BTB Blog

Next stop on my Germany tour is a little town in the mountains of the “Weserbergland”. Altenbeken- generations of model railroaders interested in the German prototype dreamed about this station! On one hand side it features everything a rail buff can ask for: two busy mountain rail lines merging here- hence lots of heavy traffic,  a small classification yard, a beautiful station building surrounded by platforms and tracks, a huge viaduct crossing the Beke river valley, a BW (engine facility)…….

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Today I kicked off the “Germany Tour- Fall ’16” with a ride from the home base in Linz, Austria to Paderborn. Why Paderborn in particular will be the topic of another post coming soon. The ride from Linz Hbf to Paderborn is an interesting trip as it’s quite typical for long distance rail travel in Germany. Two ICE trains took me across the approx. 480mi/770km distance in close to seven hours. That sounds not too impressing but that is still 68mph/110kmh average…

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Another famous Austrian cog-railway was target of my recent train watching trip in the beautiful “Salzkammergut” region at the border of Upper Austria and Salzburg. This line climbs from St. Wolfgang at the lake called (surprise!) Wolfgangsee up to the top of the mountain called “Schafberg” (Mount Sheep). It is the steepest of all Austrian cog lines and was opened in 1893. The railway still runs the original steam engines on Sundays in Summer but the daily, on nice days…

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Before we go deeper into the specifics of today’s post I’d like to say sorry for being offline for some weeks. After finishing the US train watching tour I moved to Europe and it took me some time to settle in over here. But now I am “back on track” (literally)! Lovely Austria not only greets souls used to US pace a “life in slow-mo” but also is known for its awesome landscape. A 45 minute train ride from Vienna got…

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The “High Line Park” can be regraded to be one of the best tourist attractions in Manhattan- and it’s a free one! The interested rail-fan is on one side happy that the trestle structure survived and got another life as an elevated park and on the other hand is sad to be “born too late” in order to experience operation on the old “West Side spur”. Nevertheless it is quite a nice walk from the Penn Station area down to Gansevoort street….

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On the way from Toronto to New York City, Amtrak train #64 – “The Maple Leaf” gets its single locomotive (right) exchanged for a pair of P42s (lead engine far left). The action takes place in Albany, NY and I do not know if this is a common procedure- as the crew changes as well- or if the smoky exhaust on the engine that pulled the train out of Toronto was a sign for an overdue stop at the shops. Anyway, the short…

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In Toronto I had the chance to experience the “classic” Canadian Light Rail Vehicles of the TTC in action. These cars, built in the 1980s are to be replaced by more modern units by now but delays in delivery of the Bombardier Felxity vehicles keeps the CLRVs and ALRVs moving- much to the delight of the rail and streetcar fans. Besides of other rail attractions in downtown like the Toronto Railway Museum and the bustling Union Station, I managed to visit…

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