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Trains
Dec 27, 2009 12:13:05 GMT
Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2009 12:13:05 GMT
New Orleans,known as a major U.S. Port because of the Mississippi River,is also a huge mecca for freight trains. Over the last I'd say four years,with the building of a new freight terminal which I will capture,more and more trains come through here carrying every conceivable cargo,some,downright scary indeed. Cars labeled with mysterious liquid chemicals and the like. I've heard of many close calls from my husband when he worked for EMS as they were trained to handle hazardous materials until the big guys could arrive. The train tracks run adjacent to the river,so, one gets double the pleasure if up on the levee when a string of them come by and the river traffic on the other side. Here's just a few shots to start off. The engineer in the these shots to my delight was a woman.Shots taken downtown in the Fauborg Marigny just below the Vieux Carre in a small train yard.
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Trains
Dec 27, 2009 12:16:30 GMT
Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2009 12:16:30 GMT
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Trains
Dec 27, 2009 12:26:01 GMT
Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2009 12:26:01 GMT
That's what my biological father used to drive, so I have been in the cab and tooted the whistle on those things! He was with the Illinois Central, as was my paternal grandfather, whereas my maternal grandfather was with the French SNCF.
(Okay, I'll try to get back with same train pictures next time I post on this thread.)
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Trains
Dec 27, 2009 12:31:27 GMT
Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2009 12:31:27 GMT
My father- in- law also worked for Illinois Central all his adult life from Post WWII to the time of his retirement.Have many wonderful B&W's which were taken with his old Graflex that my husband now has.
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Trains
Dec 27, 2009 20:07:04 GMT
Post by imec on Dec 27, 2009 20:07:04 GMT
Oh I love trains! Isn't it odd that these are the first pics (at least that I can remember). Great thread and great pics cas! Hope to see more of this.
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Trains
Dec 27, 2009 20:37:43 GMT
Post by Deleted on Dec 27, 2009 20:37:43 GMT
I pass over the Gare du Nord train tracks twice or more a day, one reason being that my mother's nursing home is on the other side of the tracks from my place. Generally, I see a Eurostar, a Thalys or a TGV-Nord going in or out of the station, as well as a multitude of suburban trains. Gare du Nord is the busiest train station in Europe and the second largest in the world in terms of platforms, with 42 platforms (Grand Central Terminal in New York has 67 platforms). (The busiest stations in the world in terms of passengers are in Japan.) Therefore, it was very strange on this calm Sunday to have to wait for a few minutes to get a picture of just one suburban train passing by.
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Trains
Dec 27, 2009 23:00:54 GMT
Post by traveler63 on Dec 27, 2009 23:00:54 GMT
My maternal grandfather worked for and retired from the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, My grandmother's one brother was the station manager for Bowie, Texas and also retired from the line. This line became Santa Fe and is one of the largest and now is the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe line, which ironically my brother works for. My paternal grandfather was a conductor and worked for Southern Pacific and in later years actually worked out of Union Station in Los Angeles until he retired.
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Trains
Dec 30, 2009 0:33:11 GMT
Post by imec on Dec 30, 2009 0:33:11 GMT
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Trains
Dec 30, 2009 1:25:35 GMT
Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2009 1:25:35 GMT
Great shots I.,can feel the cold BRRRRRRR! Is this a train yard downtown Winnipeg?
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Trains
Dec 30, 2009 2:46:35 GMT
Post by imec on Dec 30, 2009 2:46:35 GMT
Yes, there are two very large rail yards in Winnipeg - the Canadian Pacific (CP) which is downtown and the Canadian National (CN) which is on the edge of the city.
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Trains
Dec 30, 2009 2:48:26 GMT
Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2009 2:48:26 GMT
so,this one of or both?
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Trains
Dec 30, 2009 2:50:43 GMT
Post by imec on Dec 30, 2009 2:50:43 GMT
Sorry, this is the CP yards right in the middle of town (north of downtown). The streets around these historic yards have street name signs with a steam train motif.
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Trains
Dec 30, 2009 2:57:40 GMT
Post by Deleted on Dec 30, 2009 2:57:40 GMT
What a trooper going out braving the cold Imec! Merci!
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Trains
Dec 30, 2009 3:13:40 GMT
Post by cristina on Dec 30, 2009 3:13:40 GMT
imec, this was interesting. Although not because of the trains, which probably don't excite me so much. It was more about the weather. For some reason, I expected to see far more snow.
But I do appreciate the "really freaking cold" part and am grateful that you braved the elements to share this part of Winnipeg with all of us. Thank you.
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Trains
Dec 30, 2009 3:17:50 GMT
Post by imec on Dec 30, 2009 3:17:50 GMT
We've had less snow than usual for this time of year. Only one major snowfall which required the streets to be cleared - you can see the fresh snowbank at the side of the road in the 4th pic.
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Trains
Dec 31, 2009 5:24:51 GMT
Post by bixaorellana on Dec 31, 2009 5:24:51 GMT
What a great and varied bunch of pictures from everyone. Such a wonderful topic -- the romance of the rails lives on. I took the photo below through the door of a Skylink in Dallas airport. Not much romance here.
