Riding the (Virtual) Rails: Slovakia

 

photo credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAV6Ts8cKl4

Slovakia was the first former Easter Block country I visited virtually. I spent several months traveling the rail system of Slovakia, the southern half of the former Czechoslovakia. I found the differences between Slovakia and, say, France or Germany, quite stark. To begin with, Slovakia is a noticeably less prosperous country than the western countries I traveled through. The towns and cities, the sliver of which one can see from the cab of a train, I thought looked rather nondescript. Which is to say neither ancient or modern, seemingly no national architectural style. The stations do not seem to have large parking lots – the people leaving the train just followed a walkway or a dirt path into town. 

photo credit https://www.youtube.come/watch?v=5yHhHeY-Y7Q

This was the first country I traveled in that had “halts” along the branch lines – basically some concrete blocks alongside the rails to form a low embankment where the passengers would embark. They might have a three sided shelter, think of bus stops in the middle of the countryside, with any town that they were serving completely out of sight. This is another country where the station masters are out of their offices to see every train go by, and where, on the branch lines, there are those huts on either side of the station where the tracks converge and must be switched manually. All the main lines are electrified, though some of the branch lines run diesel engines and can be very twisty. Some of the trains just creep along, so here's a pro tip: you can speed up the train by viewing the video at up to 2X speed, a setting in the on screen setting icon. It helps on some of the very boring routes, if you happened to be a completest like myself.

photo credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcmPkQX4cDo

I don’t wish to be too harsh on Slovakia. It is a beautiful country, indeed all of Easter Europe seems to be. I don’t know how the political situation and tourist accommodations fare in these countries, but these countries are certainly worth visiting. One of the great things about Slovakia via Youtube trains is that you can travel on just about every route. See map below. The routes in yellow are the routes available from this Youtuber: SlovakiaVovlaku.sk: https://www.youtube.com/c/Vovlakusk/videos

 

All of the routes are identified with a number, which is the train route number. Using the map below, you can identify what routes you might want to take. It is a whole lot easier than looking up every city on Google Maps. (If you can read the numbers, that is. This is the best that I can do.

In your travels around Slovakia you will catch glimpses of ancient castles on the hills, and deer running across the tracks. There is a train that takes you up to a sky resort in winter. And it has plenty of hills, and farmland to travel through. As always, if you want to pick and choose the most scenic rides, consult a topographical map to see where the mountains are, and take a trip through them.

photo credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAV6Ts8cKl4

Riding the (Virtual) Rails: Bulgaria

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmUBfZ4mg5A&t=6537s

 A little over two years ago I posted a blog about my armchair travels in the cabs of trains. Over the years many train drivers and train enthusiasts have posted on Youtube videos of real time complete train trips as seen from the cab of trains. You can find my original post here, with some links to those videos here: https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6896160652380675241/486859535421288849

Since then, I have continued to travel throughout Europe in the cabs of trains, and my plan is to post links to the the channels where you can find the trips I’ve taken since then. 

Today I'll introduce Bulgaria to you. I spent several months traveling through the country, and as you can see from the map below, I've ridden on most of its rails, save for a few branch lines. (Yellow routes are the ones I've ridden on.) I have one more stretch to watch, that blank route in the northeast. Right now I'm traveling in Romania.

Just a brief word about these videos. I find that there is something about moving pictures that draw you into a scene far more completely than a still photo. And I think that crisscrossing a country on their train system gives you a far better “feel” for a country than a picture book of tourist attractions. Moreover, you can always “get off” the train and explore most of these countries on foot virtually by using Google Street View. I spend 45- 60 minutes every day exploring countries from a train cab window while I ride my bike on a rack inside the house during our long winters. But they can be fascinating to just watch – movement is conductive to thought, and watching the countryside glide by can be a gateway to thinking.

Bulgaria is a very beautiful country, with lots of hills and mountains that make for very scenic travel. The southern east-west route across the country is across flat land, for the most part, and sort of boring, but the northern two routes have lots of scenic stretches, as do the branch lines that run north and south.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39TPmlfovVM Through the Ishkar River Valley north of Sofia

Bulgaria is one of those countries where the station masters, in their red peaked caps, come out of their offices to watch and wave to every train that goes by their station, even if it doesn’t stop. It’s also one of those countries that have huts at both ends of the station where all the track converge back into the main line or two. These are, or were, used to house the men who had to manually switch the track to route the train to its designated platform at the station. Now days this switching is all done remotely in most Western European countries, but in the east, on the smaller branch lines, the switch must be thrown manually, and you will see guys manning these huts to switch the tracks for the next train through

.

