I am going to paris in july, and was wondering, where is the best place to watch the tgv trains go past at full speed? I saw somewhere that the haute-picardie station is good, but does anyone know of any other good sopts?
I will also be visting london and brussles, so let me know if you know of any good train watching spots there too.
Thanks!
just a gentle bump…
Lets just say that railfanning the TGV is cool but other than video the picture taking is not to easy.
And maybe someone can correct me but in France it is officialy against law to picture trains as of last year or so, so as foreigner be carefull.
ok, thanks for the heads up. I was just looking to take a video of some trains passing, thats all. I will be sure to ask though.
In austrailia, I did have to get a pass to take pics…
I have seen pictures taken recently at Gare du Nord, and various other places, the French don’t seem too bad about it. Follow the usual rules, no Tripods on the platforms, no Flash, If asked to put away your camera, do so and you should have no problems.
As far as London goes, a good spot for train watching is Ealing Broadway (end of branches of the District and Central Underground lines). The station is also used by trains on the Great Western main line out of Paddington and there’s a marshalling yard that’s served by various freight trains, particularly stone trains. Nearby the GW main line is crossed by the North London line, which links all the various lines in to London and is used by lots of freigh trains as well as having a frequent (15 min interval) passenger service.
If you go to Kensington Olympia station, you may see empty Eurostar trains going to and from their depot at North Pole near Willesden (soon to be abandoned as when phase 2 of the High speed line from London St. Pancras to the Chunnel opens in November, the Eurostars will move to a new depot at Stratford (E. London)).
Has anyone heard about the train photographing laws in Germany? I’ve taken a few from some platforms and along bike trails but was pretty inconspicous about it. But I didn’t try to hide it when I was a Wurzburg hauptbahnhof because of the steam engine sitting there about 10 tracks over. Dang, now that I remember it I had to use my camera phone because my digital camera batteries were complety dead. If I had more time and wasn’t carrying a ton of luggage I would have made my way closer to it. But I had another train to catch. [sigh], it was the only time ever I wished the German trains wern’t on time.
Thanks! I will try and get out to Ealing broadway and olympia.
Also, is there a direct connection from the CDG airport to paris by TGV? I was looking into it, and I found nothing. Not even on raileuroppe.com. They say to take a RER train, but that could take an hour to get to paris…same as a shuttle that drops you to your hotel…
TGVs stop at a station near the airport, but not to take people into Paris. The RER will get you into Paris faster than a car, but exactly where your hotel is located will make a difference too. RER is like the German S-Bahn trains, not as many stops as a subway. The Parisian subway system is called Metro.
I dont know but I did not have any trouble when I was in Berlin a couple of weeks ago and took photos from station platforms.
If you want to see Eurostars running in London (before the move to St Pancras), I’ve found Vauxhall (accessible from the Victoria Line) to be quite good, although I was last there some years ago.
This station is on the main line to Waterloo, but if I recall correctly, the Eurostars ran on a single bi-directional line on the north side.
M636C
Thanks! Do you know the speed they run through there?
I’m from Germany, and as far as I know there are no restrictions for taking pictures of trains. I often took pictures of trains and never had problems. And I never heard of laws about that…
If you take pictures, just take care you’re not entering rail facilities which are closed to public.
Vauxhall - about 40MPH!
It’s a mile out of Waterloo International and a long way before the high speed lines, but you will see about 100 train movements an hour.
Another UK suggestion is Stratford, East London, where you’ll see about 70 movements an hour on the Network rail system, then trains every few minutes on the London Underground system and Docklands Light Railway.
You’ll see freight at Stratford (and Ealing) but not at Vauxhall.
To see TGV action at full speed in France is’nt easy without a rental car I’m afraid.
Brussels Nord sees probably 50/60 movements an hour but is in a rough area. It’s been tidied up in recent years but I’d still be wary about toting camera equipment around.
Brussels Centraal is in a tunnel - forget it!
Brussels Midi - also known as Zuid - is best. That’ll give you about 80 movements an hour at peak periods including Eurostar and Thalys TGV…
If you get chance whilst in Belgium try an evening at Antwerp Berchem. It’s about 45 mins from Brussels and, in the evening, gets a freight every 5 minutes roughly, plus passenger services every 2 minutes.
At every station ask to meet the station manager, explain what you’re about and you should have no problem.
Thanks for the suggestions.
40 mph, wow, that is slow. Soon as the new high speed link opens, the trip should get a lot shorter.
Things will get quicker when the second part of the high speed link opens later this year, though train visibility will not be good as most of the link will be in tunnels. As far as I can see there will be some photographic opportunities in East London and in South Essex, but neither area is photogenic, being basicly flat and industrial.
If you really want to see lots and lots of trains then Clapham Junction remains as good a place as any. There are often trainspotters at the London end of platforms 11/12 and 9/10 (separate faces of the same platform) and photography there is common. In any case the platform staff tend to have their work cut out with the trains that do stop (about 1 every 3-5 minutes).
One final option would be Harrow and Wealdstone on the main line to the North West. 4 main line tracks, plus two suburban ones that are used by London Underground as well (Bakerloo Line). Virgin trains run about ten Pendelinos an hour through at 100 mph, Silverlink run local trains and you can expect freight outside the rush hours of 07:30 to 09:30 and 16:30 to 18:30. As an aside most freight does not run in London at these times, the passenger service is very intensive and takes priority.
Wow, that is some great info. Thanks!
ok, I was looking at my london tube map, and I see Clapham north, common, and south. Which station were you refering to? North has a national rail symbol next to it, and I am guessing thats the one.
N o, Clapham Junction is not on the Underground. Easiest way to get to it is either:-
a) catch a SouthWest train from Waterloo, they go every 5 minutes.
(you could perhaps stop off at Vauxhall on the way, as Simon Reed suggested)
b) Catch a Silverlink train from Kensington Olympia. These are less frequent only running every 30 minutes.
Thanks!
Just on a side note - just got my eurostar, thalys, and hethrow express tickets in the mail.[:D]
Do they have wi-fi on the tgv’s? I will be traveling 2 legs of my trip on tgv (london-brussles, brussles-paris), just wondering if I should bring my laptop…