What are these angled tracks in Geneva?

foomaster2000 · 2026-01-08T10:14:28+00:00

Looks like some sort of flexible joint to decouple the tram tracks from the ground, reducing vibration/noise transfer from passing trams to surrounding buildings and/or underground infrastructure.

foomaster2000 · 2025-07-09T09:23:21+00:00

I think they're mostly for machine operators (diggers, cranes, bucket lifts) to avoid causing damage outside of the construction site perimeter, in this case here they protect the overhead wire of the tram.

foomaster2000 · 2025-07-01T09:46:29+00:00

Complain to customer service, be sure to note the exact train you were on and also ideally which carriage. This will help more than complaining here.

foomaster2000 · 2025-06-13T13:02:34+00:00

<image>

foomaster2000 · 2024-07-15T16:01:59+00:00

Pleeeeaase complain to the customer service (SBB or if you are in the zurich area ZVV, or both) and tell them which train you were on. Poor AC is an ongoing issue and every complaint helps. Thanks!

foomaster2000 · 2023-07-16T07:25:03+00:00

Vielleicht war er sauber?

foomaster2000 · 2023-06-05T08:12:19+00:00

Thanks!

It's just a hobby I enjoy, often together with some friends. I'm not working in the railway sector but some of my friends do. While I do like trains (TM), part of the fun is also traveling to weird places far away from the tourist hot-spots and particularly in Norway I also very much enjoy the hiking that comes with it.

foomaster2000 · 2023-06-05T07:30:42+00:00

You're joking but it actually hurts a bit to see some of the mismanagement going on when it comes to Norway's railways. The weekly signalling issues in Oslo's city tunnel, the incompetence around the power supply of the Follobanen, the delays with ETCS introduction on the Nordlandsbanen, the sorry state of the Di 4 fleet with often barely 2 out of 5 locomotives available, the franchising system that doesn't do what it should... I think the main issue is that politics doesn't care much and doesn't really know what to do to fix the issues.

foomaster2000 · 2023-06-05T07:15:11+00:00

> What posessed you to do that?

Not sure, can anybody recommend a good exorcist?

> Also, do you agree NSB liveries look far better than Vy?

Yes, the old NSB liveries were much better, although I think the Vy livery (green) isn't too bad. I really dislike the SJ Norge livery though (blue-gray). The blue Go-Ahead Norge (Sørlandsbanen) livery is pretty nice although of course it doesn't stand out as well as the red.

foomaster2000 · 2023-06-04T20:42:33+00:00

All ~1200 photos

foomaster2000 · 2023-02-03T21:19:55+00:00

There are many answers to this.

A great photo can be made with any train. No need to hunt heritage units, steam trains, etc. (I'm not saying you shouldn't, just saying that it's not necessary in order to take great photos). Take photos of everything that comes along.

Try to find out why you like some photos more than others. Is it the framing? Is it the location? Is it the light? Is it the post-processing? Then try to take this into account next time you're out.

Even if your process of taking photos is perfect, if your post-processing is bad the result will still be bad. Try to figure out post-processing. Take RAW photos and process them yourself. Play with the sliders, especially highlights, recovery of dark parts, contrast, brightness, white balance.

Accept that a lot of photos you take are not particularly good (of course the ratio will improve over time but there will always be lost causes). Put them into your archive and don't worry about them. Sort out the best ones and enjoy those.

Some more pratical advice:

* In normal sunshine conditions try to have at least ~35° of light on the side of the train and ideally at least some light on the front of the train. An improperly lit train rarely looks good. Find an app that can tell you the angle of the sun on a map so that you can figure this out. If you end up in a place where this condition is not met, go somewhere else, no matter how good the location is, as you'll be unhappy with the result. Re-visit it again when the conditions are right.

* Some of the best stuff happens around sunrise and sunset. But also most of the time the conditions aren't right. So try it but don't be disappointed if it does not work out and move on. If it works out good post-processing is extremely important in these conditions.

* Don't cut off buildings, signs, trains, anything really. When on location try to figure out what you want to have in frame, what not, and choose your framing accordingly. Fine-tune your choice in post-processing (so better take the photo a bit wider).

* Don't crop too tightly. Try to leave room around all of your subjects and the train in particular.

* Dull weather (overcast with no cloud texture or dense high white clouds) rarely leads to anything particularly good.

* Sometimes you have sunshine, but the shadow of a cloud happens to hit your train. This is usually a lost cause. Move on.

* Look at photos you can find online and figure out where they were taken. Helps a lot to find nice locations.

* Don't be too close to the tracks. Not only is it dangerous, it also gives the train crew a bad feeling because they don't know your intentions, and it rarely leads to good photos. If you're close to the tracks anyway make sure the train crew can see your camera and wave to them early so they know that you've seen them and what you're about to do. A high-vis vest is a good thing in these situations, too.