In concrete Bulgarians trust. In my travels I’ve passed under a thousand overpasses, so when I say that I struck me that I have never seen fewer and thinner supports for the overhead roads than in Bulgaria, it has to be in the national character not to over-engineer their bridges.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39TPmlfovVM

Bulgaria also has a certain dystopian air to it in places. The houses in some cities are mostly foursquare, in stained grey stucco. Some of the apartment buildings have individual units painted differently, so that they look to like a patchwork quilt. You see horse drawn carts on town streets. I found all this interesting enough to hop about in Street View. The small towns are very interesting. On one block you see a yard full of junk that could’ve come straight out of Appalachia, and two blocks later, an architecturally designed house or duplex that puts America’s mass produced vinyl sided faux mansions to shame. It is a country well worth at least a virtual visit by train and on foot via Street View. I like Bulgaria.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmUBfZ4mg5A&t=6537s

Video Train Ride Channels for Bulgaria. Many of these channels also have train spotting videos, just of trains passing, so you have to do some scrolling to find the cab ride videos.

Joro 14

https://www.youtube.com/c/GeorgePenelov/videos

Nikolay KoZarski

https://www.youtube.com/user/NikolaiKozarski/videos

DKG Traction

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzGxewrJk1OjTnRSE8NgmQg/videos

Back On Track Studios

https://www.youtube.com/c/BackOnTrackStudios

Ivo Radoev

https://www.youtube.com/user/rivo23/videos

Riding The Rails

 

Switzerland -- Lorirocks777 video

One of the great things about being old and retired is that you have all the time in the world to do whatever you want. If you can afford it. Many retired people like (or these days, dream) of traveling. Some take to the road in RVs to follow the sun. Others take grand trips abroad. The pandemic has kept most people stuck at home, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t travel.

Full disclaimer: I hate to travel. The stress of preparing and traveling outweighs its pleasures, since I have terrible memory so that I can’t relive my adventures. Plus, travel and adventure, I think, if for the youth, or books.

Switzerland -- Lorirocks77 video

Given my attitude, I’ve found the perfect way for me to travel – in the cabs of trains alongside their drivers. Virtually, of course. All around the world, train drivers, and in some cases, passengers record their journeys in real time and post these video trips on Youtube. Over the last year and a half I’ve ridden in the cabs of trains for too many hours and thousands of miles throughout Great Britain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Japan. In addition, I’ve taken a few train rides in Poland, Norway, Belgium, Italy, and Greece. And I have trips through Romania and Bulgaria on my list for the coming weeks.

But it’s not the same thing as visiting these countries, you’re thinking. And you’re right. But it is a far more immersive experience than looking at static tourist pictures, or even Google’s street view – though that too is a good way to travel in your easy chair. There is something about the countryside streaming past for hours at a time that makes the experience almost real – not so much different than driving a car with the windows closed, as long as you don’t gawk around too much while driving. You see both sides of the rails and what lies ahead, until it streams past. Now, some of the older videos are pretty murky, but the drivers these days record in 4K, and while you lose some fine, fast moving details (at least with my internet connection) the experience is very realistic.

England -- Don Coffey video

Over the last year and a half I’ve gotten to know what Europe looks like without ever having to leave the house. I’ve kept records of all the rail lines I’ve traveled along, and have learned a bit of geography by looking up the cities involved in each video. Given my limitations in memory, I can’t provide you with much of a travel guide, but my advice is search out train rides that take you though hills and mountains – southeast France, southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria, but there are scenic train trips through most of the countries. I would avoid flat countrysides like you find in northern Germany and Poland, the Atlantic coast of France, and the eastern and southern parts of England. Not only does flat farm fields get boring, but the rail right of ways are often lined with trees so that you’re traveling down a corridor of green with only rare glimpses of the farm fields that you are traveling through.

An added bonus of riding the rails is that you get to see how railroads work – how the signals control traffic, and how traffic is managed. Don Coffey explains how the signals work in his videos, and you can translate that knowledge to all railroads – though the signals vary from country to country. But you can google those, if you care to.

Paris -- Railtrotter video

There are many ways to kill utilize your time when retired, and while most some people may find watching the scenery go by as exciting as watching paint dry, I find exploring these railroads interesting. These winter days, I have my bike inside and set up on a rack in the house. I’ve rigged a shelf on the handlebars to hold my tablet and spend my hour pedaling each day listening to music while I riding though the countryside of my choice on the rails.

