Train Tag

Have you noticed that most train cars have been the victim of the notorious taggers. Some of these vandal taggers are real artists and their work is beautiful, but some are just vandalism. The tags have become prevalent everywhere, on buildings, highway overpasses, retaining walls and train cars. Some of these train car tags are limited to the bottom easily accessible section of the cars, but some are big enough to cover the entire car. While visiting Portugal, we saw some tags that completely covered the entire car, including the windows so you had to choose cars that were not painted if you wanted to see out. 

On this trip on the VIA Rain Canadian I started really noticing these train tags as the freight trains passed our cabin window, and I got to thinking about these artists . . . .

Why are they tagging train cars? Train yards and train tracks are all behind secure fences and marked with “No Trespassing” signs, and I know the taggers enjoy the challenge of putting their tags on surfaces that are hard to reach and difficult to decorate, but why train cars? They do not stay in one place for very long, and why would you spend hours elaborately decorating something that might move to another state, province or even country the next day?

I got to wondering if perhaps there is some “Dark Web” network where these traveling tags are monitored and the location of tags are recorded and communicated. I can imagine an artist decorating a train car with his distinctive tag and then posting a photo of it on the internet where other like minded vandals might see it thousands of miles away and note the location so the original artist can track their artwork. 

I do wonder about it . . . .

Riding the Rails

The next part of this Canadian adventure is a trip on VIA Rain’s Canadian from Vancouver to Sioux Lookout. 

Our 'cozy' cabin

After using the train systems in Spain, Portugal and France we wanted to experience our Canadian rail service, so we decided to take the train back from Vancouver rather than flying so we purchased tickets on VIA Rail’s Canadian, which is a “Full” service train providing sleeping and meals. The other option was the famous “Rocky Mountaineer” but it does not provide sleeping accommodations just meals, and it is much more luxurious (and expensive). The Canadian is transportation where the Mountaineer is more ‘tourist tour’, so they stop overnight so you do not miss the scenery in the mountains. We wanted the full “Train” experience so chose the Canadian. 

We boarded the train right on time and found our way to our “Comfy” berth, Cabin F in train 211. The cabin features two movable chairs, a little sink and a bathroom. The two chairs are ‘moveable’ because you have to fold them up to pull down the two sleeping compartments. The train also has fancy “Elite” class accommodations with full sized beds and an on-suite with a shower, but we were unable to book one of these. The other options are tiny rooms with two seats opposite each other where the entire room becomes a bunk bed, or a simple seat that can be folded down to sleep in. For the four day trip we opted for the actual cabin with folding beds and a bathroom. 

The Observation Car

After experiencing the modern European trains (many of which are built by the Canadian company Bombardier), the VIA Rail cars were a little long in the tooth; everything worked fine, but they had a very 1960’s feel and the looked a little worn. A fellow passenger from Switzerland said to me “The trains are VERY old here!”. The tracks are old as well, still running on wooden ties rather than the concrete and rubber ones that most of the European rail systems have moved to. The result is that compared to the smooth high speed rail travel we experienced in Europe, the ride here through the rockies is rough with the train swaying and bouncing along on old rail beds. 

The ride did not bother us and it actually rocked us to sleep last night and we have developed our “train-Legs” and we are managing moving around the train quite well. The food is delicious and the views through the mountains have been spectacular. 

Hell's Gate

Early Morning Misty View

On the loose in Toulouse

Toulouse Train Station (At last)

I had heard that trains in France were slightly unreliable due to strikes, and we discovered that it is true. On Thursday, we bought tickets to go to Toulouse, and when we got to the train station (Gare de Narbonne - practicing my French), the departure board had our train flashing with “supprime” beside the train number. My first reaction was “Supreme”, we must have gotten an upgrade, but Google Translate disappointed me by translating to “deleted” which we figured out meant it was cancelled. Apparently the workers in the one stop before Toulouse were striking so the train could not get through. 

The wheels on the Bus . . . .

Plan “B” was to go on Saturday instead, and this time the trains were running, so after a relaxing ride through the French countryside we did get to the city of Toulouse. The train ride was interesting, because the change in scenery was striking; around Narbonne and the surrounding areas, the only crops we saw growing were grapes for wine, and the vegetables & fruit in the market all come from Spain, so I wondered if France only grew wine grapes (Not that  would be a bad thing!), but once we got closer to Toulouse I started seeing all sorts of other crops including large fields of sunflowers and no grapes. Interesting if not really fully understood . . .

