Under Bridges, Over Bridges

July 25, 2015 3:47 PM

It's been a while since we took to the rails together so it's time to buy our tickets and climb aboard for another trip around the world in the drivers cab.

Japan

• Tokio - Otsuki (1h 39m)
• Miyoshi - Gotsu (3h 19m)
• Tenryukyo - Tatsuno (3h 10m)
• Kisuki - Bingo ochiai In a heavy snowstorm (2h 19m)

Taiwan

Taipei - Taitung (3h 44m)

Switzerland

• Geneva - Brig (2h 27m)

UK

• London Victoria - Gatwick(35m)
• Acton - Reading Freight train (59m)
• Westbury - Bristol Temple Meads Freight train (46m)

Sweden

• Halmstad to Göteborg (1h 09m)

USA

• Fond du Lac - Schiller Park Freight (1h 51m)
• Skagway - Fraser (1h 43m)
• Philadelphia - New York (1h 30m)
• Fox Lake - Chicago (1h 02m)

Canada

• Trail - Nelson (3h 46m)

Argentina

• Campo Santo - Rio Mojotoro Freight (11m)

Peru

• Lima - Huancayo (19m)

Greece

• Diakofto-Kalavrita Rack Railway (31m

Bulgaria

• Koprivshtica - Karlovo (49m)
• Kulata - Blagoevgrad (1h 12m)

But it's not all about the open rail - sometimes you need to simply get from A to B on public transport

• Plaza de Mayo - Carabobo Buenos Aires, Line A, filmed from one of the original 1913 wooden trains, withdrawn from service in 2013 (21m)
• Lewisham - Bank London, DLR (27m)
• East - West Hong Kong, tram (1h 09m)
• Aldgate - Chesham London, Metropolitan Line (1h 15m)
• Rashidiya - Jebel Ali Dubai, Red Line (1h 10m)
• Route 96 Melbourne, tram (59m)
• Trieste - Opicina Funicular (25m)
• Red (1h 03m) Orange (57m) Blue (1h 22m) Pink (59m) Brown (1h 20) - Chicaga CTA

posted by jontyjago (8 comments total)

But ... sometimes you need to simply get from A to B on public transport

But my commute actually includes 12 miles (normally just 2, but there's a diversion on) on one of the linked routes. Hauled by a class 43 not a class 37, obviously.
posted by ambrosen at 4:17 PM on July 25, 2015

7 hour train ride across Norway

This post would be incomplete without mentioning this. It's amazing.
posted by hippybear at 4:37 PM on July 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

The fact that something like this (from the Loop in Chicago) is not only physically possible is still amazing to me.
posted by zachlipton at 5:52 PM on July 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Cool - I live at the end of the line on the Trail - Nelson video. I can see the last few hunderd meters and the train yard from my place. Neat to see where it goes when it's not next to the highway. Thanks for sharing.
posted by sauril at 6:11 PM on July 25, 2015

That's a first class Half Man Half Biscuit reference, jontyjago
posted by dmt at 12:52 PM on July 26, 2015 [3 favorites]

Thanks for this. Every now and then I look up train cab videos. Or play Train Simulator. There's almost nothing else quite as wonderfully meditative and relaxing.
posted by honestcoyote at 7:39 PM on July 26, 2015

Sweeeeeeeet.
posted by Quasirandom at 10:56 AM on July 27, 2015

Oh my. I just watched the Kisuki - Bingo Ochiai segment (tracking the train's progress with the help of this site) and the part starting at 1:31:00, with the departure from Izumo Sakane station, is pretty scary: enough snow up the switchback that the train had to back up and then ram forward to get through drifts. (And when the train switches direction, and the engineer walks to the other end of the single-car "train," we can clearly see the camera guy is the only passenger still on board. WITH GOOD REASON.)
posted by Quasirandom at 12:31 PM on July 28, 2015