Great Train Journeys

[AnandLeo]

Great train journeys are fine for views. However, you cannot photograph the views through windows from inside the carriages because of the reflections on the window. Some journeys have trains where there is an open window on the door for photographers.

 

[Libertad]

This is true.

 

[editor]

Yesterday I was on a train going through the Rhibe Valley. The scenery was astonishingly beautiful.

 

[miss direct]

On the Dogu (Eastern) Express in Turkey, you can go right to the back of the train and take photos from the open window there. Or open the windows in your sleeper cabin or corridor. We opened them to take photos and to throw out some sweets and chocolate to children in a village in the middle of nowhere.

I think you only can't open them in the standard carriages.

 

[planetgeli]

Title’s a bit misleading yo. So let’s make it a thread about, y’know, great train journeys.

Carlisle to Settle is pretty cool, especially when you get diverted on to it by accident as happened to me a few years ago.

Been around the world a bit but funnily enough not on many great train journeys.

Death railway, Kanchanaburi to Nam Tok (bridge over the River Kwai and all that) was exceptional, because I sat on a carriage footplate the whole way. But getting to Nam Tok was a disaster with nothing much at all there, shit hotels and a long walk to a bank as the nearest one refused Visa.

Erm, struggling. Kandy to Nanu Oya, Sri Lanka, through tea plantations.

Ollantaytambo to Agua Calientes for Machu Picchu.

I’d like to hear about others.

 

[NickDVLDN]

I used to carry a camera when I travel. But I realised sometimes it's better to capture the stunning view with my eyes and imprint it in my memory.

 

[Voley]

Darjeeling Toy Train is my favourite. Start off on the dusty/boiling hot plains of India, go up through banana plants, palm trees etc, then the much cooler deodar forest, then The Himalayas. All in a day.

On this train:

With this view on a clear day:

Pukka Darjeeling cuppa in a whicker chair on a verandah after.

 

[Crispy]

Ferrocarril Central Andino was one of the best things from our big trip to S.A (shit nearly 10 years ago now!) Starts in Lima then crosses the Andes via the world's highest passenger railway (up until China built the one to Tibet anyway).

And with this viewing car at the back:

With this bar serving pisco sours and coca leaves:

 

[planetgeli]

With this bar serving pisco sours and coca leaves:

Pisco Sour was a major discovery for my gf in S America. I think it's disgusting.

Coca leaves though...

(top of Machu Picchu, waiting for the cloud to lift at 7am)

 

[Maggot]

Inverness to the Kyle of Lochalsh has some stunning views.

 

[Pickman's model]

Inlandsbanan in Sweden www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/sweden/articles/the-inlandsbanan-sweden-slow-train/

 

[hash tag]

18 of the world’s best rail journeys

 

[agricola]

Did Marseille - Gare de Lyon last month, three hours of magnificent views out the window with fantastic stations at either end (Marseille St-Charles especially, even with all the steps and the vaguely manga imperialist statuary).