Thursday, March 15, 2012

Steamtown in March

It's great to be paid to go on a railfanning fieldtrip to Steamtown USA. Hadn't been there in about 2 years so nice to be back. Due to a derailment, see below we had to go in the long way, through the yard (horrible I say, just horrible ;-) ). Unfortunately, didn't have the camera handy for cleaner shots of the derailment, and by the time we left it had been moved... Did have some time to myself though and had a blast going through the yard...

Delaware Lackawanna #2461, an ALCO C425

Delaware Lackawanna (DL) #2461, an ALCO C425, DL 405, an ALCO C420, and DL 4252, another ALCO C425.

Delaware Lackawanna (DL) #2423, an ALCO C425. In the background derailed DL #3642, an ALCO C636, then DL 211, a RS-32, and finally DL 3000 (a Montreal Locomotive Works/ALCO M630)

A really cool yard switcher moving a Lackawanna coach into the shop. See the video below to watch it move...



A new tender being made for Canadian National Pacific #3254 that runs at Steamtown




A very sad Shay

Front end of a Boston and Maine tender showing the automatic stoker that made the fireman's job much easier...

 Parts is parts...




Saturday, March 10, 2012

Watching Trains in Real-time

Watch trains moving across the country in real time with the Süddeutsche Zeitung's Zugmonitor, a webcam of a different kind. Site is designed to show where there are delays, but entertaining none-the-less.

To stop the video and track in real time, click on "LIVE" in the upper right.What this shows: each black arrow is a long distance train en-route. Clicking on it shows the route and on the right a window opens displaying the stations. The arrows surrounded by colored circles are trains that are late. The darker the circle, the later it is. Clicking on one of those also gives the reason for delay at top of the window. Using the (Suche) window, you can also choose the type of trains you want displayed and also select stations.

Site in German only... Click image to start watching.


Wednesday, March 7, 2012

S-Bahn

You never know who you'll meet on the train... Animation by Markus Neidel.