Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: track

Here's a look at one of the more moderate grades in the world to use a cog. I took this seconds after Picture 1.

Many cog (or rack) railways in Switzerland, and for that matter the world, only use cog technology for banking, running conventionally. The BVZ Zermatt-Bahn is one such railway.

This bay was interesting. It looks like it was meant for a rail vehicle, yet there isn't any rail connection on the street or across the street, nor any room to turn a typical rail vehicle. Can anybody explain this? Also, there doesn't seem to be any provision for unloading, or any room for a rail vehicle of practical size.

I can't remember exactly where I took this shot, whether in Prague, Podebrady, or someplace in between, but mostly it was just an attempt at getting an arty shot of a CD mainline in the fog.

Although that rail speeder is in the foreground, I took this to capture that old CSD logo on the building. I'm assuming that it's used on excursion trains (maybe on the front of the locomotive?) to give them an authentic touch.

I took this at the zoo stop on the DPML (Liberec) tram system. The dual gauge is in order to facilitate operation to Jablonec, which has a 1-metre narrow-gauge tram system. Actually, as pre-1990's tram lines go, this route is relatively new, having not been completed until 1955. Since 1969, however, the line to Liberec has been the only surviving tram line in Jablonec, and is now operated by DPML. Even the line to Liberec saw sporadic use in the 1970's and 1980's, as reconstruction work was done, and planning argued over. The current operation dates to December 17th, 1989, exactly one month after the Velvet Revolution. The line is currently under reconstruction again, so I'm not aware of what the current service disruptions are. It is proposed as part of the new rebuilding to convert the Jablonec line to standard gauge, but I didn't see evidence of this for certain when I was in Jablonec or Liberec.

This is one of the bridges on the old line, crossing Husitska, which if I'm not mistaken I saw trins running over in my early years of living in Prague. For that matter, I'm fairly certain that I've been over it many times on trains.

For some reason, this hi-rail ditch digger has been parked here on the old line for some time, in spite of the fact that a regular ditch digger will now do. I don't know how long it's been here, but it's clearly not abandoned.

This is the first serious photo of my walking tour of the old mainline "Linka 011," or the Prague connection to it via the East throat of Hlavni Nadrazi, which was recently, and very quickly, converted to a bike and hiking trail. Actually, the trail is so new that Google Earth still shows this line as it was before conversion. I formerly listed this as Linka 171 by mistake. 171 is actually for westbound traffic, whereas this line is for eastbound traffic towards Kolin, Poricany, Pardubice, and so on. I'm fairly certain also, given my travels, that I was over this line many times in its last years of operation, which might make it the first rail line that I rode prior to abandonment, unless the abandonment of the old DL&W Utica-Chenango Forks pre-dates it. They were both abandoned around the same time, although the DL&W was only abandoned Norwich-Chenango Forks (unless I'm mistaken). I've also done a video version of this, shot several weeks later, but I haven't released it either online or on DVD, as it's sort of unpolished. I haven't decided whether I ever will release it, so this photo series will be all for now.

I took this shot around mid-October, when much of the track construction in Cercany was complete. The passenger subway still wasn't open, though, as you can see from the walkway still in place on the other end of the station building. Incidentally, this is my first shot to go on Flickr which was shot with Ektar.

Nadrazi Hostivar is by definition a train station, but adjacent to it is a tram station of the same name. The two aren't directly connected, but if you cross a few streets seperating the stations, you can get there easily. On this particular day, October 2nd, the tracks were all getting ripped out and replaced, and as you can see, the standards are pretty high, as these discarded sections aren't in terrible shape.

Back in Cercany again, I got a shot of Kolej 3, which apparently has been laid will all-new rail (it's not even completely rusted if you look carefully) and all new concrete ties, although the previous ties were concrete ones of the same design. The clamps also look to be the same, or at least similar, but the overall effect of this new construction is that you get a much, much nicer ride.

He did eventually fix this, but I had to run for my tram and I didn't get the shot. Still, I like this as sort of a "railway workers at work" shot.

Sometimes, though, it doesn't work....

Most of the tram tracks in Prague have rubber sealing gaskets alongside of the rails, I assume to keep them from rusting in half or getting damaged by frost action. This machine is designed to install the gaskets quickly and accurately.

I wasn't clear whether this was a tamper or a spiking/fastening machine. Does anybody know?

Although slab track is used in new straightaways on DPP's tram system, the turnouts in Albertov and on most of the system still use the old 19th-Century methods of construction, even down to genuine creosoted wooden ties (sleepers to the British)!!! Wooden ties are becoming rarer and rarer everywhere today, especially in Europe and Asia, and if I were to see this I would much more expect it to be in the U.S. than in the Czech Republic, but here are wooden ties, being used on the tram tracks no less, right in the middle of Prague!

This is part of the trail through the Bruckenmeisterei/Rangierbahnhof Tempelhof park, made out of one of the old tracks, as like I said almost nothing was scrapped.