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Deutsche Bahn Freight near Dordrecht Zuid, Netherlands, September 2013

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Red Electric in Soft Sun Light.

Thunderstorms had blown through earlier in the afternoon. Then the sun beamed. All the while Netherlandse Spoorwagen’s double-track north-south mainline south of Dordrecht was saturated with an unceasing parade of trains. (See my earlier post: Netherlandse Spoorwagen Koploper near Dordrecht Zuid, Septemeber 2013).

 

NS keeps trains flowing one after another, and doesn’t seem to have any qualms about running freight tightly between passenger trains. I found that about every half hour a freight would be slotted in.

rail freight

I made this photograph with my Canon EOS 7D with f2.8 200mm lens, set at ISO 400 f 4.5 at 1/1000th of a second. In post-processing, I made minor adjustments to contrast and saturation to match how I perceived the light at the moment of exposure.

This was one of the last exposures I made before sundown. A former Netherlandse Spoorwagen electric leads a southward Deutsche Bahn freight. While I’d seen several of these classic electrics on the move, this was the only one I caught in nice light hauling freight.

 

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photography

Netherlandse Spoorwagen Koploper near Dordrecht Zuid, September 2013

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A Distinctively Dutch Train.

Koploper
A classic Netherlandse Spoorwagen (Dutch Railways) ‘Koploper’ approaches a pedestrian/cycle crossing at Dordrecht Zuid in September 2013. Appearently, the name loosely translates to ‘Head Walker’, or so I’m told. Does anyone know more about the name?

Earlier this month (September 2013), I traveled with an Irish railway photographer to the Netherlands. We spent a few sunny hours at a pedestrian/bicycle crossing near Dordrecht Zuid on a busy north-south line.

This was one of the most intensely used double-track mainlines that I’ve witnessed in any country. For two hours we photographed a constant parade of local and long distant passenger trains plus a great variety of freight. Trains passed the crossing every couple of minutes.

Bicycles at a Dutch level crossing.
Bicycles are a Dutch national transport obsession. These cyclists had waited patiently for the barriers to lift before crossing the line near Dordrecht Zuid.

For me one of the most interesting trains to photograph are the Netherlandse Spoorwagen (translated as ‘Dutch Railways) ‘Koploper’ style electric multiple unit.

These are distinctively Dutch. As European railways are rapidly moving toward standard commercial train models, it’s nice to still see nationally characteristic equipment on the mainline.

I exposed these photos with my Lumix LX-3.

Koploper
A classic Netherlandse Spoorwagen (Dutch Railways) ‘Koploper’.
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