On this May 2006 morning, Denis Mc Cabe and I focused on a westward freight led by a class 131 double-electric.
This was working on the busy double-track standard gauge (4 feet 8.5 inches) mainline to Kosice. However, our primary interest was catching movements on the adjacent Russian-gauge iron-ore line (seen to the left of the double-track line).
At that time ore-trains passed about every two hours.
This was my second visit to eastern Slovakian hot-spot at Kalsa, and it was the third visit for Denis who located this place a few years earlier.
Our success in eastern Slovakia led us to travel to western Ukraine the following year, which proved to be an exceptionally rewarding photographic endeavor.
Lately, I’ve made a project of scanning my Slovakian slides.
Tracking the Light Posts Daily!
Yes, I have a variety of images of the Russian-gauge (5 foot) ore trains. These operated about every two hours and had locomotives front and back (big Skoda-built electrics). You could hear them grinding up the grade about three miles before the finally came into view. I’d guess they traveled at about 20 mph. Not any faster than that. One of these day’s I’ll cover that in a post. (I also have photos of the trains in the Ukraine.). Brian
Brian,
Did you ever see an Ore Train? Would like to see shots if you had and also, how fast was this train pictured moving and how fast were the Russian Ore Trains moving?
Thanks, Dan