http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:shenanigan87&section=today deviantART RSS for by:shenanigan87 en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Sun, 27 Dec 2009 19:30:16 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/29236883/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/29236883/ Sun, 27 Dec 2009 14:17:03 PST
Here are some selected photos of our most top notch trains, the latest model having a top speed of 330kph (206mph), with a power output of 12800hp. Starting off with Marcos, aka =o-l-pixel, the biggest fan of these trains on DA, with many great shots of them in his gallery. Then moving on through the ranks of well known deviants in the railfan community, on to less well known ones, who might only have one or two shots of these striking machines in their galleries.



























http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/29191671/ Fri, 25 Dec 2009 12:08:42 PST robertbeardwell, after capturing his page with exactly 5000 pageviews displayed. Now, I can finally do something I always wanted to do, my very own railroad feature journal! And I mean proper features, with thumbnails instead of links.

I wanted to feature some photos from deviants who not only take great railroad shots, but offer kind comments and helpful critique. I think the latter part shouldn't be underestimated, as we're a community here, not just a bunch of rail fanatics who throw the occasional photo or two onto DA. I chose one photo from each deviant's gallery that I somehow remember and associate with the user in question, be it for its artistic merit, quality, historic backstory or because it features my favourite locomotive class of course.


On to the feature!


by

Very lovely lighting, crisp image quality, and a very tranquil background! I'm all for artistic railroad photos, but a well crafted and simple head on shot like this one really makes a railfan's mouth water.


by

Another very high quality photo, showing the nose of an iconic DB class 601 power head in TEE livery. Hoyt must be the only one who has a photo of these beautiful DMUs on DA, and I loved how prominent the metal TEE emblem looked on this.


by

Probably one of my favourite shots from Britain as far as DMUs are concerned has got to be this one. I really liked how the front with the driver if in focus, while it gets more and more blurred when one looks down along the lines of the train. A very artistic shot!


by

Something one doesn't get to see often around here, a very green railyard so to speak! While it is of course not a good idea to neglect the ballast like that, it does look quite striking and pleasant.


by

Bob doesn't shoot trains exclusively, and it often shows in the fact that his railroad shots aren't just standard train photos, but often reveal the people behind preserved engines. Either through portraits of the said people, or by photos like this, with the helping hands rolling around in the dirt to get everything right.


http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/29123586/ Wed, 23 Dec 2009 07:29:47 PST Also, I uploaded a handful of shots from the last two days, see the links down below for that. I probably won't be around that much during the holidays, though I guess that goes for pretty much everyone here. But before I set off to help my mom prepare for the festivities, I have one small question I wanted to ask: The members of #The-Railfan-Nation have probably heard about the photography contest underway at the moment, and I took part as well of course, with this photo. I preferred that one to my most most popular deviation since that one doesn't have much photographic value besides lots of steam, while the one I submitted for the contest has a nice composition, lighting, and colours.

However, one of my newer submissions, namely this one, got quite popular in a short time as well, and I really like it for its dynamic feel and the sense of speed it conveys. I thought about changing my entry, but then again, I end up not wanting to do that, despite the "Snowblind" pic being more popular, at least statistically. What would you do? Or would you think another pic of mine is more suitable? I know it is a bit odd to ask this, since it wouldn't really be in the best interest of other participants if they suggest a photo of mine that they consider better than my current submission. Still, I thought I'd ask you all what you would have to say to this.

With this question off my mind now, I wish you all a very happy Christmas, enjoy the festivities, the family, the presents, and so on, have a nice time! We agreed not to give ourselves anything this year, since I don't have any wishes, and neither does my mom. I thought about wishing for some photography equipment, but as far as I'm concerned, I got everything I ever wanted.

2009-12-23 Caught a "Bügelfalte" 110 hauling an IC train, and some bonus photos (3 pics)

2009-12-22 Rode a replacement train with oldschool carriages (3 pics)

2009-12-21 Snow in Leverkusen, Duisburg & Düsseldorf (30 pics)

2009-12-20 Night tour, class 103 and misc. snow photos (6 pics)

2009-12-20 Heavy snowfall in Leverkusen, open track shots (17 pics)

2009-12-19 First snow, open track shots (9 pics)

2009-12-18 Getting colder, shots from Duisburg and Leverkusen (15 pics)

2009-12-16 First visit to Dortmund (12 pics)

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/29014368/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/29014368/ Sun, 20 Dec 2009 13:55:33 PST [link]


Today's previous entry: It's been snowing like hell all day! It's annoying, can't keep my eyes open when looking into the wind, and it blows the snow into every little space on my camera and lens! Still, I tried to get some shots done, put them up on DSO: [link]

Yesterday's entry: Yay, went out to shoot some stuff, and caught an extremely long carriage transporting train, as well as some nice frontal shots I always wanted to do. Uploaded 9 pics to DSO: [link]



Previous entry:

When I say snow, I mean a little bit of white powder, but who knows! It's cold right now, so it won't melt, maybe we'll have a nice white landscape tomorrow. Also, I got my hat and gloves back, and the WSW (operator of the Schwebebahn) contacted me, asking how I'd like them to give me back my money, so all is well more or less. As I take my camera with me wherever I go, I took a good amount of train shots in the last few days, and I uploaded the interesting ones to DSO.

Here's Wednesday's tour from Dortmund, where I caught the ultrasound rail testing train, and of course today's tour, with a diesel ICE, a 110 pulling a mix of passenger coaches, and a wee amount of snow too. I thought that these pics weren't that good, so I probably won't upload them here. Instead, I started making them 1200 pixels wide on DSO, so you get the same quality as usual.

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28955545/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28955545/ Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:11:11 PST [link]

Well, the Wuppertaler Schwebebahn has been shut down due to safety concerns, presumably till Easter next year. The old support columns, some over 100 years old and due to be replaced, apparently didn't take kindly to the cold weather we have here now. Just great... Classic locos get the axe, young and good looking DMUs get the axe, and now my awesome plans for New Year's got foiled! And I'm sitting in not too interesting lectures while the sky is cloudless outside after many days of cloud cover! One could say that I'm slightly enraged...

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28904482/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28904482/ Mon, 14 Dec 2009 11:00:05 PST
What pisses me off the most however, is that 22 Talents have now been parked somewhere near Hamm, for an indefinite amount of time. I just hope they find some use for them before Vandals do their damage, and before they can no longer be moved without repairs. Here's my comparison shot of what was normal last Saturday, and what will now be normal. There are also links to two more pics in the description.


EDIT 1: I thought I'd update the journal with four more DSO pics. The forum is full of farewell threads, as many changes took place all over Germany, leading to the replacement of rolling stock. I don't think I have to mention that the new trains don't impress railfans at all, and in some cases, like the 218 in Cologne, the replacements are actually worse than what they replaced. Anyways, I just took a few photos of some other locos that will not be with us for long, I think you can guess what I mean...


Yesterday's entry:

Much stuff failed today. I'll start at the back, with the most relevant part for railfans: Me and Torsten (though not aware of each other) shot the last class 218 diesel departing from Cologne-Deutz. He was on the platform the train itself stopped at, and I was on the one opposite to it, wanting to catch the undercarriage too. Well, there are only two obstacles from there, namely two signal posts. The driver juuuust stopped the train with the engine right next to them, a dozen railfans dashing along both platforms with tripods in hands as a result.

Oh, and there was a piece of paper stuck to the front of the loco that must've said something like "Goodbye 218, 12.12.09", but the wind tore the lower part loose, it flapped up against the windscreen, and had to be taken off completely. I think this goodbye couldn't have been more botched from a railfan's point of view.

Just to clarifiy: In no way do I say that drivers and personnel should give special attention to railfans, not at all! But if you are the driver of the last damn locomotive on this line, and you obviously know it, despite the sheet having been torn off, you could at least not stop at the only not-good place on that platform! I mean, there were half a dozen people with tripods on either platform, and all started running when the train stopped... Could it have been any more obvious what we wanted to do? Sorry Mr. Driver, that was just very not cool!

If you're interested, here's my DSO thread on that. Also submitted this pic to DA. Background story: Wanted to go to Dortmund to fetch my hat and gloves, shot the double traction of 218.8 diesels while wating for my train. For the Brits, these are what you would call "Thunderbird" locos, equipped with Scharfenberg coupler adapters to tow multiple units. Anyways, my train couldn't go further than Dortmund because someone got run over (which is just as well for me, as Dortmund was my destination after all), but my stuff wasn't at the Service Point any more, instead having been transferred to the DB's lost & found office. And that is closed on weekends. So, back I went, and took the same line in the opposite direction, towards Cologne. On the way, the train was first stopped in Düsseldorf because of people on the tracks, and was then diverted onto the other line that runs through Leverkusen. In Cologne, I then shot a railbus special run of sorts that I saw by chance, and then the 218, which was a failure even the 110 thereafter couldn't make up for.

So, that's it folks, no more thundering class 218 diesels in Cologne any more. They got phased out in many other regions too, with many threads on DSO dealing with the end of their service with this timetable change. I thought about submitting a news article about this, so I can feature some 218 shots there, but I don't think that many people know or care about that. So, I'll feature three of my 218 shots here, if you... ]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28884755/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28884755/ Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:47:24 PST
Went straight to Cologne after university, and shot lots of amazing old machines, the oldest one today was 52 years old and still running! I was rather pleased to see many "Bügelfalte" class 110 engines up and running, caught four of them this evening! Also shot two class 218 diesels, which will have their last day in Cologne tomorrow, unless something goes wrong with the replacement DMUs.

I think I mentioned it in the description of this pic that these powerful thundering machines will be replaced by underpowered class 628 DMUs. Well, I've heard that they received a lot of those from another federal state (Schleswig-Holstein), where newer DMUs forced the older ones out. They are apparently planning to make dual engined versions of them by scrapping the cab cars and coupling motorcar to motorcar. Interestingly, this two car train will then have two toilets, but no space for bikes or wheelchairs etc., so they will hang an old "Silberling" carriage in there too or something like that... I'm very, very curious about how this idea might work. Chances are that it will develop into an epic fail, with the reign of the class 218 perhaps being extended in that case, even if it's just for a short time. I think I'll have to go to Cologne or other parts of the 218's line tomorrow, as they are to be replaced by Sunday. And now, on to the photos!

Click me!

A little explanation: That engine I shot several times (115 198) is a renumbered class 110 of the pre-Bügelfalte variety, so it looks like any other engine of the Einheitsbaureihen. Non-Bügelfalte 110 engines are quite rare, and even disregarding that, this one was quite a gem: It still had the old style lights! All old DB electrics have a separate head and taillight, but the very first ones of the series still had both in one larger enclosure, dubbed frog-eyes. This is the first time ever that I shot an engine with such headlights, with those in museums obviously not counting. Another interesting detail: If you look at the closeup of the front, you can see where the 0 used to be, and where you will now find a 5, 110 having been changed to 115. As I probably mentioned some time ago, an engine of the class 115 is just a renumbered 110, which shows that it belongs to DB AutoZug rather than DB Regio.

You may also have noticed that little bit of text above the two last pics. It's a little anecdote about what happened to me: I was already sitting in a Regional Express, on my way home, but as we pulled out of Cologne and onto the Hohenzollernbrücke, we passed a train pushed by a 218! And then, we also passed a 110!! I already packed my tripod and camera away, so I pondered about whether it was worth getting all that out again. Seeing how my train and the one with the 218 pulled up at the same platform, I finally made the decision to just do it, dashed out of my train, yanked camera and tripod out of their bags, and without even extending the tripod's legs, I aimed, and shot. And I also recorded a video, trying to capture the sound, but it didn't work as well as I hoped it would.

However, I really liked the photos, and was just about to find me another train to get home, when I realized that I left my bloody gloves and cap on the previous train! As you can imagine, I was quite pissed at myself for being so careless, apparently not realizing that I left them on the seat next to me. Fuming, I spotted the class 110 I saw from the train earlier, thought "I'm gonna get that fucker, and if it's the last thing I'll do!" and started running along the platform. As you can see by the last pic, I definately got it. Now, back to the missing cap and gloves:

Went to the nearest timetable board and looked for a phone number I could call. Found one that was supposed to be reachable day and night, so I called it. An automatic answering machine told me to call the DB's service line instead, dictating the number. Hanging up, I rummaged for something to write on, called again, jotted down the number, called that one... More recorded announcments! After a few menus, and me telling it in which federal state I live in for the second time, I was actually connected to a real person! Told her about what happened, what exactly I left where exactly in which train. She said that she can't promise anything of course, and asked me for my number to call back. As usual, I didn't know my cell number, since I don't call myself that often, so I gave her our apartment's numb... ]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28760218/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28760218/ Sun, 06 Dec 2009 07:33:36 PST
Anyways, the link below now directs to the slightly updated vid. A part of the "new" footage at the very end was already on YouTube, so I could have salvaged it from there. Still, I'm happy that I found the original of 110 380 running, as that was the first 110 I ever recorded a video of! And also the first one I ever took a photo of, if you remember this shot. What's funny is that I didn't even know what a 110 was back then, I just saw that these engines were somehow... old... And thought that they might not be around forever, so I whipped out my sorry little piece of compact camera technology and pressed the button.

Sadly though, time is running out for 110 380. The first 110 I took a photo of, first one that I recorded a video of, first one to appear on a photo at the very start of the YouTube vid, first one to appear running in the vid, and the last one to appear running in the vid, might soon be gone. Her deadline for a general inspection had already expired, but was extended two times to keep her running. When the second extension runs out, her time is up. A loco would normally receive a general inspection at this point, but the DB doesn't do that to 110s any more. This will most certainly lead to her being "z-gestellt", rolled onto a siding and left to rust. A z-Stellung means that no parts may be removed that would hinder the engine's reactivation, so they are basically kept as reserves. With an old lady like the 110 however, it almost always means one thing: Straight to the Bender!

Exact numbers: Her deadline expires on the 20th of January 2010.

This might be a good opportunity to direct your attention to my class 110 folder, which may not have many pics in it, but I did my best to conserve as many of these engines that started going out of service just when I got into train photography...

What is even worse however is that next weekend, on the 13. of December, the timetable will be changed, which also includes changes in rolling stock. The awesome thundering machine, that is the class 218 diesel engine, will be gone from this federal state! Gone! That really sucks... The Talent is nice and all, but compared to a pounding diesel locomotive, it's just boring... I've also heard that Silberling coaches will also disappear, save for rush hour trains maybe... Damn, and I thought I had some time left before the boredom bomb gets dropped here! Some lines will get new operators, so the DB's EMUs used there will then replace Silberling trains on lines that wouldn't have been converted otherwise... Gaaaah!


Original entry:

As those with whom I chat already know, I composed a little video that I uploaded onto YouTube, containing some of my never before seen footage of class 110 engines. Having looked through my archieve, I thought I should just upload some of the nicer recordings for everyone to see, though my crappy compact certainly didn't help me there as far as quality goes. I also added the clip of me climbing into such an engine, with my usual little annotations about what components or controls one is looking at.

Click me!