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Trains
Dec 31, 2009 10:28:12 GMT
Post by traveler63 on Dec 31, 2009 10:28:12 GMT
I love trains and as you can see from my previous post, the family history is steeped in train. Someday soon I will post my memories of a train trip that my cousin and I took in 1958 which would make me 12 and she was 10 and we did it with no adults. Fascinating, because in this day and age no one in their right mind would put 2 children on a train by themselves.
One of these days Mr. T63 and I will do the across Canada trip. We have been talking about it.
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Trains
Jan 2, 2010 20:02:46 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2010 20:02:46 GMT
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Trains
Jan 2, 2010 20:21:14 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2010 20:21:14 GMT
I don't always see a German ICE train in Gare de l'Est, but I saw that one was arriving soon, so I decided to wait. They come straight from Germany into Paris nonstop, so travellers in France do not get a chance to take them.
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Trains
Jan 2, 2010 22:46:02 GMT
Post by lagatta on Jan 2, 2010 22:46:02 GMT
Oh, such train porn! I love trains. This is wonderful. I'm very familiar with the walk kerouac takes and I can see why it isn't worth it to take public transport in lieu of crossing the railway bridge. casimira, "Spirit of New Orleans". Are there passenger trains too? I'm wondering if I could get there by train. I have a friend who took the Trans-Siberian. Of course it seems endless, and it also has a rather terrifying resonance as one thinks of all the political prisoners (of the Czars, and worst of all in the Stalin era) who were sent to hard labour and often to their deaths there, but it is also fascinating with all the little vendors, the rich life along that vital artery despite adversity and colder temps still than in Winterpeg (none of our wimpy melty grey snow there, eh?) I don't think Winnipeg, on the Prairies gets more snow than we do - it probably just melts less. Our weather has changed quite a bit and we get big melts that only Southern Ontario got before. Hbf means main (central) railway station in German. We must remember our Man in Seat 61 - I love that Graham Greeneish title - who contributed a lot on Lonely Planet and other travel boards - I believe he was also on Slow Travel. I want to visit a friend in Vienna and am hoping to do it by rail if possible - think it will be via Munich where I also have friends. www.seat61.comIt is one of my fondish wishes for the coming century that it sees a renaissance in train travel, both goods/freight and passenger. I know "just in time" planning led business managers to favour trucking, but perhaps train + modern computer can be a winning combination.
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Trains
Jan 2, 2010 23:12:54 GMT
Post by imec on Jan 2, 2010 23:12:54 GMT
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Trains
Jan 2, 2010 23:18:19 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jan 2, 2010 23:18:19 GMT
Positively.Lagatta,there are passenger trains to New Orleans.There's a huge Amtrak station downtown. Many of my friends go back and forth to Chicago on sleepers and I did the train to NYC from here at least twice. A bit pricey though.Can you get to Boston via train from there?
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Trains
Jan 2, 2010 23:43:51 GMT
Post by lagatta on Jan 2, 2010 23:43:51 GMT
A great tragedy of the postwar war on trains is that there are NO TRAINS between Montréal and Boston - which had strong train links for many decades.
To get to Boston - which is the closest large city to Montréal (as in as large or larger than we are; Toronto is slightly farther away - to be fair Ottawa-Gatineau is attaining big-city status but doesn't have the requisite transport infrastructure) we have to go down to New York. I thought there might be a way of getting there from Albany but it seems not.
Not to go into US politics but Joe Biden, as you know is a train buff, and wants high-speed trains between important cities. One would be Montréal-Boston, with the northern New England cities in Vermont and New Hampshire in between. It would be a very pretty route, that is for sure.
Nouvelle-France - New-England - of course!
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Trains
Jan 3, 2010 1:50:45 GMT
Post by bixaorellana on Jan 3, 2010 1:50:45 GMT
I have questions: Are the trains in #17 and the one in #20 alike? I can see twin rails in the #17 photos, but the trains in both those posts seem to run on a single rail. True? Also, are the little zippy trains in airports like the trains in #s 17 & 20?
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Trains
Jan 3, 2010 6:05:24 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2010 6:05:24 GMT
The ones in 17 are local commuter trains, which is why they are not as streamlined as the high speed trains.
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Trains
Jan 3, 2010 6:08:35 GMT
Post by bixaorellana on Jan 3, 2010 6:08:35 GMT
They seem pretty darn streamlined to me! So, one rail or two?
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Trains
Jan 3, 2010 6:13:08 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2010 6:13:08 GMT
Everything is on two rails.
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Trains
Jan 3, 2010 20:18:29 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2010 20:18:29 GMT
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Trains
Jan 3, 2010 20:22:36 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2010 20:22:36 GMT
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Trains
Jan 3, 2010 20:24:55 GMT
Post by bixaorellana on Jan 3, 2010 20:24:55 GMT
REALLY great pictures, Casimira! Isn't it great the way the graffiti in the first picture makes the train look as though it's undulating like a cartoon train? It's photo #3 that really grabs me, though. Seriously, you ought to blow it up and frame it!
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