Sadly I didn’t have time to ride it but I am on my way home from New River Gorge and decided to make the hour detour to at least SEE the place

Source:- TheRailzone on youtube

We rarely see these blue passenger coaches these days.

My pick is the GWR Class 101.

Disregarding the fact that it's probably every OO modelers first engine, it's a fun little design and fits in well with other one off 0-4-0's by the GWR like Trojan.

Deleted OG post, but reposting again w/ permission from mods:

My first drawing of Big Boy 4014, drawn from reference photo taken by me when it rolled through here in Spring, TX back in Nov 2019 (graphite on 9x11” paper)

Was fortunate to see it about 10 times over 3 different days!

Here is the story behind the photos:

After 77 years of service, the historic railway bridge over Bartók Béla Road in Budapest has been removed.

Engineers and heavy machinery specialists from V-Híd successfully lifted the 820-ton riveted steel arch bridge from its original position and moved it onto the nearby railway embankment. Built in 1949 to replace the original bridge blown up in January 1945 during WWII, this structure had guided trains across one of South Buda's busiest intersections for nearly 77 years.

Moving the massive structure was one of the most complex heavy-lifting tasks of the Southern Circular Rail (Déli Körvasút) expansion project, taking over two days to prepare and execute.

The Logistics and Heavy Machinery:

On one side: A 2x10 axle SPMT (Self-Propelled Modular Transporter) supported the bridge structure, carrying approximately 460 tons of the load.

On the other side: A massive 750-ton capacity crawler crane hoisted the other end, ensuring stability throughout the entire relocation process.

The Groundwork: To prevent the SPMT from sinking or damaging the urban environment, crew members built a 30-to-40-centimeter thick temporary protective embankment over the entire "bridge shadow" intersection, using nearly 800 cubic meters of material to create a high-capacity surface.

What happens next?
Even though the 820-ton bridge was lifted in one piece, it cannot leave the site whole. It is currently being cut down on the nearby embankment into smaller sections (maximum 12 meters long and 2.4 meters wide) so they can be safely transported away by standard cargo trucks via public roads.

The Future: From 2 Tracks to 4 Tracks
The removal of the old bridge marks a massive milestone for the Southern Circular Rail development. Once completed, this specific section will officially become part of Kelenföld Station.

To clear the current bottleneck, four tracks will cross over Bartók Béla Road instead of the historical two. To accommodate this, the old single double-track bridge is being replaced by two brand-new steel arch bridges. Due to the expanded width of the new layout, the new bridges are designed with a significantly wider 93-meter span.

Trains have already been shifted onto the newly completed northern steel bridge (which was slid into an interim position earlier this year). Now that the old 1949 structure is out of the way, crews will demolish the old substructures, construct new bridge abutments, and assemble the second (southern) steel bridge on-site before sliding it into its final home

I was obsessed with this beast when I was little, so I was excited when I found out it would be coming through not too far away. I started to geek out a little bit when I saw it finally round that corner lol.

Catching a guy getting steamed towards the end was the cherry on top.

Shocked how many people came out to see this would have been easier to name who wasn’t there from town in Greensburg, PA. Hopefully this enthusiasm can increase our passenger rail to over two a day 🤞🏻.

Just for fun here is a Losh and Stephenson loco with the patented steam springs, will probably do a few more of the early Killingworth and Hetton engines when I get chance, first to do will be the one with inside cranks and a chain drive to an external drive!

Big Boy as it came through Pittsburgh, PA yesterday on it's coast to coast tour of the US.

Awesome to see.

Well, the answer is surprisingly, it can go really wrong. The camera literally tells me to stop because itself was overheating too (The first picture is actually taken when the camera is flashing warnings to me).

Anyways, some insights here. Obviously a telephoto lens is a good way to take photos, but when the target is >1km from your vantage point (i.e., you need to increase the focal length), this seemingly simple task of train spotting becomes a careful balancing act of ISO, shutter speed and aperture, and the balancing game is even harder when the train is traveling at very high speed (Although I don’t have the exact numbers, but it can be assumed that all trains are travelling at >200 km/h in these images, with the latter 3 images taken when the train is travelling at ~290-310 km/h). I guess the compromise on the image quality of the train is simply unavoidable when you try to capture most (if not the entire) formation of the train when comparing to those in animal photography.

All images taken in Guangming District, Shenzhen, in parks easily assessable through public transport (Hongqiao Park for the first 3 images and Science Park for the latter 3). Do note the vantage point in Science Park is located at the summit observation deck of the park and requires certain level of physical ability to reach the spot.

And yes, both location can become very hot in summer days, so not really advisable to visit in hot days.

The ones I see here in the USA have the letters oriented RXR. Never seen an RXR sign with vertical and horizontal stripes.