In May 1996, I exposed this color slide of Nederlandse Spoorwegen ‘Hondekop’ (dog face) electric multiple units at Eindhoven.
The Netherlands is among the countries I profile in my new book Brian Solomon’s Railway Guide to Europe, now available from the Kalmbach Hobby Store.
Tracking the Light is on ‘autopilot’ while Brian is traveling.
A visit to the Netherlands this evening (29 March 2015) yielded this silhouette of an NS (Nederlandse Spoorwegen) train at sunset west of Bergen op Zoom.
A Look at the the Other ‘NS.”
Fish with man-legs, scenes of torment and pleasure gardens, along with medieval apocalyptic visions were among the topics painted by Jheronimus van Aken aka Hieronymus Bosch who hailed from the Dutch city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, or ‘Den Bosch.’
This is a city of narrow canals, winding cobblestone streets, traditional market squares, surrounded by post World War II ‘Lego-block’ sprawl.
The railway station is an unusual blend of an 1896-built iron and glass train-shed with modern facilities.
My visit to the station was brief. I explored for about half and hour, making a variety of images. I was surprised by the arrival of one of NS’s older Hondekop ‘dog face’ EMUs. I’d photographed some of these ancient units back in the 1990s and didn’t realize that any remained in traffic.
As across most of the Netherlands, passenger trains operate on regular interval frequencies (typically every half hour) to most major points.
The station was remarkably clean, and despite the dull light, made for an interesting place to photograph.
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New Railway Station for Modern Metropolis.
Opened earlier this year. Rotterdam Centraal doesn’t look like any other railway station on the outside. (Although on the inside it reminded me of the entrance hall at Warsaw Central.)
Like much of Rotterdam’s modern architecture it’s hard to ignore! Photographically I found it fascinating. On another trip, I’ll bring a tripod for some extended night exposures.
Beneath the shed beyond the station building, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (loosely translated as ‘Dutch Railways’) trains connect most major destinations in the Netherlands, as well as through trains to Belgium and France, including Thalys high-speed services. Some 100,000 passengers use the station daily.
Check out: http://en.rotterdam.info/visitors/places-to-go/practical/5076/rotterdam-centraal/
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Tomorrow: a peak below ground.
A Distinctively Dutch Train.
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.
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.