Walking the City (It did not really rain)

Toulouse is a bigger city than Narbonne and was much busier with large crowds on its many pedestrian streets. It is an extremely well designed city with many large wide boulevards with well designated bike lanes, parks, gardens and wide pedestrian areas. There are still the typical narrow alley and streets I love in these old European cities, but when a serious fire destroyed a large area of the city, they added these open boulevards and pedestrian areas for safety. They also redesigned the riverfront, so that it is mostly public friendly parks and walkways rather than industrial. I saw this in Glasgow, Scotland as well and it is a pleasant way to make these areas more attractive to people. It also reminded me of the very tourist friendly Halifax waterfront. 

Lunch in Toulouse

We took a city tour and saw most of the highlights through the bus window, and then went out exploring on foot to see the things we saw that interested us. After a stop for lunch, we visited markets, the “capital”, three churches, the riverfront and the Canal de Midi. By then my phone had decided it had done enough and ran out of power with the Pedometer reading 16 km walked, so we found a friendly bartender and sat with drinks while we watched the citizens of Toulouse enjoying their Saturday and waited for our train back to Narbonne. 

And now some photos from around Toulouse.

Chess match - one against eight

The Canal de Midi

The red apple-head man?

La Garonne

Its been a long day - time for a drink!

Steam Diesel & Electric

Two Aging Workhorses

I spent the morning at the Museo Ferroviario Della Puglia (Apulia Railway Museum) today. A bit out of the way, on the wrong side of the tracks (literally), and down a one way road, but definitely a wonderful way to spend a warm sunny morning in Lecce.

The Engineer's Tools

I walked down yesterday to find out that the museum was closed because it had two large tours booked, and one of them consisted of what seemed like 100 very excited six year olds, and another a high school class trip. I was only too happy to wait for today to visit. Not only were there no tours, I had the entire museum to myself. The only other people I met were a few of the dedicated volunteers that man the museum and restore the rolling stock. Where in some of the other museums I felt I was being shadowed by suspicious staff, here I was pointed in the right direction and allowed to explore.

Inside a Passanger Car

Tiny Shunting Engine

The museum consists of locomotives, from a 1911 steam engine to a tiny self-powered shunting engine. There was a pedal powered handcart, and a huge car used for luggage and steam heating for the whole train. There are many train cars from standard passenger cars to a prisoner transport wagon. There were diesel engines and a massive electric locomotive. As well there were many miniature trains and model train setups. Of special interest to me were the support systems with those gears, leavers and sprockets I love. They had a huge lathe for re-turning train axles, and an example of a general workshop used to service the trains. Some of the cars were open and you could explore them, but many were closed. Many of these engines and cars are not restored; they are worn and beaten survivors of years of use on Puglia’s railway routes. I believe that many of these trains actually still work, and the guide tells of historic train tours on the tracks of Salento for special events. Examining some of the engines they look operational to me. Inside two long rail couches there was an interesting display of model trains and historic railway posters.

Fiat Support Van

I enjoyed being allowed to just wander among the many rolling stock, and discovered another group of cars outside, one being touched up by a volunteer, and off to one end I discovered a collection of very sad looking support vehicles. Two were old hand carts that had been converted to motorcycle engine power. Two were obviously based on WWII US Army jeeps, and one appeared to be two mini Fiat vans welded end to end with controls at either end. One was a custom bodied vehicle based on the fiat chassis. Pictures in the excellent English guide show these vehicles that used to check tracks and perform track maintenance, in much better shape than they appear now, rusting away in a corner of the facility.

Prisoner Transport Car

Wandering around the museum, I could not help thinking of my Grandfather. He loved trains and built model trains. He would have loved this museum, and I could just imagine exploring this place with him. He would have been able to explain everything, and I know he would have been fascinated with the many interesting displays.

Going to Gallipoli

The Train to Gallipoli

This area of Italy is really not that wide, and although Lecce is close to the western coast, an hour train ride will get you to the East coast, so we decided to take a train and visit Gallipoli.

Castello di Gallipoli

The Italian train system is a good one, the trains get you almost anywhere you want to go, and they appear to run on time. There is a big difference however between the big shiny inter-city trains and the local trains. The intercity trains are long, clean, shiny and fast. The local trains are only two cars long, grubby and not so fast. Yup, it was a local train that was taking us to Gallipoli.

No Wonder the seafood is good!

Gallipoli is a town that was originally completely on an island just a short distance from the coast. Of course the town has spread, and now the island is connected by a convenient bridge, and the train station is a short walk from the old town.

Crossing the bridge, you are confronted with an imposing fortress, obviously needed to protect the town; so vulnerable to invasion by those troublesome Turks of old. In fact the entire old town is built on a raised sea wall which surrounds it all. We started our self-guided tour by walking the perimeter, following the wall around the city as we looked for a place to eat. We had been told that the seafood was amazing in Gallipoli, so we wanted to sample some.

