Chrisjo's train pix

A thread in which I'll share interesting photographs of real-life trains and railways that I've taken.

We'll start off with the view looking west from platform 3/4 at Cardiff Central station in Wales, taken on May 1st this year, at 14:30.

From left to right we can see:

• Transport for Wales 197106 waiting at Cardiff Canton Depot, will be Cardiff to Manchester Piccadilly
  
• Transport for Wales 150260 waiting at Signal 7048, will be Cardiff to Ebbw Vale Town
  
• DB Cargo 66097 hauling freight from Margam Knuckle Yard (Port Talbot Steelworks) to Llanwern Exchange Sidings (Llanwern Steelworks, Newport)
  
• Great Western Railway 802009 waiting in the Brickyard Siding, will be Cardiff to London Paddington.
  

Great pic Dr. Chris! Keep em' coming

[Super]

Holy Smokes...I wonder how they kept track in that tangled mess in an era before computers 🤔

more importantly, how can move the trains without derailing them with so many switches

It may look rather congested, but the gantry with the nearer two red signal lights on it is about 500 m (1,600 ft) away from where the picture was taken, the speed limit on the main line drops from 75 mph to 30 mph between there and the station. The 800 class on the right is about 850 m (2,800 ft) away.

[Super]

Well that certainly shows a different perspective

Here's a video that was made at the same time as I was there. In fact if you look closely I make a cameo appearance in several sequences!

[Super]

Thats quite the Camera setup you have there Dr Chris.

I am going to show my train ignorance here with this question but...What powers this little guy?



And...at the 22:18 minute mark...is this real graffiti or the artistic design of the train?

That's quite the Camera setup you have there Dr Chris.

I am going to show my train ignorance here with this question but...What powers this little guy?

And...at the 22:18 minute mark...is this real graffiti or the artistic design of the train?

First, I must make clear that this is not my video, the person 'West Coast Mainline' that made it was there at the same time as me.

The 153 class 'Super Sprinter' railcar is diesel powered. Sometime you can see two or even three of them coupled together.



That graffiti is real vandalism that will cost a considerable sum to remove. The other side was un-marked.

[Super]

I had thought I caught a few glimpses of you on the station platform with that large still camera in your hands.

So does the Super Sprinter rail car each have its own Diesel motors? I assume they must be under the car as I don't see any vents or exhaust especially black soot. Might these be hybrid diesels that produce electricity to power the drive wheels?

Seems like it would be much easier, cheaper and faster if they just painted over the graffiti matching the original green instead of trying to remove it.