Reilly Hamilton

Are the Midwest photos yours? What did you think? I took the Wolverine from Chicago to Detroit a couple weeks ago and was really surprised. I expected something like the RailJets (which I love). But they already seemed quite beat up, lighting way too bright, sad corridors, and commuter-level seats.

Ah okay, I guess the destination sign rationale makes some sense. I couldn't find any photo evidence of what the actual Midwest cab car looks like (maybe not delivered yet?), but there are supposed to be three owned by Wisconsin for the Hiawatha service. Maybe they can still fix the livery.

What a beaut. Looks so much better than the Vectron end on the ÖBB RailJet cab cars we have here, or the horrid Venture cab car for Amtrak California (and maybe Amtrak Midwest?).

Wow, and this Puckman has the classic 80s "Bullet" logo rather than the fauxback version that has been skating around disgracing the ice for the last few years!

The subject, me, pictured enjoying an Austrian beer on a train. Out the window, we see vineyards and rolling hills in South Tyrol.

Myself and Lukas posing for a selfie in front of the two leaning towers in Bologna.

A view from the grandstand at the Tosa curve at the Imola circuit. The picture shows a significant elevation gain up the hill towards the Acque Minerali complex.

Myself, posing for a selfie in front of the Acque Minerali corners. I'm wearing a Cadillac Team Jota hat and an IMSA 50th anniversary T-shirt.

This weekend's adventure: took the train over the Brenner pass to Bologna for a weekend of sports car racing at Imola. Tough luck for Cadillac Team Jota so far today. #WEC #Imola

Wonderful! Can't wait to hear how these sound at the Norisring!

An aisle end-cap at a grocery store selling several different sizes of bowls and a cutting board, branded with a low-budget Clipart logo that says "American Football".

My local grocery store in Augsburg, Germany couldn't afford the NFL license and is simply selling "American Football" branded junk.

I think my whole day is ruined after seeing Luis Torrens on the Mariners' 2021 hit list...

Insane sport.

Beer cups with handles that telescope into each other!

Practical stackable beer cups.

A wide view of the Ski Flying hill in Oberstdorf. 235 meters long!

A view from the bottom of the Ski Flying hill in Oberstdorf. The launch ramp is still too far away to see.

Myself and Lukas posing for a selfie at the bottom of the hill.

Today's goal: Ski Flying! The Oberstdorf ski flying hill has a size rating of 235 meters: almost 100 meters more than the normal Ski Jumping events. Last photo featuring @luquipuks.bsky.social.

The front of an Alstom LINT 54, painted in DB's Traffic Red. Blue skies dotted with clouds in the background -- just like the state of Bavaria's flag.

Train two of the day was RE17 from Immenstadt to Oberstdorf. Served today by a trio of Alstom LINT 54s, offering a huge amount of capacity for very few passengers on this Sunday afternoon. These diesel multiple units are the workhorses of the non-electrified networks in our part of Bavaria.

A sign welcoming visitors to Langenwang, in Bavarian dialect. Grias di, Schi dass do Bisch Welcome, we're glad to have you here

We're passing through the village of Langenwang, which, according to my expert knowledge of German, translates to "big dick".

A DB Class 612 diesel multiple unit pulling out of Immenstadt train station. The train is painted in DB's standard bright red. On the left and in the background are the hills of the pre-Alp area. On the right, the covered platform with a nice analog clock hanging from the roof.

It's another #TrainDay! And a flying day too, but we'll get to that later. Leg 1 was on this DB Class 612 from Augsburg to Immenstadt. I love these trains; loud, rattle-y, and diesel powered. Their secret weapon is the ability to tilt into corners. Well adapted to the curvey routes in the Allgäu.

It's me, Reilly, a 34 year old American looking guy in front of Augsburg Main Station, which is lit with lights with a very green color temperature.

Just realized I didn't actually take any selfies today; anyway my TGV made it back to Augsburg on time, resulting in -1 minutes late on the day: fantastic!

Pictured is a TGV Duplex operated under the TGV Inoui brand. The front car is a power car, without any seats. TGV/SNCF is one of the few operators that still use locomotive hauled trainsets instead of distributed traction EMUs.

I didn't book a return ticket in advance; the best option is actually a French TGV - I've avoided DB trains completely during today's trip. The TGV Duplex trainsets are unfortunately a bit dated and really not as comfortable as the ICEs. The seats are almost entirely in sets of four, vis-a-vis.

A 0.5l beer glass, roughly 20% of which has been consumed. On the glass is the logo of Kraftpaule, a brewpub in Stuttgart. The logo features a sailor/weightlifter type in a wifebeater with a gigantic handlebar mustache. In his outstretched hand is, naturally, a beer. In the background, heavily blurred due to the photographer's use of portrait mode, is a set of 12 tap handles.

Secondary goal: Craft beer. 12 taps here at Kraftpaule, a fantastic amount for Germany. Everyone here is speaking English with an American accent - typical.

The front of a newer Stuttgarter Stadtbahn vehicle. Sadly I don't know much more about it, but it looks sleek and you can walk between the two cars. In the foreground, the meter gauge tracks intersect the standard gauge tracks at roughly a right angle.

After a break for coffee, time to go back down the hill. The U15 is also quite steep, up to 8.5%! They also operate heritage trams on this route; I will need to return on a Sunday some time to see them in action. The meter-gauge turning loop is in the foreground here.

The flat bike car at the front of the Zacke. There are various posts for securing your bike. One bike is already loaded; two more bicyclists are on the platform about to load.

