Cybersecurity Challenges for the European Railways

The European Union Agency for Cybersecurity (ENISA) released in November 2020 its “Cybersecurity in Railways” report to raise awareness about the cybersecurity challenges facing Europe’s railways. The report identifies the current cybersecurity status … Continue reading Cybersecurity Challenges for the European Railways

North American Field Guide to Rail Cars

Trains are one of the oldest and most reliable ways we have of transporting things and people over long distances. But how often do you think about trains? Where I live, they can clearly be heard every hour or so. I should be used to the sound of them by …read more

Continue reading North American Field Guide to Rail Cars

The Mostly Forgotten Story of Atmospheric Railway

It doesn’t matter whether you know it as a railway, a railroad, a chemin de fer, or a 铁路, it’s a fair certainty that the trains near where you live are most likely to be powered either by diesel or electric locomotives. Over the years from the first horse-drawn tramways …read more

Continue reading The Mostly Forgotten Story of Atmospheric Railway

Our Trucks Won’t Need No Batteries! Electric Trucks Look to Overhead Wires for Power

As the world grapples with the spectre of the so-called “hockey stick” graph of climate change, there have been a variety of solutions proposed to the problem of carbon emissions from sectors such as transport which have become inseparable from the maintenance of 21st century life. Sometimes these are blue-sky …read more

Continue reading Our Trucks Won’t Need No Batteries! Electric Trucks Look to Overhead Wires for Power

Passenger Railroad Service Says Data Breach Might Have Affected PII

A passenger railroad service announced that a data breach might have affected some passengers’ personally identifiable information (PII). In a “Notice of Data Breach” letter sent to the Attorney General’s Office of Vermont, Amtr… Continue reading Passenger Railroad Service Says Data Breach Might Have Affected PII

Considering The Originality Question

Many Hackaday readers have an interest in older technologies, and from antique motorcycles to tube radios to retrocomputers, you own, conserve and restore them. Sometimes you do so using new parts because the originals are either unavailable or downright awful, but as you do so are you really restoring the …read more

Continue reading Considering The Originality Question

CCCamp: 5,000 Hackers Out Standing in Their Field

What do hackers do on vacation? What do hackers do whenever they have free time? What do you love to do? That’s right. But how much more fun would it be if you could get together with 5,000 other hackers, share your crazy projects and ideas, eat, drink, dance, swim, …read more

Continue reading CCCamp: 5,000 Hackers Out Standing in Their Field

A Turntable For Model Railroads

Way back when, before diesel-electric locomotives were a thing, trains weren’t really able to go backwards too well. Also it’s sometimes necessary to turn carriages around in a small space. For that, the railway turntable was invented. If you want to implement one on a model layout, this project from DIY & Digital Railworld is for you.

The project is at an early stage – thus far, laying out how to set up an Arduino Uno using a potentiometer to control the speed of a stepper motor, which rotates the turntable. The turntable itself is a 3D printed part sourced …read more

Continue reading A Turntable For Model Railroads

The Arduino Hits The Rails

Certain hobbies come in clusters. It isn’t uncommon to see, for example, ham radio operators that are private pilots. Programmers who are musicians. Electronics people who build model trains. This last seems like a great fit since you can do lots of interesting things with simple electronics and small-scale trains. [Jimmy] at the aptly-named DIY and Digital Railroad channel has several videos on integrating railroad setups with Arduino. These range from building a DCC system for about $45 (see below) to a crossing signal.

There are actually quite a few basic Arduino videos on the channel, although most of them …read more

Continue reading The Arduino Hits The Rails

Retrotechtacular: Operation Smash Hit

Judging by the number of compilations that have been put online, one of the not-so-secret vices of the YouTube generation must be the watching of crash videos. Whether it is British drivers chancing their luck on level crossings, Russians losing it at speed on packed snow, or Americans driving tall trucks under low bridges, these films exert a compelling fascination upon the viewing public intent on deriving entertainment from the misfortunes of others. The footage is often peripheral or grainy, having inevitably been captured by a dashcam or a security camera rather than centre-stage on a broadcast quality system with …read more

Continue reading Retrotechtacular: Operation Smash Hit