European Railroad Discussion > In search of snow

For my non-working day this week I went further afield than in previous weeks, flying to Riga on Tuesday evening landing in a snowstorm which piled up a few cms, most of which, in Riga at least, had gone by the time I left yesterday evening.

Dawn in Northern Europe at this time of the year is just after 08:00 and the sun sets at 16:00, somewhat later and earlier than at home. But it didn't matter yesterday because there wasn't any sun anyway - but then who goes to these latitudes at this time of year for sunshine?

I did get to see more Lugansk-built 2TE10 twin unit engines with their Fairbanks Morse derived Khar'kov 10D100 vertical OP prime movers and the universal ChME3 switcher from Czech builder CKD. One of the endearing features of the 2TE10 is that when running at night the internal carbody lights are on, giving anyone looking a great view of the OP engine, they are astonishingly tall.

On YouTube there are plenty of videos of ex-Soviet design diesels in service in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus often accompanied by the most gag inducing clouds of acrid exhaust (what British railfans call 'clag'). But the same locomotives in Latvian hands are remarkably clag free, which I've read on message boards is down to differing standards of maintenance, particularly of the turbo charger. Whatever the cause the LDz locomotives are exceedingly well behaved as well as being well maintained externally too. I didn't take many pictures, the shortness of the day saw to that as I didn't have a tripod with me, there was also a long fallow period in the middle of the day when nothing moved. Back in June I saw plenty of trains but yesterday only a handful. Never mind it was a fun day out.

1: Taken just after 09:00 at Lielvārde on the main line to Krustpils, some 40 kms from Riga a coal train from Russia behind one of the 2TE10M locomotives. The classification is very simple 2 = twin unit TE = teplovoz s elektricheskoi peredachei (diesel electric) 10 = 10-yi tip (10th type). Each unit generates about 3000 hp
2 & 3: Further east at the junction station of Pļaviņas I came across this switch job, I presume it had come from Krustpils (the major yard some 20 kms south). It was formed of hoppers, some of which carried lettering (in Cyrillic) and the logo of Belaruskali, a Belarus potash producer.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/16 12:03 by 86235.

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4: South of Pļaviņas the mainline to Krustpils crosses the Aieivkste River, the 09:52 Riga to Zilupe train formed of a three car RVR DR1A DMU has just crossed the river.

 I didn't want to venture any farther as I had to be back in Riga for my flight home and it was a 75 mile drive, so I parked up and waited....and waited....
I saw a light engine, the switch job from earlier returning to Krustpils and a piece of track plant, but nothing else.

5: It was fully three hours after the DMU that the crossing sounder started and this long westbound mixed freight behind a 2M62U appeared.

There were two other trains in the hour before darkness fell, I followed the final one back to Riga, overtaking it and stopping to watch it pass three times before a walk round the city centre where I shot my last picture

6: One of Riga's Tatra T6B5SU trams, complete with flags celebrating independence day (18th November - tomorrow) and trolley pole.

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Nice!  Wish I could get there on a one-day off trip!

dwatry Wrote:
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> Nice!  Wish I could get there on a one-day off
> trip!

Heaven knows how easy these day trips will be once the three Brexiteers screw things up for us. Sounds they'll be something like an Esta required for those outside the EU visiting Europe. :-(

Something different, Nick. A good day off work. Chris uk

Nice pictures. I think many of the 2ТЭ3Мs have been going through overhauls and other than the usual OP engine 2-stroke smoke, bad smokers arent as common as the once were on the RZD. Back in May I saw a few operating in to Abkhazia that looked to be in great shape
https://flic.kr/p/LyjDTv

GettingShort Wrote:
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> Nice pictures. I think many of the 2ТЭ3Мs have
> been going through overhauls and other than the
> usual OP engine 2-stroke smoke, bad smokers arent
> as common as the once were on the RZD. Back in May
> I saw a few operating in to Abkhazia that looked
> to be in great shape
> https://flic.kr/p/LyjDTv

Thanks, I'm glad they're being overhauled. As diesel locos go they are very characterful, their low bass rumble is a very pleasant sound when not accompanied by copious acrid fumes. I remember a UZ 2M62 I saw last year that looked as though it had a thunder cloud following it!

Wonderful images Nick!