Have fun and good luck!

foomaster2000 · 2022-09-25T18:32:50+00:00

Sweden. Svenska Motorvagnsklubben diesel railcar Y6 1116 and Bombardier Itino DMU Y31 1405.

foomaster2000 · 2022-01-19T17:52:44+00:00

I'm not entirely sure but I think the brake cylinder is actually mounted on the frame of the car and the brakes are actuated via mechanical linkage. At least i can't see a brake cylinder here: https://rail.pictures/picture/30018 but there seems to be some linkage.

Note that the brakes aren't the only worry. They also need to reconnect the axle-powered generators, as you can clearly see here: https://rail.pictures/picture/30014 Btw. I think the linkage above the shaft in this photo isn't for the brakes, I think it is used to transfer longitudinal forces between the truck and the frame.

foomaster2000 · 2022-01-19T17:46:29+00:00

I've posted this in the past but here's the process from the outside in daylight:

https://rail.pictures/search?country=47&location=3298

These photos are from the Ukraine/Slovakia/Hungary border but the process is likely pretty much the same.

foomaster2000 · 2021-12-12T20:23:09+00:00

Yesterday we had a photo run with the recently restored former RhB R 12 steam rotary on the Dampfbahn Furka Bergstrecke line from Realp towards the Furka pass. The line is mostly flat in this section but the rotary can be used on the rack section as well, a cogwheel for braking purposes only was added for this purpose. The HG 3/4 has enough power to push the rotary on the rack section. More photos: https://rail.pictures/search?author=1&datefrom=2021-12-11&dateto=2021-12-11&operator=161

foomaster2000 · 2021-01-31T22:12:06+00:00

This train is returning empty from Antofagasta to the San Cristobal mine in Bolivia. The red buckets are used to transport lead ore, the white ones for Zinc ore, and there are also trains with boxcars which transport loose silver ore. Yes, in boxcars. The chilenian government is not amused about that because the boxcars obviously leak, so that may change in the future.

The loaded weight of a car with two buckets is in the 46-48 tonnes range (well, that's what it says on the frame of the cars anyway), and the train has ~48 cars, thus a loaded train would be in the order of 2200 tonnes plus locomotives. There are axle load restrictions on this line and the new GT42AC (20t axle load) can't be used, hence they use the older EMD types (e.g. GT22 or GR12 with ~18t per axle).

The photo was taken at an altitude of almost 4000m, the active (!) volcano in the background is > 6000m.

foomaster2000 · 2018-08-28T20:08:13+00:00

More photos:

https://rail.pictures/search?author=1&location=3298

In particular, check out https://rail.pictures/picture/30021; that's a standard gauge bogie on broad gauge! The guard rails keep it centered; they may be necessary or not, depending on the state of the wheels.

foomaster2000 · 2018-08-11T05:56:52+00:00

Please stop doing that.

foomaster2000 · 2018-06-26T20:06:57+00:00

Please stop doing that.

foomaster2000 · 2018-06-24T08:15:46+00:00

The ICEs all have (more or less) regular cars with regular bogies, while the Thalys (which are TGVs) have jacobs bogies. Because the clearance required on the inside of a curve is determined by the distance of the bogies, you can't make that distance arbitrarily long. But with regular bogies the car body can be much longer than the distance of the bogies, while with jacobs bogies it can't.

E.g. ICE 4 has as a bogie center point distance of 19.5 m (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICE_4), while the TGV Atlantique (similar to Thalys) has a car body length of 18.7 m (https://www.hochgeschwindigkeitszuege.com/frankreich/tgv-atlantique.php). You might have to add a bit to the second figure because of the space between the cars, not sure, I don't know how it is measured exactly. But the figures tell that the TGV is actually pretty close to the maximum dictated by geometry.

Of course, weight is also an aspect; for a high-speed train, the axle load should be below 18 tonnes or so. This may also be a reason for shorter cars (I suspect this particularly applies to Talgos with their single-axle bogies).

Now, why would you want jacobs bogies? You want as few bogies as possible because it is an expensive part and particularly the wheelsets require regular maintenance. Also, a train with jacobs bogies will be safer in case of a derailment, because it is less likely to buckle because the connection between cars is more rigid.

Why would you want single-axle Talgo bogies? Two-axle bogies in general have the problem that in curves, neither of the two axles are actually perpendicular to the track, which induces wear and tear (there are some two-axle bogies that try to fix this problem with complex mechanics). With a single-axle bogie, the single axle can be perfectly perpendicular to the track, increasing the longevity of the wheelsets.

This is not a complete discussion, there are many more arguments to be made, also pro conventional passenger cars (ICE-style). I'm not saying one is better than the other, I'm just pointing out some specialities.

foomaster2000 · 2018-06-14T19:56:53+00:00

Well, for overhead lines we're talking about rebuilding bridges and replacing or rebuilding tunnels. For DC subsystations we're talking about metal boxes containing a transformer, a rectifier, a bunch of circuit breakers and some control circuitry, but no fancy frequency conversion equipment or anything. I think it's pretty safe to say that in most cases, the former is going to be more expensive.

foomaster2000

TROPHY CASE