Photographing a tilting train at speed in curves.

My first experience with the Italian Pendolino design was in Switzerland more than 14 years ago when I was researching for my book Bullet Trains—a survey of high-speed trains and railways (published by MBI in 2001).

Here’s an excerpt from my text:

The Pendolino’s tilt system provides a luxurious, smooth ride, on sinuous track. The effect of the tilting is subtle and scarcely noticeable as the train glides a long at speed. The Pendolino has proven a successful export item, and have been ordered by Finnish, Czech, and British railways. The appeal of the Pendolino, and other successful tilting designs, such as the Spanish TALGO and Swedish X2000  is the ability to increase running speeds without a massive investment in new infrastructure.

Since that time, several additional European countries have added Pendolino trains to their fleets. I’ve photographed them in a half dozen countries, most recently in early April this year, in Portugal where they are assigned to premier services between Porto, Lisbon and Faro.

 

Comboios de Portugal (Portugal’s national railway, known by initials ‘CP’) has ten train-sets which work as Alfa Pendular services.

A challenge when photographing Pendolino trains is catching them mid-tilt. I’ve found one  way to capture this is working from the outside of a curve using a long telephoto lens. This is most effective when the front of the train has tilted but the rear remains level with the track structure.

It helps to level the camera with an obvious line-side vertical object such as electrification masts, signals or buildings.

Another technique is to catch the train on the inside of a curve with a wider lens, but still leveling the camera with line-side vertical elements.

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Tomorrow: Night Photography, Iberian Style.

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