SNCF’s “official” TGV speed record attempt — as opposed to its “unofficial” speed record — is apparently taking place on April 3, weather permitting, but you wouldn’t believe the hype in the meantime. The special trainset, in special livery, is the focus of attention (video), and there’s even a contest to win a seat on [...]
Budget Travel Online has an article on how to save on rail travel in Europe by taking advantage of last-minute discounts. Some of the discounts are quite profound; some of them I already knew about, like the German “Schönes-Wochenende” ticket that allows up to five people on a single pass good for non-express trains, which [...]
VIA Rail lost its case at the Supreme Court today, and as a result must spend as much as $48 million to make its Renaissance coaches more wheelchair-accessible — the cars only cost VIA $139 million to buy in 2000. VIA appealed a 2003 ruling by the Canadian Transportation Agency that the cars presented undue [...]
CN’s float in Montreal’s St. Patrick’s Day parade. A short while later it hit a pothole and crashed, spilling 15 cars of boric acid into Montreal’s water supply. Photo by Humanoide.
In his “Trains of Thought” column for the April 2007 issue of Model Railroader, Tony Koester muses on the different scales used on No. 1 track. You may be aware that “G scale” encompasses, in fact, many scales. If the flanges of locomotives and rolling stock fit between the rails of No. 1 gauge track, [...]
Even in Romania, logging railroads are a dying institution. Twenty years ago, when Bob Turner first toured Romania’s logging lines, “the country still had 21 forestry lines, all 760 mm, all steam operated. My last visit was in 1999. Three systems survived at that time. I closed a chapter of my steam photography, and thought [...]
Another find by Coxy, and another model railroader who both hand-lays his track and has started a blog to chart the progress of his layout, is Daryl Dankwardt, who models Canadian railroads during the steam transition era. He’s been at work on his layout for four years, but started blogging last month. (Don’t miss the [...]
A major fire that has destroyed a 400-metre wooden trestle in Sacramento is being deemed suspicious by authorities. The fire, which began last night, has disrupted freight and Amtrak traffic and could be seen for miles; the burning creosote timbers also triggered some health and air quality advisories (News10, Sacramento Bee). The trestle was still [...]
The Central New Jersey’s Bronx Terminal apparently had some insane trackwork; what’s crazier is that Tim Warris has taken it upon himself to create a model of that terminal, hand-laying all that complicated track. He’s just started a blog to take us step by step through the design and construction process. Excuse me while I [...]
A study proposes a commuter rail service for the rural areas east of Ottawa. Unfortunately for me, I live west of Ottawa. But while this may go some ways to addressing freeway congestion, and the tracks are owned by VIA Rail so there won’t be the capacity or track speed limit issues you’d find on [...]
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