photography

Railways in Europe - Part 3: France

My journey through Europe continues, this time in France...

We arrived very early in the morning on the Thellõ, as in 6am early. Europe is pretty chilly at that time of the morning, but Dijon was fairly alive. We had a few hours to kill so I went exploring.

My first introduction to the SNCF, there was lots to see. There were articulated electric units like the above, articulated diesel multiple units like below, articulated TGVs, and loco hauled trains.

Railways in Europe - Part 2: Italy

My journey through Europe continues, this time in Italy...

Mrs A had promised me that I'd see many more trains in Italy, and she wasn't wrong. As we drove up the country and across to Naples, we passed many tracks, and at a depressingly bland truck stop on the highway, high speed ETR trains whizzed by every couple of minutes. However it wasn't until we got to Rome that I spied much in the way of trains.

Our hotel was just up the road from Termini railway station, which had trams, local trains, long distance trains, high speed trains, metro, and tram-trains!

I rode the metro home one day, and while fast and easy, I can't be as complimentary towards the state of their rolling stock:

After taking a few photos on the platform ...

Railways in Europe - Part 1: Greece

Please excuse the cobwebs, I was over in Europe for three weeks with Mrs A and 21 smelly teenagers on a Greek/Roman history field trip. While mostly history related, I did manage to sneak in some sly railfanning here and there.

Our trip started in Athens, Greece. Not a whole lot to see in Greece, railways wise. The national rail network (OSE, for Hellenic Railways Organisation) is in a bit of a sorry state, and the country's geography isn't the most railway-friendly so many of the lines meander. That said, apparently they have the fifth largest (by length) railway network in the EU. Between government cuts, creative accounting, and a mix of rail gauges, things for OSE are pretty dire. In many ways they are the poster-child of the Greek financial crisis, as OSE's annual debt interest payments alone are three times what it earns in revenue! Quite how one turns the tables on that situation I have no idea.

Athens

My introduction to European r...

Poles and lights for Ranuska

The cobblestones are now all completed on Ranuska. Each morning I would do a few minutes work while running my shower, and by the end of the week it was all done. Then came the fun of painting it; long story short it took three attempts to get the right finish. First attempt was too blue, second attempt washed out all the detail; final attempt worked well though. I made up a dark wash that settled into the crevices, then I dry brushed on some very light dirt colours; lots of browns and tans, no greys. Then, the magic step: I mixed up a very watery mix of the same "sandcastle" paint that I had painted everything else with. I airbrushed on several layers of the sand mix, and now the cobblestones nicely blend in with the rest of the scenery. Job well done.

Hmm... I need to ...

New loco: Kato DD16

I always get excited about new arrivals to the roster. The latest new loco to join Utrainia is Kato 7013, a model of the DD16 diesel locomotive. This was developed by JNR to replace light weight steam locos, and is has an axle loading 12 tons, total weight 48 tons. It has a diesel hydraulic transmission, as is common in Japan, with a maximum speed of 75km/h and length of 11.8m.

In other words, it is a very small loco. I had seen it listed online and it immediately appealed, however I was too slow to buy it and it sold out! So I placed my name on the waiting list at Hobby Search, and a couple of months ago I received an email alerting me that more had come in. I ordered one that night and it arrived a week later in a well padded box from Japan.

Back yard gardening

"but that can wait for the next rainy spell" I said...

Well the next rainy spell arrived pretty promptly, so with little delay I settled down and made a back yard garden for the little E.L. Moore cottage.

Raised vege gardens

When I off handedly mentioned building a vege garden, the matriarch very quickly handed down her specifications: two raised gardens, on the sunny side of the house, at least 1 foot off the ground. No wide than arm's length, with good walking space between them. While you're at it, I'd also like a glass house.

Well! Not one to argue I rummaged around under the house and found some suitable ship-lap styrene siding that had seen better days. A bit of cutting and sanding later and I had the framing made up. I filled up the boxes with some of my usual dirt mix (glue-plaster-paint) and then mixed in some horse & sheep manure from over the fence.

A bumper crop of cabbages were soon well on their way, along with some stalk...