Wandering the streets of Gallipoli

Not sure what this is about

Finding a restaurant suggested by our guide the previous day, we stopped and examined the menu. It looked delicious, but when we requested a table we were ushered to one by the back door. We said we wanted a table out front by the ocean, but were told the were all "full". When I pointed out that the restaurant was completely empty, he pointed to his watch, indicating that it was 1:50 pm. I had forgotten about that 2:00 to 4:00 thing again. Now I know what everyone does during their "break"; reserve the best tables in town. A bit annoyed, we elected to try elsewhere.
Once you leave the sea wall walk, the town is much like the other small town in the area, with narrow winding streets and whitewashed stone buildings. We were a bit disappointed that none of the churches were open, but, it was Easter Weekend and many places were closed.
The castle however was open, and we spent an hour or so exploring this attraction. The castle/Fort has been partially restored, although in some places it was very confusing, and one spot had a display about a gate and chain bridge, but it was difficult to even picture this in its present configuration. Unlike the castle in Bari, which we were disappointed in because so much of it was closed or blocked off, here we were free to explore much of the old castle.

A fort colliding with a castle

Arriving back at the train station for the ride home to Lecce, we were pleasantly surprised to find a sleek red modern train waiting, but part way home we were told we would have to change trains, and at that point we were shuffled back onto the little local train, which was already mostly full with a wide variety of passengers, from a Justin Bieber "wannabe", young girls dressed for a night on the town, or a friendly group of North African street vendors, one of whom got off at each town. The last of them knew I was going to Lecce, and made a point of telling me that my stop had come, for at that point it was dark, and you could hardly see out of the grimy windows to see the dimly lit station platforms. 

Gears & Levers

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Train Parts

I love anything mechanical. Give me gears, cogs, levers and any sort of engine and I love it. I love cars, motorcycles, boats and trains. If it moves with an engine I like it. So when we discovered a museum of transportation here is Glasgow, it was on my “must-see” list.

Glasgow has always had an image problem, seen as a working town with its neighbor Edinburgh being the “interesting”  city. As a result Glasgow is trying to improve it’s image for visitors. One way it has done this is to make most of the city attractions free. Most of their museums do not charge to visit them.

A wall of cars

The Riverside Museum of Transportation is one of the best and most interesting museums I have ever visited. It is in a beautiful setting right on the River Clyde in a beautiful modern new building. Although a ways from our hotel, it was on our "Hop-on-hop-off” tour bus route, so getting there was easy.

The most interesting thing about this museum was how they presented things. For example I have visited many excellent car museums with impressive collections of vehicles, but here the cars were displayed on a wall or parked on an incline two stories long. In addition there was a special display of a Mini, an Anglia, and an Imp There was a whole room devoted to engines including a Beetle that children could climb under to see the engine. There was a display of a new Mini used in safety testing and a Ford Cortina that was sold as original, but was really two cars welded together.

South African Steam Locomotive

There was a wall of motorcycles, four massive steam locomotives including one that had been built in Glasgow, shipped to South Africa, returned to Scotland 100 years later and restored, A tiny trailer where hippy protesters of Nuclear war lived, a presentation on the first ship sunk during WWII, a room about subways, a revolving carousal of model ships, a number of displays about bicycles and many other different topics and displays. Outside docked on the river was a three masted tall ship also open for exploring.

Although I walked through the entire museum and saw everything (I think . .), I did not have time to spend the amount of

Part of a steam engine

time I would have liked with all the displays. I spent a lot of time with the old steam engine from South Africa, and I spent a lot of time on the wall of motorcycles, but the police pursuit vehicle could have used more time, as could the Hillman Imp.

You can see why this museum appealed to me, but Regis also said it was the most interesting one she has visited as well.

Trains

Not a real train . . . . . an art studio

I have discovered an interesting connection between trains and RV parks while on this trip. We have very few trains left in Nova Scotia, and many of the old rail lines are now Trans Canada Trails, so trains are no longer part of our lives.

On the trip to Tennessee with Regis’ mom and uncle & aunt last year, her Aunt Monie asked us to try to find campgrounds away from trains, because on another trip, she had one sleepless night due to loud trains. We only had one night where a train was heard, but on this trip I learned to appreciate her concern with trains.

We have had a lot of campgrounds that were in close proximity to trains, and at least three that had trains running directly behind the trailer. Of course this fact is rarely advertised in the campground books and flyers, and the tracks are usually hidden by trees, so unless someone mentions it in online reviews, you don’t find out about they until you get settled and the train goes by.