Here's a better look at the bike car. Three bicyclists using it on a Saturday afternoon.

The end of the rack railway, showing the red rectangular "end of track" sign. The mast for the catenary is directly behind the buffer.

The buffer itself has a rubber bumper with a Scharfenberg sized cutout. Some sort of hydraulic or spring system could cushion a blow.

A look at the end buffer of the Zacke in Stuttgart. Seems a bit small for the end of a maximum 17.8% incline. #RateMyBuffers

The Zacke cog railway at its end station, Marienplatz. An elevator provides direct access to the Stadtbahn platforms below.

A closeup of one end of the Zacke vehicle, clearly showing the toothed rail in the middle of the tracks. The Zacke is unusual in that the toothed rail is low: flush with the rails. This is due to street running portions later on the route (!)

The Zacke leaves me behind and heads up the hill toward Degerloch. In the front is a short open flat car with a couple of bikes.

The platform arrival/departure sign says I have 14 minutes to wait until the next #10 train to Degerloch, via Liststraße and Wielandshöhe. Considering there's one line here, a bit unnecessary details.

Here's goal #1 of my Stuttgart visit: the Zacke! A cog railway in the middle of the city that is part of the public transit network. A defining feature of the Zacke is the separate bike car that it pushes up the hill. 15 minute headways are a bit disappointing.

The Stuttgart Stadtbahn system is sort of like light rail, with large portions in the city center operating in tunnels underground. Perhaps Boston's green line is a good comp. The trains go up and down a lot, some of the platforms are quite slanted.

A view of two platforms/tracks at the Stuttgart Hbf Stop of the Stadtbahn. The left track had three rails, supporting both standard and narrow gauge vehicles. The right track also has three rails, but the middle rail for meter gauge starts/ends suddenly along the platform. Perhaps it's in the process of being removed.

Front view of a Stuttgart Stadtbahn vehicle. I sadly don't know much about these, but they're relatively short - two articulated halves with one bogie supporting the articulation.

Multi-gauge rail in the underground Stadtbahn station. No idea why it randomly starts here, but the old meter gauge infrastructure is for the heritage trams that run on Sundays. Here's my U1 - hope it's headed in the right direction.

The beautiful walk from the train platforms to the city + subterranean local transit connections is a giant construction site. No fewer than seven cranes dot the horizon.

The facade of the old main station building is held in place with a metal exoskeleton.

A diagram of the path from the train platforms to the city / local transit connections. It's like an 8 minute detour.

Stuttgart Hbf is still a mess. The walkway to the S-Bahn and Stadtbahn is still a major detour. The old main building is on life support -- I understand the idea of preserving history but it's been just a facade for like 10 years now.

We arrived in Stuttgart one minute early. DB would never. Greeted by 30 riot police and seven police vans at the end of the platform due to the VfB Stuttgart home game later this afternoon.

The hallway between two cars of the Stadler KISS train showing bathrooms on either side: men's on the right, and women's on the left. The pictograms are clutching their crotch as if they have to pee really badly - tacky. In the background are the automated sliding doors to the next car.

A picture of the men's bathroom (from the toilet-side) showing the sink and urinal. Not fancy, but in good condition. A poster on the wall alerts passengers that the toilet is not a trash can.

I think this is the first train I've used with separate men's/women's toilets. Even had a urinal! I triple checked to make sure it wasn't a sink.

I thought the train was going to take the longer "scenic" route between Ulm and Stuttgart due to the ~20 minute longer travel time than the ICEs, but nope: we took the high speed line. German high speed lines are a mixed bag; it's cool that you're going fast, but theyre often 50% or more tunnels.

A view from the railway bridge over the Danube between Neu-Ulm and Ulm. In the background and dominating the "skyline" of Ulm is the Ulmer Münster, the tallest church in the entire world.

A view from the Filstalbrücke, a viaduct along the Ulm-Wendlingen high speed line. The village of Mühlhausen im Täle is nestled in the valley.

€3.50 for an Americano from the coffee machine; seems steep compared to the cost of my beer.

Detail on the bottom of the WestBahn coffee cup, showing an illustration of the Stadler KISS 200 train, along with some mountains and churches in Austria. On the napkin below is the Prater in Vienna, an amusement park within a bigger city park.

Some photos from along the way: On the bridge into Ulm, on the Filstalbrücke, the Coffee machine (I ordered a "Verlängerter" - which is essentially the Austrian equivalent of an Americano), and the adorable design on the coffee cups.

A 0.5l red and white somewhat retro looking Stiegl beer can on the fold-out seat-back table. One can see the rolling hills of Bavarian Swabia out the train window in the background.

The self-serve Bistro of WestBahn: A coffee machine on the left and a vending machine on the right, stocked with snacks, sandwiches, drinks, beer, and Radler.

A view of the 2nd class interior of the Stadler KISS 200 from the bistro, which is at the "mezzanine" level on one end of each car. A table is on the left, and stairs to the upper and lower level (where the door vestibule is) are in the middle.

Also they have vending machines with (Austrian) beer! €4.30 for the privilege of enjoying a Stiegl Goldbräu, brewed in Salzburg.

DB's ICE make the journey in 1:25 and cost €54.70 (flexible ticket; €27.35 with a Bahncard 50 -- which I have).

WestBahn takes 1:40 and costs €39.99 normally, but just €9.99€ with the discount.

Regional trains would take about 3:00 with two changes, naturally "free" with my Deutschlandticket.