I was also chatting with a German railfan this morning, and quite often, we'd have shots of the same engines in different places, or him having photos from cab rides in 110 497 for example, an engine which you'll see three times in that video. He also took a ride in the cab of 110 501, which was cut up at the Bender a short time later. He says that it feels kinda eerie to have taken a cab ride in an engine, and now it's already gone! They really want to get rid of their old stuff as fast as possible, or so it seems...

Watching footage from when the 110 was about to be replaced in the area around Dortmund was also somewhat eerie to me, as that was on the 12th of December last year. The engines in my video that I got shots of in Duisburg were all stationed there, and are now gone. Luckly, not to the Bend... ]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28634171/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28634171/ Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:52:07 PST Please tell me what you think of it! Or even better, do something similar, if you happen to have the time and a camera with you! I'd be very much interested in your commutes too you know, it doesn't have to be by train either!


Click me!




EDIT: I just thought I'd share some other awesome news with you: Just ordered some of the last available tickets for the New Year's Eve run of the famous Kaiserwagen! My mum, grandmother, and myself will depart at half past eleven from the depot at Vohwinkel and greet the new year on open track. Champagne and canapés will also be served, how cool is that?

In case you don't know the Kaiserwagen, which I doubt, here are two shots by me and one by Torsten. A magnificient machine, built in 1900, preserved, overhauled, running on a regular basis. We'll even be sitting in the same carriage that once carried emperor Wilhelm II. along over the Wupper back then, which gave the Kaiserwagen its nickname. Damn, I'm so looking forward to this, and it's not even Christmas yet!




Original entry:

Just came home after spending over four hours at Cologne Central... I really liked the outcome, so I put up my usual scroll-through thread on DSO, if you wish to check out 18 selected photographs. Even caught a 110 and 103, among "standard" stuff, but that "standard" stuff also looks damn epic at night. All in all, I'm strangely satisfied with this tour, which is quite rare due to me being rather overcritical at times.

Click me!

And now, I think I can collapse... Came home at about half past midnight.

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28450490/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28450490/ Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:01:46 PST

It was a nice little experiment, and I thought it was time to end it with the final pic. I did consider continuing with a shot of the train standing in Leverkusen, people getting off, or of my bike at the bike stands, but there doesn't seem to be as much interest in this as I thought. However, would anyone else be willing to do something similar? Or maybe just a shot of some form of transportation you use every day? I'd be delighted to see something like that, if you've got some time to shoot what usually ride.

On another note, I still lug my DSLR around with me each day, also having the tele in my backpack. This of course means that whenever I'm standing around in Duisburg, waiting for my train, I shoot everything that comes by. As usual, I want to avoid spamming your inbox (like I did in the last few days), and give you links to DSO instead, for a nice scroll-through view. The first one shows a couple of "standard" trains, with a little b+w experimentation and a driving school train; the second one shows two class 218 diesels standing at a platform. That was kind of a special occasion, as those weren't regular 218s, but belonged to the subclass 218.8. They use special adapters on their coupling to tow EMUs and DMUs with automatic Scharfenberg couplers. Most of them are used to tow defective ICE trains, which looks a little bit like this. Of course, I drooled all over them, considering that one rarely sees class 218 engines around here, and standing next to one with a fresh and immaculate paint job was something quite special. The driver was apparently having some technical problems, emerging from the engine room with a flashlight and disappearing again. However, he also reved them up while standing a few times, which melted my face and made me need fresh underwear. Such an awesome sound... The shutters on the side were wide open, so you could see every detail of the engine room. Just imagine what these must've sounded like before mufflers were installed... I bet it would have made my head explode! As it was dark, and as I had no tripod, I waited until no passengers were near me and lit up the locomotive's front with my camera's internal flash. I didn't think anyone would object, as the driver was not in the cab, and I didn't even remotely bother anyone.

The rules of the DB explicitly allow photography on its property for private enjoyment, but prohibit the use of floodlights or "Blitzanlagen". I haven't found a translation for "Blitzanlage", but it's defined as a professional version of a flash unit. So the rules don't forbid flash as such, but apparently those flash units that are a bit more capable than my camera's internal one. However, that pic immediately kicked off a childish argument, which not only lead to my thread being the most clicked and discussed one (like my Bender threads), but it also got locked, meaning that it's still there, but users can't comment on it. Not wanting any trouble, I removed the offending image even before the thread got locked. Immediately afterwards, a user started a new thread in a different section of the forum, wanting do discuss what "Blitzanlage" exactly means, with a childish discussion being the result (again). I didn't even bother to say much. Next time, I will not post such images, problem solved. I don't feel like I did any harm, as there was nobody around who could have been distracted or even blinded by it.

Anyways, without further ado, I give you my latest two "tours", or rather "shooting stuff on my way home as I don't have time for real railfanning tours at the moment" collection.

Collection 1

Collection 2

And here's the offending photo I took with my internal flash.


Please tell me what you think about them, as I plan to post some of these or similar shots on DA.

Thanks for your attention!

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28329764/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28329764/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 10:02:07 PST
[link]

How dumb can people get?

I mean, seriously?

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28309750/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28309750/ Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:10:02 PST

UPDATE: Damn, we've even got a livestream of it! [link]

Nothing happening right now, as there is no compulsory attendance because of the occupation, but only until 6 o'clock this evening. Nobody knows what will happen after that, as there were some minor quarrels yesterday. Some leftists came by from some marxist party and thought they had to say something as well, and there were students who didn't want to put up with the occupation. Those who occupy don't miss their lectures, as they take turns to attend them while still blocking the Audimax. Those who would have lectures there were rather pissed and gathered to put an end to this, but it obviously didn't work very well. I just hope nobody does anything stupid... There was already a case of a university having police forces end the occupation (peacefully of course), so that might happen here as well.



Holy fucking shit, our audimax has been occupied! Scandal! Can you hear the uproar? Well, me neither, Germany is still busy processing a certain goalkeeper's death, which you might already know from ~nettwerk or ~ZCochrane. I really recommend reading Torsten's journal, as we both share the same thoughts on the media going completely crazy over this, completely ignoring that such overdone coverage will most certainly lead to the "Werther Effekt". Hearing this story on every newscast, on the front page of every newspaper might make someone who is already depressed and suicidal actually do it.

I'll be completely honest about this: Until his death, he was unknown to me. And he's "just" a goalkeeper. If someone important would jump in front of a RegionalExpress doing 100mph, an intelligent politician whose decisions could affect us all, a smart scientist who was just one step away from solving nature's puzzles, an activist who destroyed all whales and saved all nukes (or something like that), a Nobel Peace Prize winner, it would be a somewhat different issue. But we're talking about a professional sportsman, which isn't something to look down upon, but it is just a mass spectacle for those who like football, not more, not less. I mean, people jump the tracks every day, it's always a tragic event, but why is a footie player so damn important that every newsflash has to deal with him? Looks like an epic media fail, just like the time when they reported about "Killerspiele", implying that they make people more violent, without really knowing the actual games, or even how to pronounce their names. Oh, and because I'm very tasteless, and in case you were wondering: He got hit by a class 146 electric of the Bombardier TRAXX family, a 146.1 to be precise, pulling a six car RegionalExpress train. Looks almost like my train, though we have five cars and use 146.0 engines here in NRW.

Anyways, back to the more important issues: Our Audimax has been occupied! For those who don't know, that's short for "auditorium maximum", the largest lecture hall of a university. I even have an older photo of it! Following a conference organized by our students' union executive committee, there was so much dissatisfaction about pretty much everything these days that they decided to block the auditorium until the demands are fulfilled. These include the abolishment of university fees, more transparency about how our money was spent in the past, the abolishment of the Bachelor/Master system, improved support for students with children or other occupations, etc. etc. As you could probably guess, we never ever used the Audimax, and we're not affected by this at all. Apart from that, we don't really have time for revolutions, we have to study you know. And that's also a good catchword for what I also wanted to mention: I'm quite busy with university stuff at the moment, so my activity will be offish during the week, but usually catch up with everything on the weekend. Sorry for declining those chat invites too, but getting papers done has priority.

On the photography side, I'm currently exerimenting with a somewhat new method, namely shootin... ]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28068900/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/28068900/ Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:58:32 PDT

Video Link

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/27988932/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/27988932/ Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:15:21 PDT
First and foremost, thanks very much for the birthday wishes and the awesome gifts, I shall feature them all at the end of this journal! Again, sorry that I’m a bit late, but the weekend was spent having fun, and yesterday was spent doing the papers I’d normally do during the weekend.

So, what happened on the weekend? Well, there was the Müngstener Brückenfest which I already mentioned, and of which I uploaded one photo until now. That pic became my most faved deviation overnight, which kind of flattered me. I did think that it looked good, but I never thought that it would become that popular. Thanks to everyone who faved it (almost 100 users), I might not get around to thanking everyone in person.

The photo was taken on Saturday, and on Sunday, I met up with Torsten to take even more photos, to test drive my new 55-250mm tele lens, and to ride the very train from the said photo. You might have seen the Top Gear Botswana special, with Jeremy exclaiming “Why don’t all cars have no doors?!”. In the same manner, I had to ask “Why aren’t all trains pulled by steamers and composed of noisy old two axle carriages?!”. It was very awesome to say the least, and you felt like a rock star because there were people all along the tracks, on bridges, on platforms, and sadly, some also trespassing in a rather obvious manner. But we didn’t let that spoil our fun and took turns leaning out the window, shooting pics, despite the “Nicht hinauslehnen!” signs. Of course, I caught a lot of soot with my face and hair, but that’s part of the fun. Still, I should take some form of protective eyewear with me next time, as my eyes tend to close out of reflex when they get stuff in them. And I can’t really take pics without seeing what I’m shooting, or more importantly, keeping track of the vegetation ahead before it slaps me in the face. Luckily, I had a cheap filter on my tele, so it remained unaffected from all the soot.

In other news, I was also at a restaurant with some of my friends from university on Saturday, enjoying an all you can eat meal. Or rather enjoying it until my stomach started hurting. On Sunday, I was at my favourite Steakhouse with my mom, because steaks are the most refined form of meat one can eat. With fried onions and a corn cob, just heavenly I tell you, accompanied by an excellent vintage of Coca Cola. Heh, I also received a very awesome gift from a few closer friends from university, namely an electric fly swatter! It’s probably the most advanced piece of technology humankind has ever thought of. A charged metallic grid that fries all sorts of insects with a loud crack and a flash. If you can’t imagine the carnage, here’s a video of me killing a ladybug, which kept annoying me for days, buzzing about and then hiding in the light cover for the next few hours. [link]

UPDATE: We did get the asshole examiner, but he was so fed up with so many people that need to get their programs looked at that we got through without any problem. And now, on to the birthday feature!

In order of appearance, or rather uploading:

[link] by
He asked me what I wanted, and my favourite British loco is of course the tractor. Tractor I wanted, tractor I got, and the description with "fresh off a night shift at work, with extremely bleary eyes and a questionable state of mind" made it all more heroic and epic! Thanks very much!

[link] by
Ah, a class 87, how fitting for someone who was born in 1987. As Rob said, it is a rather rare and cool class, moved to European countries for use. He thought it would be very fitting, and I have to agree.

http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/27833061/ Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:44:04 PDT boring (and then they are quite popular) or thinking it's a nice shot (which turns out to be less popular).

Anyways, I still have to work on getting that one right, and on overcoming this fear that a shot will be unpopular. Instead, I should of course just upload it and let the audience decide, but I want to refrain from uploading too much stuff at once (hence my links to DSO, for easy scrolling-along tours). At least I thought that this measure would be a good idea to avoid uploading many similar railroad shots, while still allowing those who are interested in them to see them two clicks further.

While looking through the list of deviants, I also noticed two names, ~kisPalika and =TomPix, two great deviants that just sorta disappeared without a word. Tom's account is still there, with all pics and even a subscription, while Palika decided to delete everything. I'm quite saddened by this, as I haven't saved any of his photos, even though I featured them several times in my journals. The way he played around with the low, setting sun for lighting was just superb, everything was so moody, so fitting, with that typical middle of nowhere feeling of Hungarian branchlines. Just gone. Tom seems to have departed as well, and I hope nothing happened to him that made his activities cease all of a sudden. From some of his journals, one could deduce that he was suffering from depressions or similar problems that he didn't give further details about, so I hope for the best. He really inspired me with his extremely crisp photos, good usee of tele perspectives and a rather agressive way of cropping. Quite often, I think "Damn, I bet Tom would like this one!" when shooting an engine type he liked in the way I saw him do it. Not to mention the fact that he was one of the few German railfans here on DA.

I hope you guys and gals are all here to stay!

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/27763494/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/27763494/ Wed, 14 Oct 2009 13:54:24 PDT
Here are the photos: [link]

The comments are in German of course, so ask away if you don't understand something. The train towards the middle of the photos is a "Schadzug", containing a very mixed assortment of rolling stock that has to be repaired/overhauled or was just repaired/overhauled. Among the freshly renovated coaches, there were four electrics, two non-Bügelfalte 110s, a 101 and a 120 at the end. What I liked the most was the very nice light, making for great contrasts. Yes, some are overexposed, but those fall into the "interesting rolling stock" rather than "good photo" category.

As university will probably kick back in properly in the following week, I'll have considerably less time for DA than I had until now, so my comment answers and deviation comments might be delayed ever so slightly. Since I really liked some of the shots from today, I'm going to touch some of them up and put them up here at the rate of one or two pics a day or so, if that's all right with all of you. If you like one pic in particular, please tell me, and I'll be sure to include that one as well.

Also quite funny: There were five other railfans at the scene, so we shot some of the stuff I put up together. At one point, namely when we were taking photos of 115 509, one guy asked the driver whether he could take some cab shots. Being very kind, the driver (an elderly gentleman) had no problem with that and even took the coffee mugs off the dash for the photo. At the end, he even allowed the railfan to rattle up the notches while the direction selector was on 0, or to manually turn on the cooling fans etc. When he stumbled out of the cab with that happy grin, the others joked "And? Pants still dry?".



Having been inside numerous 110 cabs at the Bender, my pants were of course not endangered. Still, it was a very nice, albeit chilly day, with great lighting and an abundance or trains. And I mean real trains, with engines, not those EMUs! Gotta love engines, especially good old Bügelfalte 110s or the bright red 143s.

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/27560632/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/27560632/ Sat, 03 Oct 2009 14:39:49 PDT

The actual fall of the Berlin Wall took place on the 9th of Novenber 1989, but that was also the date of Hitler's failed coup in 1923 and the Novemberpogrom of 1938, so the third of October was chosen instead.

A little known fact: It was actually Hungary that brough along the final collapse of the iron curtain, by symbolically cutting the barbed wire fence at the Austrian border and opening the gates on the 27th of June, 1989. As people from socialist countries were allowed to travel to other socialist countries, they could make their way into the West through Hungary, punching a hole in the until then almost imperemable and deadly border that cut through Europe for almost half a century.


As you may have noticed, I'm still rather inactive, with maths and quantum mechanics exams still having to be written next week. Nevertheless, I had some nice rig-building shots from yesterday that I put up for your enjoyment.

