Friday, February 19, 2016

Two trains share one track

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When the train leaving Jerusalem, going west, gets to this signal #60, it is time to pull over on a side rail and stop for a few minutes. 


Suddenly you see it -- the "locomotive" of the other train coming in from the opposite direction, heading east up to Jerusalem.


The other train whooshes by!
Then we get back on the main track and resume our journey westward toward the Mediterranean.
This is called a passing loop (UK usage) or a passing siding (US).


 I like the sharp curves like this that let you see the front part of your own train.
The train does a lot of meandering and you hear and feel the clack clack as it rounds the bends. 
In this wild and secluded section of Nahal Soreq (the Brook of Soreq), the mountains on both sides of the narrow valley and the stream below did not leave room for the railway builders in the 1880s to build more than a single track.
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See more about this beautiful journey in yesterday's post.
And another post about A bridge over the river Soreq.
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8 comments:

  1. They share the same track? That sounds rather scary to me.

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  2. It happens here as well with our commuter train- there are a couple of spots where you have parallel tracks and two trains pass each other by going opposite ways.

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  3. Enjoying this train journey very much, Dina. Good Shabbos

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  4. In Poland this situation was common in the past but now only i countryside

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  5. Goodness me Dina, have there been any unfortunate accidents on this single track? I haven't been on a long train journey for so long, must do something about that!

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  6. Kay and PerthDP shalom. I checked here:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Railways#Notable_accidents

    and found two head-on collisions since 1963, but not on the Jerusalem line. Miraculously no one was killed.
    In 2013, however, a Beer Sheva-bound train ran into and killed 14 camels.

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  7. We never ride trains any more here in the South of the U.S.A. but I remember what fun it was when I was young.A lot of people came out to see the last trip a steam engine made in our part of the south years ago.

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  8. Quite complicated and a bit dangerous...

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