San Francisco Cable Cars
Wired is running a fabulous photo-article about the San Francisco Cable car and its history. Just to get an idea of the sheer size of the driving mechanism probably doesn’t do the real thing any justice. To think that the network was huge compared to what it is now. Still it is worth visiting.
Been there, seen it, ridden it, fabulous 
EMU Class 451
Some of these decaying EMUs (Electric Multiple Unit) have been repainted/re-branded; other than the fact that there are not enough of the double deckers to completely replace the old stock, some of these units are being re-built rather than being scrapped en-masse. These units are nothing more than bone shakers that have been in the (long) process of being phased out; they were quite radical for the time and still have a certain 60’s design flair to them. I have been trying to get a photo for some time of the re-spray, they do look good and probably the ride has been changed as a part of the re-build. A more graceful retirement.Condemned coach
It would be unfair to say that all of Czech Railways coaches should be condemned since that would cast the net far too wide. It would be fair to say that the majority of coaches should be condemned, however, and if you believe the news items they soon will be.
Interestingly I have noticed that they are making huge efforts to ‘tart’ up their loco fleets, by this I mean a new paint job and generally keeping the locos clean. Talking of which, Czech Railways has split its Cargo division out into a separate entity. The upshot of this is a new logo (you just about make out the logo on the side of the loco above - click to enlarge), and a new paint job matching the branding scheme. Must admit the new colours make the locos really stand out and are better than the all-reds of DB and OBB.
I found an article showing off the new CD Cargo logo
General view of one of the classification yards of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, Chicago, Ill. (LOC)
General view of one of the classification yards of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad, Chicago, Ill. (LOC)Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress
The Library of Congess has added a huge collection of its photos to Flickr. One of the first that caught my eye was in the colour section from 1942. This is a fabulous resource for historic photos.
Cerny Balog
I went through some of my old photo collections and found an unpublished collection of photos from July 2005. Čiernohronská železnica, Cerny Balog, is a Slovak Narrow Gauge Railway geographically located in the middle of the country. It was an old logging line used to move the lumber from the forests down the valley. It is in the process of being restored (a lot more work to do) but shows promise. There are a number of steam locos working the line, but this trip was pulled by diesel.
Ffestiniog Railway
Spent a week overlooking Porthmadog Harbour station. There were only two trains last week (Wed and Thu) which for the middle of November were quite full. The best thing was, other than being right opposite the railway, that they were running double-headers in the morning We had one sunny day so half the photos are with good light, the others are made more interesting (when taking the photos) with being grey and overcast.
Slovak Railways
This weekend I had to make a trip to Liptovsky Mikulas, central Slovakia, naturally, by rail. The trip is painfully slow (for the distance) - I will be adding a journey report at some point in the near future. The journey home was delayed by 30 mins, so it did afford me the time to take some photos. The light is rather challenging, however, the trains tend to be courteous enough to slow down through the station.
Of particular interest are the Class 131 locos that pull most freight trains that go through central Slovakia (at least from my observations). These are, essentially, two separate locos, with only one end with a driver’s cab, that have been stuck together to form a “single” unit loco. The line from Liptovsky Mikulas is on the way to Poprad, high in the Tatras (Carpathians), and the incline is sufficient enough to require a bank-engine when freight wagons are full. I saw two sets of these locos going through the station hauling a full set of coal wagons, the bank-engine being a set of Class 131s.
The Slovak photo album, including a few more ZSSK Class 131s, can be found on FotoPic
Branislav Kropliak
This screenshot totally misses the true impact of the complete shot and series of photos. Fabulous set of images of Slovak Railways
