Railroads & Railways
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A Boston bound Turbo Train arrives at the old Route 128 railroad station in the early 1970's.
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The inaugural run of the Acela Express from Washington to Boston on November 16, 2000 zips through the new Route 128 station.
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London to Tehran via Istanbul by Train
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London to Tehran via Istanbul by Train
 In April 2010, in the company of an old friend from high school, I set out to travel from London to Tehran by train by way of Istanbul. We followed the directions laid out at Seat61.com for travel, first, from London to Istanbul and thence from Istanbul on to Tehran. This narrative and the pictures that follow provide both logistical specifics regarding our journey as well as a good taste for what we saw and experienced during this six day overland odyssey.
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Canadian Trains
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Quebec North Shore & Labrador Railway (Tshiuetin Rail Transportation)
 In August 1999, as part of a driving trip across northeastern Quebec and central Labrador, I made a special point of riding the Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railroad (QNSL or QNS&L) from Labrador City to Sept Īles and back. The ride was great, not least because of an ancient but thorougly serviceable Pullman Standard dome car at the rear of the train. The pictures on this page speak for themselves; the scenery and views are, in my opinion, the match of the Alaska railroad.
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VIA Rail Canada's Bras d'Or
 In July 2000, I rode VIA's restored, once a week, Sydney to Halifax train, the Bras d'Or, from Sydney to Halifax, Nova Scotia on my return from the French Atlantic islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon. The route of the Bras d'Or had much touristic promise, but VIA ultimately failed in its effort both to promote the service to tourists and to integrate this train with the remainder of Canada's rail passenger services. Predictably, VIA cancelled this service in the fall of 2004.
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Algoma Central Railway
 Early in May 2009, I flew into Sault Ste. Marie to ride the Algoma Central Railway to the end of the line in Hearst. While we were able to buy our tickets at the new downtown station, we had to go a couple of miles out of town to the Algoma rail yards to actually board our train which consisted of a single coach, an engine and a generator car. There were at most a half dozen other passengers who came and went during the first half of our journey. The pictures below show the route in early spring with the snow and ice still on the ground in many places.
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VIA Rail Canada's Lake Superior
 In July 2009 I drove up to Sudbury, Ontario to ride VIA Rail Canada's Lake Superior, the train from Sudbury to White River and back. This thrice weekly service uses Budd RDC's to travel 300 miles of the Canadian Pacific mainline through the Ontario wilderness. This train, like the Algoma Central's train from Sault Ste. Marie to Hearst, survives primarily because it serves the camps that many families have here in the provincial interior, camps that are far from the reach of any road. While the train shows up in VIA's regular passenger schedules, it connects with no other scheduled passenger service.
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United States Trains
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The New Old Colony Railroad
 On September 29, 1997, the first passenger train arrived in Kingston, Massachusetts in roughly 40 years. Having lived in neighboring Duxbury in the 1960's and 1970's, I couldn't help but recognize that the restoration of commuter rail service to Boston's South Shore was a major event. The pictures at this page document some of the scenes surrounding this first day of passenger rail service in almost half a century.
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Return of the Rutland Railroad
 Amtrak's Ethan Allen from New York's Pennsylvania Station almost made it to North Bennington, Arlington and Manchester Vermont over newly rebuilt track from Hoosick Junction, New York to North Bennington, Vermont at the beginning of the first decade of the 21st century. The photos on this page depict the status of the track reconstruction project as of December 28, 2001. For political and budgetary reasons, that service was never started. In April 2008, however, the interchange was reopened for freight service. As of the summer of 2009, the Vermont Department of Transportation still lists the restoration of rail passenger service through Hoosick Junction and North Bennington as part of the future for train service in the Green Mountain State.
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The Greenbush Line Returns
 After seven months of delay, on September 22, 2003 the Commonwealth and the MBTA finally renewed their commitment to restoring rail passenger service to the historic South Shore. This service, which formally commenced on October 30, 2007, is now easing the commute to Boston for residents of these communities and increasing property values (while making the roads less congested for those who choose not to commute by rail). The photographs contained in this section depict that state of the property on September 25, 2003, October 17, 2004, November 14, 2005 and June 13, 2006. Some amazing pictures I took on October 30, 2007, the first day of service, were lost when the Sandisk memory card on my digital camera failed on the return trip.
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South Asian Trains
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The Hill Country Trains of Sri Lanka
 In February 1998 I journeyed by rail from Colombo, at sea level, to Kandy and from there on to the hill station of Nuwara Eliya (pronounced new-REAL-ee-a). This page captures some of the magnificent images from this journey, including many pictures of the fertile tea estates which carpet the rugged and beautiful countryside.
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The Kalka to Shimla Toy Train
 In January 2006 we travelled on the narrow gauge railway between Kalka (which sits on the border of the Punjab and Himachal Pradesh) and the hill station of Shimla on the Indian Railway's scheduled passenger service, the Himalayan Queen. The photographs which follow show the scenery from the almost five hour train ride as we ascended into the hills surrounding Shimla.
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South African Trains
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South African Steam (George to Knysna)
 In July 1993 during a trip to southern Africa, I traveled from George to Knysna in the western Cape of South Africa on a working narrow gauge steam railway. To see some pictures from that trip, please click on the picture at right to visit my South African Steam (George to Knysna) Page.
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