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Images: These pictures are not censored for quality. What one person considers a bad or useless picture may be exactly what someone else is looking for. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them.
Videos: These videos are very big, which is why railfanning videos are so rare on line. As long as Windows Media Player says "Connecting" it is working, even it if appears to be taking a very long time. It says "Connecting" until it has finished downloading the video. Please be patient. If you are unable to play these videos with Windows Media player, a problem which exists with some versions of Media Player and (sometimes) with Internet Explorer versions lower than 6, I strongly recommend the use of Quicktime if it is available. If you are using Linux, mplayer needs to be told that the videos have a bit depth of 16 (-bpp 16) to work.
Filenames refer to location, date (dd.mm.yy), and camera-assigned four digit id number.
Top photos from December, 2011
| December 12th, 2011 | I took a breather from my chaotic Ottawa life to test my new camera on CP and CN and on some aircraft at CYOW on the way back up. I learned on my lone CN that my camera's mode dial is much easier to knock than its predecessor and blew the approach shot completely. Overall, big fan of the new camera, though! Keep an eye on the site in early January, should be quite a bit of interesting new material from the holidays... | |
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| Finch, Ontario | (map) The CP Winchester sub spans from the end of the Veaudreuil sub out of Montreal to Smiths Falls. Finch is roughly 20 miles East of Smiths Falls on the Winchester sub. | |
| 17 images | 1 videos | Marks: CP |
| Ingleside, Ontario | Ingleside, Ontario, is near Morrisburg on the CN Kingston sub. | |
| 19 images | 1 videos | Marks: CN CNA CP GPFX NDYX UTLX |
| Monkland, Ontario | Monkland is midway between the 417 and the 401 on the 138 which connects Ottawa to Cornwall. The CP Winchester sub passes through this small community. | |
| 9 images | No videos | Marks: CP DTTX |
| Ottawa, Ontario | (map) Ottawa is the capital of Canada and is home to the O-trains, a busy Via station, and the Ottawa Central. | |
| 88 images | No videos | Marks: |
| December 20th, 2011 | I went into London for a few hours and explored my way back to Marlow. | |
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| Didcot, England | (map) Didcot is the site of an EWS freight yard, large railway junction, and a historical museum that is accessible directly from the passenger station. | |
| 20 images | No videos | Marks: BR |
| London, England | (map) The English capital is a highly busy railway-using city with an extensive passenger network. | |
| 1 images | No videos | Marks: EWS |
| Maidenhead, England | (map) Maidenhead is the junction of a main line and the Marlow branch. | |
| 70 images | No videos | Marks: EWS |
| December 21st, 2011 | I left High Wycombe for London, dropped off my bag at a friend's house, had lunch with my cousin, got on the train to Cambridge at London-Liverpool St, watched trains at Cambridge for some time in failing light, had curry with a friend there, and hopped the train back to London-King's Cross and back to my friend's house. | |
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| Cambridge, England | Cambridge is an academic and high tech city about 45 minutes on the express train north of London. | |
| 65 images | No videos | Marks: |
| December 22nd, 2011 | We took the London overground to Willesden Junction, explored there, took the Underground on the Bakerloo to the Jubilee line, got off at Westminster, found Parliament closed for the holidays, walked to Trafalgar Square for lunch, on to Covent Garden, toured the Transport Museum, found the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum, grabbed a doubledeck bus on route 242 to Hoxton to the Monster Supply Shop, stopped in at the East London Furniture Company, on to London Hackspace, and across to Brick Lane for curry on a street where salespeople from each of the numerous curry restaurants try and pitch you on a deal to get you to eat there instead of next door, then took the Overground back to Camden Town, catching a Freightliner intermodal on the Overground tracks as we detrained. | |
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| London, England | (map) The English capital is a highly busy railway-using city with an extensive passenger network. | |
| 79 images | No videos | Marks: |
| December 23rd, 2011 | Walked to London-St Pancras International for the 8am EuroStar to Brussels. I was hoping to have some time to explore both the train and the platform, but was surprised to discover airport-style security and procedures at St Pancras and so was not able to get a shot of the EuroStar either there or in Brussels. The Chunnel was... well, dark. And my seat on the EuroStar was marketed as a "window" seat, but it had a pillar between the large windows and so I could not see out. It was fairly anticlimactic and I ended up sleeping most of the trip instead. In Brussels I watched trains come and go at the station, finding them dirty and unattractive. I caught the ICE at 14:25 to Cologne, where I got off the train, walked across the platform, and boarded the train to Duisburg that was leaving so soon I was moving before the ICE that I had gotten off! | |
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| Brussels, Belgium | Brussels is the capital of the European Union. | |
| 104 images | 1 videos | Marks: |
| Dusseldorf, Germany | Dusseldorf is an industrial city in the Ruhr Valley. | |
| 5 images | No videos | Marks: |
| Liege, Belgium | Liege is near the Belgian-Dutch-German border. | |
| 3 images | No videos | Marks: |
| December 24th, 2011 | My hosts here took me exploring in the area immediately around where I am staying. We explored Munchengladbach (without the camera) and then Krefeld, riding the tram back. | |
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| Krefeld, Germany | Krefeld is a small city between Dusseldorf and the Dutch border. | |
| 76 images | 1 videos | Marks: |
| December 25th, 2011 | We travelled to Cologne for lunch with family of my hosts, then spent an hour exploring the cathedral, railway station, and historical bridge in the city's centre. | |
