Ask HN: How to travel by train without vibrations / getting shaken up

Motion sickness isn't caused by the shaking and vibration, at least not directly. The problem arises because your inner ear and eyeballs are sending contradictory signals to your brain.

The solution: sit near a window where you have an outside steady visual reference to the shaking. I got very carsick once while reading a book in the back seat. I was advised to put the book down and look outside, and the problem subsided.

Try it, you may find it helpful. Have a great vacation!

I get carsick a lot when reading and I can confirm that not reading and looking outside helps. Another thing: if you are on a train, make sure to be facing the direction where the train is going (just like you would be in a car). I'm not sure how and why this works, but it helps reduce carsickness for me.

Vibrations from wind are causing "extreme nausea" in skyscrapers on Billionaire's Row

https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef/ViewDocument?docInde...

Vibrations also are a huge challenge for micro gravity experiments on ISS, where every source of noise down to a cosmic ray has to be accounted for. NASA invented a compact dampener, essentially linear springs in tensile harmony.

Best of Luck!

https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/LAR-TOPS-189

I can't speak to the engineering side but I will share my general travel-sickness tips:

First, there are quite a few different types of motion sickness foods and supplements. I get good results from ginger, like ginger snaps or this candy called gin-gins. I also tried a raspberry-flavored motion sickness aid and it worked great. Your local medical professionals or specifically audiologists or ENTs may be able to suggest some other good ideas here.

Second, activities and locations within the vehicle seem to make a huge difference. I would try: Not looking down at anything if possible. It helps me to look generally toward the horizon, out a window. I would also divide my time between walking and sitting, and change facing directions frequently, paying attention to what's working and what's not.

Third, I would take full advantage of debarking at all stops and even schedule a layover or two if possible.

Fourth, sleep seems to help some people skip over the worst of the event. I would personally try a sleep supplement like melatonin.

Finally, please do check with train travel professionals. Good luck and happy holidays, I hope it can be tolerable or even enjoyable for you.

Thank you for sharing your own experience and tips! That is very valuable for me - lovely holidays to you, too!

Sorry to pick on your spelling/word choice, but it's "disembarking" and not "debarking." (Debarking is the horrible practice of removing a dog's vocal cords).

Normally, I wouldn't point out your mistake, but OP says they are not a native English speaker, so I thought it was important to clarify this.

Sit as close to the middle of the carriage as possible, since the carriage rotates about the centre and this results in more movement at the ends.

You’re also further away from the wheels, so the carriage itself acts as a buffer for the vibrations.

A memory foam or Purple mattress/pillow might help, they isolate movements when you lay on them. You might experiment with making a sort of 'child seat' made of the foam, which you might be able to get from a used mattress? You can also buy memory foam toppers which are somewhat cheaper than a full mattress.

However, one part of me thinks that if you ever rode on an Amtrak train, you'd never complain about movement on European railways again =]

Since the train only shakes side to side (and not up-down or forwards-backwards), you only really need spring dampening along one axis.

While you could set up a linear rail with some pretensioned bungie cables (similar to how the Hover Glide backpacks work), I’d recommend using parallel leaf springs as they’re lightweight, low-form factor, mechanically simple, and low stiffness.

Here are some links to 3D printed inspiration: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2574629 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4738960 https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4411343

The key to supporting human weight is to replace the thin plastic leaf springs with sheet metal. You can also add more springs in parallel (increasing the weight it can support, but reducing the travel).

And some of my gifs of them in motion: https://imgur.com/a/YH4HQpo

Have you seen the engineered "glasses" [1] designed to help combat motion sickness during long trips by car, boat, or train? The idea is that there are liquids injected into the "frame" which help create an artificial horizon of sorts, which is designed to trick your brain into smoothing out the mixed messages your movement sensors otherwise get from vibrations and motions.

Of course, they do look a little silly and they don't directly help with the "shaken up" feeling you're trying to avoid, but it would be an interesting test to go against what the article claims is a 95% effectiveness against motion sickness.

[1] https://www.healthline.com/health/glasses-for-motion-sicknes...

Try to sit in the middle of the carriage. I don't get motion sickness on trains, but I find doing that makes a meaningful difference to how comfortable it is to type on a laptop on a commuter train.

I don't have an answer to your question I'm afraid, but I have the opposite experience to you. I find the steady, rhymic sway of the train carriage quite pleasant and is likely to make me nod off.

It's not just me, other passengers can often be seen dozing. Even a jolt or bump in the journey doesn't appear to disturb some passengers while dozing.

Someone unknown once likened the steady sway of the train to like rocking a cot from one side to another. Could that be why it makes some passengers sleepy? (I have no idea!)

I also find trains to be the second most confortable way to travel, behind big boats. But I am not particularly susceptible to motion sickness.

I know there is medicine for sea sickness (ex: dramamine), I guess that they work for trains too.

A friend had serious motion sickness issues when traveling by small plane. We tried ginger (worked a little), looking outside (worked a lot, but got boring), the wrist pressure bracelets (didn’t help much), and the electronic shock bracelets for motion sickness (worked great).

Might try those before going for a cumbersome device that likely won’t work better. The electronic bracelet seemed like a gimmick, but it really worked for her.

I agree with MrGuts. Travel during daytime and look out the window. I get nausea on a train if I am backwards. I tried sitting backwards recently to see if I have grown out of it ... nope.

Like MrGuts if I read, and the path is not smooth, I get sick.

Airplanes do not have this effect on me.

On boats, the typical cure is to go look outside at the horizon.

Other cure, close your eyes.

An explanation for that may be that airplanes (unlike cars and trains) keep their turning forces almost perfectly downwards. A turn in a car or train has a sideways component, but a plane banks in the turn so the force is still pointing straight down at the floor. Take a look at your coffee next time you're on a flight, it remains level in turns while in a car it will move to one side.

Unfortunately planes have a "less than 1g" feeling in turbulence that many people also get sick from. Just in a different way.

> In case someone wants to build it: my personal willingness to pay is (currently) somewhere between 100-500$ if it is somehow portable like a backpack.

A box of anti motion-sickness medication costs about €3 for 20 pills and is significantly smaller than a backpack.

One thing I find helps with the vibrations (up to a point) is to keep my laptop on my lap, as opposed to on the foldup table

I think a native English speaker would describe it exactly as you did.