What countries are we from?

[disturbman]

Yes, we had a russian but it's been long time I saw Vadim connected. I also don't think we have any active spanish forumer. Language is clearly a big barrier here.

I don't think we have so many regulars that are not english native speaker.

[qwertyaardvark]

I guess I'll be one of the few Southerners to post!

Born and raised in Houston, TX as second-generation immigrant Filipino child till end of high school (live a few miles from UP track, and we have METROrail trams, aka "Wham Bam Trams"), did undergrad in Terre Haute, IN for 3 years (a freight railroad hub), spent two years and counting in Atlanta, GA (live a few miles from NS freight/intermodal yard, subway/elevated MARTA). Plans to move back to and find employment in Houston, TX upon graduation, where, upon infusion of capital funds or taxpayer money, and since Houston badly needs mass transit, I will build my heavy-rail mass-transit empire...  1:1 scale anyone?

As far as languages go: English, can only listen to Tagalog (main Filipino dialect), and have been studying Japanese for 4 years and gotten up to well-to-do-off-tourist/dysfunctional-citizen level  

[Bernard]

Dont we also have some one from Russia?
No one from Africa yet (unless you count my ancestral home) or South America.

Yes we do, Vadimav is from Russia and still lives there.

[Lawrence]

Graham - I wonder if you know a good friend of mine who is a GWR fanatic, you will find him on http://yourmodelrailway.net/, old bugger called Jeff from Risca!!

[to2leo]

I guess I'll be one of the few Southerners to post!

Born and raised in Houston, TX as second-generation immigrant Filipino child till end of high school (live a few miles from UP track, and we have METROrail trams, aka "Wham Bam Trams"), did undergrad in Terre Haute, IN for 3 years (a freight railroad hub), spent two years and counting in Atlanta, GA (live a few miles from NS freight/intermodal yard, subway/elevated MARTA). Plans to move back to and find employment in Houston, TX upon graduation, where, upon infusion of capital funds or taxpayer money, and since Houston badly needs mass transit, I will build my heavy-rail mass-transit empire...  1:1 scale anyone?

As far as languages go: English, can only listen to Tagalog (main Filipino dialect), and have been studying Japanese for 4 years and gotten up to well-to-do-off-tourist/dysfunctional-citizen level  

Hey qwertyaardvark, are you an aspiring transit planner or an engineer?
My undergrad was in urban planning.

[qwertyaardvark]

Hey qwertyaardvark, are you an aspiring transit planner or an engineer?
My undergrad was in urban planning.

I am indeed an engineer. Two types in fact: did my undergrad in Mechanical Enigneering, and currently doing my graduate in Industrial Engineering. Neither of which is apparently used in determining where track is laid. Upon graduation, I seem hell bent on working for some sort of railroad, most likely in operations/logistics: UP in nebraska, BNSF in dallas, NS in the east, or might even work for METROrail here in houston to bring me one step closer to my dream railroad empire. I realize though now that if i wanted to do public transit i should have gone your route in Urban planning or something Civil engineering related. Alas, hindsight is 20/20, so I'll go with what i have and hope for the best :)

I take it as a fair assumption you work in urban planning? If you do, I am curious as to what kind of work urban planning entails. What kind of projects have you worked on? are working on? ^_^

[bikkuri bahn]

Let's have some left coast love here....Snohomish Wash., about 30 minutes north of Seattle, Washington, 90 minutes South of Canada.

Nice to know there a few railfans hailing from the west coast here.  For all the bragging the west coast does about being on the Pacific Rim and being "the future", there seem to be precious few railfans there interested in railways outside of UP, BNSF (i.e. freight) and transit (zzzzzz....).  In fact, I find east coast based fans are more receptive to overseas railways- perhaps because of the relatively greater role of pax rail there and the (relative) proximity of Europe?  Anyway, one of the things I like about this forum vis-a-vis the North American forums is the diversity of members, with lots of open minded Europeans and Aussies, rather than provincial Americans, present company excepted

[scott]

UP, BNSF (i.e. freight) (ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzSnark!zzzzzzz!!" and transit (zzzzzz....). 

Fixed that for you....   

[ChrisWV10]

What a diverse bunch!   

Home is now Wolverhampton, UK but has been ... all over Essex, Soest (Germany), Blandford (Dorset), Minden (Germany), Pembroke (Wales) Pontypridd (Wales) London (Centre of the known universe  ) and a few not-very-memorable others...

[Bernard]

What a diverse bunch!   

Home is now Wolverhampton, UK but has been ... all over Essex, Soest (Germany), Blandford (Dorset), Minden (Germany), Pembroke (Wales) Pontypridd (Wales) London (Centre of the known universe  ) and a few not-very-memorable others...

Chris - Out of curiosity what is your profession?

[ChrisWV10]

Now I'm an accountant but have been in systems management and pub licensee. The frequent moves were because I was an army brat.

