The High Tatra mountains are hiding behind… equally High clouds. Tough luck, but train traffic was overcompensating. Below a selection of what I saw. Regiojet was expected, PKP Cargo wasn’t. This line was definitely rocking it, making the far trip here all the more worthwhile. Continue reading Hiding behind the clouds
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
Once the freight train arrives at it’s destination, it is quickly pulled apart and the cars delivered to where they will be unloaded. Swiss railways work very efficiently, no different here: in almost no time the first car was delivered to a local distribution centre. Continue reading Shunting Pontresina
A bit of looking around usually does the trick. Shot from almost the same location, with a tele instead of a wide angle lens, this view is something quite different compared to the previous photo. I prefer this one, by far: it reduces the train more to it’s real size compared to the giant mountain in the background. Look closely and you’ll see that the … Continue reading Proportions set straight
As stated in my previous post, Recognition, I was in Surava more than 10 years ago. 13 years, to be more precise. During our holiday in Graubünden, festivities were held to celebrate the 100th birthday of the Albula railway line. For the occasion some special trains were circulating. One of them was the train pictured here, composed of “crocodile” engine 414 and some historic coaches. The mountain … Continue reading Recognition II
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
It was obvious that no real effort from our part was needed to make some more photos of this train. We took our time packing our stuff and continueing the road up the canyon. The road follows the line rather well, so it’s easy to find new locations, even without having been there before. In no time we had passed the hard-working rear and middle … Continue reading Taking our time
We had our photo, and after assuring nothing more was coming we continued north. We took our time, booking a room at a motel in the meantime, and looking for a new spot to photograph a train. Price River Canyon offers some good possibilities for spectacular shots. Our first stop was at Castle Gate. And again, after only a few minutes waiting a train came … Continue reading Third time’s a charm
Ludlow was founded in 1883 as a water stop along the transcontinental railroad. When railroad activity ceased in the 1940s, the town survived supplying the needs of travellers of the national old trails road, the future route 66. The opening of interstate 40 in the 1970s meant the end for businesses as people didn’t need to stop here anymore in their faster cars on the faster system. As a result the town was abandoned. Today, only some supplies for interstate travellers remain at the exit ramps.
Railscapes 