Trains

Perched outside the Indian city of Jhansi

Photographer @kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de

The money quote:

VTA buses and light rail carried 30,000 people to and from Levi's Stadium, according to the agency. That was 5,000 more than they anticipated and "far surpassing" ridership records set when Taylor Swift played there in 2023.

A YG class (Y refers to Meter Gauge classification in India) steam loco standing outside the north eastern city of Guwahati.

Photographer @kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de

Under Merz, Germany is backtracking from rail (and thus from public services and climate)

"Indeed, Merz said several times over the course of 2025 that "everything with finished plans will be built." However, the government appears to have quietly backed out of some of those promises, while simultaneously shifting more money towards building new highways."

Ambala station in North India has two abandoned stationery locos for visitors to glance: a NG and this MG one. Both are remnants of past era. Whilst NG and MG tracks do exist in India, they are in very limited area and usually Unesco Heritage Sites.

Otherwise, seeing these locos in action is rarer.

The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR)’s T1 class is famous for many reasons: being enormous, being a duplex, possibly having beaten Mallard’s speed record while no one was looking… and being in production in the 21st century. That last fact is down to the redoubtable work by the PRR T1 Steam Locomotive Trust, who continued their efforts to reproduce an example of these remarkable and lamentably unpreserved locomotives in the year 2025.

They say that 2025 was “the year of the frame” because the frame was finally put together. We might say that for the PRR Trust, this was the year of welding. Back when the Baldwin and Altoona works were turning out the originals, the frames for steam locomotives were cast, not welded. There might not be anywhere on Earth to get a 64′ long (19.5 m), 71,000 lbs steel casting made these days. Building it up with welded steel might not be perfectly accurate, but it’s the sort of hack that’s needed to keep the project moving.

Pictures by Jessica Stacey

---

Those locomotives were produced by the Lyudinovsky Locomotive Plant in 1990 and were purchased in 1992 by an American company for use in the Port of Houston, but the locomotives did not pass US certification. As a result, some of them returned to Russia, while others remained in the US.

The height of the cab was reduced to fit the dimensions of American railways, but all of its equipment remained unchanged to its (post-)Soviet counterparts. With the only difference being the addition of English-language inscriptions. Some of the locomotives that returned to Russia were purchased by private companies like Lukoil, GazpromTrans, Novatek, V-Sibpromtrans, and others. The “American” number range 1001-1011 corresponds to the “Russian” range 0210-0220.

Plus its cutaway twin

Photographer @CelloMike@lemmy.world

A Narrow Gauge loco turntable, this time apparently in active use

Photographer @kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de

Barog is a Narrow gauge station lying on Kalka - Shimla rail Link, India. It is perhaps the most picturesque station on that route with it's curving platforms coming out from a tunnel

Photographer @kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de

KSR = Kalka Shimla Railway. ZDM = Z stands for Narrow Gauge in Indian Railway terminology, D for diesel haulage and M means the loco was meant both for freight and passenger trains [though freight don't run on this section].

The section was built in 1902 and designated a UNESCO heritage site in 2008

Photographer @kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de

Photographer @kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de

This is an active railway station(though not the main) lying in the Indian city of Allahabad. Ironically, despite being empty as far as the eyes can see, this city saw the world's largest congregation of humans in the form of Kumbha in the month of January.

Come Autumn, this erstwhile Meter Gauge station was waiting patiently for it's scheduled services to arrive.

Photographer @kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de

Perched outside Indian city of Allahabad/Prayagraj, this out of commissioned loco harks back to the past ( Unless I literally jumped into the shrubs, there was no way to get a frontal image)

Photographer: @kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kankakee,_Beaverville_and_Southern_Railroad

Final image from my collection of Rail Museum, Delhi. I didn't knew the Metadata of the associated image since I took them 2+ years ago (read:details), so had to look up on Arts and Culture.

Photographer @kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de

Photographer @kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de