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Confessions of a Train Geek
by Steve Boyko
3y ago
I am now blogging at www.traingeek.ca - please update your bookmarks. Thanks! Sign up for my mailing list to receive notifications when new blog posts are made. If you use an RSS reader, you can use this link to see new posts ..read more
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Bonus Train
Confessions of a Train Geek
by Steve Boyko
3y ago
Monday, August 6th 2018 was a holiday here in Manitoba. It's called a "Civic Holiday" here, other provinces call it "Family Day" and it's not even a holiday in some provinces. Anyway, I had the day off. I went out to catch VIA's "Canadian" leaving Winnipeg. It turned out that the first train I saw was CN 8906 West - see above. I elected to catch it at Carman Junction at the curve, to get the head on view above. The train had CN 8906 / CN 5694 / CN 8823 on the head end. Westward ho! After the train passed, I went west to Diamond to set up for VIA. I caught up with some of the train ..read more
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Trams in Italy
Confessions of a Train Geek
by Steve Boyko
3y ago
A tram near the Colosseum in Rome This post is the last of a series on trains I saw and/or rode while on vacation in Italy. Start at the beginning if you like. Trams in Rome I saw a number of trams / streetcars while my wife and I were in Rome. We never had a reason to ride one, but I made a point of photographing them on a few occasions. There are four types of trams running in Rome: ATAC 7000 series, SOCIMI, Cityway 1 and Cityway 2. The lead photo and the one below are Cityway 2 trams. These were manufactured by Fiat Ferrovia (now part of Alstom); the Rome Transport Compa ..read more
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Trains in Italy - Venice
Confessions of a Train Geek
by Steve Boyko
3y ago
This post is part of a series on trains I saw and/or rode while on vacation in Italy. Start at the beginning if you like. After a few days in Florence, it was time to move on to our final Italian stop - Venice. Florence Station Of course, I had to take a few photos around the train station in Florence before we left... Lots of bustle in the Florence train station I like the raised pantograph in this photo En Route to Venice Our train - a Frecciargento train We took a Frecciargento train between Florence and Venice. Frecciargento means "silver arrow ..read more
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Trains in Italy - On to Florence
Confessions of a Train Geek
by Steve Boyko
3y ago
Panorama of Florence, Italy This post is part of a series on trains I saw and/or rode while on vacation in Italy. Start at the beginning if you like. Next on our itinerary after Riomaggiore was a few days in Florence, capital of the Tuscany region and the birthplace of the Renaissance. We rode the local train from Riomaggiore to La Spezia, transferring to a high speed train for the trip to Florence... after I took this selfie with another "Steve". (CoSteve is a restaurant in Riomaggiore) You'll notice I was wearing sunglasses there. I rarely wear sunglasses because I usually eithe ..read more
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Trains in Italy - Railfanning in Riomaggiore
Confessions of a Train Geek
by Steve Boyko
3y ago
This post is part of a series on trains I saw and/or rode while on vacation in Italy. After we had settled down in our hotel apartment not sure what it was for the evening, I went back out to the train station in Riomaggiore, Italy to do a little late night railfanning. The Riomaggiore Train Station The train station is pretty small - one two-story brick building - with two platforms, one on each side of the two tracks through the town. Both ends of the platforms end in tunnels, as the rail line between La Spezia and Levanto runs along the coast and through numerous tunnels. The statio ..read more
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Trains in Italy - To Cinque Terre
Confessions of a Train Geek
by Steve Boyko
3y ago
This is part of a series documenting the trains I saw in Italy in late spring 2017. We left Rome on May 31 and headed to Cinque Terre. This set of five fishing towns is becoming a popular tourist destination. To get there by train, one has to first go to La Spezia, then transfer to a local train that runs through all five towns. Onboard the TrainHere's the interior of the train we took to La Spezia. The train had a snack bar on board, but it was closed when I walked by. Here's a view of a "2nd class" car. 2nd class car on Trenitalia It was pretty comfortable, if basic. The Vie ..read more
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Trains in Italy - To Rome!
Confessions of a Train Geek
by Steve Boyko
3y ago
Back in late May 2017, my wife and I went to Italy for a lovely spring vacation. It was our first time in Italy and we enjoyed it immensely. We definitely want to go back. Since this is a train blog, I'm not going to talk about all of the vacation aspects, but instead cover the train-related parts of our trip... and there were a lot! Getting to Rome We flew in three phases - Winnipeg to Toronto (YWG-YYZ), Toronto to Frankfurt (YYZ-FRA), and Frankfurt to Rome (FRA-FCO). It's always a little sobering to think that you are flying 10 km above the ocean, hundreds if not thousands of kilometres ..read more
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Book Review: British Columbia Railway
Confessions of a Train Geek
by Steve Boyko
3y ago
British Columbia Railway, by J.F. Garden I recently borrowed the book "British Columbia Railway: From PGE to BC Rail" by J.F. Garden from the Winnipeg public library. I would freely admit that I didn't know much about BC Rail (as I refer to it) and I looked forward to learning more. This is a fantastic book. It's quite an imposing book. Weighing in at about 3.5 pounds and 456 pages, this is not a light read in any meaning of the phrase... but it is highly readable. The book starts with a foreward by M.C. "Mac" Norris, former CEO and President of the British Columbia Railway ..read more
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What's on CN 2329 East?
Confessions of a Train Geek
by Steve Boyko
3y ago
Just for something a little different, let's look at some of the cars found on CN 2329 East, spotted on September 13, 2018. CN 2329By the name I've given the train, obviously CN 2329 was on the head end. 2329 is a GE ES44DC locomotive, built in mid 2010. I first spotted this locomotive on train 404 on April 4, 2011 (see "404 on 4/04"), several hundred feet further east from the photo above. The second time I spotted 2329 was on October 9, 2012, pretty much at the exact same location. I might take a lot of photos in the same area... what do you think? There was another locomotive on the tr ..read more
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