter strugglngwriter

I love this guy.
flosofl

So, I showed a clip like this to my co-worker. He responded with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhS2fj_vO1I
Leto_Atreides

He sounds like Randy Marsh getting excited over food in the South Park “Crème Fraiche” episode.
RaleighSaintClair

Approach the Internet as though everything is not real. But if it makes you laugh out loud, then it’s real. And leave it at that.
http://twitter.com/VagabondAstro Robert Little

After a failed launch attempt back in 1995, I was wandering around the Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and encountered a group of eastern European space journalist, and I swear to god one of them was doing the same thing;
“Look! LOOOK! Saturn IB! Wow! Look at it! It is HUUUGE!”
- http://ae4rv.com/ royaltrux
  
  That’s a bit easier for me to understand.
http://hame.ca/one/ Hamish Grant

He’s got four videos so far – excited in all of them. One has to wonder if this isn’t a schtick but whatever – amusing and I do like me some trains, so as long as this doesn’t become a ‘thing’ I’m ok with it. The thought of random hipster railfans turning the simple, reverent act of trainspotting into a screamfest is jarring to say the least.
franko

it may be a fake, but it’s based on a genuine one, and while watching it, i could only think about how cool it is that geeks come in all stripes.
http://ae4rv.com/ royaltrux

For those of you who have skipped some comments and missed the explanation, I’ll re-post it for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeYz66XgAxI
hhype

I think the guy sounds a little like a young Bill Paxton as excited about these trains as about the Aliens about to get him. ”Game over, man! That was the most beautiful train horn”. ”Maybe you haven’t been keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked by a cool train, pal”
Greg

Just a little info – Heritage units are rare because most RR’s have been purchased or consolidated under one large RR (either BNSF or UP). These prior RR’s are called “fallen flags” as the paint scheme, logos and other things that made that them unique are now gone. On occasion, the new owner (UP for example) will roll out a new locomotive but paint it in a heritage (old) paint scheme. They can do this because in addition to buying the RR, they also own the logos, etc.

Catching a heritage unit on the move is getting more rare. It’s easy to go to a museum and see one (stationary), but getting to see one running is a sight to see. Insurance and regulations (steam boilers can explode quite drastically and need to be certified for operations) make seeing a running steam engine more rare. Also, some of these unit are approaching 100 years old, so finding someone who knows how to operate/maintain these units are becoming rare also.
V

I’d hate to see how excited he’d get if he saw a truly impressive engine…..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naQNY4f3QKU
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  He might burst into song.
Palomino

You know when you go to the beach and there’s that one guy or gal who’s as fat as a hippo and just lets it all hang out?

They make me jealous. This guy makes me jealous too.
JhmL

Finland mostly passed the Rainbow – but we got mighty excited about someone getting mighy excited about catching a fish. Short translation: “Whitefish whitefish whitefish!!! Jesus Christ, four pound whithefish!!!!” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlIw7GiHUkc
Thad

I hated this loud-mouthed guy.

By the end of the clip I loved him.