81-717 Posted August 29, 2016 Report Share Posted August 29, 2016 I have just returned from a week-long trip to Eastern Europe, where I visited 2 wonderful cities: Prague and Warsaw. During my stay there, I took several photos of various parts of the cities (unlike most tourists, who only focus on the central, older part of whatever city they're in, I tried to explore both cities more broadly, including the suburbs), as well as many transit photos and videos (including some photos on the flights from one city to the next). In all, I took over 400 pics and over 30 video clips. I have edited and uploaded all of my transit videos from the trip on youtube, and sorted them into playlists: https://www.youtube.com/user/308813062/playlists. While I might not go traveling again for a while given my financial situation (in all, the entire trip cost me nearly $1000, but it was worth every penny spent), I think it's time to start my own thread. I will post my future updates here. Here are some of my best videos from the trip: Prague Metro: 81-71M trains at Černý Most Warsaw Metro: 81-717 train ride Młociny - Stare Bielany 81-717 train ride Słodowiec - Dworzec Gdański and departure from Świętokrzyska 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-717 Posted August 30, 2017 Author Report Share Posted August 30, 2017 This summer, I went on a Contiki trip to Europe (the trip was a very special present from my mother). The trip started in Split, Croatia, and over the course of 11 days, visited Dubrovnik (Croatia), Budva (Montenegro), Sarajevo (Bosnia), Belgrade (Serbia), and Budapest (Hungary). This was by far the best 11 days of my summer, as I got to meet a whole bunch of new people and made a lot of new friends. Besides visiting these historic cities and learning more about their history, I also did some transit fanning - namely Budapest's subway system. I have just finished editing and uploading my new videos, exactly 1 year after I posted the videos from last year's trip (also on August 29). My main focus of the Budapest metro were the Soviet-built 81-717 trains, as well as their predecessors (like the Ev3) which are now over 40 years old. The E-/81-717's have always been reliable cars, but unfortunately due to their age they began breaking down more and more often, and would soon become unsafe to operate unless rebuilt or replaced. After much negotiation and controversy surrounding the tendering process, it was decided that Metrovagonmash would rebuild the cars into yet another updated model, the 81-717.2K, which came out in 2016/2017. Unfortunately the new model had bugs of its own, so it was hard to catch. The first day I rode the subway (which was the second last day of the trip) there were none in service, but the next morning I was lucky enough to catch a 81-717.2K (29/08/2017) after waiting about 10 minutes while on my way to the airport to fly back to Toronto. Some of my other pictures from the trip are on facebook, and I still need to sort out the rest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-717 Posted October 16, 2017 Author Report Share Posted October 16, 2017 My school organized a Reading Week trip to New York this year on October 12-15, and as soon as I found out about it via email I knew that this was the perfect opportunity for me, since it would mean going to New York sooner and cheaper than I could've hoped, on top of my summer vacation in August. I've always wanted to travel across the US (and particularly NYC). I've always pictured New York to be like Toronto on steroids (bigger, more diverse and interesting, albeit unfortunately less safe). I was impressed by how beautiful the city really is, including the new WTC building, the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn & Manhattan bridges, and the sheer complexity of the subway network. I have never seen a subway system nearly as complicated, with up to 4 lanes going through a station, but only the outer 2 serving the station platforms, the middle lanes being dedicated for express trains/different routes; or seeing 2 trains moving in the same direction parallel to each other because they are on different routes. I also paid a visit to the transit museum, and was impressed by their collection. I posted 13 more videos on youtube, this time of the NYC subway (I also took over 100 pictures throughout the city, but still need to sort them out). My 2 favorite videos of the 13 are of the transit museum and the Manhattan Bridge. As of now, I have over 100 videos from 5 very different subway systems (Toronto, Prague, Warsaw, Budapest, New York). Next updates are expected in December when the TTC subway extension opens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-717 Posted December 18, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 18, 2017 Today's Updates: Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension (TYSSE) opening date (17/12/2017): 3 videos added. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-717 Posted August 5, 2019 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2019 (edited) I'm back in New York for the long weekend, coming back Tuesday night. This time I have 1 extra day to explore the NYC subway (my list of stations to visit included Manhattan Bridge, Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Livonia, Sutter ave, Court sq, etc). I brought my laptop with me so that I don't have to wait till I get back to post the videos (and was also able to successfully upload them through my phone) - going forward, I will try to always bring my laptop with me on my travels, and post new videos while travelling. I posted 9 videos yesterday, and 6 today (1 of which was also filmed yesterday). Tomorrow will be my last day to film (I'm also hoping to ride the PATH train), because I'll be leaving Tuesday morning. Edit (06/08/2019): yesterday (Monday) I uploaded 6 more videos (decided not to upload the PATH train), bringing the total to 21 new videos from this weekend, and 34 NYC subway videos in total. Hopefully next year I will make a return trip to the EEU, specifically the same 3 cities (Prague, Warsaw, Budapest) and get more videos of 81-717s. Edited August 6, 2019 by 81-717 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-717 Posted October 14, 2019 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2019 NYC Subway: 6 new videos added. This time my main focus were the R46's, my favorite B-division cars, and the R62 Times Square shuttle, some of which are wrapped on the inside and outside and have a modified interior (fewer seats). I also filmed the R179, R142 and R188, and even happened to see a group of people riding between the cars on the 7-train (also caught on video, briefly). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-717 Posted December 19, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 19, 2019 Prague Metro: 7 new videos added - 2 of line A (81-71M), 2 of line B (81-71M) and 3 of line C (Siemens M1). 3 days in Prague well spent. I arrived on the 17th after an overnight flight from Toronto with a transfer in Munich, and tomorrow morning I will be getting on a train to Budapest where I will spend another 3 days. Fun fact: line C also has a 4178 with a decorated (ad-wrapped) exterior. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-717 Posted December 23, 2019 Author Report Share Posted December 23, 2019 (edited) Budapest Metro: 16 new videos added 81-717.2K (line 3): 9 videos added Alstom Metropolis AM5 (line 2): 4 videos added Alstom Metropolis AM4 (line 4): 3 videos added (this line runs on ATO) Both times visiting the city I have ignored line 1 entirely, just because. Having payed careful attention, I was able to figure out the numbering scheme of the 81-717.2K fleet: basically each 6-car set is numbered as (600+2n, 6000+4n, 6000+4n+1, 6000+4n+2, 6000+4n+3, 600+2n+1), where n = 0, 1, 2, 3... Thus, the 37 trainsets are numbered as: 81-717.2K 600-6000-6001-6002-6003-601 602-6004-6005-6006-6007-603 604-6008-6009-6010-6011-605 606-6012-6013-6014-6015-607 608-6016-6017-6018-6019-609 610-6020-6021-6022-6023-611 612-6024-6025-6026-6027-613 614-6028-6029-6030-6031-615 616-6032-6033-6034-6035-617 618-6036-6037-6038-6039-619 620-6040-6041-6042-6043-621 622-6044-6045-6046-6047-623 624-6048-6049-6050-6051-625 626-6052-6053-6054-6055-627 628-6056-6057-6058-6059-629 630-6060-6061-6062-6063-631 632-6064-6065-6066-6067-633 634-6068-6069-6070-6071-635 636-6072-6073-6074-6075-637 638-6076-6077-6078-6079-639 640-6080-6081-6082-6083-641 642-6084-6085-6086-6087-643 644-6088-6089-6090-6091-645 646-6092-6093-6094-6095-647 648-6096-6097-6098-6099-649 650-6100-6101-6102-6103-651 652-6104-6105-6106-6107-653 654-6108-6109-6110-6111-655 656-6112-6113-6114-6115-657 658-6116-6117-6118-6119-659 660-6120-6121-6122-6123-661 662-6124-6125-6126-6127-663 664-6128-6129-6130-6131-665 666-6132-6133-6134-6135-667 668-6136-6137-6138-6139-669 670-6140-6141-6142-6143-671 672-6144-6145-6146-6147-673 The lead cars are numbered sequentially 600-673, and the middle cars are numbered sequentially 6000-6147. Unfortunately I didn't have any luck finding set 600 (or 666), as neither of those was in service today (on December 22, the following 12 sets were in service, in the following order: 636, 612, 634, 658, 624, 604, 630, 660, 644, 626, 640, 662). Unfortunately the southernmost part (Nagyvárad tér - Kőbánya-Kispest) of line 3 is closed for reconstruction for months, so I was unable to get any outdoor videos of the 81-717.2K (Kőbánya-Kispest is the only outdoor station on that line). The AM4 and AM5 trainsets have a simpler numbering scheme, each car has a 3-digit number and all cars within a set are numbered sequentially. The AM5 sets are numbered sequentially ending in digits 0-4 or 5-9 (i.e. 500-501-502-503-504 and 465-466-467-468-469), while the AM4 sets can consist of any 4 adjacent numbers (i.e. 568-569-570-571). Unfortunately, I don't know the full range of numbers for all of them.