Western Railroad Discussion > TrainsIDon'tKnowWhatTheyAre #1

As a Californian I really have no idea what these are.  I am on a cruise up the Rhine River.  About half way between Amsterdam and Basil (Switzerland) the river passes through a narrowish gorge with RR's on both shores.  There are trains.
LOTS of trains. 
They fly by on both sides and they pass about every 10-15min.  I was amazed that no two look alike- all kinds of colors and color schemes.  

I know, I know, this is the Western Forum and very few of you will, like me, have any idea what we're looking at- 
but that's kinda my point...
SR

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Great shots and thanks for sharing.  The Rhine Valley is a great place for riding trains, watching trains, or just sightseeing!
As you can see, it is also a major freight route and passenger route.  Most of the big international express trains now are high speed ICE trains and go on the newer lines, so you're mostly seeing locals and Intercity DB trains (white ones with red stripe). Freight can be just about anybody.  The red locos are DB, and otherwise you can MAYBE tell the operator by the name on the locomotive, but they also do a lot of leasing.  There's a number of train tracking services that you can use to actually see the train IDs, but can't remember the one in Germany I use.

The Majority of the electric locomotives in this group are Siemens "VECTRON" locomotives (Post 1, Photo 2 for example is the lastest version), which is the basis for Amtrak and SEPTAs ACS64 locomotives, only much heavier. 

In here you'll see 1 loco with C trucks and 1 diesel running light.
SR

Well, as you may know, it was the British that invented trains as we have come to know them so one should not be surprised. The world's first passenger train celebrated it's 200th birthday last October in the north of England at Darlington. It was a fantastic event!

Photos 6 and 8 feature the Rheinfels Castle Ruin above St. Goar.

Thanks for sharing all three of these posts. It's an amazing area to visit and you certainly caught a lot of variety.

Fun experience being bewildered like this. Reminds one the world isn't too small of a place. 

WoodwardEJ Wrote:
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> Photos 6 and 8 feature the Rheinfels Castle Ruin
> above St. Goar.

St. Goar is s fun place to visit, and there are Rhine tour boats you can hop on and off in that area that provide some nice railfanning opportunities.

Thanks for the post.   I could spend hours watching cab videos from the Swiss railray system.  Impressive stuff.  

it looks like a vineyard above the cut in #10. very well cared for

train1275 Wrote:
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> St. Goar is s fun place to visit, and there are
> Rhine tour boats you can hop on and off in that
> area that provide some nice railfanning
> opportunities.

I was on a kind of ferry boat that goes up and down the Rhine, criss-crossing the river above Koblenz, Germany, to make stops on each side every few miles.  River traffic was so heavy, including freight barges, that it was kid of exciting/frightening seeing our boat crossing the river to dive thru an opposing line of traffic.  Yah, rail traffic was very heavy, running like streetcars!

mapboy