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/27514897/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/27514897/ Thu, 01 Oct 2009 02:46:47 PDT
[link]

Sometimes, I wonder whether some people are just dumb. Sorry, but if you actually think that it's the belief, or rather lack of belief in the god you happen to believe in that's causing all the problems, I'd have to punch you. You may believe in what you want to believe, a great number of people have died for you to have your freedom of religion. If you start off on the route that everyone who doesn't believe in your god is damned for eternity, I really wonder what your problem is. People have died so that nobody will go after you for your belief, we've seen in what catastrophe that could end, if you remember what the nazis did. And you honour this gift, this freedom, by looking down on everyone who chooses not to believe? That frightens me just as much as a couple of thugs beating someone to death.

It happened in Germany as well, a 50 year old guy wanted to protect some teenagers from being robbed by other teenagers at an S-Bahn station in Munich, and was beaten to death. While the entire nation was in shock, nobody ever brought up god, religion or anything else that doesn't have to do with this in the first place. They thought about how one could stop youth from getting so brutal and found that their parents and surrounding are responsible for it, but of course, one can't tell parents what to do most of the time. Unless they do it really wrong, but then it's already too late.

I'd better stop writing before this develops into a page long rant (again), but I just can't help myself. I find it illogical to believe in a supernatural being that can't be proven by definition. Why, why does one do that? Because it says so in an old book? What kind of reason is that, seriously? If I write a book that says my god is the only one, would you live your life according to it? Why not? Because it's not old? Because you know for certain that I just made it all up (like all the others)? Really, if anyone could explain to me why people just blindly believe what it says in the bible or any other religious writing, how they can deal with the knowledge that the bible as such is contradictory, and that everything modern science has shown contradicts most of it, please go ahead and explain it to me. I just don't know why people do that.

Seeing this problem of religion still haunting humanity, especially in less developed countries, I wonder how humankind can sink so low. Looking at the Holocaust, or any other dictatorship that doesn't take kindly to some scapegoat group makes me wonder how humans can develop such hatred for other humans for being different in a way one couldn't even properly determine. I really hope we overcome such problems of hatred, intolerance, and yes, using blind belief in a supernatural being to judge people. I do honestly believe that allowing religion to gain a foothold in media and politics is problematic, be it "news" shows like this or people being denied proper education about evolution or sexual behaviour. We scorn at sharia laws in islamic countries, and how human rights are boldly disregarded in favour of religious commandments. Dear US citizens, please don't let the world's only superpower fall back into such disgrace, educate your children so they can make justified, logical and well thought out decisions. Education and knowledge are our only weapons in this war. And they, or rather the results they can give us are what makes me proud to be a human.

[link]

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/27377266/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/27377266/ Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:20:48 PDT

Actually, I found many of the photos to be pretty neat, and thought about uploading some of them. But, that also felt stupid somehow, as if I'd be serving last week's supper, and having arranged them into a little story already, I dropped that plan. I thought I'd point that deviation out in a journal instead, and ask for your opinion.

This is the deviation I was talking about.

Now here's what I found that got me back to it: A video, or rather a photo slideshow, that contains photos of this very line when it was still in use. It was very interesting to me at least, as I couldn't really imagine what trains on this line might have looked like, though I knew what rolling stock had been used more or less. Now I know for certain, that there were three flavours, with exceptions of course. There were engine hauled trains, with four axle V100 diesels, DMUs and EMUs, with former of course being the iconic Uerdinger Railbus. The bridge you can see towards the end at 3:40 is the same one of which I also submitted a photo.


Now I can already her you asking about how the hell an EMU can run on a line with an apparent lack of catenary or third rail. Well, it's true. It was the former ETA 150, later class 515, the only battery powered EMU of the Bundesbahn! Pretty neat huh? There's another slideshow by the guy who submitted the other video as well, should you be interested in photos. These units very very popular with passengers and drivers, as they were quite comfy and rode well, due to the battery's weight giving it a very low centre of gravity. They produced a rather conspicuous whine when running, thanks to their DC motors, getting many nicknames. Acid bomber, battery-blitz, socket-intercity, flashlight-express or "Biene Maja", after a popular children's cartoon featuring a bee as protagonist. I'm quite sad that a once quite extensive little network of local railroads had been shut down... There were several other lines like this one, connecting small villages with larger towns such as Wuppertal and Solingen. Now that's all history, including the line from Remscheid Lennep to Leverkusen Opladen, even thought it's still there, more or less untouched. Politicians keep talking about converting it into a pedestrian and cyclist path. And they keep talking. And talking. Nothing new here.

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/27263134/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/27263134/ Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:41:58 PDT
So, what did this company from Leipzig, founded by Adolf Bleichert in 1874 actually produce? Well, they planned and constructed aerial ropeways, I guess the older generation still knows those as characteristic sights around industrialized areas, transporting coal, ore and similar loose goods in large steel buckets. Bleichert controlled most of the ropeway business back then, holding many patents and building ropeways worldwide. I want to present you one that struck me as being a technological superlative in its day and age, even modern day engineers being amazed at how they managed to build that thing with comparatively primitive technologies.

I'm talking of course about the ropeway that connects the Argentinian town of Chilecito with the mines in Upulungos, around La Mejicana. The presence of rich iron ore deposits had been known for centuries, but the only mining that had been carried out until then was basically taking what's on the surface or digging shallow holes. Because the ore could only be found high up in the Andes, it was not only extremely difficult to get it down to the smelteries in Chilecito, but getting proper mining machinery up there was impossible as well. Just to get to the mines, one would have to travel over dangerous mountain roads by mule for three days, through a harsh and bleak landscape and equally harsh climate that was often fast to change. In 1899, the railroad had finally been extended all the way to Chilecito, making it possible to effectively transport pig iron to the rest of the country. However, the problem of getting it down from the mines was still not solved. The mines were about 35 kilometers away from Chilecito, seperated by jagged mountain ranges, almost 3500 meters higher than the town.

With the railroad to Chilecito being finished, the ownership of underdeveloped the mines was transferred to the Famatina Development Co., a British company, with the condition that a means of transport had to be built for easier access to the mines. After surveying the terrain, major manufacturers of rail- and ropeways were contacted by the Argentinian government. However, even American companies felt that such a project bore too many risks for their taste, and backed out. The Germans however were rather vigorous to take on this challenge. So, after officials and engineers inspected already existing ropeways built by the bidders, Adolf Bleichert & Co. was chosen to tackle the mammoth project.

While a straight path would have been an optimal solution, it soon became clear that it was just not possible to build such a ropeway without major changes to the terrain. Engineers thought long and hard about the route, which boiled down to a ropeway with nine stations in total, with most stations being located at the places where the routed changed its direction. It started off in Chilecito, 1075 meters above sea level, and had its final station in Upulungos 4603 meters above sea level. Comparison: Mont Blanc, Western Europe’s highest mountain, is about 4800 meters high. They used the tried and trusted two rope system, with a separate support and haulage cable. The thick haulage cable was anchored at one station while being kept under tension by weights at the opposing station.

In between the stations, the cable was held up by the characteristic trestles, embedded in support shoes that allowed it to move back and forth, as it has to due to temperature and load variations. The haulage cable was considerably thinner and served the purpose of moving the buckets along, powered by stationary steam engines that were installed in the stations. The colums were equipped with a support structure for the haulage cable as well, a large wheel with V shaped guide rails, as each time a bucket passed through, it would lift the rope off the wheel and drop it back again. Here's a picture of such a column: [link]

The buckets were attached to the cable with a suspension that has a two wheeled running gear at the top, and a bit lower, a clamp that can keep a firm hold on the haulage cable, with a mechanism to allow easy separation at stations. There were also special wagons to transport steel beams or similar parts, closed cabins for transporting personnel, or water transporting wagons like this one: [link]

... ]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/27205625/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/27205625/ Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:51:13 PDT
Here they are: [link] and [link]

If anyone is interested in what we actually did: We measured the gamma ray spectrums of several radioactive isotope samples, such as Caesium-137, Sodium-22 and Cobalt-60, using scintillators. Those are basically luminescent crystals that emit light when being brough to an excited state by gamma or roentgen rays. We used Sodium-Iodine, with Tellur as activator. The photons emitted by this crystal then strike an electrode, knocking out its electrons (photoelectric effect, for the explanation of which Einstein received his Nobel Prize in 1921), which then enter a photomultiplier tube. Basically a series of electrodes (called dynodes here) so that one electron knocks out several electrons from the first dynode, those knock out even more from the second, and third, and so on, until you have an outright avalanche of electrons hitting the final anode. That is connected to a capacitor and a resistor, so that we can easily detect a voltage drop and record count rates.

There is of course more to it, with three effects to describe gamma ray interaction with matter (photoelectric effect, Compton scattering, pair production) with some of them occurring multiple times or being caused by one another etc. But I think the general overview sums it up pretty well.

Physics is awesome!

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/27028984/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/27028984/ Sat, 05 Sep 2009 05:57:05 PDT
In the Netherlands, there's widespread sexual education, both in schools and the media, condoms and pills are almost free, and the country has one of the lowest abortion rates in the entire world. It was even lower a few years back, but with more immigrants, who bring their attitude to contraceptives along with them, it rose slightly. 60% of those who had an abortion were immigrants of the first and second generation. Now, you'd propbably think that we here in Europe are englightened and not afraid or ashamed of our sexuality, that these immigrants came from the third world or something. But then, the article continued with another example, of a country that has strict laws on what you can and can't do with yourself: Poland. The catholic church (yes, no capital letters for you!) has successfully lobbied against sexual education in schools. Have they no heart, or have they no brain I ask you? What the fuck is wrong with them?! I probably don't have to mention that abortions are illegal in Poland as well.

There was a personal story about a polish girl who got pregnant, and of course couldn't get an abortion. Many similar stories exist, some ending in disaster, with coathangers and knitting needles. The girl here took a night train to Austria to have an abortion. Many others resort to such measures, with the travel expenses often putting them in debt. But having a baby while in school or university might wreck their entire career, their plans, their dreams, so they resort to the only measure that's left to them.

What does the catholic church have to say about this? Why do they adhere to their rejection of contraceptives and abortions so much? According to the German Bishop's Conference, they don't want to morally judge contraceptives, but instead positively accent the importance of loyalty and abstinence. As =Thrife explained it: Put 100 rabbits into a cage and tell them not to have sex, to be loyal and abstinent, and see how well that works. While humans should be capable of responsibility and self control, it obviously doesn't work out. And why not have sex without getting pregnant? Why not engage in an extremely pleasurable activity without risking your health or career? What the fuck is the problem with fucking? Has the pope never had an orgasm, or is he blind and deaf? Both I guess...

What made my fly off the handle however was the statement "For the catholic church, the dignity of man is within the core part of its doctrine. This also includes a responsible sex life, which has its appropriate place within a marriage between a man and a woman." Excuse me? Just thinking about how young girls desperatley try to end their pregnancy to avoid ruining their lives makes me shiver. Trying to end it by sticking objects up their uterus, by letting quacksalvers do it, or taking a dingy night train to a country they might have never visited to a doctor they might have never seen to have an abortion. Where the fuck is the fucking church with its fucking love for human dignity now? The only advice they can of course offer is that she should have the baby. Yes, exactly, drop out of school, have the baby, and then be without any form of graduation or perspective. Great for the child, great for the mom, eh? She could of course put it up for adoption, but who do these religious bastards think they are, wanting a woman to go through this ordeal because it suits their faith? Who do they think they are, influencing political decisions about whether or not there should be sexed classes? And here I was, thinking that we live in the 21st century.

I was always crictical of religion, and realized that it was just like Father Christmas or the Easter Bunny, without any facts, theories or observations that could support the claims made in the bible. A book that says god is true and god says the book is true, touché! And then they go around saying that they in fact invented morality and ethics, while it is evident that humans are born with basic morality that can even be observed in toddlers, and are taught what is right and wrong by their surrounding. The church doesn't have a copyright on right and wrong, though they love to claim they have. And then, they go around, labeling perfectly natural behaviour as immoral and sinful. My favourite example: Homosexuality! The church claims that it's perverted, because sex is clearly only there for the purpose of procreation. Perverted means as much as against nature, or unnatural. So, let's look at nature, shall we? Oh my, just look at all those critters fucki... ]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26936273/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26936273/ Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:57:12 PDT
So give it to me straight doctor:

More of such railroad pics on DA, or fewer?


I also keep thinking about how to shoot railroad related stuff at the moment. The modern rolling stock of ICE and IC trains gets perpetually boring to me as time goes by, so I sometimes don't even bother to lift the camera. The only thing modern that still manages to look quite nice is the Bombardier Talent, but those tend to suffer from all the graffiti and subsequent removal being hard on their varnish, bleaching it out. ICE trains seem to be dirt covered rather often, with defective coupler covers wrecking the aesthetic appearance. I'm not even going to mention the dirt covered 101 electrics with their patched up livery...

Basically I either shoot oldschool equipment, if I manage to find some, or try out more unusual or daring perspectives on the modern stuff, like in this older picture [link] Do you have any other ideas on how to cope with not finding 90% of the rolling stock interesting, apart from shooting more non-railroad stuff? That lightbulb from last week seemed to have worked quite well.


So, here are the assorted results of my latest awesome tour: [link]

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26874277/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26874277/ Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:13:54 PDT
Knowing that, I took the paper with me for some cultivated reading. Also, I bought two Snickers Cruncher from the cafeteria, but they were quite soft from laying around, uncooled, on this warm day. The handy solution: Liquid nitrogen! I turned the Cruncher into a MEGA CRUNCHER, so cool that a thick layer of frost formed on it as soon as I tore off the wrapper!

I think I'll have to submit some photos, after all, what did I have the camera with me for? Anyways, now there'll be some almost-holidays, with the next experiment about two weeks away, giving me a chance to go railfanning and do other photo projects that I always wanted to do but was limited by my equipment. Some night shots with my new tripod would be a neat idea, I wanted to have a better picture of the Bayerkreuz, if you remember that... And now, to catch up with all those piled up messages and deviations.


[link] and [link]

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26648728/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26648728/ Mon, 17 Aug 2009 11:44:30 PDT
So when I rode my bike back home, and got closer to the spot, I thought about putting a stop to this... There is a kennel club next to the line, I guess their parents would have to be around somewhere, but I didn't feel like looking for them. I just stopped at a spot where I could see them, and stood there with my camera. Ironically, this enabled me to shoot an engine coming through solo, which I'd have missed otherwise. But then, they did see me, taking cover behind the embankment. Then, they poked their heads out, and even waved. I thought "not my business really" and with kids today, they'd probably just bug me with stupid comments about me not having a say and being nobody etc. So I rode on home, but as I went past the underpass, they came running through, but were quite paralyzed when I stopped my bike right in front of them.

Me: "Are you out of your mind?! You just risked your lives several times!!"

They: "Uh, we were just waiting..."

Me: "No, I saw you running across SEVERAL TIMES!! Do you know how dangerous that is?!"

They: "We uh, we stopped now..."

Me: "That doesn't matter, you're not supposed to do it AT ALL!"

They: "... Sorry, we were just..."

Me: "It's not my business, but you should know that it can get extremely dangerous and damn expensive very quickly!"

With that, I took off.