* It's 4:25 am in Budapest as I type this (takes 5-6 hours to edit and upload the videos from one day), in just under 5 hours I will be flying back to Toronto (again with a transfer in Munich, unfortunately no direct flights were offered there or back at this time of the year). *EDIT [2020/01/07]: After browsing the Russian Wikipedia page on the Budapest Metro, I was able to find more detailed information about the fleet numbers of the Alstom Metropolis trains - specifically that they are numbered in the range 410-579. Since I already knew that 500-501-502-503-504 is an AM5 set, and 532-533-534-535 is an AM4 set (having ridden and filmed both), that leaves 27 cars in the range 505-531. Since 27 isn't divisible by 4, that means the next set must be an AM5 set: 505-506-507-508-509 leaves 22 cars (510-531), not divisible by 4, 510-511-512-513-514 leaves 17 cars (515-531), not divisible by 4, 515-516-517-518-519 leaves 12 cars (520-531). 12 is obviously divisible by 4, and subtracting 5 would leave 7 cars, which doesn't fit into any combination of 4- or 5-car sets. Therefore it makes sense to conclude that those 12 cars (520-531) make up three 4-car sets, i.e. 520-521-522-523 would be the lowest AM4 set. With that, we get the following fleet numbers: Alstom Metropolis (AM5) 410-411-412-413-414 415-416-417-418-419 420-421-422-423-424 425-426-427-428-429 430-431-432-433-434 435-436-437-438-439 440-441-442-443-444 445-446-447-448-449 450-451-452-453-454 455-456-457-458-459 460-461-462-463-464 465-466-467-468-469 470-471-472-473-474 475-476-477-478-479 480-481-482-483-484 485-486-487-488-489 490-491-492-493-494 495-496-497-498-499 500-501-502-503-504 505-506-507-508-509 510-511-512-513-514 515-516-517-518-519 Alstom Metropolis (AM4) 520-521-522-523 524-525-526-527 528-529-530-531 532-533-534-535 536-537-538-539 540-541-542-543 544-545-546-547 548-549-550-551 552-553-554-555 556-557-558-559 560-561-562-563 564-565-566-567 568-569-570-571 572-573-574-575 576-577-578-579 Edited January 9, 2020 by 81-717 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-717 Posted February 15, 2020 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2020 NYC Subway: 5 new videos added. I decided to briefly pop by in New York on Wednesday in order to catch the last R42 run, since I didn't have any other videos of them from my previous visits (though in the future I'll probably avoid final runs). I left my house just before 3 am on Wednesday morning in order to catch a 6 am flight to JFK and arrive by 8 am. I then took the AirTrain from the airport directly to Howard Beach on line A, and got there around 9, nearly an hour and a half in advance, so I filmed some R46s and R179s. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to stay on the final run until the end, because I had to catch my return flight at 15:26, so I mostly stayed on the outdoor section (between 80th and Far Rockaway). The whole trip, including leaving and returning to Toronto, was within the span of 12 hours (I landed in Toronto around 17:30). Here are a couple of shots of the sunrise seen from the early morning flight to JFK (taken 06:45 and 06:54 am). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-717 Posted September 22, 2021 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2021 Last week I was finally able to do my first post-pandemic railfanning trip outside of Canada. I went back to NYC with the intent of visiting previously unexplored subway stations/lines, as well as also focusing on mainline railroads this time, something I started focusing on since March 2021 (my interest in railroads has been dormant for years, but eventually came back into the picture ever since I got into model railroading since April 2020). Over the course of this trip, I planned to explore the Long Island Railroad, Metro-North Railroad, NJ Transit & Staten Island Railway, as well as check out the NYC railcar float operation. Unfortunately I did not have enough time to visit Staten Island (especially