Google Earth

[tadpole]

Go on to Google Earth and find Guildford. Travel along the railway west of here towards Reading). In Wanborough station (in the village of Flexford), you will see a freight train hauled by a EWS 66. So what?

OK, head half a mile further west and there's another one!

Big deal, two freight trains, where are we going with this, Tadders?

Go literally 200m further west (certainly within the same signal block) and there's yet another - this one double headed with another at the back.

I can only assume these are ballast trains doing engineering works.

I believe satellites take 90mins to make consecutive passes, so thought the single headed trains could be the same one having inched forward during that time, but they are different lengths. That is one hell of a lot of ballast! (and hosepower).



Come on, you can do better than this, so post your railway related Google earth observations here....

[Chris]

Great find! There are clearly some track relaying works going on as the double head/top&tail is a rake of track carriers and the other track has been taken up. There also seem to be rather a lot of vans on the bridge which I can take to be NR workers' vans.

[m1racleman]

I have my doubts that it is the same train coz the one at Flexford has two extra trucks behind it !!

[tadpole]

Yes, defo a Sunday. Aldershot bus station and bus depot are both choc-a-block with idle buses.

[tadpole]

Now go to Houston, Texas. Go north, past the airport to the city of Spring, Texas.
There are two sets of yards here, 5 miles long, totally filled with what look like passenger cars. (Probably more than Amtrak owns!).
Big as it is, Houston gets only three passenger trains a week, each way.

But actually these are car transporters, and each of them can carry three layers of cars. I guess in the good old days, these would have taken American cars from Detroit to all over the USA. Nowadays, they take foreign cars from Galveston or Houston to all over the USA.

[poliss]

Here's an odd double turntable for you. Hope the link works.

http://g.co/maps/jwpf2

[upnick]

Here's an odd double turntable for you. Hope the link works.

http://g.co/maps/jwpf2

Remember seeing that double turntable  before Poliss    

I always like to  have a peek at Union Pacific's Bailey Yard in North Platte, Neb  &  zoom in  on  it    

The largest railroad classification yard in the world. Named in honor of former Union Pacific President Edd H. Bailey, the massive yard covers 2,850 acres, reaching a total length of eight miles. The yard is located in the midst of key east-west and north-south corridors, making it a critical component of Union Pacific's rail network.

Bailey Yard has 17 receiving and 16 departure tracks handling 14,000 rail cars every 24 hours. Of those, 3,000 cars are sorted daily in the yard's eastward and westward yards, nicknamed "hump" yards. Using a mound cresting 34 feet for eastbound trains and 20 feet for those heading west, the hump yards allow four cars a minute to roll gently into any of 114 "bowl" tracks. Here they become part of trains headed for destinations in the East, West and Gulf Coasts of America, as well as the Canadian and Mexican borders. An average of 139 trains per day, comprised of raw and finished goods, such as automobiles, coal, grain, corn, sugar, chemicals, steel and consumer goods, including electronics, apparel and other retail products, are handled at Bailey Yard.

To keep America moving, train operations and repair shops at Bailey Yard are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The fueling and service center processes more than 8,500 locomotives each month, using technology like overhead cranes and elevated work bays to maintain fluid operations.

On-site Car Repair

The on-site car repair facility annually replaces 10,000 pairs of wheels, many identified through an in-motion defect detector using ultrasound technology to inspect the wheel. This detector was developed by Union Pacific and is the only one in the world. Some wheel repairs even take place without the rail car ever leaving the track, minimizing down time.

[poliss]

I see it says Golden Spike Tower. I thought that was at Promontory Summit. Maybe it refers to something else?

Well spotted about the turntable Nick. :-) Not quite the same link. I had to Google Map search for this one.

[upnick]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ceOsEMKWJU

Moving pictures of Bailey Yard for those interested  

[Brooksy]

Not a train but a plane:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Russell+Square,+Camden+Town&hl=en&ll=51.521989,-0.126262&spn=0.00244,0.004823&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=19.038728,39.506836&vpsrc=6&hnear=Russell+Square,+Camden+Town,+Greater+London,+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=18

[moogle]

Not a train but a plane:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Russell+Square,+Camden+Town&hl=en&ll=51.521989,-0.126262&spn=0.00244,0.004823&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=19.038728,39.506836&vpsrc=6&hnear=Russell+Square,+Camden+Town,+Greater+London,+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=18

Good one that! Quite a landmark to look out for.

Here's an invisible level crossing: http://g.co/maps/uu9w3
Leads to an embankment!

[moogle]

And a bit further up the line, a leisure company who's offices are apparently in the middle of a marshaling yard.
http://g.co/maps/drjn8 And actually on the track!

[tadpole]

Here is my explanation for the invisible level crossing:

Maps (including those overlaid on Google Earth) are generally sourced from, and copyright of someone, such as the Ordnance Survey. The OS deliberately puts very small inconsequential errors in their maps so they can immediately tell if a map has been copied from theirs, and take action against those in breach.

Of course this error may not be considered
inconsequential if you follow it religously
and find yourself in the path of one of these:  

[moogle]

Here is my explanation for the invisible level crossing:

Maps (including those overlaid on Google Earth) are generally sourced from, and copyright of someone, such as the Ordnance Survey. The OS deliberately puts very small inconsequential errors in their maps so they can immediately tell if a map has been copied from theirs, and take action against those in breach.

Of course this error may not be considered
inconsequential if you follow it religously
and find yourself in the path of one of these:  

LMAO!     
SatNav users take note! 

[Reuben]

Have been doing some "armchair" train spotting using google maps and satelitte view.

Noticed that google satelitte and streetview do not match, for an example of this,
go to "exeter st davids" follow the line north over the level crossing and into the yard.
You will see a long line of carriages (mail train?), open wagons and a virgin train heading
towards the station.

However if you change to steetview and look towards the track where the virgin train is,
you will see a short train of clay wagons, these are not on the satelitte view.

Why the difference?

Reuben.