The worse was the campground in Lake Louise. There was an emergency exit from the park close to our site, and because it was not a regular road, it did not have an elevated crossing or automated lights and barrier system, so every train had to blow it’s whistle to warn of it’s approach. And, there were trains all day and all night.

I have decided there is a connection between these trains and the RV parks. I got to wondering why there seemed to be so many trains so close to campgrounds, and I think I have a theory . . .

A Train Behind the Trees

Trains are loud, so no one really wants to live right next to train tracks, so houses and apartments are build with a buffer between the tracks and where people live. That then gives you some perfectly good land, often nicely positioned to services and attractions, that is not worth much. It is good for business and industry, but someone also figured out that it could also work for RV parks. After all, the people who use them are only there for a couple of nights, and then on to another park. If the park has “seasonal” (those folks who use their RV as a “camp” and leave it in one place all year), can take the sites as far away from the tracks as possible, leaving the ones bordering on the tracks for the transient campers.

To be honest, we have sort of gotten used to the sound of trains rumbling by in the middle of the night, and although the last two nights we were not close to tracks, we listened and were pleased to hear trains in the distance.

Driving in Spain

Now in Great Britain they have a clever strategy to keep foreigners off their roads. First, they put all the important automotive controls on the wrong side of the car, so you have to sit on the right side of the vehicle. Then they tell you that you have to drive on the left side of the road. They then point you to a nice “M” series motorway, with three nice wide lanes like our freeways only with no real speed limit, so you start feeling pretty confident – “this is not so difficult”. Then you take an exit onto the “real” british roads; their two lane “A” series are the width of our residential streets, and their country roads are only one lane wide with two way traffic. Now this wouldn't be so bad if you could take your time, but you just get comfortable keeping the car from bouncing off the curbs on either side when suddenly there's a big Jag sedan or a Range Rover on you tail going twice your speed, wondering why you can't maintain 100 kph when you have at least a foot between the 500 year old stone wall on one side and the a few inches more on the other side before that 6 foot thorn hedge starts taking the paint of the rental car.

Now I managed pretty well in England, especially considering it was before I had my cataract surgery and couldn't see all that well, so I didn't hesitate to rent a car and drive in Spain.

First, they drive on the right side of the road and their cars are set up correctly so you sit on the left to drive. The roads are very good, nice and wide and well marked. Signage is in Spanish, but easy to understand, so it is quite easy to find your way around.

My first outing was a very pleasant drive along the Mediterranean coast from El Campello to Valencia along the coastal road, N332. This was a road designed for driving, as it wound around the coast and up and down the local mountains and hills. We made this trip on a Sunday, so there was a lot of traffic, with large groups of bicyclists in full bright multi-colour riding gear, providing moving slalom pylons, many motorcyclists out on everything from Vespas, to Sport bike riders in racing leathers blitzing the corners and high speed, and some very interesting sports cars of every vintage. I would have loved to have done this road on the GPZ 550.

Our second trip was a four hour drive to visit Grenada. This trip was mostly on larger four lane divided highways. These highways are very similar to our major highways, with speeds posted at 100 – 110. The roads are well maintained and well serviced. There are lots of service centres with gas stations and convenient rest areas (no toilets however). The exits are well marked and plenty of warnings are given for them. It was a challenge to figure out some of the regular signs however. There was one sign with two motorcycles with their back wheels in the air following a car. It could have meant “No Stunt Riding”, but as I tried to convince the little Fiat Panda to get up the mountain, I realized it meant that those Blitzing sport bikes had better be aware of overtaking underpowered fiats going very slow up the hills.

The drivers that we shared the roads with were all very courteous. I only heard a horn blow once while in a traffic jam in Valencia, and normally they are patient to pass, and generally calm. There were a lot of large trucks on the highways to Grenada, and they generally stick to the right hand lane, allowing other traffic to pass easily. When they do pass other vehicles, they do it quickly and pull in immediately. Although I saw no signs about lane use, most drivers remain in the right lane unless actually passing, and when they pass they immediately switch back to the right lane. Never once did I find the little old lady with the purple hair in the 1978 Cadillac blissfully cruising at 80 in the left lane.

