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Beautiful Winter Cab Ride in Blizzard Conditions from Norway

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  • Member since
    November 2021
  • 211 posts
Beautiful Winter Cab Ride in Blizzard Conditions from Norway
Posted by JayBee on Tuesday, November 14, 2023 9:05 PM

RailCowGirl has posted a video on YouTube as she takes the first train of the day, from Bergen on the Atlantic Coast of Norway up and through the coastal mountains. From Bergen (a city of 600k) to the suburban town of Voss the conditions are grey and drizzly. This part of the journey is shared with morning commuter trains into Bergen, but as soon as she leaves Voss it is her and her train against the weather. She is the only person on the train. The west side of the mountain gets snowier the higher she gets. As she pops out of the summit tunnel just before the station at Finse, the weather deteriorates further to near whiteout conditions. Finse is also the only location where help is readily available if she has problems. The windshield is constantly obscured by snow, and she twice has to stop her train to clear the snow from the front of the locomotive so that the wipers have some place to push the snow. She drives for Norwegian company OnRail in the cutthroat Open Access freight rail scene. Her locomotive is an ASEA Rc4 originally built for Swedish national carrier SJ, think Amtrak AEM-7, pulling 10 60ft container flats with every spot filled. The video is 5+ hours long and covers the journey from Bergen to the crew change point at Honefoss where another Driver will take the train to Oslo. The video has chapters with each station ending one segment and beginning another. For those not interested in a five hour video, I recommend you jump to just before Finse and watch however long you wish

RailCowGirl Train Plows through the Snow like a Boss

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Posted by BaltACD on Tuesday, November 14, 2023 10:08 PM

Must say the tunnels were not excavated to handled double stacks, a glove fit with the locomotive and catenary.

Never too old to have a happy childhood!

              

  • Member since
    January 2002
  • From: Canterlot
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Posted by zugmann on Tuesday, November 14, 2023 10:28 PM

JayBee
This part of the journey is shared with morning commuter trains into Bergen, but as soon as she leaves Voss it is her and her train against the weather.

Dramatic much?

 

Although the comments are hilarious.  Lot of thirst in them. 

It's been fun.  But it isn't much fun anymore.   Signing off for now. 


  

The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any

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    August 2019
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Posted by Psychot on Wednesday, November 15, 2023 1:36 PM

We did the Oslo-Bergen train a few years ago. Absolutely spectacular.

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Posted by wjstix on Wednesday, November 15, 2023 3:36 PM

BaltACD

Must say the tunnels were not excavated to handled double stacks, a glove fit with the locomotive and catenary.

 
Double stacks aren't really a thing in Europe in general, because of the early build of their infrastructure (particularly tunnels) and resultant clearance issues.
Stix

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