Posted June 17, 200717 yr I broke up this thread into two, considering there were more than 150 pictures in the single A-to-Z thread. And I've heard some forum visitors couldn't see the pictures after M, probably due to slow Internet capabilities (for photos from A-to-L, visit http://www.urbanohio.com/forum2/index.php?topic=12977.0 ). So here's M-to-Z.... This reportedly is the first train depot in the world (OK stat-freaks, check it out). Regardless, it's been converted into part of Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry... Manchester Metrolink, in the area of the G-Mex station... I thought I should pose next to this little loco at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. It's name is Pender, pretty close to the first letters of my last name... These railroad bridges in Manchester made for some interesting photo subjects. I love how Brits use the undersides of them for businesses.... Paris' complicated Chatele-Les Halles joint station between the RER regional rail system and the Metro subway. It includes two very long moving walkways to link stations for the two systems... Paris Pont Neuf Station on the Metro. A clean part of an otherwise dirty city... Paris Nord Station, served by Thalys, Eurostar and TGV high-speed trains, plus regular SNCF intercity and commuter trains, the RER and the Metro. A busy place! Paris' Orleans station, as viewed from the Seine River. The station is no longer served by trains, but by patrons of the arts. It's now a gallery... The slowest part of the PBKAL (Paris, Brussels, Koln, Amsterdam, London) high-speed rail matrix is a section west of Aachen, Germany, between Brussels and Koln, er Cologne. As you can see from these pictures I shot from the ICE, construction is well underway to blaze a faster trail for ICE and Thalys trains... A South West Railway Corp. passenger train, operating on third-rail electricity, pauses at the small Petersfield station, between London and Portsmouth... Here's a cute, small-town station I came across in Pewsey. I couldn't wait for the next train, 19 minutes off, so I snapped these pics of the station only... Salisbury was a terrific little city I stayed in, home of the cavernous and beautiful Salisbury Cathedral. They have a very vibrant town center with extensive bus service to city neighborhoods and rural towns dozens of miles away. Here's one of their city buses, negotiating a traffic-calming feature... And, Salisbury's main bus terminal. An active place even at 9 p.m. .... Salisbury is served by several passenger rail providers, including the First Great Western. I spotted this train two blocks from our bed and breakfast (picture extracted from video)... Minutes later, a South West train came through. You didn't have to wait long for a passenger train to show up here (or anywhere in Europe for that matter!). 2-3 trains would typically go by in a 10-15 minute period... I also stopped in Southampton, the famous port city on the English Channel from where the Titanic departed. We were there to visit the maritime museum which had a special exhibit on the Titanic. While there, I snapped this picture of a free bus service that links up with the ferry boat to/from the Isle of Wight... One of the busiest railroad spots I visited was South Kenton Station, on the northwest side of London. I stayed there for a grand total of 75 minutes and spotted about 40 trains. That included Underground/tube trains, Silverlink regional trains, several freight trains and intercity passenger trains that included one of my favorite color schemes in all of England -- that of Virgin Railway's high-speed trains. Maybe 20 of them sailed past me. The speed limit here is 110 mph and they were doing all of that... St. Pancras Hotel in London, getting converted to condos (er, for-sale apartments) in preparation for the coming of the Eurostar trains in November. The penthouse suite lists for 10 million pounds... Thalys high-speed train interiors. These high-speed trains ply the rails between Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Cologne and other places. I rode it between Brussels and Paris... York is one busy place. In fact, the city and its train station were even busier when we visited, as there was a horse race at a track on the south side of town that week. Even when there is no horse race in town, roughly 450 trains per day call at the city's station. Here's a glimpse of the station's departure board on the morning we were catching our train to London... Frequent bus service operates in York and beyond. Most highways, including two-lane numbered routes through remote rural areas, have regular bus services that pause at roadside depots at every little village and hamlet... Another one of my favorite paint schemes. This one is on a Northern Rail Inc. passenger train, seen at York... Here's some pictures from the very large and very well presented National Railway Museum in York. Starts with some 19th century trains in one building... Then there's a variety of locomotives through the years in another building, including the ill-fated Advanced Passenger Train from 1970s/80s. Thought I'd take a lean on it... Yours truly posing in front of a Eurostar/Chunnel mock-up... And, the train that gave rise to the name "Bullet Train" -- the Japanese Shinkansen. Hard to believe this cab car entered service in 1964 -- 43 years ago. And where is America today when it comes to advanced rail passenger service? Somewhere in the dust of an increasingly longer list of nations who followed Japan's lead. See, I got myself upset.... A Royal Train from the 1940s (I think). It was used until recently, but the Royals use a more modern train today for their domestic travels. The National Railway Museum also has a circa-1900 Royal train on display, but getting interior shots proved real tough due to poor lighting, reflections etc.. Some action at the York train station, one of my favorites in the UK because of its curving train shed... Thanks for riding in the land where passenger trains travel at up to 200 mph on brand-new mainlines, wind their way down the most out-of-the-way branch lines, and clog huge terminals in major cities with thousands of trains per day. It's also a place where freight trains are nearly as rare as passenger trains are in the U.S. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
June 18, 200717 yr Trains are to me what beer and sleeping are to you. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
June 20, 200717 yr As someone who is generally obsessed with subways, and light rails, and any type of rail transit, I've gotta say thanks for all these great pics. Europe's rail system is freakin awesome! :)
June 20, 200717 yr Wonderful pics! Were you challenged for taking photos in train stations? Happens all the time in the U.S., especially since 9/11.
June 22, 200717 yr No, but I didn't make myself obvious either. When I took pictures in places where I expected a problem (like in London's tube), I quickly brought out the camera, forcibly kept the camera's flash from activating and then put the camera away just as quickly as I took it out. Then I moved to a new location within the crowd. I've taken pictures in lots of places that are much more security conscious -- within military bases, inside the U.S. Mint, inside Biltmore, etc. etc. I've also videotaped on rollercoasters (usually I hand the camera bag over to security with my still-shot camera in it while keeping the video camera in my baggy pants). The only time I ever was caught and forced to turn over my film was when I shot some photos in the abandoned Youngstown Sheet & Tube mill in the Brier Hill section of Youngstown. I made up for it by getting pictures of the mill from an abandoned rail line opposite of where security was located. "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
October 14, 200717 yr Ah yes, Gare Du Nord (Paris' North Station) I was there with my family in March:
October 14, 200717 yr Great photos - I have made leisure stops in both Frankfurt and Paris on the way to India the past few years, and the European rail system is awesome. I especially like the Hauptbahnhof in Frankfurt, which is a very cool structure. I did find it a little confusing on which gleis to take, although it would help to speak German. It is massive and has a large retail portion running below the main platform. How cool would it be if the US had local, regional, and national service like this?
May 15, 200916 yr bump "In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage." -- John Steinbeck
May 17, 200916 yr The stations present a sharp contrast with typical American practice; even the trainsheds are objects of pride and beauty, often flooded with natural light from vast skylights. Even the below-ground ones often have finished ceilings and abundant, even lighting. Among US stations, at least in the Midwest, the only one that I can think of that has a headhouse/ticketing area comparable to European stations is Chicago's Millennium/Randolph, serving the South Shore and Metra trains. It's clean, sleek, and modern, with a nice collection of shops. Even there, though, the boarding areas are dreary. The South Shore area, although new, is bare, unadorned concrete above, below, and around, with harsh industrial lighting. The older, lower-level Metra platforms are gloomy and dim and the concrete platforms are paved with years of ground-in grime. We treat our urban railroad stations as something to be kept out of sight and endured where necessary.
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