They: "Did you take photos of us?"

Me. "Of course I did!"

They "Are you going to give them to the police? o.O"

Looking back over my shoulder: "Perhaps..."


I didn't take any photos of them where one could see more than their heads poking out, but I think this little encounter turned their kick into a good scare. Hopefully, they won't do such unnecessary and life threatening shit again.

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26632304/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26632304/ Sun, 16 Aug 2009 15:56:33 PDT
1.) It's getting crazy around here!

2.) I made a little video about 110 430, you might know her from 's shot [link] from the good old Bundesbahn days, and my two recent photos, [link] and [link] . The term deathbed shot, mentioned by Hoyt, is very fitting here. Anyways, I don't want to put it up on YouTube, but I want to show it to you, my dearest watchers:

[link]

Just walking throug the cab, the engine room, playing around with the windscreen wiper, clearing away some of the dirt for my most recent shot, playing a bit with the electric brake controller, and going back to the first cab.

About the getting crazy thing: I must admit that I stole some stuff without feeling bad, namely instrument panels and gauges etc. from the locos on death row, including some keepsakes from 110 430 as well. There wasn't much left though, because someone quite violently broke into her, as you can see from the video with all that shattered glass on the floor. One of the cab's two doors can only be locked from the inside, much like a public restroom door, so one just has to smash the window, reach in, and open it up. But that's not the really crazy thing: When I went to the Bender for the second time today, there were several other people. They weren't much older than me, seemed confident about trespassing, all had DB backpacks, so were probably DB employees or trainees...

And... They broke into every single engine on the line. They clearly knew the engines by heart, using a Leatherman tool to unlock the doors within seconds, removing larger parts of the engine's electronics and cab equipment, knowing exactly what they wanted and how to get it. Compared to them, I almost felt like a freaking saint. One engine the opened up even had it's EBuLa computers, the digital timetable readouts, about which I was quite appalled. I mean, they were going to throw them away, and they were still perfectly good I presume. By the time I posted two pics about the rather smashed up cabs still having their EBuLa computers on DSO [link] , someone quickly informed me, that they were already gone. I thought that the user belonged to the group of people I saw, but no, he was in another group of people who came after the one I saw! It's like a freaking giveaway around here!

Anyways, I'll probably keep away from the Bender for the time being, as these little adventures really tire out my psyche, and I need to be learning physics at the moment. Still, I just couldn't resist, seeing those instrument panels a few days ago, perfeclty good, flawless so to speak, about to be chucked out... I took a screwdriver with me to remove builder's plates, should I come across them, but instead, I dismantled and removed a part of the instrument panel, which I could barely even fit into my backpack... I did that after I filmed my "Besuch bei Todgeweihten" video, and today, I was so freaking crazed with this, that I got up early, went there, removed an instrument panel from another engine, brought it home, then went back again to loot some more! And now, I feel extremely tired. However, I don't feel guilty, seeing how, if I may use the term, professionally some do it, and how the DB just chucks away every fucking thing, from engines that are even younger than I am to the stuff that's in them and that could be used on almost any other engine. I feel kinda bummed that I have to pay these asswipes through my university fees, being forced to buy a half yearly ticket for this federal state. True, it's for all public tranport, not just the DB, but sometimes, I feel that the DB can do nothing right.

Admittedly, many other places are far worse off, and statistically, the DB does a pretty good job of getting people from A to B safely, without being hostile to photographers and railfans in any way. Still, when one hears about the scandal concerning the collection of personal information, the broken axle on an ICE and now also the Berlin S-Bahn, and finally, to see former taxpayer money, standing around in a damn field, with people looting the cabs without a second thought, I kinda don't want to give this company any money. At least I got some back, now that I'm officially a crazy fanatic who scave... ]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26570248/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26570248/ Sun, 16 Aug 2009 01:51:21 PDT [link]

Kinda pisses me off that three of these engines were built in 1990, some of the youngest of this class!

I mean... Damn...



Previous entry:

May I present you: Besuch bei Todgeweihten (visit to the moribound)

[link]

Feel free to ask if you have any questions, I only did one with German captions, so some stuff might be unclear for the majority of non-Germans here. Also, the next exam phase is approaching, along with the first experiment of the advanced practical, which will probably boil down to me being less active here on DA.

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26529403/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26529403/ Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:32:53 PDT this video, you'll see a rather unusual looking powered car of the Budapest Metró being towed by a small diesel. That is the Ganz-Hunslet G2, a prototype train that was planned and built in Hungary to replace the Soviet rolling stock at some point. The plan to build a purely Hungarian train came up in 1970, but it took them until 1987 for the six car prototype train to be delivered. The transport company of Budapest originally wanted to send one of the cars to a museum, which you can see in the video, and cut up the rest of the train. Lucky for us railfans, the Suburban Transport Association managed to stop this, as the train is the very last product of Hungarian vehicle manufacturing before everything went belly-up, so we're dealing with historic rolling stock here.

The unit itself was very advanced for its time, liked by both passengers and drivers, being quieter and having a smoother ride than the Soviet trains. However, it did have some teething troubles that needed to be taken care of in serial production. It was seen in passenger service every now and then until 1995, standing in the depot since then. There is no clear verdict about why they didn't choose to build it on a large scale, or how much effort it would have taken to overcome the technical difficulties. It's also not clear why they didn't run the prototype more often, or why exactly it didn't see much service recently. A Hungarian railfan who brought this to my attention said that it would require only little repairs, and that the unit was more or less still in operating condition. He was present when they towed the train, and showed me some pics, but told me not to post them anywhere. You can see from the video that the unit is in good shape, having stood in a hall, protected from the weather and from sprayers, and everything in it, from the passenger space to the controls in the cab looked a-okay.

If you're interested, here are some pictures of the train, which was the second prototype for the Budapest Metró. The first one was the Ganz P, looking very similar to the Soviet vehicles, built in 1953. However, the Metró construction ceased for political and economic reasons. When the first part of the Metró was finally completed in 1970, the merged Ganz and MÁVAG companies, two large builders of railroad vehicles, weren't capable of building more, so the prototype was scrapped a few years later. Here's also some old footage showing the prototype in action. I love how at one point the narrator says "...the West could be jealous of us if they could see it", and later on "the transport company doesn't have any money right now to replace all of the old stock, but it will have to happen within the next five years.". Well, it's been two decades by now, the old stock is still running, and the West is still much better off in every respect. However, the new Alstom trains are already being tested. I loved how the guy stuck his arm in between the closing doors on an old train. The new train of course senses this and opens the doors. The old one squeezed and bruised his arm nicely, the train taking off with his hand still outside! The old trains weren't designed with idiots in mind you know...


EDIT: I forgot to mention that the museum where the car was towed to didn't have enough space in their main hall, or so they say (they've got plenty of space as far as I could see). The train was parked outside, unprotected from nature. The railfan who told me this story said that he was deeply saddened upon seeing a heavy thunderstorm come down just as they uncoupled the car from the shunter... By the way, the Transport Company of Budapest is caught up in a major fraud scandal at the moment, they apparently paid large sums of money for some studies that cost much less (now where did all that money go?) and they paid large compensations to people they fired, only to immediately re-hire them (gosh, look at all that money!).

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26379353/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26379353/ Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:45:29 PDT May I present to you my very first time lapse video:

[link]

Please tell me what you think, I'm a bit over-euphoric right now, so maybe there are some errors or mishaps I didn't take note of, or some things that could have been done better. But damn, I had a LOT of fun doing this!

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26372730/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26372730/ Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:34:37 PDT

I'm writing to you from the Cafeteria on the Essen campus, I think I've mentioned it somewhere that we're a two campus university. After a good helping of "Currywurst mit Pommes", the real German national dish, I thought I'd make use of the WiFi and tell you all about how it went.

It was terrific! Sure, it's not perfect, I couldn't keep it a sharp as I wanted to, and I couldn't avoid the ground shaking from people walking past, but I had a really great time. It took a security guard about one and a half hours to notice me (he and his partner were there before I arrived) and he just asked whether I had a permission. I showed it to him, he was happy, and so was I.

I shot a bit more than 2k photos, with two larger sessions that lasted one hour and twenty minutes, with one shot every five seconds until I had 1000 of them. It was a bit harder to get a good view than I thought, I could only get in three of the four platforms, but that was more than enough. There was so much traffic at one point that three trains were piled up at one platform, though that only happened once. Nevertheless, it's so busy, not overly crowded, but so many trains come and go at peak traffic, it's unbelievable. It's will probably look more like a conveyor belt for people rather than a train station, but I haven't made the movies yet. As you can probably tell, I'm quite curious about the outcome.

Camera and lappy had roughly 40% of their charge left after about five hours of shooting, so there is room for longer sessions, should the need arise. I probably won't do many more of these, simply because I don't want to wear my camera out that fast. Yes, I bought it to take photos, trying to treat it with care would be equal to buying a car and not driving it. Still, I wouldn't want the shutter or mirror to fail on me prematurely. What I really want to do nonetheless is a sunrise time lapse from this bridge, looking in the same direction: [link] I was greeted with a cloudless sky today, with the rails in Essen Central gleaming in a very beautiful fashion, but not knowing how well the batteries would handle the session, I thought I should rather not start shooting that. Maybe next time. But a time lapse from that bridge, with the rails glinting like in that pic, that would just be breathtaking, don't you think?

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26341238/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26341238/ Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:34:29 PDT
Being crazy: Check!
Getting up at 5 to catch earliest train: Check!
Gear: Check!
Thermos with hot coffee: Check!

All batteries charged, all systems are go!

And I'm off!

Update: I wrote a mail to the Essen Transport Company about whether or not photography was allowed on their property. While DB stations can be considere public ground, the subway stations are privately owned by the EVAG. However, they were very forthcoming, and I received my permit within minutes of writing them an e-mail. I also checked out the Gorillapods at our local electronics discounter, but they were somewhat expensive at 50€. For 20€ more, I just got myself a "real" tripod, complete with pan-tilt head and quick-release mounting plate.

See my latest deviation for a little checklist! [link]

Plan: Now that I've got some time all of a sudden (feels eerie somehow), I wanted to do some things I always planned to do, among them: Doing some time lapse photography! I've seen lots of great stuff on this topic, and I want to contribute to it, if the results are worth watching of course.

Equipment: I still lack a tripod, so that has to be taken care of first. As all good tripods are in the total no-go area for me as far as their price goes, I thought I'd go with a gorillapod again, though with the larger, more heavy duty models of course. I know, and have experienced, that they tend to wear out from intense usage, with the joints that are slightly easier to twist then others experiencing a stronger wear as well. My small one still works good enough for me, but it's obvious that it has a limited lifespan. Still, they're just SO practical, you can just kinda mush it into a ball or any weird shape so it fits into your backpack, and clamp it to any pole or handrail. Yes, it is a bit small when there is nothing you could attach it to, but when I'm touring with my bike, I can just affix it to my saddle, and most places with interesting views have some handrail, trashcan, or bench somewhere. So larger model gorillapod it is!

Location: Essen Central Station! It looks a bit like a warzone, with the entire station getting renovated, but I'm not here for the rather dull and ugly train station. I'm here for the combined subway and tram station that's underneath it! It's hard to describe or even photograph it, you just have to be there to feel that atmosphere. Here's a photo that should give you an impression, the platform closest to us is for the 1 meter gauge trams. Everything is illuminated with a cool and rather calming blue light, including the rails, with fluorescent tubes under the edges of high platforms. It looks rather stark on photos, but in real life, it just looks awesome and nice in a way that sets this station apart from others. There is a LOT of traffic, with several tram and subway lines stopping here. Very often, you see several trains directly behind each other on the same rail, but there never seems to be a delay or trouble here. I wanted to capture all this motion, with trains coming and going all the time, people moving back and forth over platforms getting on and off...

I'll probably spend some of my hard earned cash on the gorillapod tomorrow and maybe head to Essen already for a few test sessions. I'll bring along my laptop so I can control the camera with it, freeing me of memory card contraits. The battery lasts six hours normally, so with the lid shut, LCD off, only the program doing it's job, it should be more than enough. The camera will probably run our of juice sooner than the lappy, but I'll see how long it will last.

So, what do you think? I'm somewhat ethusiastic about it right now...

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26297014/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26297014/ Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:09:03 PDT
I wanted to ask you all another one of my questions: Have you seen or heard about the movie "Super Size Me"? What do you think about the underlying idea, or about what the film wants to show us? To the question "Where does personal responsibility stop and corporate responsibility begin?", what would you reply?

I'm just curious about what others think about this topic.

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26190846/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26190846/ Sun, 26 Jul 2009 13:14:47 PDT
Also, my great-great-grandfather was a proud Hamiltonian, having heroically defeated the enemy in the Hamiltonian-Lagrangian war of 1903.14 by luring them in with Schrödinger's cat and trapping them under a Gaussian curve. However, the Lagrangians escaped by defining the area under the curve as outside, saying that they in fact trapped the Hamiltonians that way. However, the Laplacians were the Hamiltonians allies, and blew the enemy out of the water with a self-adjointed operator, trapping them in a quantum well! Just PLEASE don't tell them how alpha radiation works, they might get ideas about tunneling through the walls you know...

No, I'm completely sane!

And my head hurts like hell, I'd better find some Aspirin...

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26029586/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/26029586/ Sat, 18 Jul 2009 16:30:07 PDT
Still, it makes me damn proud to be a human. While some love to glorify those native tribes that live in harmony with nature (on the brink of starvation, struggling against their surrounding, dying of preventable diseases, no real education, law enforcment etc. etc.) or nature as such, I think that it's nothing compared to what we did. While nature is rather interesting as far as how animals and plants adapt, they do it dreadfully slow. When considering some complicated mechanisms, some people even claiming that it's so complex only an intelligent entity (god of course) could have thought them up, they forget that it often took millions of years for them to come into being. During all that time, animals didn't really do much to understand, or influence their surrounding. They ate, they fucked, they survived. Then we came, and we changed the world faster than evolution could ever do. We influenced our surrounding rather than adapting to it. We don't have fangs, claws or extremely well developed senses. Yet, we can observe our surrounding, we are curious, we want to explore it. We have hands, with which we can manipulate it. All that we see today was made with our brains, our intellect and courage, and our hands, building machines to build something our bare hands couldn't make. We can't fly by ourselves, but we can build machines that let us fly faster than any living being. We can't swim, but we can build ships and submarines, we can't run fast, but our machines can leave the fastest animals behind in a cloud of dust. When animals look up into the night sky, I don't really know whether they think about anything, or think at all when compared to us. When we looked up there, we saw the stars, we saw how they moved, we found out what patterns there were, and finally, where we are in our universe. When looking up to the Moon, we can even say that we've been there, which is pretty damn impressive if you ask me.

