European Railroad Discussion > OP action in Latvia

Just returned from a winter break in Riga chasing trains in the snow. Whilst not much fell during the three days I was there it was very cold (by UK standards), daytime temperatures never reached more than -3C and on Thursday morning dipped to -16C. Most of the time it was between -5 and -7C as measured by the thermometer in the car. I flew out on Tuesday, returning yesterday via Amsterdam in both directions so had three full days. Weather was a mixture, some brightness on Wednesday and Friday afternoon but Thursday, which the various weather apps promised would be a day of wall to wall sunshine turned out to be anything but. Spectacular sunrise but within 45 minutes a fog rolled in, seemingly blanketing the entire country. It lifted to low cloud but we never saw the sun again!

I saw three types of mainline power, the 2TE10U (Universal) and 2TE10M (Modernised) which sport the Kharkov built 10 cylinder OP engine of Fairbanks Morse origin, the 2TE116 which sport a pair of Kolomna 5D49 V16s and the newly rebuilt 2M62UM with Caterpillar power from CZ Loko (A Czech rebuild specialist). What I hadn't appreciated is that even with woolly jumpers, thermal vests, thick socks, hat, winter coat, scarf and gloves it gets unbearably cold being outside the car for any length of time, which makes finding locations close to the track to park up more important than during the summer when I would be happy to walk to get to a choice photo spot. Here are a few pictures, the remainder are on my Smugmug site at

https://nick86235.smugmug.com/Trains/2018/February/i-FhdJvBW

1: Not encountered this Estonian company before, Skinest Rail. The loco is called Bruno and is a 2TE116
2: Another 2TE116 at Krustpils on empty oil heading towards Daugavpils and Belarus
3: And here is one of the 'new' rebuilt 2M62UM. Only the underframe and bogies survive from the old 2M62Us



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/18 04:39 by 86235.

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4: But it's the OP engined locomotives that are my favourites, here a 2TE10U heads east at Koknese on Friday morning
5: At Koknese station in the afternoon an eastbound intermodal behind a 2TE10M, the containers being carried on both flats and in what we would call box wagons and you would call gondolas.
6: After sunset a 2TE10M gets underway after a signal stop at Lielvarde, at the end of the Riga commuter territory, whilst the 17:00 Riga to Zilupe, on the border with Russia, approaches. It's formed of two three car DR1A DMU half sets.

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Great stuff. Glad you made the effort. Will the O-P continue to run or are their days limited?

Ken Goslett

Thanks Ken - there's no sign that the 2TE10s are in any immediate danger but the LDz has a modernisation plan which would see more electrification and the elimination of power inherited from Soviet days. But that depends on funding, and Latvia is by European standards a relatively poor country.

Very nice!

Thanks, Nick. Gerry

Great winter photos taken where few others are posted from.
Thanks for braving the cold.
ALLEN

krm152 Wrote:
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> Great winter photos taken where few others are
> posted from.
> Thanks for braving the cold.
> ALLEN

Thanks, luckily I had a car in which to wait.

Nice series, Nick. Glad you apparently made it OK and without frostbite. Thanks for braving the icy cold to show us some interesting operations; I enjoy your forays to the hinterlands of eastern Europe. And count me in as a member of the OP fan club, although the number of times I encountered them in the past was limited. Especially like the last image - classic.

MC
Muskegon, Michigan USA

Great photos, Nick!

Thanks Duncan, thanks MC. I'm glad I went but I wasn't expecting the cold to be quite so intense. Looking at various webcams around Latvia a month ago and there was very little snow and temperatures were hovering on both sides of freezing, but I was chatting to a guy on Krustpils station who said I should have been there in 2011 when it fell to -35C and even the railways had some issues.

Mind you I think railfanning is preferable to ice fishing, his home life must be really terrible :-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/12/18 00:22 by 86235.

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Excellent as usual ! :) Thank you for sharing!!! :):):)

Interesting that some of the units use the Cyrillic alphabet, and some the Latin.

JGFuller Wrote:
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> Interesting that some of the units use the
> Cyrillic alphabet, and some the Latin.

I think only the rebuilt equipment used Latin.

Thank you for the interesting set of photos. And that is seriously cold weather.