Earlier attempts to shoot the famous French nez cassé locomotives on the IC trains between Paris and Maubeuge were rather frustrating, partly due to the very sparse number of trains. That is, until we discovered that there were also loco-hauled trains running between Paris and Saint-Quentin. It turns out you can fill quite a day south of Saint-Quentin chasing these trains, which my friend Eurorailer … Continue reading The hunt for nez cassés
Back home since 2 days, after the yearly holidays in beautiful France. Driving around in France always leaves me with a feeling for more, even though the freight traffic is rather sparse. Processing the pictures will be for later, however here’s a picture from a while ago at dusk in the north of France. I got to shoot a few freights on the line connecting … Continue reading Back home
SNCF Fret has started up ballast traffic to the Quenast quarry again. Very likely it’s the last season that SNCF will use BB67400 locomotives for this service, as the Infrabel network is gradually equipped with ETCS. Needless to say that many Belgian rail enthusiasts find opportunities to enjoy these beautiful locomotives while we still can. Now that we can’t cross the borders, it makes it … Continue reading The SNCF logo
Second stop on the day trip was to get the car approved in a TüV Prufcenter to drive into the Ruhr area, necessary if you want to avoid fines. Third stop was the station of Krefeld Uerdingen. I arrived here by accident, after all it was a trip meant to explore the area, and was pleasantly surprised by what I saw: a nice looking old … Continue reading Posing in Krefeld
Thoughts of the last moment are sometimes the better ones, I must admit. While packing our stuff to go home, it appeared to us that we could still make it for the TER Service to Sarreguemines. This service was one of the last ones hauled a BB67400 series diesel. We won the race against the clock; in what were really the last rays of sunshine … Continue reading Last minute
The wide plains north of Strasbourg allow straight tracks and fast trains. Here we see a local train that can ride 200 km/h. I’m sure this local doesn’t stop in every small village though. Continue reading High speed lcoal
This is probably the last photo I made of these magnificent French diesel locomotives in commercial service. As the pack of clouds was getting thcker and thicker, and the sun was starting to set, I kept on going for that one final shot. On the bridge over the railway at Maison-Rouge I enjoyed for the last time the thundering sound at high speed of a … Continue reading Dark perspectives
It was getting darker and darker. The clouds had finally won the battle with the sun. Continue reading “A lost battle”
148 years, 6 months and 0 days. For that long trains have been passing over the viaduct of Besnard in Longueville. I absolutely wanted a photo of this magnificent structure. It took me a while to find a good location, but I was way on time for the train from Paris. Continue reading Standing strong
The castle of Flamboin dates from the sixteenth century. I got to see it from a distance from where I was standing, though I’m not sure the passengers got even a glimpse of it as the train to Paris raced through the station of Flamboin-Gouaix. The station is deserted for a while now, as is the railway line connecting Flamboin-Gouaix to Montereau. The switches on … Continue reading Historic relicts
Railscapes 