In so little time when compared to the age of the earth and humanity as such, we have accomplished so much. Frankly, even thinking about this makes my eyes water. Whenever I see footage of the Apollo launches, that huge, towering rocket, so powerful, alsmot divine, the very core of humanity is reflected by those who flew and those who worked to make them fly. Humans can be dumbed down, can be brainwashed into blindly believing in the supernatural instead of trying to explain phenomenons, blindly believing what their leaders tell them, no matter how little sense it makes when one thinks it over. It's an easy way towards belief, and a rocky road towards knowledge, so many take the first route. But there are those who learn, because humans are curious. They want to explore, they want to know why and how, they can be extremely determined, hard working, and outright daring when there's the need. So many discoveries have been made in the near past, all of them so beautiful and insightful that I can hardly believe this is all happening. From the first discovery of nuclear fission to the experiments carried out at the LHC, from the discovery of penicillin to our battle against cancer and AIDS, it was a long journey for a human, but a short one when compared to the age of our earth.

There are of course those who are still trying to brainwash us, keep us from thinking, wanting us to blindly believe in what they say is right and wrong, because their god says so, while enjoying all that research and science have given us. They make use of what our curiosity and intellect gave us while trying to quench free thinking and logic, it makes me outright sick. However, there are so many that work hard in finding out what makes the world work, expanding our knowledge so fast, those who hold us back are merely ball and chain on a runners leg, with the runner so powerful he just yanks them along. There are many discoveries we've made that were groundbreaking and have lead to a better world, everything that surrounds you when you're reading this, the very screen you're looking at, the electricity that powers it, all of what we have can be attributed to ourselves getting to know the world.... ]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25981243/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25981243/ Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:03:32 PDT
They thanked me for the information I sent them, especially the video of the sprayers doing their damage. He informed me that the case is known to them, as they started their investigations on this case back in 2004.

They already caught the felons.

He also said that they were not able to get that and similar videos off YouTube. If even the police were not able to get such crap removed, YouTube apparently doesn't care about such issues, just as DA doesn't give a damn. However, despite the images and videos still being online, I'm glad that those asswipes got what they deserved.

Thanks to those who commented on my previous entries!

Signing off.





Previous entry:
With several other users I know having received the same or similar messages as I did after reporting the image or contacting help desk, I feel that DA is not willing to do anything here, so I'll stop pursuing this issue.

I contacted the Hamburg Police Department, and showed them everything I had, the photo, the video of how they got into the depot, and their homepage, using a service suggested by another deviant to obtain the site owner's name and home address. Unsurprisingly, he lives in Hamburg as well... I hope they'll either take up the issue or tell me that the felons have already been caught and fined. If they don't do anything either, there's nothing more I can do.

Sorry for taking up your time and message centre, I just kinda got furious over this.



Previous entry:
So... I got the help desk response. The message said, that while the act of graffiti might be illegal, taking photos of it is not, "therefore there is absolutely no compelling reason to remove these photographs.". The staff member stated that for them to take action, the deviation page or photo must contain some sort of description on how to do graffiti or some other form of encouragement.

Well fuck me sideways.

How is the photo I showed you last time NOT an encouragement for similar minded assholes to do more daring stunts, trespassing and breaking into more heavily guarded places to satisfy their ego? I am so seriously pissed off right now... Doesn't this give us all the freedom to upload all sorts of criminal actions in the making, as long as we don't encourage (no smiling and thumbs while you steal that car!) those acts or show descriptions on how to do it? So if I torch your car, and take a picture of myself posing in front of your burning vehicle, that's totally okay apparently. As torching something requires just as much technical knowledge as defacing a train's front. If I don't say how to torch it, and don't hold a sign that says "Do this at home!", I'm on the safe side.

Now I don't know what you think.

To me, that's just plain wrong.

But, such is life apparently...

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25966307/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25966307/ Wed, 15 Jul 2009 14:39:49 PDT
Anyways, the message read as follows:

"Hallo shenanigan87,
Können wir (Netzwerk Privatbahnen e.V.) deine Bilder verwenden um der Politik hier vorzuführen, was mit dem Volksvermögen pasiert?
Gruß
*name hidden*
EKO Transportgesellschaft mbH"

Translated, he was asking whether they, the association "Network of Private Railroads" (e.V. stands for eingetragener Verein, registered association) may use my photos to show politicians what happens to the national wealth, all engines being scrapped today having been bought from taxpayer money for state railroads. Of course, I was more than happy allowing them to use the photos, and also pointed them towards some others I've got on DA due to the high number of engines in one pic. If you're interested, I showed them these two.

What I find really cool apart from the mere fact that those having the biggest disadvantages from DB's scrap instead of sell policies want to use my photos to combat that, is the rolling stock of the EKO Transport Company. A quite unique, almost chaotic mix of old and new diesels and electrics, but among them, one engine stands out: 143 001, the first class 143 ever built, the first of two pre production prototypes.

Back in the day, in the socialist dictatorship we remember as the former GDR, this engine was THE thing, the pride of the engineers, full of innovations (for socialist standards) and an extremely ergonomic cab design (for socialist standards, but it still compares favourably even today). That engine had the nickname "White Lady", due to the rather eye catching livery she wore when first presented to the public at the Leipzig spring fair in 1982. Now wearing a rather nonedescript Arcelor Mittal livery, due to that being the parent company of EKO, she continues to see service as a freight engine. So let me sum this up: They use the damn prototype, while the DB scraps late series engines. Oh, and they will also scrap 143 003 within the next few days, the first mass produced class 143. So much for the DB's historical conscience. However, I'm glad that my photos might be used to showcase this madness, especially in the middle of an economic crisis, with scrap prices at an all time low. Maybe we can put a stop to this, one way or another.


And if that's not cool enough, we're at T minus 9:00 minutes, the last planned hold in the countdown for Endeavour's launch, less than half an hour away from planned liftoff. The weather seems fine this time, everything is ready to set all that power free and fly to the stars, yet again showcasing one of humanities most astonishing scientific achievements. I had NASA TV running in the background from the minute I got home, and am very excited about the crew having a safe journey to the ISS.

Godspeed and good luck to all of you!

Thanks to those who take the risk of flying to the stars, which is not such an everyday event as one often feels, as risks must be carefully calculated. Thanks also to those who work tirelessly behind the scenes, those who made this all happen.

*fingers crossed*

EDIT: And they're off! I'm baffled every time I watch a launch over the internet... I can sit here in my room, and have a live view from the camera mounted on the external tank of how they reac... ]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25900591/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25900591/ Wed, 15 Jul 2009 08:49:05 PDT
UPDATE: If you've seen Torsten's new journal, you might have seen that he exposed the user who blatantly rips of a webcomic by basically redrawing it, and making the dialogues somewhat worse in the newer issues. I reported the first and to my mind most obvious ripoff, namely the first of such comic strips in his gallery, adding the URL of the real comic, and noting that he has other deviations like this, rather than reporting them all. A part of me just wanted justice, even though one can't claim a copyright here, but art theft should be something to concern DA in my view. The other part of me just wanted to see whether or not they will eventually delete the said deviations, as I have the feeling that the admins just don't care very much.

I thought I might steal Torsten's idea (hah, what irony!) and show you what user I was talking about in my previous entry, namely this one. The photo that I mentioned about the subway car in the depot is this one here, blatantly showing that they trespassed on and broke into railroad property, defaced a subway car, covering the headlights and even impairing the driver's vision, rendering the car unsafe for use. To my mind, this clearly is a criminal act, caught on photo, and they were dumb enough to even upload it here, but not before cowardly covering that guy's face with pixels... Of course, taking pictures of graffiti isn't a crime. But showing how you spray that shit onto a train, or standing next to your work of destruc... I mean, "art", clearly being in that area without authorisation, that is an offence to me. One user even linked a video in that photo's comment section, showing how they make their way into the depot.

Now I'm not saying that everyone who reads this should report that image. No, wait, I'd love to see that happen, and I do say it, if this issue concerns you as much as it concerns me. Maybe they'll do something if more people report that, and other photos of this user that show a gross disregard for law, safety, and private property. Both me and Torsten reported the subway pic quite some time ago, us both receiving a no action required message. But together, we might make an admin curious enough to do something, as I reckon that they only look for copyright infringement, and not much else. It wouldn't really hurt the user in question, as he/they obviously only use the site to chuck up some random images of their tags, leaving the same links to other websites in each pic's description. Zero comments by this user during all his time on DA. If we succeed, the user probably won't even notice, and we would have less garbage... I mean "art", on DA!

I also have a much more pleasant journal entry I want to make later on about a nice little surprise I got today, but more on that later. I'll do some learning for exams right now, keeping my fingers crossed that the weather will play along today to allow Endeavour's launch. Shuttle and rocket launches are probably the most epic and the loudest, most astonishing achievements of humanity... The only thing more impressive, but in a negative way, is the atomic bomb, of which there'll hopefully be fewer and fewer in the future. In case you haven't noticed, there are only eight further Shuttle missions planned, including the one about to launch. I really have to get to the US in time for a launch, to see, and more importantly hear it myself once in a lifetime, before the fleet is retired.



Previous entry:
's recent journal entry reminded me of something I wanted to ask from the community, namely how to handle deviations that very obviously show illegal acts, but don't seem to directly violate the terms of service. I reported a deviation quite some time ago, but to no avail... I don't want to post a link here, not wanting to give the pic more popularity, so send me a PM if you want it.

It's a photo, depicting the front of a subway train covered in graffiti, including the lower half of the windshield. The "artist" is posing next to the train, whic... ]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25536485/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25536485/ Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:24:40 PDT
What did you think about my idea to avoid posting similar looking train shots taken on the same tour, instead posting them all in a forum and submitting a link through this pic's description?

[link]

I thought it would be a good idea, as the shots weren't very special, and I reckoned that they'd only be interesting to Germans anyway, but I might be wrong. How many of you who saw that pic checked out the link as well? I have the fear that only a small number of people do it, so that some photo that everyone would find rather nice isn't seen by a large part of my watchers. The basic idea is of course that only those who are interested in train shots check out the link, so I don't bother those that don't find them that great, but I don't really know when a shot is interesting enough to be shown here... I thought about submitting the ones such as a driver cleaning his engine's windshield etc., but I have this uneasy feeling of spamming everyone's inbox with it.

What is your view on this subject? I'm normally rather critical with my own photos, never really satisfied with them, so what I might deem as not worth uploading could turn out to be very popular. It happened before that a pic I thought war sub par got lots of attention, while one that I thought was really good hardly received any, showing that I still can't judge what makes a photo shine and what makes it boring, if you will.

I thought about submitting one pic from my last tour that I forgot to add to the mentioned forum, and maybe the two shots of the cleaning driver, combined into one image, but after that, I'd still be unsure what to do. Some of those photos I linked were of course only interesting to railfans, like the solo 101 (seventh pic) with bad lighting, but a more or less rare sight, the departing 110 (second pic), interesting only to 110 fans, or that pic at the very end, uploaded for the sake of avoiding posts like "Engine X is currently standing in Cologne Deutzerfeld, at least this morning!". But some of the others seem quite nice as far as lighting and composition is concerned, the one of the Thalys has a nice low angle (at least that's what I tried to do), and they generally seem pleasing to the eye, even if one is not that much interested in the rolling stock.

So, what should I do? Please be completely honest, if you wish to see such photos here on DA, please tell me! If you don't, by all means, tell me as well! If you read this, I must be on your watch list, and I don't only submit photos to get feedback, so I can improve, but also because those who watch me like railroad themes. I like to look at good train shots, so I upload some of mine for your enjoyment. I won't be upset or anything like that, I'll just try to concentrate on other themes and topics as well if these train shots aren't what you all would like to see. It might be that it's just me again, thinking that a railroad photo can't be good any more if it doesn't have some awesome lighting (evening/morning sun) or stunning perspecives (low angle/motion blur/detail shots), which is clearly a bit dumb. After all, I enjoy such shots myself, so it would be foolish of me to think that you all wouldn't.

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25434460/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25434460/ Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:32:10 PDT pic of "Leverkusen" in Opladen.

In a sense, I found this deeply ironic. There it stood, the train that bore Leverkusen's name, standing where it won't ever stop again, as long distance trains don't stop in Leverkusen, a city with a population of over 160k and three mainlines going through. The train was almost directly standing between the AW Opladen, once one of the largest locomotive workshops in Germany, closed down in 2003, and the Bender, where the DB scraps often young and still working engines. So ironic I tell you...

However, the politicians did touch on those issues as well, which I found very positive. The great halls of the former workshop are to be converted into a university campus without being destroyed, and all the unused empty areas are to be reworked as parks. The freigh line's path will be altered, so it joins the passenger line earlier than it does now, which would probably end my trainspotting tours to Opladen, taking away my best spots to shoot trains and to trespass on Bender's property.

If you're interested (and understand German), you can take a look at these two videos, containing the two speeches and the christening, with our mayor accidently spilling beer all over his shoes. If you're interested in the best train Germany can offer, take a look at this walkthrough, showing the classy interior of the third generation ICE trainset "Leverkusen".


Another topic I wanted to talk about is photography. My last two pics were a bit... lame so to speak, showing something very similar to this one, so I put them into scraps. I feel that I don't really have anything that's worth submitting, as most of my train pics are mostly interesting to Germans, which are a very small percentage on DA. I'll probably start submitting somewhat fewer train pics here, and more on a German railroad forum, as I don't think that many here care about those shots. I'm not saying that there aren't people who are interested, but rather that there are very few. I'm trying to branch out a bit, with some more street-ish shots like this one, or some moody b+w pics. If I shoot some train with great lighting and perspective, I'll of course upload it here, but if it's just something interesting to someone who knows the many details of German railroad history or what rolling stock is "normal" and "unusual" in this region, I'll probably upload it to DSO in the "Sichtungen" category.

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25371939/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25371939/ Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:34:39 PDT
The people of the GDR stood up to protest against the introduction of higher norms, meaning that they'd have to work more for the same amount of money, while the financial situation of the post war socialist dictatorship was catatstrophic. The country was in ruins following the Second World War, reparations demanded by the Soviet Union have lead to the little that remained unharmed to be dismantled and shipped away. Investments in heavy industry and military have left the people without enough food, electricity was shut down during the night to keep large factories going, the situation was set to blow, and it did. At first, they wanted the new norms to be recalled. But more and more people joined the protests, and demands grew. They wanted the leaders to resign, they wanted free elections.

Soviet troops were sent to knock down the potential revolution.

The people could only watch as it came to an end, some threw stones at the arriving tanks, to no avail of course. The GDR stated that 25 people lost their lives, West Germany spoke of 507 dead. Whichever the case may be, those people died for a cause, those who were arrested suffered for a goal they wanted to achieve. But this time, it failed.

Just like the Hungarian uprising of 1956

Just like the Prague Spring in 1968


Just like the Iranian uprising in 2009?

We have no way of knowing what exactly happened there, whether the elections were indeed faked, or whether people are just angry with the situation, like many other folks were before. Tell you what, if so many people can take it to the streets to display their anger of something they conceive as wrondoing, there isn't that much of a probability that a huge majority voted for the supposedly elected leader. At least to me, it would seem unlogical that such huge crowds take over the streets if more than half of the population is not supposed to be on their side.

My thoughts are with those who fight for a cause, and with those who lost their loved ones. I hope this drama will end without violence, without military intervention of the style Eastern Europeans may remember it. If it doesn't, it would yet again show that people have not learned their lesson from history.