Below are links to some of the train drivers who post videos of their trips:

England

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8LH7xMAyCSqpClAvTHwJRw/videos

https://www.youtube.com/user/benjie131/videos

France

https://www.youtube.com/user/mika67407/videos

https://www.youtube.com/c/Lionopointcom/videos

Germany

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCowsdpGGcTcKhgurICOJERg/videos

https://www.youtube.com/user/747AnanasBoeing747/videos

Switzerland

https://www.youtube.com/user/lorirocks777/videos

https://www.youtube.com/c/RailwayEmotions/videos

Sweden

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVdYOTI_iTsXCVrRxniEHUw/videos

Slovakia

https://www.youtube.com/c/Vovlakusk/videos

Czech Republic

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCempPZlZ55J1DLbSzVSw1LQ/videos

Train trips from around the world

https://www.youtube.com/user/Timsvideochannel1/videos

And there are plenty more.

Bon Voyage!

Since I'm not writing...

...What am I doing to pass the time? Well, I’m touring the world – virtually – from the cab of trains. There are many, many ways of wasting time, and I suppose watching videos taken from the driver’s cab of trains on YouTube is one rather strange way. But I think it is better than playing solitaire on the computer. That, at any rate, is my story, and I’m sticking with it.

I’ve only discovered the joys of train driving, oh, about three months ago or so. And yet, I can’t remember how I came to discover the addictive joy of watching the countryside – or the embankments, trees, or tunnels, flow by. I think I watched a video on British steam trains, and that led to another, and eventually to train rides across Great Britain. You might be amazed at how many such rides have been recorded, and in these days, in 4K by GoPro cameras.

As I said, it is strangely addictive – the rails always stretching on ahead, and you never know what the next bend will reveal. I’ve also be come quite the expert at reading the signals that control the trains that run so frequently.

As I said, I started in Britain, and below is the map of the British Rail System, with the routes in yellow being the ones that I have traveled in the driver’s cab. I have to say that some parts of England are rather murky… But perhaps that is due to the age of the video and the cameras used…

(Map credit: https://www.thetrainline.com/train-companies/national-rail/national-rail-map)

I think that I may have traveled every route currently available to be viewed. But you never know what might turn up on my YouTube home page..

If you are interested in seeing Britain by train, the YouTube channel to start with is Don Coffey’s:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8LH7xMAyCSqpClAvTHwJRw/videos

There are others that cover more than the English midlands, but his are high quality and include a lot of interesting information on the Victorian Engineering that went into making the British rail system, and how it works.

After covering all of Britain that I could, I moved on to Switzerland. As you can see from the map below, I’ve seen a lot of Switzerland. Even without taking into account the Alps, Switzerland and its rail system is very different than Britain’s. It is a much smaller system, and without all the Victorian era overhead that British rail has to deal with, it seems a much more modern system. And some of the videos of trains in the Alps are breathtaking, even if you’re not addicted to cab ride videos.

(Map credit: http://bueker.net/trainspotting/map.php?file=maps/switzerland/switzerland.gif )

There are two very good, high quality sources for cab ride videos through Switzerland:

https://www.youtube.com/user/lorirocks777/videos

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRYl1C12IXPs2Uo_25OdrPA/videos

I highly recommend both of them.

I did ride on several French and German high speed trains and one Swedish train. There do not seem to be many German train rides*, but I will have to return to France some day.

*Update: I have found a really nice channel of lots of cab rides through Germany, here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/747AnanasBoeing747/videos

There are a lot of cab ride videos on Norwegian trains, which you can find here: https://www.youtube.com/user/HinduCowGirl/videos

I have only briefly sampled one. The reason I have not explored Norway more is that because of all the mountains, there are many, many, tunnels needed to run trains through that breathtaking countryside. At least that was my impression based on my one trip that there. It seemed that there were more tunnels than breathtaking views. (Tunnels are pretty boring.) I’ll have to return some day to see it that is true on all the trips.

Anyway, now I’ve move on to a very different country: Japan. Japan has plenty of mountains and breathtaking views, but it is also very different as well. At least in the south of Japan, you are rarely out of a city/town/village unless you are in some narrow mountain pass. It is interesting to see all the cultural differences between these countries that you can note even from the front window of a train.

I’m currently exploring the videos from these channels:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCikfKNNx-Poh6N_m6WJ2O3Q/videos

https://www.youtube.com/user/HKASAMA/videos

https://www.youtube.com/user/ato5kgyasetaito/videos

I have a lot of places yet to visit, as you can see from my map below. Many of them are on slow commuter trains, but you get to enjoy the cherry blossoms that abound in the spring. I don't think there are any videos from the cabs of Japan's highspeed trains, but I have a feeling they's be pretty boring, as they generally run straight -- through hills and over valleys and have walls on each side. Luckily I can cut and paste the Japanese descriptions into Google Translate to get an idea of where I’m going.

(Map credit: https://www.japan-experience.com/taking-the-train-japan )