News from ... ? It's actually France, as we discover ...

[whole diary]

[stuving]

I was looking for a contrived way of introducing the topic of "where I am now?" - well, really looking for an uncontrived one, but they are so much harder to contrive. When I saw the state of this track, it suggested a reference to the earlier discussion about BR^▸ (British Rail(ways))'s resort to spot re-sleepering in the 1980s, triggered by the "Beeching Night" TV  programme sequence. I know this line has had a lot recent emergency engineering work, including spot re-sleepering.

My initial reaction was that the only thing holding these rails together is the woodworms holding hands very tightly (there are worse bits than the picture). However, there must be more wood in them thar sleepers than meets the eye, since on last Wednesday morning here was a track maintenance crew replacing the bolts (I guess with longer ones) using the cutest little petrol-engined bolt driver. You can see their zinc-bright heads in the further of the two tracks, actually a set of points, in the picture.

I have ulterior motives for wanting to introducing the subject, but as I know there are some forum members who like doing things the difficult way, would you like to guess (or, for the best-informed, deduce) where this picture was taken? Obviously not in National Rail territory. As I expect - indeed I hope - that non-one will get the exact place on only that, I will add more clues over a couple of days.

[JayMac]

The approach to Kingswear?

[grahame]

I would be surprised to find bolted track on any formerly British Rails lines, especially as they look very well used.  I've also noted clean ballast, lack of plant life on the tracks, stone wall in the background, and electrical gubbins attached to the rails and that puts me off UK^▸ (United Kingdom) industrial heritage, so I think we're outside the UK.  In Europe, some countries have excellent track where it's intensly used ... other not quite so much and starting from nearest I would make wild guesses that you're in France, or Poland ... looking further, towards eastern Europe, the Balkans or outside Europe?   It could be the busy railroad tracks in a subcontinent or Asian city, or a heavy freight line in the USA for example ... the choice then becomes very wide indeed.

[stuving]

I ought, strictly, to have said "not in Network Rail territory", though it amounts to the same thing. The continuity links and insulating joints puzzle me (i.e. where they occur does); but this line has been resignalled in the last five years using oodles of axle counters, so the track circuits may no longer be operative. Note: not a yellow mushroom in sight!

[stuving]

Here's a comparison.

This line never quite closed, but it was reduced (at about Beeching-time) to a couple of trains a day only in summer. Then it was re-fully opened 30 years ago, which even involved building a new chord to avoid a reversal. However, the rest of the line had little spent on it.

Passenger numbers have built up, partly holiday traffic but also commuters to the nearest city (where all the trains from here go). But the age of the track - some is apparently pre-1900 - has become more and more evident. The bit at the city end (shared with another, reopened, line) has been renewed, and the whole line resignalled. But that led to a sharp drop in performance (the wrong kind of axle-counters on the line...) and now finally the rail infrastructure operator says the rest of the work will begin next year. Relaying most of that 61 km of single track, renovating six bridges, and re-installing the signalling (I guess the saving due to the previous work is not huge) is costed at about ^90M (at current exchange rates).

(I will look into providing a link from where this comparison makes sense - when I find out how to do that.)

[ellendune]

The slepers seem a bit longer than normal. Are we talking about Ireland?

[stuving]

The slepers seem a bit longer than normal. Are we talking about Ireland?

No - wrong direction, though looking out of the train window now it looks damp and green enough. As Graham guessed it is in Europe.

Later in the journey I will be passing the local airport - round the back, with no stop there. While it would make sense to serve it by train, politics forbids that as the local councils are trying (against fierce opposition) to build a new one.

[stuving]

Having got to the city at the other end of the line, I was looking at a new tram line being built (first power applied to the overhead wires last week). It runs alongside an existing tram line, and shares a station with it. The two lines are quite separate, and where the two cross on the level there is no track connection (just a short bit of shared 750V wire, isolated from both). Then the new line sets into the countryside.

If that's not enough clues for someone to recognise at least the city, I shall have to tell you which country this is.

[LiskeardRich]

Are you in Prague? I know they are rebuilding a new tram line next to the old.

[TonyK]

I thought Prague, too.

[stuving]

No, not Prague. Not even particularly close, given that it is in Europe.
I think I'll have to give you a picture of the station, if only because it is traditional.
That will have to wait until I get back to the flat in about an hour - the link I have now is about as slow as the train. 60 km/hr does feel  painful, like the train is struggling not to go faster

[Red Squirrel]

No, not Prague. Not even particularly close, given that it is in Europe.
I think I'll have to give you a picture of the station, if only because it is traditional.
That will have to wait until I get back to the flat in about an hour - the link I have now is about as slow as the train. 60 km/hr does feel  painful, like the train is struggling not to go faster

Not sure I'd want to go any faster on track like that...

[thetrout]

It's not somewhere in Spain is it? Maybe one of the more local branches?

[grahame]

It's not somewhere in Spain is it? Maybe one of the more local branches?

Hmmm .. I thought the gauge looks a little wider than the 4'8.5" so that could be a good guess.  And perhaps the political comments take us to Basque country?  So the airport would be Bilbao, San Sebastian, Vitoria or perhaps Pamplona.

[stuving]

Well, I guess technically that is closer - but the humidor key rests untroubled in my pocket. Here is the promised picture of the station, which ought to be much more diagnostic.

It's a bit late due to the inability of a certain mobile telecomms operator to connect me to the net. "Oh I think there have been a few problems there" says girl in shop the other end of town, airily.