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25276212/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25276212/ Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:46:57 PDT
Video Link

Recently, a video created by the user "DonExodus2", was removed due to DMCA claims being filed against it because of copyright infringements. The claim was filed by the "Discovery" Institute, a creationist propaganda machine, putting the mentioned user's account in danger of being closed permanently. However, the institute doesn't even hold a copyright over the video, clearly misusing the DMCA claim in an attempt to censor the voices that speak up against their stupidiy. Organisations like the "Discovery" institute are one of the real dangers to the US and really every country, as while everyone seems obsessed about terrorists, they don't seem to see that religious fundamentalists are undermining their children's education, spreading ignorance, trying to get people to reject critical thinking, logic and reason.

If you want to get out your guns and stick it to them, support the cause by mirroring the video in question like I did, showing everyone that we won't be silenced like in the days of oppressive regimes!

To me, one vital aspect of a free-thinking society is open criticism of everything that keeps people from thinking, most prominently, religion. Now don't get me wrong, we live in a free world, you may believe in whatever you want to. But freedom of religion also means freedom from religion, or more precisely: I don't have to put up with, and you can't force me to put up with what you believe! Religion has to be kept out of all government related issues, and cannot be permitted to take influence on any decision that doesn't solely influence the religious people, but the entire population. As you might have expected, that applies to almost all political decisions that are being made. To be religious, one most often has to believe in something that can't be tested or falsified, which should go against one's intellect straight away. I might as well claim that the universe is just dirt under someone's fingernail in another dimension, even though you can't disprove it, you wouldn't believe it because of that! What gets me angry the most is when religious organizations stick their noses in something they should steer clear of: Science. The knowledge that gave us every single damn thing, from electricity to vaccines, from space exploration to computers, everything we owe to curious and hard working people discovering the world around them, while others claim to know the world, by toting around a century old, self contradicting book. Like I said, tote it around if you want to, none of my business. But as soon as you claim that "Evolution is just a theory", you've just proven two things: You can't keep your faith to yourself, where it belongs, and that you don't even know what the term "theory" means. Wikipedia will give you the answer.

I get the feeling that when religion is concerned, people are generally afraid to voice their opinion, as they don't want to be labeled intolerant. However, if you tolerate something, it means that you don't take any action against it, tolerating something means putting up with it, but not necessarily approving of it. I just can't really stand to see Amish taking away opportunities from their children by basically isolating themselves from society. I'm not saying that our society is perfect, but it offers a huge amount of opportunities that people can take advantage of. If you're of course born into your surrounding and kept there, you won't have a wish to explore or get to know the world as much as if you would've been born in a "normal" family. This is of course a touchy issue, as one can't just tell the parents what to do with their children to some extent, but still, it gets me angry every time. It gets me angry when I see people mutilating infants' genitalia because of their religion, that is a human rights violation! When they follow archaic Sharia laws, those are human rights violations! When they kill someone for something that we wouldn't even consider a minor offence by us, that's just... Well, I can't really find any words for that.

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25090986/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25090986/ Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:04:35 PDT this set of recent photos, was screaming down the track at 200kph (125mph) on this sunny day, nothing seemed unusual. Sporting two power heads and twelve carriages in between, such trains were the pride of the Deutsche Bahn, a luxurious, fast and futuristic vehicle for high speed passenger service between major cities.

However, this day will be the last day behind the controls of a train for the driver. Shortly before passing through under a bridge, he felt a slight jerk on his train. Then he lost all pressure in the brake line and the overhead current from the catenary was gone. The automatic brakes were applied, but without overhead current, the electric brakes were useless. It took the disk brakes two kilometers, about 1.25 miles until standstill. The driver wondered what might have happened. He tried to restore power to his train several times, but to no avail, there was no more juice coming from above, no energy to get the pressure in the brake line back up, no energy to get the train back in motion. Then, the radio crackled. It was the station master from the train station in Eschede, about one kilometer behind the power head.

“You came through alone! You’re derailed!”

The driver fell back into his seat, in shock.

Behind him, the most severe train crash in the history of high speed rail travel occurred. The rim of a dual block wheel developed cracks that were not noticed by maintenance personnel. It lead to the rim breaking at one point, peeling off the third wheelset of the first carriage, piercing through the train’s underside, straight into a compartment with a family sitting in it. Instead of pulling the emergency brake, the father went to tell the conductor, but while latter was on his way to the affected compartment, the rim, lodged in the train’s underside, struck a check rail at a switch. The impact had such a force, that it tore the check rail off the ties at an upward angle. It pierced the carriage up to the roof, lifting the entire car off the tracks. The car crashed back down, the truck now derailed, rattling on the ballast. The catastrophe took its course, with the derailed truck hitting the tongue of another switch directly ahead of a road overpass. The force of the impact changed the tongue’s position, with cars one and two derailing, car three being diverted to a siding, outright flying off the tracks, instantly killing two signal maintainers who were working near the trackbed, crashing into a support column of the overpass. This impact was so severe, that the coupling between the first car and the powered head separated, and the support column was so badly damaged, that the road bridge started collapsing. The fourth carriage derailed due to the third’s sudden lane change, still managed to pass through under the collapsing bridge, rolled onto its side and left the embankment, ending up in a bunch of trees. The fifth carriage was still heading in the right direction, but the bridge came down right on top of it, literally cutting it in half. The following cars were either crushed by the several hundred ton concrete overpass, or crashed into the rubble, piling up in a jackknife fashion, slowing from 200 to zero in a matter of seconds. The trailing power head also derailed, but came to a stop just at the rubble, sustaining and causing only little damage. The collapsing bridge also took the catenary down, rendering the undamaged leading power head a powerless piece of steel, with the mechanical disk brakes struggling to bring it to a halt.

3rd of June, 1998

ICE 884 “Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen”, pride of the DB, shattered in a cloud of concrete dust and debree near the small village Eschede, which became a synonym for this grave tragedy.

101 perished.

88 were severely injured, many more suffered minor injuries.

Families were torn apart, biographies found a sudden end.

It was Germany’s most severe train accident, and the most severe accident in the history of high speed rail travel. It was the result of human error, not more, not less. Dual block wheels were not tested properly and pressed into service despite alarming test results concerning material fatigue and cracks forming much faster than expected. Warnings from tram companies using similar wheels were not taken seriously. Trams are the slowest means of rail transport, and even there, dual block wheels suffered from early material fatigue. What were they thinking, putting such wheels on a train that can travel at speeds up to 280kph? What were they thinking, checking wheels by just looking at them, instead of using sophisticated ultrasound methods? Most... ]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25053060/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25053060/ Sun, 31 May 2009 14:26:25 PDT
You may have noticed that I submitted a filler image, as the height of 25k pixels was a bit too much for DA. Of coure, this could lead to lots of people not really seeing this as a railroad shot and move on, but if you're interested in a little bit of railroading history from around my place, it would be great if you could check it out.

[link]

I also seem to be getting a camera tan, a light stripe on the back of my neck, due to the camera's strap


Would you be interested in certain tours summed up like this, instead of submitting one or two pics? I thought about putting together such collections before, or even a slideshow with background music, as there are some really good ones on YouTube, dealing with an abandoned funiculaire in Cannes. It's been sitting there, almost untouched since being closed down in 1966, a sad sight...

I of course don't want to do this instead of my regular submissions, but sometimes, the photos tell a story, and instead of spamming everyone with truckloads of pictures, I thought I could combine them into one.

So, more of this in the future, or rather not?

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25028504/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/25028504/ Sat, 30 May 2009 10:34:20 PDT
The officer was very helpful, we filled out the form to file charges against unknown.

But after that, I went to Opladen again. I thought, maybe he hid it somewhere, or he stole more than one and will come for them later on. You may know that the Bender, and the former locomotive workshop is also in Opladen, so lots of places to hide things there, and I know all of them. But I didn't have to look for it.

Parked the car, walked to the bike stands.

There it was.

Not at the spot where I left it, but a few spaces further down the row to the right.

Without any sort of lock on it.

Only a little rubber cap from the aftermarked mudguard was missing, an awkward gear was thrown in (chain was on the smallest cogwheel up front and back, which isn't good for the chain and makes a loud noise when you ride), and the end of a bowden was sticking out, which suggests the thief was wearing baggy pants that pulled it out from where I tuck it in.

Can anyone explain to me how the hell this is supposed to make any sense? Are bikes that expensive? Bolt clippers that cheap? Or are people just that dumb?

Anyways, I'm glad I've got it back, I need something to get to the station you know...

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/24903709/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/24903709/ Sat, 23 May 2009 08:30:19 PDT
In contrast to this, if I went by car, it would be 120km. If I take the highest average fuel consumption of our car, 7 litres on 100 kilometers, I'd end up having to pay 21.84€ for gas, but I'm a rather economical driver and will probably use a lot less.

So the gist is this: The train ride takes two hours, the car gets me there in one hour. To catch the train, I'd have to ride my bike to the station, and take a bus from the other station to the museum, costing more money, or go by foot, which makes the journey even longer. The car gets me from my house to the museum's parking lot, no extra time.

If anyone feels very green and eco friendly, please step forward and voice any practical advantages of rail travel that would make me take the train rather than the car. I often think that if not guilt tripped or forced into buying a half-yearly ticket by the university, a lot less people would use the train... But then again, as I don't own the car, not having to pay for insurance, maintenance, and a car to start with, I can't really state that it's cheaper. Just cheaper for those who have a car in their family and are able to use it.

Oh, before I forget, I wrote an e-mail to the DB regarding the emergency exits in the double decker cars I use every day. I inquired about the following issues:

- Only one window per side can be opened in a case of emergency
- The rubber gasked that holds the window in place has to be pulled out, by the means of a handle attached to the gasket. These are often torn off, and I wonder how well they might work if there was an actual emergency
- Emergency exits are hard to spot, missing eye catching markings. No markings at all on the top deck
- The mentioned handles are often not visible on the top deck, as the sunshades one can pull down usually block that part of the window, as passengers don't push them up completely
- The doors often malfunction, and are therefore disabled and locked by the conductor. I asked them, whether the door could still be opened by using the emergency override, or whether it is locked in the closest sense of the word.


I was kinda worried, that if the train should end up next to another train or something else that blocks one side, or if there's a fire, that people can't get out fast enough.

The only question they answered somewhat was that the gasked is in fact very easy to pull out. Otherwise, it was blah blah of the nature "we stick to all rules" and "we have established safety measures" etc. etc.

Basically that all safety regulations have been kept. I usually say "Well yeah, that was true for the Titanic as well.", but I really hope they know what they're doing. I see newer double deckers that have up to three windows that can be removed by hitting a red dot that marks a rated break point with the emergency hammer. These exits are also visible from the outside, making it easier for Rescue workers to get inside. Following the Eschede disaster, where Emercency workers lost valuable time cutting through the break-proof windows, trains were retrofitted with the mentioned windows that have a break-point, with a hammer attached to the wall next to each window.

As you can see, I'm quite critical of the DB and rail travel in general, despite being a railfan. I don't really know how one can expect people to use the train more often, being less practical, taking longer, and costing almost as much as using a car with a rather wasteful engine, while gas prices are rather hight at the moment....

Eh, enough with the ranting, I think I'll upload a pic or two from the museum.

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/24754912/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/24754912/ Thu, 14 May 2009 14:18:54 PDT
I think I've reached the point at which I consider my gallery as too full to give an overall view of my works, but I don't really know what to do against it. Some put deviations with less than for example 10 faves into scraps, so only the most popular pics remain featured in the main gallery. I don't really know about that, though I occasionally also do it with certain pics I'm not happy with. I've now taken a thorough look at my earlier works, which despite a picture quality that makes my eyes hurt (again) contain some quite nice gems among the usual train pics, at least for me. As some of you may have noticed, I updated a deviation for the first time, and as expected, some more faves dropped by. Now I don't want you to think that I'm desperate for faves, but they show that the pic got more exposure, which I'm happy about of course. Even if it wouldn't have gotten a single fave, but some more views, I already know that some gave up their precious time to take a look at it, or another look, if they happened to be among my earlier watchers. Needless to say, I'm very thankful.

So here's what I thought about: I'll give a touch up to a few shots that I consider really nice, updating them at the rate of about one or two pics per day, and move the other stuff that is really not that good into scraps. The edits would mostly include rotating slightly skewed pics, cropping more aggressively, adding a newer signature and maybe some noise reduction etc. The rest would remain unaltered, or updated without notification, as I don't want to shove my old stuff into everyone's face. Not the bad old stuff, just the more or less good ones you know.

Another thought of mine was to copy all pics into a new folder, such as "All pics chronologically", and un-feature the not-so-good pics from the main gallery. That way, they won't be in scraps, and those interested enough to dig around in my folders will certainly find what they're looking for.


So which approach would you take? Scraps, or un-feature from the main gallery? Do you take a look at a deviation if it says (updated) behind the title? I usually always check updated works out, unless there are about 20 or so deviations a day, which suggest that the deviant in question has added a new signature or frame to larger sections of his gallery. When someone occasionally posts an older pic with minor updates, I'll gladly check it out. Even though I look through the galleries of those who I add to my watchlist, there sometimes are too many pics, and having selected works pointed towards via the update function seems like a nice way to give exposure to a pic that might be really nice, but got little to no attention, as one might not have had too many watchers at that time.

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/24685029/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/24685029/ Sun, 10 May 2009 11:22:02 PDT
So here goes:

1.) Which is the most epic scene from a film you can think of?

2.) Which was the first ever scene you can remember that you considered as epic? Maybe even before you knew that there was a word for such awesomness, such indescribable great moments that only celluloid can give you?

3.) Which is the saddest ending of a film you can think of?

4.) Which was the first ever sad ending that remained in your memory for being so tragic one could barely avoid shedding tears?

If you could spare the time, please write something about what leads up to the scene, or what exactly makes it special for you. Here are my answers:

Warning, spoilers!

My answer to the first question would definately be the shuttle launch in "Armageddon", it's so beautifully conveyed, visually and through the thundering sound and the theme music, it's even more epic than the launch from "Apollo 13". Everything leading up to the event, the president's speech, and how it's being listened to around the world, the gravity of the entire situation, and the last strong hope we have... And then to watch those powerful boosters vertically lift that heavy and mean machine off the ground with sheer unimaginable power, combined with the thought that this isn't even fiction, but something that will soon happen again, brings tears to my eyes every time I see it. This greatness, this scientific achievement of humanity, this beauty and power is something I have never seen in a film before...

For my second answer, I chose a scene from the masterpiece "Das Boot", namely when the crew manages to resurface the heavily damaged u-boat. Again, everything leading up to the scene builds suspense and awe, from the second the sub, stranded on the ocean floor, slowly begins to move, and gracefully floats off the rock that saved it from crushing depth, rising through the murky green water, and finally breaking the surface with a thunder... The crew tries to restart the previously damaged diesels, their only hope of getting away from the Allied battleships nearby, and the tediously reparied engines spring to life... The moment one sees the sub moving again for the first time, its beautiful shilouette crashing through the waves, resurrected like a phoenix from its ashes, combined with the soundtrack in the background, it sends shivers down my spine every time I see it.