with it not being accessible by transit – the only way to get to it is the ferry) or the site of the railcar float operation, or get a significant amount of footage from NJ & Long Island (so far, I only put together 1 video of each of those). However, I did end up with 5 Metro-North videos, including a ballast train on the Hudson line (the only freight I was lucky enough to catch in NYC) – that video is the highlight of my trip, and one of my personal favorites, since it combines the subway, commuter rail & a freight in one video. I also uploaded 7 new NYC subway videos, which can be found at the top of this playlist. In NJ, my main focus were the ALP46 electric locomotives, since electrics are exceedingly rare in North America despite being very common in Europe & Russia, and because the ALP46 design is based on the German Class 101 electric, thus bringing a bit of the German feel into America. Now that I've returned from the trip, I will be taking a break for the next few months in order to focus on my educational/vocational goals. I decided to pursue a 12-week coding bootcamp starting in late October, that will have a 72 hr/week schedule (12 hrs/day, 6 days/week), meaning that I won't have much time for anything else, including railfanning. Though in this case it's all well and good, because quite frankly I hate having to post even more domestic videos – whether from the GTA, from Ontario, or even anywhere in Canada (not that I have, or expect to have in the near future, any domestic videos from outside the GTA) – after having posted new videos from my latest trip abroad. I'd rather my international videos stay at the top of the pile as long as possible, and hate having them buried under more & more domestic videos. Therefore, pursuing the coding bootcamp would be the perfect opportunity for me to keep myself busy leaving no time to go railfanning anywhere in Ontario. I won't feel like I'm missing out on much, because the NYC trip always makes me feel like I've seen pretty much everything and am ready to take a break & shift the focus towards one of the more serious aspects of my life. Stay tuned until I'm done the bootcamp and am ready to plan my next trip abroad (the trip that will be the true highlight is my planned & long-awaited trip to Russia which I'm aiming for 2023, or *maybe* 2022). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-717 Posted July 30, 2022 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2022 2 weeks late to post here (forgot this thread existed, lol), but anyway: NYC Subway: 3 videos added (including 1 video of the subway shuttle & a Metro-North M8 at Grand Central) Long Island Railroad: 2 videos added NJ Transit: 1 video added I am now once again taking a break from railfanning in order to keep this latest batch of NYC videos at the top of the line (and will try to do the same after every international trip). Unless something really special/rare comes up in Ontario, I won't be making new videos at least until I make future travel plans. On 9/22/2021 at 3:00 AM, 81-717 said: (the trip that will be the true highlight is my planned & long-awaited trip to Russia which I'm aiming for 2023, or *maybe* 2022). ...and this post did not age well at all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
81-717 Posted June 23, 2023 Author Report Share Posted June 23, 2023 Stockholm Metro: 24 videos added (plus 1 bonus video from my day trip to Finland to meet up with a long-time old friend of mine). Best trip to Europe since Budapest way back in 2019. My primary objective was to get as many videos of the C14 subway cars before they're gone (to be fully replaced by C30s by 2024). The C14s are currently the last remaining legacy married-pair subway cars in Stockholm, very much like how the T1s and Hawkers are/were the last of the legacy married-pair subway cars in Toronto. Unfortunately, quite unlike the T1s, the C14s are scheduled to be fully replaced in 2024; unfortunately the C6 and C15 were done before I got there. Luckily the C14s were still around, and were still pretty easy to catch, especially during rush hour. Other highlights that made this trip special compared to other European cities I've been to are the long summer days and white nights (I was lucky to be able to do a timelapse from sunset to sunrise). After railfanning in Stockholm, I hope to never have to railfan anywhere in North America again, not even if something rare/special comes around here. To me currently, having good videos of the C14 is about as special as it can get. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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