Railpax Magazine is a great site for you all to catch up on the latest passenger railroading news. They cover Amtrak, Commuter, Service alerts and fare specials from all over the US. After all, when you add it all up, rail travel makes a lot of sense!
Billboards and advertisements stagically placed around your model railroads gives your layout a lot of realism. This trainweb site has a huge collections of signs. Most are public domain that you could print out. Please dont use a lot of signs as they will distract the viewer. A few well placed ads will bring your modeling era to life.
Tank cars must be relieved of all interior pressure by cooling the tank with water or by venting the tank by raising the safety valve or opening the dome vent at short intervals otherwise….
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway Trainz team created a very detailed and authentic route from Sukna to Darjeeling. All the buildings, foliage and objects were modelled after the prototypes. The route is DEM-based and can be downloaded for free from DarjeelingTrainz.
Here, we catch a charter train as she struggles her way from Kurseong towards Darjeeling.
Microsoft has released new BNSF and Norfolk Southern renders from their upcoming Train Simulator 2. These screens look great but i have to note that any rendered screen will always look better than the in-game screenshots.
Every rail fan want to get up close and take that perfect shot . But there have been cases of harassment by authorities. This is not only happening in the US but elsewhere too.
Amtrak does allow photography from public spaces. They are even having a contest. MBTA has changed their policy wherein authority can ask for your ID. [PDF Link]
Print and keep your rights in your camera case. Also, if confronted, be polite and comply. Being brown, i have decided not to go out finding the perfect spot. I plan to stick to tourist rails and railroad stations. While taking the only clip at Mansfield station, i did notice some glances but i might be over-reacting. Maybe going in a group and wearing T-shirts screaming RAILFAN in bold letters would help.
Anyway, NYCSubway has a good list of the various transit policy here in the US and the London underground. Some policies might have been updated so please email them or ask around in any railroad forums. For those outside the US, check their respective railway website. Network Rail (UK),Connex and CityTrain (Australia)
Most cab-view videos on YouTube are amateurish but this one about the TGV Atlantique, is the best cab view that i have seen so far. The clip is professionally done with tons of cabviews with some passing and overhead shots.
It follows the TGV engineer, steping into the cab, driving it from Bordeaux to Paris. It is in 6 parts, the clip below is to part 1. Narration is in French so could not understand what was being explained.
I find a lot of railway cab rides or model railways on YouTube and used to bookmark them in order to come back to it later. There were ways of downloading the videos in FLV format but now there is another eaiser way to download it in a High-Quality MP4 format.
Go ahead fill up your hard drive!
[via Lifehacker]
Test your knowledge with some trivia questions on trains. Topics vary from Steam, Electric locos to railways from around the world.
I scored a miserable 5/10 on the Amtrak quiz. Hope you do better! Have fun!
NMRA Hub Division is having a Spring Training Event this Saturday April 12, 2008 – 10am to 4pm at the Sheraton Milford Hotel, 11 Beaver Street, Milford Massachusetts. [Map]
Some interesting classes will be:
Check out the full schedule of the various classes on their site.