Third question: Definately "The Mist", based on a novel by Stephen King, one of my favourite writers. The film deals with how people behave under extreme conditions, having seeked refuge in a local shopping mall when a large cloud of mist settles over the area, bringing with it ferocious and alien beasts. But not only the beasts hunt them, one of the people could be considered a religious nutcase, leading to the group being split into those scared enough to believe her preachings to those who retain some sense. The latter group, after a showdown in which the religious lot quickly looses confidence when being faced with a gun's barrel, the other group partially manages to get into the protagonist's Landcruiser, and they drive off into the mist, seeing family members, schoolchildren webbed by the beasts, with no hope for their survival. At the very end, their gas runs out, and seeing no other alternative, the protagonists uses the last four bullets in the gun to kill the elderly couple, a friend, and his own son, rather than let them be eaten by the beasts. Hopeless, and with no fast way of killing himself, he leaves the car, waiting for the aliens to finish him off. The rumbling sound indicates something big is coming, he is ready for it, but then... With that dramatic music only a movie can perfectly fit in like this, a tank emerges from the parting mist, followed by soldiers in NBC suits. He was driving away from help the whole time... He falls to his knees, screaming...

For the answer to the third question, I can again only think of "Das Boot". It's rather self explanatory, once one has seen the film. After bearing with the crew for a good three hours (yes, it's a long film), getting to know each crewmember, and watching them live through the odyssey inside the steel tube, one sees them returning to the submarine base, greeted by an orchestra and high officers, who only see bearded, pale skinned men, marked by their journey, instead of the proud grey wolves the propaganda always talks about. Just when one thinks that it's finally over for them, Allied fighters attack, strafing and bombing the base. The protagonist and a part of the crew manage to get to cover inside the submarine pen, the former running out to find the rest of... ]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/24439694/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/24439694/ Fri, 01 May 2009 15:35:23 PDT

As you can see, I wrote a little something to each picture I featured, as I might not be able to display thumbnails, but I can write something just like I can write elaborate comments without the critiques feature.

According to the rules I've posted earlier, each of the ten participants should make a feature like this, starting with the Deviant who featured them, which would be me, and ten spaces for the first ten people to note or comment. I won't bite your head off if you don't but it would be a very nice gesture, and I'll link your feature journals here once they're complete.

So witout further ado, I present the feature, please take a minute to check out these Deviants and their selected works:

featured me in her journal
OneMoreCupOfCoffeeForTheRoad is a very recent photo that I didn't just like because of the nice atmosphere, but the story behind it, which makes it even better.
A Day In The Life is a little animated picture that contains an activity I'd normally condemn, however, this also has a story to it, and of course a fitting Beatles song.
The Last Life in the Universe is a simple shot of a band member on the Teeside, but I really like the colours and lighting.


The other participants are as follows:

1.)
Electricity is a really great shot, a railroad theme, great contrast, and nice depth.
Surface uses an interesting angle inside a building, with not just the perspective being interesing as such, but the building itself adding to it, wich lots of geometric shapes.
From Below also has a superb angle, just watch out that you don't fall over...

2.)
Travel Service is an absolutely spectacular shot of landing and departing aircraft shot against the sun!
Underground - A moody shot of Prague's Metro
APU shows something you don't get to see that often, the auxiliary power unit of an Antonov 124, a massive aircraft second only to the 225.

3.)
Berliner U-Bahn is just what it says on the tin, though the modern rolling stock ist nicely put into perspective by a rather creative frame.
Made in GDR contains a closeup of many little and larger items that were produced in the former socialist state, making us think back about how people once must have lived...
Gamin', a neat photoshop idea, showing how we can learn from others.

4.)
The Rails Of The New Order is a written piece of artwork one rarely sees in the field of railfanning and photography, yet, it deals with exactly these two topics, especially how the public and rail companies reacto to those people who effectively make free ads for them...
Go Go Go - Large station, nice symmetry, lots of trains, what could be better?
http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/24233179/ Tue, 14 Apr 2009 05:50:07 PDT
A sincere thanks goes to all the people who took the time to comment on my last journal, it was really heart warming to see that so many people actually cared. In case you're wondering about the reason for my absence: I had some exam stress at the university, with some exams failed and their redo dates coming dangerously close to other exams still needing to be written. I had to put in some major effort to get through this, but with tremendous help from my friends, and thanks to a very kind professor, I've managed to pass:

Maths for Physicists 2
Maths for Physicists 3
Theoretical Physics 1
Mathematical Modelling

And by the time I've passed the last of these, namely today, it was also the first day of university after the holidays, so I'm now in the fourth semester of my study course (Bachelor of Physics). This of course also means that I probalby won't have a whole lot of time left to go shooting, but I'll start out again by submitting everything that piled up in my upload folder and that I didn't have the chance to upload yet. On the positive side, we'll now also have Quantum Mechanics, about which I'm really curious. It will probably be more boring and complicated than I'd expect it to be, but it sounds so damn scientific, doesn't it?

As far as photography is concerned, I didn't take a single pic since putting away my camera, so it might take some time until I get something done in that sector. Coupled with the fact that the class 110 hast almost completely disappeared, like the class 420 EMU, I have very few trains that I find interesting enough to shoot. I'll probably try to play with perspective and lighting as usual, maybe something nice will come together that way.


In other highly interesting news:

I've discovered a very deep interest in space travel.

And in old Dual turntables. Managed to repair mine with spare parts aquired through a forum.

We'll soon trade off the five door Audi A3 with the lousy 1,6 litre petrol engine for a three door one with an awesome turbocharged 1,9 litre diesel engine. Man, I love it... So little rev, so much torque, and just look at that fuel economy... I think I managed to get a record of 3,2 litres on 100 kilometres with one of these, going nice and slow behind trucks on the freeway. For the Americans among you, that would be equal to about 74 mpg. It's interesting to note, that while both have roughly the same maximum power output of a bit more than 100hp, the petrol engine gives you 177Nm of torque @ 4000rpm, while the diesel has plentiful 250Nm at a low 1900rpm. Have I ever mentioned that I love diesels? Just gently lift your foot off the clutch, and it rolls away without you even needing to put your foot on the accelerator. And if you do, it will just pull you away with that awesome diesel torque... Oh yeah...

I've also increased the number of case fans in my main rig (if you didn't know yet, I'm a complete hardware fanatic), putting a quiet 40mm fan onto my northbridge cooler and an additional 120mm intake fan into the front panel. I now have a total of 13 fans in my midtower case... I fear thee not, hot summer!

My grandmother visited us for a few days during the easter holidays. What an amazing woman... Almost 94 years old, and she just hops on a plane and jets over here from Hungary...

OK, that was my amazing newsflash!


Now trying to dig through 3221 deviations and 374 messages, so please be patient

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/23538894/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/23538894/ Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:18:32 PST
I'll try to be back as soon as possible.

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/23378476/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/23378476/ Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:47:05 PST

And a word of advice: If you want to go skiing, don't go to France. Go to Austria. Or Germany. Or Switzerland. Or the US or Canada, I don't know about those yet. I've started skiing when I was three years old, and before I started to go to university, we'd go skiing for about a week around this time of year, when Germany goes crazy with Karneval. I never really got the hang of that celebration, and I still find it rather immature... Anyways, due to some recent developments, we were able to live at a friend's house in Chanaz, overlooking the valley of the river Rhône, and drove to several ski resorts in that area each day. What can I say? People were cutting the line all the time in a rather shameless manner, especially children, most lifts, even at the more famous and expensive resorts had rather old and slow lift equipment (I'm as crazy about ski lifts as I am about trains), instead of the sophisticated RFID ski passes, they used stickers that you attach to your coat, which are manually checked by lift personell... There was a big number of small inconveniences, which left a bad taste in my mouth. In Austria, Germany, or Switzerland, it never ever happened that a lift broke down, or that the safety bars were so badly constructed that they almost hit your head, or that the seats were so badly designed that your back kept hurting for hours after sitting on it. Heck, they were too stupid to just flip up the seats of the descending chairs when it started to snow! I had to quit earlier than usual on the last day, as my ski clothes were completely soaked from sitting in old, open chair lifts with wet seats. I might be a bit spoiled, but come on, it was a large resort close to Grenoble, Les Sept Laux to be precise, and the passes were expensive! Even small regional resorts in Germany and Austria that I've been to offer more comfort than that...

With all anger about French ski resorts vented, I just wanted to add that I've been tagged by and , you know, this eight random things about one's self. But I don't really know any random things that would be interesting or not stupid, so if you want to know random things about me, just ask random questions

So, back to submitting, commenting, faving, doing university stuff, and non-university stuff!

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/23215480/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/23215480/ Sun, 15 Feb 2009 12:13:19 PST and everyone seems to be doing it...

How did your train addiction begin? What made you interest in this kind of transport?
I was always interested in technical stuff, and the Budapest Metro was a very interesting object to study When my grandmother once told me, that the trains come out of the ground at the end of the line, I just had to ride it to the end, which could be considered my first railfanning tour. My current interest in German rolling stock stems from the fact that I go to university by train. And since I saw the trains every day, I wanted to know what kind of engines pulled my and other trains, and get to know their history.

Ok. So how does your interest in trains manifest itself?
If I have the time, I go on little tours to my favourite spots, shoot some trains, or check out old and disused facilities. Leverkusen was the home to one of the largest engine workshops in Germany, and there are many interesting rail-related sights to see. And I try to get some shots of engines at the Bender, a local scrap dealer that scraps most disused engines in Germany. That way, I can at least preserve the sight of reliable workhorses for which there seems to be no need...

What is your all-time favorite locomotive(s)/train(s) of your country's railways?
The mighty class 103. Yeah, not very creative and probably every German's favourite (and I'm not even a real German) but she's fast, she's beautiful, and with a top speed of 200 km/h, or even 280 km/h with altered gearing, and almost ten thousand horses under the hood, she's more than impressive. Back in the 70s, it was THE engine, withdrawn from regular service by 2006, and even today, she remains legendary.

I also really dig the class 110, which is also about to be withdrawn from service.

I see. Do you have an all-time favorite foreign engine(s)?
Some people think that all the US has to offer are boring diesels that all look alike. I disagree. Pure beauty...

Do you ride a train often or at least regularly?
My university is 50km away from me, my RegionalExpress gets me there in a good half an hour.

When was the last time you went somewhere by train? What kind of train it was?
I came back from my latest railfanning tour to Cologne on a typical S-Bahn train yesterday. I usually prefer the faster and more comfortable RegionalExpress, but the S-Bahn was there first, and it's only a few stops between Leverkusen and Cologne.

This is where the harder part begins. Is your train addiction just at admiration level or you're also deeply interested in technical details and stuff?
As a physics student, I'm deeply interested in technical details and developments in the history of train engines. Especially considering that a Hungarian invented the three phase engine, the first train engine to run on a single phase AC current, hell, a Hungarian invented the generator, but Siemens patented it... Hungarians seemed to have been the first inventors of truckloads of stuff for which others have taken credit if you dwelve deeper into the topic, from the telephone to the ballpoint pen...

What do you find the most interesting/knowledge-enriching fact you've learned about trains?
See above There are many other facts which made me go speechless, such as electrics like the 110 or the 140 being used for half a century and still being in full use at times. Try that with a car... Generally, I'm most interested in the history of engines and railroads, and how differently they developed in different parts of the world.

Do you think you know enough about railways to consider yourself a "train expert" now?
Nope, there is so much to know, and I'm only interested in certain parts of railroading, not all of it http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/23140518/ Wed, 11 Feb 2009 14:47:09 PST

What has happened during my absence, apart from exam stress and the likes? Well, my new camera fulfilled its promise to the fullest extent, and the new pics speak for themselves I think I've got a batch of about 30 photos that I will upload in the next few days, probably at the rate of one or two per day, depending on the topic. The upcoming ones will mostly be about snow and trains, as we've had a lot of snow during the week of January the 27th, quite a rare occasion around here. Leverkusen isn't famous for its snow to say the least, if there is any, it's probably gone by the afternoon, but this time, temperatures remained below zero for the entire week, preserving the white magic for a longer period of time than I've ever experienced around here. Sure, it might not compare to the areas that get lots of snow on a regular basis, but it was enough of an excuse to go on extensive tours with my new camera in order to preserve this sight

Speaking of snow: While the trains were generally unimpressed, faithful to this old campaign by the Deutsche Bundesbahn (Everyone's talking about the weather. We're not.), cars had quite some difficulties getting through.

This also affected another vehicle on rails, namely the tram which I use to get from the central station of Duisburg to the university: Apparently, the tracks couldn't be cleared of snow fast enough for traffic to resume properly, so the line terminated at my university instead of continuing onwards to Mühlheim. Here's a view of the tracks towards Mühlheim, showing that the trams apparently don't carry on from this point on, and that the lefthand platform is not in use. The line 901 doesn't always terminate at Mühlheim, but also has a regular terminus at the university, as that's where the heaviest use of the line ends as well. For this purpose, there is a half circle of tracks on which the trams reverse, towards which it would take the turn ahead to the left. However, the loop was also snowed in and not in use at that time. Looking towards the direction of the central station, we see how the trams reversed without the loop: They just crossed over to the other rail via a normally unused switch just ahead of the station "Zoo/Universität". Note how on both pics, the points are keept free of snow and ice via heating, they were actually steaming, but it doesn't really show on the pics.

Anyways, interesting to see how the people behind the tram network have tried to keep it in service at least partially. Unusual views like this convince me every time, that one should always have a camera at hand. Actually, I'm lugging my EOS with me almost every day, as I just can't bear watching a beautiful sunset behind a curtain of catenary, and only have the crappy camera with me

Thanks for reading, and I hope I can get back into the mood to go shooting some more cool stuff.

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/22302290/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/22302290/ Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:51:29 PST
Probably everyone goes through a phase of not knowing what to photograph, or not being satisfied with any shot taken. I go on photo tours almost every day, but I'd need something new to shoot than the sights in this city, so railfanning trips would be in order, for which I can't spare time at the moment. Apart from that, DA takes up way too much of my time, so I'll take a little brake from DA for a while, to get some more of my university stuff sorted out. I submitted one last pic for this year, and hopefully get something a bit more special, out of the ordinary done sometime in the future, instead of regular train shots.

On time for the new year, I'll finally get a new camera, the EOS 1000D, which I have held in my hands for a short time thanks to Torsten, and was probably as amazed as all people going from crappy compact to high quality DSLR. The Americans among you probably know it as the Rebel XS, though I have no idea why they have to give it different names in different parts of the world. I'll pick it up on January the 2nd, with university starting again on the 5th. Not a lot of time there, so it might take a while for me to get something decent done with the new tool. I also fired two shots from our old Minolta 460Tx to test the two aperture modes it has. I don't know about you, but there's a deeply satisfying feeling one gets from mechanical analogue photography, even though I just have a really old and worn compact for 110 films. You take your time to compose your shot, instead of just shooting from every angle you find, you check every setting twice so you don't waste valuable film. And then... Oh, forgot the lens cover, good thing that it doesn't fire when it's still closed. Note that in non-tele mode, there isn't really a lens there, just the shutter behind a window so to speak. But then, after sliding the cover to the side, and aiming it again... Steady... And fire... The snap of the shutter resounded through the locomotive graveyard... Mechanical analogue just has its very own flair, no doubt about that.

