Colin Churcher 2020

  Flytoget at Oslo Central I caught a Flytoget express train to Oslo airport. These run every ten minutes throughout the day. Every other one stops at Lillestrom which was convenient as Paul joined me there, (he was staying at a nearby Lillestrom hotel). This is a high speed train which runs from the airport to Oslo Central station in 20 minutes. The trains are frequently crowded. This is an excellent service. Compare this to the "service" OC Transpo will be providing to Ottawa airport. A diesel train a couple of stops to the Trillium line, change to another diesel train to Bayview, then change to the electric Confederation line to get downtown. Tourists are going to love this with their large cases. We took a KLM flight to Amsterdam where  we changed to a KLM flight to Montreal and finally the KLM bus to Ottawa. We had anticipated some problems in Amsterdam with a relatively short transfer but everything worked out to the minute. The cabin crew on the flight from Oslo were g...

The rain was back in full force this morning. I tried looking at tram route 13 but there seemed to be a complete lack of trams o this route. It was a real pity because there are some great parks and walks down by the water are interesting but the rain kept coming down.  The one museum I wanted to see was the Viking ship exhibit which will be closed for some time. I finished up at Aker brygge and found somewhere dry to have lunch. This was a special edition brew of Norwegian dark ale Elkburger and fries. The different shades of green in the trees are a reminder to railway modellers to vary the colours of their vegetation. Aker brygge Aker brygge Nobel peace building The older trams are single ended with a saloon at the back The reain to Stockholm at Olso Central Station Oslo Central Station Tomorrow we fly home via Amsterdam and Montreal

  First thing I went to Solli on a couple of tram routes to photograph a traffic circle which has tram rails through it and is filled with water. A little different Back in town I tried to ride the No. 18 tram out to Rikshospitalet and back on the No. 17 tram but the end part of the route was a bus substitution. By this time there were a few patches of blue sky and I took a short walk. Building artwork. Lunch was fish and chips with Guiness. In the afternoon I took a quick trip to Lillestrom and met on the platform briefly with Paul. Freight train passing through Lillestrom with a Railpool locomotive Passenger train destined for Stockholm with a Swedish locomotive.

The weather here is atrocious cool and wet with heavy rain at times. I bought a 24 hour local transport pass at the tourist office. This allows me to travel around for 24 hours. I first had a look at the Central Station. The older units make quite a bit of noise Some cars are for people who need to buy a ticket. I then started to ride a few trams. Routes 12 and 19 seemed the most promising. I started with the 19 route and rode it out to the end at Majorstuen and then back through town but the trams were not running beyond Oslo Hospital because of track work. I then decided to sample route 12 which I rode out to Majorstuen and then back all the way to Kjelsas. This is a delightful ride. It runs close to the water then along major parks as well as climbing quite high at Kjelsas which gives good views over the city. At Majorstuen route 12 trams become route 11 and vice versa. Route at at Central Station route 12 at Majorstuen Route 11 at Kjelsas My day went well although the weather was a...

The concourse of the Copenhagen station is a beautiful large wood and steel structure The day started badly when the city bus that was supposed to take us from the hotel to the train station didn't turn up and we took a taxi instead.  Our train to Gothenburg left on time and we were quite comfortable in first class. The plan was to travel to Gothenburg and catch a train to Oslo with a two hour transfer. However, at Lund there was a delay caused by signal problems and after a long wait the train was declared a complete failure. We were turned out onto the street, several hundreds of passengers, in the promise that buses would take us on to destination. No Buses turned up. Groups wandered this way and that way backwards and forwards and there was no railway officer available to even discuss or to find out what was going to happen. We were told to wait two hours for the next train. This was cancelled We had now been in Lund for about three hours. We got talking to two ladies from BC w...

This is the DSB electric locomotive that hauled us in DB coaches from Hamburg to Copenhagen. It has good acceleration. The strange thing is that we were about three minutes down at the penultimate stop but finished up almost 15 minutes early. The journey was quite straightforward. There was a border passport control but all the agents needed was to ensure that we had a passport and didn't look at the details or even if they were still valid.  The countryside was mixed farmland' In several locations there were a large number of windmills. The only game I saw was one small deer.  Copenhagen has changed for the worse since I was last there. It is not a pedestrian friendly city and the hotel was not to our liking. Good job we will be leaving early tomorrow. Copenhagen canal Tivoli Gardens The centraal station trainshed and hall are magnificent

We arrived at Miniatur Wunderland just after 0800 and went straight up to the airport. We were almost alone and could have a good look around before the inevitable crowds arrived. Above is the screen showing the arrivals and departures from the airport. This is a full screen computer display yet it is shown in miniature on the railway platforms for the airport station. In addition to a full passenger train service the railway also supplies aviation fuel in tank cars to the airport.  Most visitors are interested in the airplanes taking off, landing and taxiing. Also impressive are the various vehicles running around the apron to supply the various wants - passenger coaches to convey passengers to and from the terminal, baggage movements, aviation fuel tankers, vans to supply food and drink to the planes, emergency vehicles and general administrative vans. This is a training exercise where emergency crews are going to an aircraft on fire There are occasional surprising visitors. The ...