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A comment on Amtrak's 2035 map has people talking about the future of U.S. train travel. Parent comment

Re:Amtrak's 2035 map has people talking about the future of ... by philwelch on Monday April 26, 2021 @12:34PM (#26944523)
Or you could load a heavier material for ballast, and gradually transform it into a lead zeppelin.

But seriously, why can’t you just tie the zeppelin down? Is there not any sort of cable material with enough tensile strength?

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Re:Amtrak's 2035 map has people talking about the future of ... by ahelwer on Tuesday April 27, 2021 @11:09AM (#26956954)
Hmmm, running some rough calculations the passenger load probably wouldn't exceed about 50 tons for 500 people. Which is very doable to do with a tether. So maybe you're right! Solar-powered passenger airships could be the future. It's cargo airships I'm thinking of that really have these drawbacks.
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Re:Amtrak's 2035 map has people talking about the future of ... by philwelch on Tuesday April 27, 2021 @05:16PM (#26961677)
And for a cargo zeppelin, swapping out full shipping containers for weighted ballast shipping containers seems pretty easy. Though I seriously doubt cargo zeppelins make any sense at all.
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