So I hope you have a great new year with your friends, family, loved ones, pets, and everything you hold dear. I'm aware that a new year is a day like any other, chosen without any particular reason really, but it is a time of thought, a time of reflecting on what one has accomplished, and what one wants to accomplish. While I know exactly what I want, the question is whether I will work hard enough to attain it. I hope I won't disappoint myself and my expectations.

Sorry for not being able to thank everyone for the faves, due to the mentioned lack of time. I really appreciate your kind support, especially considering that I haven't even been here for a year.

Take care my friends, have a good time!

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/22138903/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/22138903/ Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:26:15 PST
Pestering a good friend long enough to make him register and upload his first deviations!

Please all give a warm welcome to , and be prepared for stunning train shots from Germany!

I was on railfanning tours with him a few times, at the Bender and Cologne Central station, though he started photographing way, way earlier, I think before I even knew how a camera worked, and has more professional equipment than me with my Supra Super-Slim with Super-Zoom (read: super-wide-angle). I really like his shots, and as we always share our latest goods, I usually pester him even more to upload that one, or that other one

could pester him for more Bombardier Talents
could make him upload more ICE shots
could also request some belgian 55s or german 218s
would certainly get on his nerves for Bügelfalte class 110s and
would certainly support that



His first few deviations are a really nice shot of Cologne Central from our first tour, a second generation ICE trainset at the said station, on the same day, a neat holiday sunset and my favourite until now: A really moody pic of a class 140 in a snowy surrounding in Aachen. Now there's a good start I think, and if that's not enough, I had the honour to shoot his deviantID as well

So head over to his place, and make him feel among equally mad railfans! And if you're not a railfan, I think he shoots more non-train stuff than I do, so check out his page anyways, give him a good start


Other than that, have a merry and delightful Christmas, every single one of you! For me Christmas has nothing to do with religion, which could be due to my extremely anti-religious nature as aspiring physicist, but come on, it's not about some religious belief or tradition, it's about getting together, bringing joy to friends and family, even if only by giving them a visit. There is a certain festive atmosphere in these few days, where you can take a long walk on the Weihnachtsmarkt, have some Glühwein, or bake your own cookies, stuff that is just so typical for Christmas, it's what makes it merry! We baked some, a batch with grated coconut filling, and a batch of nut & cinnamon, they taste great I tell you, and are so simple to make...

I hope you'll get all the presents you've wished for, and could give all those wished for by others

I've just realized that the price of my desired gift, the EOS 1000D, has increased yesterday on Amazon, I think because they want to make extra money off the high demand, so I'll delay that for now. Maybe it'll get cheaper again, after the sales strom is over http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/21897256/ Tue, 09 Dec 2008 11:56:05 PST
One of those trains with a deadly payload was the RegionalExpress line 1, the RE1, that runs between Hamm and Aachen. In between these two places, lie Leverkusen and Duisburg, in short: I also use this train to get to the university and back, though most of the times, I prefer the RE5 that follows the same route as the RE1 between Duisburg and Cologne, while being less crowded.

But still... I am at a loss of words here... I never really took that much note of where the bombs were deposited, as I wasn't using the train at that time (July 31st 2006), but it still gives me the chills... Especially since my railfanning tours often lead to Cologne, same goes for my friend who has yet to upload his first deviations, or ZCochrane... Cologne is a vast playground for railfans. And now I realize that these... fanatics put their bombs into the trains at the very same spot as I often shoot my pics, in an attempt to blow up innocent people and wreak havok like it was the case in London or Madrid...

Luckly, the bombs didn't go off, they say because they didn't get the igniters worked out properly on purpose. I'd say they were too fucking stupid to do so, and we just got lucky. The bombs were removed from the trains by staff who thought that someone left his/her luggage in the train, and who upon seeing the contents, called the police, who then neutralized the bombs with water guns. Video footage of both youths quickly lead to their identification and in one case, the arrest on German soil, with the trial concluding.

Why did they do it? Due to being enraged by the Mohammed caricatures published by a Danish newspaper, you probably remembered how pissed they all were... So because of some scribbles on paper, they wanted to cause chaos and destruction. The guy even flipped the bird at the camera during the reading of his sentence!

I guess the only way to find out how these people think is to be completely, utterly and hopelessly fucked up beyond belief, sorry for the language, but I get REALLY mad when hearing stuff like this, especially, when it's not in some far away country on the other side of the earth but right in front of my doorstep so to speak... Damn...

Luckly though, this didn't lead to the harrasment of photographers and railfans like it often seems to be the case in the US or UK [link] but it still gives me the creeps... I hope people won't start suspecting anything if I go shooting, 'cos you know, the terrorist are always the ones with the tripods and huge tele lenses, trying to look inconspicuous...

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/21878556/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/21878556/ Mon, 08 Dec 2008 09:08:08 PST
Indiana Soma

I think he did an awesome job! I think the idea for me as Indy came from my reckless exploration of this engine here [link] with my bold disregard for any rule that I might have broken in the process The bearded guy in place of Indy's dad is of course another one of my friends

And yes, Soma is my real name, just keep in mind that "s" is pronounced like "sh" in Hungarian.

On another note, I'm really flattered by the positive comments on my latest pic. I will of course reply to each one, as always, as soon as I've got this physics paper done properly

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/21728278/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/21728278/ Sat, 29 Nov 2008 09:43:25 PST

First off, the rail related ramblings of course. After our last tour to Cologne, we both noticed a distinctively different InterCity train standing on another rail, but my friend was alredy inside a train pulling out of the station and I noticed it too late to get a picture. As it turned out, it was one of the two "Metropolitan" [link] trainsets, of which there are only two in existence. Metropolitan was subcompany of the DB specialized for high class travel, mostly for buisiness customers. At first, they wanted to rebuild some old IC carriages, but then decided to buy completely new ones. These were heavier, slightly wider carriages, which didn't have a traditional coupling and could only be parted in the shops. The parts between the cars were covered with rubber gaiters like with modern high speed trains, so these cars seemed more closely related to the ICE than the IC, while still being a traditional engine pulled/pushed train. The doors were also very modern, while many IC cars still have the old folding doors that have to be opened by hand, and were also of a different design than those on ICE trains. Not to mention the different trucks that allowed speeds of up to 220km/h instead of the 200 for regular cars, and made these Metropolitan carriage a lot quieter inside, with a smoother ride. Despite the really excellent service and catering, the trains were very unprofitable, and the subgroup was merged back into the DB. Not wanting to leave these carriages stand around with no use, they were repainted with the standard long distance paint scheme (white with a red stripe) and from then on used as regular IC trains. We managed to catch one train yesterday and shoot some pics of it, which you'll see as soon as the said friend joins DA

But the best part about these trains is... The interior. A mixture of Swiss pearwood, polished stainless steel and black leather, with power sockets at every seat, automatically disinfecting toilets, for the regular price of the ticket you could take today's paper with you and have non alcoholic beverages served at your seat... There were carriages for the business traveller, with a cocktail and espresso bar, amplifiers that helped mobile reception, or the carriage for those who wanted to rest during the travel, with free pillows, blankets and headphones, just like in an airplane. And there was of course the club car, which was barrier-free, also had a bar, and you could have a portable DVD player with a film of your choice for the duration of your travel. In all honesty, today's trains can't even get close to this service and comfort... And you should see these cars from the inside... All the pics on the internet somehow don't convey just how luxurious and welcoming it looks... The tour was generally pretty nice, we've also seem other crazy fools run around with their tripods. Always neat to see that you're not the only crazy fanatic people always stare at as if you were an alien... Of course, we've also caught some class 110s [link] and two class 218 diesel engines, but my pics of the latter had so much noise in them, that I can barely even read the engine's number... Oh well, let's hope my friend finds his way here quickly



The last point also brings me to an older issue, namely the problems I'm having with my crappy camera. Now that I have my little gorillapod, I started taking more night shots, which have shown me the new problem of an unbelievable amount of noise my camera produces. As I can't change anything important on it, such as shutter speed or ISO, and as it generally handles really badly (takes too long to be ready to shoot, too long to be ready to shoot after I tok a pic, and often isn't able to focus properly, especially in darkness, blah blah blah rant [link] ) I think that I'd either be producing truckloads of pics that I won't upload, as they look really bad due to noise and overall picture... ]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/21599015/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/21599015/ Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:42:38 PST
Today, the weather has acted outright crazy, switching between sunshine and thunderstorm or even snow in a matter of ten minutes. Some areas have reported temperature changes of 10°C within an hour, other parts of the country were struck by sudden snow storms. Generally, the train was the one means of transportation that was not affected by the weather as much as cars or planes, let alone ships. This old poster [link] depicts the general notion back then (everyone's talking about the weather, we're not), and also contains an oceanic blue-beige class 110, as you've probably noticed. Nowadays, people make fun of the DB with the very same tagline, as trains are just as affected as other means of transportation, maybe even more so. Today, I was able to have a little taste about something I normally only know from the news, namely being stranded at a station due to (somewhat) extreme weather conditions.

It already started on my way from the universitiy to the central station of Duisburg. My tram stopped dead on the street, the driver got out, and cleared some rubbish off the tracks that the wind has blown there. Not that big a suprise, the weather was acting strange all day, but still unusual. As I arrived at the station, I noticed an ICE train standing on one platform, and quite liked the look of it, so I started taking pictures, as usual. At that very moment, a strong gust of wind swept through the station, blowing off the ashtray part of a typical station trashcan, clanking it across the platform. Of course, everyone just looked at it, while I picked it up and put it back into its place (really not that hard people, you should try it instead of giving me stares). As I turned around and faced the other platforms, I heard a crashing sound, and saw what turned out to be parts of the roof coming down between the platforms. The station building has an iron structure, with wooden roofs covering the platforms, but not the rails, so the parts came to rest partly one the rails, partly on the iron structure between them. I managed to shoot two pics so you see what I mean:

[link] and [link]

People were told to leave the affected platforms for the sake of their own safety and instead wait in the tunnel that connects the platforms. Don't think of it as a dark and unsafe pasage, but as a well lit broad tunnel with stores and cafés on both sides. So I went down too, and came back up at my platform. In all this turmoil, I was lucky enough to get some shots of a special train with an old swiss engine at the front, which was by the way the last train that was able to leave the station. After that, all platforms were cleared of people, and the stairs were closed off with barrier tapes. I can't really describe how stupid one feels, standing around, not knowing what to do, hoping that a gust of wind against a badly maintained roof won't stop the entire rail network from functioning in the region. The roof in Duisburg was in a very bad shape beforehand, with the rain pouring through it, and the wooden elements being so decayed that you could see the sky through some parts of it. Luckly, this didin't turn into one of those horror stories in which people had to spend the night at the station or in their trains because a falling tree damaged the catenary or similar issues. After having a nice pancake with Nutella, my train was among the first that was allowed to leave the station. While on our way, we went past several other trains that seemed to be stranded in no place in particular, and we almost seemed to stop just ahead of Düsseldorf, but luckly, were able to carry on.


As a result, there was chaos on the entire network, with all trains being late, sometimes only five minutes, sometimes three hours. This is what happens if you let the roof of a station, the central station, rot to pieces... I'm a bit disappointed by how delicate the rail network is in this matter though, there still doesn't seem to be a truly reliable form of transportation...

On the positive side, I managed to shoot some neat pics of that classic Swiss engine: [link]

]]> *shenanigan87 http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/21422420/ http://shenanigan87.deviantart.com/journal/21422420/ Mon, 10 Nov 2008 14:15:43 PST
I wanted to share this story with all non-German railfans here, as it probably doesn't make it to the news in other countries very much. Some of you might remember the Eschede train disaster, which lead to the death of 101 passengers and injured 88. It was the world's most severe high speed train accident, and Germany's most severe train accident of all time. It was caused by a faulty wheel rim on the ICE train "Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen", which peeled off the inner wheel while the train was doing 200 km/h and smashed into the floor of the carriage, scraping over the ties, until it hit a check rail of a switch, ripping it off. Like the rim, it penetrated the carriage, and lifted the entire truck off the track bed, derailing it. The now derailed truck, the second truck of the first carriage in the train, hit another switch in such an unlucky manner, that it changed it's position, diverting all of the following carriages onto a siding. Of course, the switch was not built for such speeds, and caused the carriages to derail. But the chain of unfortunate events did not stop here. The switch was just ahead of a road bridge that crossed the tracks, and there were two railroad employees working on a signal box right next to the bridge. The first carriage flew off the rails, killed the workers, and smashed into the bridge's pillar so hard, that it started to collapse onto the passing train. The first three carriages, albeit derailed, managed to stay on the ballast, the fourth slid down the embankment and was stopped by some trees. The fifth carriages was cut in half by the bridge falling onto it, while the rest of the train was buried under the bridge, or jackknifed into the rubble, slowing from 200 km/h to zero in a matter of seconds. After the first carriage hit the bridge, the coupling between it and the powered head snapped. The engineer only realized the application of the automatic brakes and the power going out, as the bridge also took down the catenary. He was informed over the radio that he had lost his train. He never ever drove a train again.

One has to consider that in all of this misfortune, we were lucky that the ICE "Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen" was one minut late, and the train from the other direction one minute early. Otherwise, it might have been far worse.

Why am I writing all of this down? Four months ago, an ICE train of the latest generation was just departing from Cologne central station, when one of its axles snapped for no apparent reason. Of course, it was lucky that it happened at a very slow speed, and nobody was injured, but everyone was thinking about what might have happened if the axle failed at higher speeds. Well, today's paper stated, that the newest research revealed a devastating truth: The axle has failed much earlier, the latest time it must have been broken completely was during the last acceleration of the train. In this case, it must have been when it pulled out of Frankfurt Airport. And every railfan here knows, that the line to and from Frankfurt airport is a completely new line, only for Inter City Express trains, with speeds up to 300 km/h being reached on it. Can you imagine what could have happened, if the axle had failed at 300 kilometers per hour? Or if the opposite train was about to pass the defective train while it happens? What is worse, that the Deutsche Bahn apparently tried to cover up the fact that it didn't pay enough attention to maintenance and supervision. The Eschede disaster was caused by wheel rims with a rubber padding between the wheel and the rim to decrease vibrations, but this has never been tested with high speed trains, only with trams, the slowest kind of rail vehicle. Even when the tram operators warned the DB that the rims have to be changed more often than regular monobloc wheels, they ignored it, stating that they didn't encounter any problems. When the wheels were checked before the train made its fatal journey, the instruments showed anomalies, but they were so severe that everyone thought that the instruments must have been defective. It turns out that the personell hasn't even been properly taught how to check the new rims for cracks correctly... And now, we again have mechanical failures on virtually the same part of the train. We have reports of technicians warning the DB about anomalies, we have the exact same scheme as with Eschede. People argue that the DB didn't want to spoil its entrance to the stock marked, which was now delayed because of the financial crisis. Frankly, I don't care why they did it, nothing justifies the reckless disregard for... ]]> *shenanigan87