Colin Churcher 2020

We spent the whole day in Miniatur Wunderland going over what we had seen yesterday in greater detail. Final Comments on the Airport  We spent  first hour watching the planes taking off and landing and looking at the airport services. There is an extremely large taxi rank. This is the real time arrivals and departures board The Water Feature The water is very clear and kept in good condition so that it is easy to see right to the bottom. There is a crab at one area which has pincers that are moving. We saw a sailing ship come and the vessels are still controlled manually. There is a banana train pulled by a Danish locomotive running backwards and forwards along the waterfront The reverse movement is protected by a penguin sitting on the buffer. Not a safe operation. Provence This is always worth watching to look at the small villages and settlements that are nestled in the cliffs. It is easy to find Provence from the field of lavendar on the hill A small settlement beside a fi...

The Milenium Falcon is one of the few non-Terestrial items at the airport General view towards the terminal building We spent the whole day at Miniatur Wunderland. Having visited several times before I did not take too many pictures but will concentrate on certain aspects. The Airport The airport is stunning in its complexity with the number of aircraft moving around at any one time - up to about 10. In addition there are trains bringing passengers as well as fuel oil and the number of road vehicles moving around the tarmac at any one time is very impressive. There are buses that take the passengers to the terminal from planes that are not connected to a gate. There are emergency vehicles and there are oil tankers as well but the overall effect is just an incredible organization. At any one time there must be 20 or 30 vehicles moving, planes moving, planes taking off, planes landing.  Quite amazing. Night time view There is a small section with an old aircraft which is used for the...

This is the only picture I took today - Hamburg Hauptbahnhof We took Air France from Ottawa to Paris with a connection to Hamburg. There was great chaos in the security section at Ottawa airport. One of my bags was diverted onto the intense search section and it was evident that with the speed they were going it would take a long time. I found a supervisor who explained and facetiously offered to get me a chair to sit on while I waited - which I facetiously accepted. After this it seems the whole process was speeded up and my bag was quickly released from the security prison. This made us late getting to the gate but a quick word with one of the staff at the gate in which I explained how my leg could be very painful if I had to stand up for some time and we finished up being in the first group to get on the aircraft after the wheelchairs. At Paris we had a long wait for our connection to Hamburg and this time one of the security staff came over and invited Paul and I to be first on the...

This video, by Noel Wyler,  shows what we have just missed. Last Saturday (14 September) the Oensingen Balsthal  Railway organized an event to commemorate 60 years of the Re 4/4 locomotives. They brought together 24 of them and ran them as one train. Paul and I flew home on KLM from Schiphol Airport. We took a train from Den Haag directly to the airport. The trip back was marred by a couple with a young boy who was obviously teething. He cried almost continuously for the full six hours. I found I could tune him out when I dug deep into the KLM sound system and found a treasure trove of classical music. Bach violin concertos, Mozart piano concerto No. 23, Beethoven symphonies, Schuman etc. We survived the stupidities at the entrance of the Montreal airport and caught the KLM bus back to Ottawa where we arrived precisely on time. A good ending to a wonderful, tremendous, trip  

This cheerful lady checked us into the Utrecht Railway Museum.    Our hotel (The Moxy on left) is in the centre of town. It has tram lines right in front of it protected by crossing bells and lights. The trams go into the building on the right and do a 90 degree turn inside. We took a train to Utrecht Centraal but had just missed the connection to the railway museum which is located at Utrecht Maliebaan. We took a train to Den Polder. At Den Polder this lady went up and down looking for somebody. Things became even more wierd when our ride to the museum arrived. This was a train from the museum collection which had been let out for the day to take railway enthusiasts around the area dropping back into the museum from time to time. The museum is located at the end of a short branch line which serves the town of Maliebaan as well as the museum with an hourly service to Utrecht Centraal.  We were checked in by the cheerful lady shown above. We didn't realize until some time ...

  The very pleasant lady in period costume who checked us in at Hoorn Today we took a train to Schiphol Airport and changed for Hoorn which is on the coast and the starting point for a steam trip. There was a little time at Den Haag and we admired the transport integration. The bus terminal is above the main station Several tram lines have a station above the main concourse while others serve the street outside. At Hoorn we were greeted by the lady shown above who gave us some pointers what to see and do. The main attraction was the 0-4-0 steam tram which hauled a train of twelve four-wheeled coaches. This might seem a lot but the land is level and there are very few gradients, if any. I had a quick chat with the fireman who showed me his fire. He was using Belgian coal which came in fist sized lumps - just right for this quite small firebox. View over the bicycle carrying car that was attached to the engine There was a stop at Wognum where I saw this rain l dated 1942 - put in dur...