Train of the Week

Here is a taste of what you have been missing out... Big time. The California Zephyr had been an amazing ride and I had met many amazing people (and engineers) along the way. Posted on the Northlander en route to North Bay, ON.

Dear blog readers, For the next two weeks, I will be travelling the rails! Below is the final rail itinerary and I think it will be an awesome trip! I'll try to keep you updated on things but we are taking a hiatus for the next two weeks on the more formal stuff I write about here. Click on image to enlarge

The British Rail Class 55 is a class of 6-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by English Electric in the 1960s. It is better known as the Deltic, a name derived from its opposed-piston Napier Deltic engine which has a cylinder arrangement resembling an inverted Delta. Cylinder arrangement of the Napier Deltic engine The Napier Deltic engine was originally developed for the Royal Navy in the 1940s. Due to the fact that opposed-piston engines did not have any cylinder heads and hence were smaller and lighter weight than conventional engines, they were the engine of choice for British motor torpedo boats during the Second World War. The Class 55 has not one, but two 18-cylinder Deltic engines, producing a total of 2,460 hp. Twenty-two of the units were produced; all of which served on the East Coast Main Line hauling express trains at 100 mph between London King’s Cross, Leeds, and Edinburgh until the introduction of the InterCity 125 in 1978. The Deltics saw the end of the...

The Series 885 is an AC electric multiple unit built by Hitachi for the Kyushu Railway Company (JR Kyushu) of Japan. It is a member of the modular Hitachi A-Train family which export trains have been derived from including the 140 mph British Rail Class 395 Javelin . Side view of the nose of Series 885 Interior of Series 885 with real hardwood floor The Series 885 is used as Limited Express trains on Japan's existing railway network and hence is narrow gauge (3 1/2 ft.). To negotiate tight curves at speeds higher than regular trains, the Series 885 is fitted with active- tilting mechanisms. Eleven 6-car trainsets (3M3T, i.e. 3 motor cars and 3 trailers) of the Series 885 have been built since 2000 and are used on the Kamome (Seagull) and Sonic services. This EMU has a combined output of 3,060 hp and a top revenue speed of 80 mph. Enjoy this short video of the Series 885 tilt on curves.

This week I'd just like to show a few pictures I played with in Photoshop to mimic the effect of tilt-shift photography. The theories and details of tilt-shift is still quite beyond me at this time, therefore I'll only link you to its Wikipedia page . But in short, tilt-shift makes images of real life objects look like miniatures (which I think is really, really cool). Below are a few pictures I've taken between 2005 and 2008 which I have edited to show the tilt-shift effect, have a look just for kicks. Happy Canada Day. If you are interested in trying this out yourself, here is a link to the online tutorial I've used.