Waiting for the container shuttle connecting Zeebruges and Milano, on a Wednesday morning, because the light was looking good. SUrprise surprise, this morning the train was headed by the only black series 13 locomotive. On top, the train was fully loaded. Call it a good start of the day. Continue reading Morning charge
Since a few days, BLS Cargo / Crossrail is using their Vectron locomotives on the GTS trains to and from Zeebruges. Before, they were exclusively used on the Ambrogio trains to and from Muizen.In nice evening light, Vectron 475 423 slowly enters De Pinte, as to explore its new territory. More variation on the line from Ghent to the French border, as about all active … Continue reading New territory
Last weekend, works between Bruges and Ghent meant rerouting of rail traffic over scenic West-Flemisch rail lines, that otherwise don’t see that many freight and intercity traffic.Add to that a sunny Saturday, and no car available. What you get is an oldschool day trip by bicycle. Packed with photogear, tripod, lunch and water; led by the circumstances to get the most out of the day. … Continue reading Oldschool day out
This is the last spot of the afternoon already: freight train traffic was scarce. A northbound intermodal train runs through the town of Braubach. “through” has to be taken literally here: it passes right in front of the houses. Considering this is one of the busiest freight lines in Germany, you can understand why inhabitants of the villages are complaining about noise. Let’s hope authorities … Continue reading A railfan’s dream house
Sun would be standing at the west of the mainline by now, so I went to chec out the famous spot at Duisburg-Entenfang. Famous means that a lot of people hang out at a spot; this was also the case this day over here. I met 3 people: CFL1800, Peter Gootzen, and 37001 overseas. Big thanks to these people for sharing their knowledge about the … Continue reading Social time
Watching the shunting movements is fun, but after a while you start wondering where the big trains are. I decided to explore the line further and was lucky: at Angerhausen, while checking out a possible photo location, I suddenly heard a train coming. Yes, a train with a real big engine was entering the frame. Mission accomplished! Continue reading Caught a big diesel
By the time I got to the Ruhr area, I only got to check out the Duisburg-Hochfeld railway bridge, where I ended my previous visit. It’s an interesting structure, mainly because of the original 1870’s bridgehead standing next to the bridge currently in use. DB’s 185 192 is crossing the Rhine river with an intermodal train, probably heading south. There are so many lines running … Continue reading Historic bridges
Winter sun takes a while to rise, but its warm light makes the waiting worthwhile. It’d better, since temperature was also pretty low and wind was blowing. Fortunately, there were plenty of interesting trains riding up the hill. Like this one, straight from our home country: SBB’s 11683 and a sister haul train 40243 from Antwerp Oorderen to Gallarate, seen here at Wassen. Continue reading For the homesick
For our final shots, we crossed the Truckee River and climbed up a slope on the other side of the valley. The slope was close to a golf terrain: we found balls all over the place. So, hoping not to be hit by a lost golf ball, we set up our gear, hoping to see one more train before heading back home. We were lucky: … Continue reading Lost golf balls
The last full day of the trip. Before heading back towards San Francisco, we wanted to give the Donner Pass railway another try. The day before, we didn’t get to make a photo of a freight train, hopefully we would be able to make up for it. We had seen some possible photo locations close to were we had been waiting the day before, east … Continue reading Last chance
Railscapes 