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| Koln (Cologne), Germany | ||
| 88 images | 1 videos | Marks: |
| December 26th, 2011 | I left Krefeld for Fulda, taking an hour to step over the border into Holland with a quick trip into the town of Venlo. The weather was unpleasant and so I did not go far. Then back on the train and off to the small city of Fulda, northeast of Frankfurt. | |
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| Dusseldorf, Germany | Dusseldorf is an industrial city in the Ruhr Valley. | |
| 54 images | 1 videos | Marks: |
| Frankfurt, Germany | Frankfurt is one of Europe's most important transportation hubs, with its airport the city's largest employer and the train station equally important to the domestic transportation system. | |
| 51 images | No videos | Marks: |
| Krefeld, Germany | Krefeld is a small city between Dusseldorf and the Dutch border. | |
| 16 images | No videos | Marks: |
| Venlo, Holland | Venlo is just over the Dutch-German border from Monchengladbach. | |
| 33 images | 1 videos | Marks: |
| Viersen, Germany | Viersen is north-west of Monchengladbach on the German-Dutch border. | |
| 1 images | No videos | Marks: |
| December 27th, 2011 | I explored Fulda with a friend there, then took the train up to Hamburg for the next item on the checklist. | |
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| Fulda, Germany | Fulda is a regionally important city comparable in size to Guelph. It is best known in modern times as a strategic city in the Cold War that both NATO and the Soviet Union essentially had plans to destroy in the event that the war became hot. | |
| 128 images | No videos | Marks: |
| Hamburg, Germany | Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany, and has the country's largest seaport. It is also home to Miniatur Wunderland, the world's largest model train layout, an impressive site I highly recommend. | |
| 37 images | No videos | Marks: |
| Hanover, Germany | Hanover is around an hour south of Hamburg. | |
| 6 images | No videos | Marks: |
| Luneburg, Germany | Luneburg is just outside of Hamburg to the southeast. | |
| 4 images | No videos | Marks: |
| December 28th, 2011 | I visited Miniatur Wunderland, the world's largest model train layout, and then spent some time exploring downtown Hamburg before taking off for Berlin. | |
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| Berlin, Germany | One of the most storied cities I've visited, Berlin is the capital of the reunited Germany with many reminders of the Second World War and the Cold War everpresent in the city, a must-visit for any European traveler | |
| 61 images | No videos | Marks: |
| Hamburg, Germany | Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany, and has the country's largest seaport. It is also home to Miniatur Wunderland, the world's largest model train layout, an impressive site I highly recommend. | |
| 180 images | 1 videos | Marks: |
| Wittenberge, Germany | Half way between Hamburg and Berlin is Wittenberge. The area is full of large wind farms. | |
| 5 images | 1 videos | Marks: |
| December 29th, 2011 | A friend of mine living in Berlin showed me around this vast historic city, walking for some five non-stop hours. It is an amazing place which words can't really describe. From there I took the overnight train to Zurich, Switzerland. | |
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| Berlin, Germany | One of the most storied cities I've visited, Berlin is the capital of the reunited Germany with many reminders of the Second World War and the Cold War everpresent in the city, a must-visit for any European traveler | |
| 154 images | No videos | Marks: |
| December 30th, 2011 | I travelled from Berlin to Zurich on the overnight City NightLine train, arriving in the morning and leaving my bag at Zurich's only hostel (which cost more than the train) before hopping back on the train to Sargans to take a bus into Liechtenstein. After walking an hour in Liechtenstein I got back on the bus and back to Sargans, where I caught a train to Bregenz, Austria, before returning to Zurich to spend a long, nostalgic evening with an old friend. | |
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| Altstatten, Switzerland | Altstatten is between Buchs and St Margrethen along the Swiss-Austrian border. | |
| 5 images | No videos | Marks: |
| Bregenz, Austria | Bregenz is the first city into Austria coming in from northeastern Switzerland. | |
| 42 images | No videos | Marks: |
| Buchs, Switzerland | Buchs is directly across the border from Vaduz, Liechtenstein. | |
| 8 images | No videos | Marks: |
| Sargans, Switzerland | Sargans is a small town on the border with the city-state of Liechtenstein. | |
| 15 images | No videos | Marks: |
| St. Margrethen, Switzerland | St. Margrethen is a town on the Swiss-Austrian border near Bregenz, Austria. | |
| 29 images | 1 videos | Marks: |
| Vaduz, Liechtenstein | Vaduz is one of a small number of cities to be found in the miniscule country of Liechtenstein, sandwiched between Switzerland and Austria high in the Alps. | |
| 20 images | No videos | Marks: |
| Zurich, Switzerland | Zurich is the financial capital of Switzerland, which in turn is the financial capital of Europe. Prices are out of this world, and so is the surroundings. Switzerland, in its entirety, is a place I will definitely return to. | |
| 86 images | No videos | Marks: |
| December 31st, 2011 | I took the train from Zurich to Geneva where I caught up with my family in transit in a different direction entirely, and celebrated New Years at the Hotel Calvy in Geneva. | |
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| Geneva, Switzerland | Geneva is the southwestern most city in Switzerland, along the French border at the end of Lac Lemac, a beautiful, scenic lake in the Alps. | |
| 6 images | No videos | Marks: |
| Morges, Switzerland | Morges is between Zurich and Geneva. | |
| 23 images | No videos | Marks: |
| Neuchatel, Switzerland | Neuchatel is between Zurich and Geneva. | |
| 7 images | No videos | Marks: |
| Zurich, Switzerland | Zurich is the financial capital of Switzerland, which in turn is the financial capital of Europe. Prices are out of this world, and so is the surroundings. Switzerland, in its entirety, is a place I will definitely return to. | |
| 10 images | No videos | Marks: |