There did seem to be a distinct class system on the highways. There were loads of trucks, who obviously knew their place was in the right lane. There were the “Ordinary” folk who drove Fiats, Volkswagens, Renaults, or Citroens, who stayed in their right lanes most of the time, but were welcome to switch over occasionally to pass slower drivers. Then there were the large Mercedes, BMW's  and Audis. There seemed to be a different rule for them. They were polite, but it was obvious that they felt that the left lanes were built for big fast German sedans with only one person (What fuel crisis?). Most of these cars cruised the left lane at least 20 – 30 kph faster than everyone else. I never saw one pulled over for speeding, and the speed limit was recently lowered from 120 to 110. When you pulled out to pass you had to watch out, because they were travelling so much faster that without warning you would see a big sedan filling the mirrors feet from your rear bumper. What surprised me was the politeness of everyone. Even these big faster sedans didn't glare at you as they roared by like so ofter happens in North America when you inadvertently get in a faster vehicle's way. These cars just waited for you to pull over and then accelerated rapidly by without a second look – they knew there were folk who couldn't afford cars that could maintain decent speeds but they just accepted them and moved on.

All in all, driving the highways and byways of Spain was a very pleasant experience. The cities are another story, but anyone coming to Spain, I would not hesitate to suggest you rent a car to get around.  . . . . BUT as I said before – The trains are an awfully civilized way to travel.    

A Civilized Way to Travel

In North America, we have become dependent upon our cars to get around, but in much of the world owning  car is a luxury, or simply not really necessary. In many areas of the world people depend on trains and mass transit systems to get them around. When we researched a place to rent in Spain one of the important criteria was that we would not need to rent a car. We found that we could fly into Madrid from North America and then take a train to El Campello where the apartment was located, and from there we could get up and down the coast on local trains.

In Canada, our train system has been slowly downgraded from a National transportation system to at best a regional system that is really not essential and not used much. The trains the stations and the tracks are old, and although you can travel by train, it is not really convenient, or efficient and so people have neglected it for their cars. Here in Europe the trains are modern fast and convenient, and in many cases the preferred way of transport.

We knew we were taking the train from Madrid, so we booked a hotel that was close to the Metro and the train stations. The Train station is a massive place with a continuous stream of trains coming and going. The trains are coming in from all over the country and so the station is centrally located and people can come in on the train and walk to the Metro to get around the city easily.

We arrived at the train station in the morning, passed through a security gate where our luggage was X-rayed and we found a large waiting area full of people waiting with us for trains leading out of the city. Our train to Alicante was scheduled for exactly 9:25 am, and it we were told that the platform would be announced 20 minutes prior to departure. These times were completely accurate, and we were able to board the train about 15 minutes early.

The train was clean, modern with large comfortable seats with folding trays, foot rests and audio outlets. The car was full and people settled in all around us. The lady across from us fell asleep, the young woman behind her pulled out a stack of work sheets and started marking them with a red pen (Those teachers are the same all over the world), a young man across the isle set up his computer and started working while listening to music, and the two fellows behind us started chatting in Spanish. These people obviously are used to this way to travel.

The train pulled out of the station at exactly 9:25, and after slowly making it's way out of the city, sped up to 250 kph, smoothly and quietly. We were given a pair of earphones, and a movie started on the TV monitor in the ceiling. You could also choose to listen to various choices in music if you did not want to watch the movie (In Spanish only). There was a car behind us with a little cafe which was constantly full of people having a coffee or a snack. There was a washroom in each car and a little sign in the front of the car informed you if it was occupied. There was a nice area to store your luggage and plenty of room over your seat for smaller items.

Travelling by train is different than flying or driving. In a plane you get scenery for a few minutes as you take off or land, but looking at the top of clouds is rather boring after a bit. In your car you get lots of scenery, but you are strapped into a small area, and cannot move around easily. As well you have to be constantly watching for signs and other vehicles even if you are the passenger. In the train, someone else is driving and you can relax. It is quiet and comfortable; I spent my time paying some attention to the movie while watching the Spanish country side go by, while Regis listened to music and slept. We were following the highway for a while and rapidly passed the cars and trucks using this way to move around Spain.

The ride from Madrid to Alicante took 3 hours and 10 minutes exactly. We stopped at four stations along the way where passengers quickly got off and on and the train quickly continued on it's way. We were scheduled to arrive at 12:35 and the train actually stopped for 6 minutes outside of the city so that we pulled into the station at exactly 12:35. The teacher packed up her papers, the napping lady woke up,  stretched and put on her jacket, the young man put away his computer and his Iphone, and the two guys behind up continued chatting in Spanish. We arrived in Alicante relaxed and rested and the people who owned the apartment were waiting for us in the station to drive us to El Campello about 20 minutes away. As we crammed our luggage into their trunk, belted our seatbelts and pulled out into a traffic jam through road construction, it was really easy to realize that this train system really is a very civilized way to travel.