[westfalen]

What a diverse bunch!   

Home is now Wolverhampton, UK but has been ... all over Essex, Soest (Germany), Blandford (Dorset), Minden (Germany), Pembroke (Wales) Pontypridd (Wales) London (Centre of the known universe  ) and a few not-very-memorable others...

Chris - Out of curiosity what is your profession?

This might be another interesting topic for a thread, my guess is our occupations would be as diverse as where we live.

[jappomania]

Hi!
I think I'm the lonely from Italy, and sincerly I think no more than 10-20 people seriously collect Japanese train here...
(but maybe someone of you have italian blood???)

ciao
Massimo

[Bernard]

Chris - Out of curiosity what is your profession?

This might be another interesting topic for a thread, my guess is our occupations would be as diverse as where we live.
[/quote]

Great idea, Alvin. Would you mind being the author of the new thread?

[grumbeast]

Hi Lawrence,

 no I don't know that particular Jeff (though I do have one of my own!!).  Its perfectly natural for anyone from South Wales to be a GWR fan!, how can you not be!.  I have a family connection, my Great Uncle Arthur was the Signalman at Pencoed box, here's an old family photo (I know its not Japanese.. but hey its still trains!)  My Mother remembers staying at his house (the signalman's cottage) and being able to reach out of her window and actually touch the trains (I was there as a little boy too and she was telling the truth!!!)

Graham - I wonder if you know a good friend of mine who is a GWR fanatic, you will find him on http://yourmodelrailway.net/, old bugger called Jeff from Risca!!

[grumbeast]

What were you doing in Ponty Chris?

  were you at the University?  I spent geez.. I guess 8 years there between my undergrad and doctoral work.

Graham

What a diverse bunch!   

Home is now Wolverhampton, UK but has been ... all over Essex, Soest (Germany), Blandford (Dorset), Minden (Germany), Pembroke (Wales) Pontypridd (Wales) London (Centre of the known universe  ) and a few not-very-memorable others...

[disturbman]

I think I'm the lonely from Italy, and sincerly I think no more than 10-20 people seriously collect Japanese train here...
(but maybe someone of you have italian blood???)

To my knowledge you are the only italian here. But I might have, among other things (some times, crazy people think I have something Japanese or Arab in me  ), some italian blood. A good deal of my familly is from Savoy.... and my actual girlfriend is half French (from Nizza)/half Italian (from Sardegna and Roma).

[ChrisWV10]

What were you doing in Ponty Chris?

  were you at the University?  I spent geez.. I guess 8 years there between my undergrad and doctoral work.

Graham

Well, it was the Polytechnic of Wales when I was there 83-88. Happy days!

[alpineaustralia]

I think I'm the lonely from Italy,

I guess I am also the only Arabic speaker amongst us aswell.

[Lawrence]

Graham - would you mind if I forwarded that picture to 'my' Jeff, he would love that sort of thing 

[grumbeast]

Lawrence,

 Not at all!! please do, tell him its Pencoed crossing Box, probably in the 50s.

Chris, it was the Poly of Wales when I was there too (actually it was the Poly during my undergrad and the University of Glamorgan during my postgrad :)

Graham

[angusmclean]

Must be the furthest south, bottom of New Zealand. Firefighter for most of my life.

Angus

[IST]

And I'm from a small contry from Central-Europe: Hungary. I have been living in the capital Budapest since 6 years, but before that in a smaller city: Székesfehérvár. How would you pronounce it? 
I attached a picture which was taken in Székesfehérvár at 17-05-2003.

[IST]

Must be the furthest south, bottom of New Zealand. Firefighter for most of my life.

3 years ago I spent two weeks there because my wife's sister married with a New Zealand guy. We were in Auckland, but in the next day of wedding I flew to Wellington for one day just because of one reason: there are Hungarian EMUs and I had to try travelling with it. 

[Nozomi]

I live in Zurich, Switzerland which is home to this train-station:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%BCrich_Hauptbahnhof

My place is just a 10 minute walk from the station.....

[Mudkip Orange]

I live in Zurich, Switzerland which is home to this train-station:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%BCrich_Hauptbahnhof

My place is just a 10 minute walk from the station.....

The trackwork around that station would make a most excellent minirail layout.

[to2leo]

I live in Zurich, Switzerland which is home to this train-station:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%BCrich_Hauptbahnhof

My place is just a 10 minute walk from the station.....

I was there with my travel buddy back in 2007 staying for a nite before heading off to Germany.  Zurich is such a nice city with excellent train and tram services.  The city is also very walkable and compact.

[westfalen]

I live in Zurich, Switzerland which is home to this train-station:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%BCrich_Hauptbahnhof

My place is just a 10 minute walk from the station.....

When I visited in 2008.

[Toni Babelony]

Ehrm, I don't think I've posted in this thread before, so here it goes.

I was born in Utrecht, the Netherlands. At my 18th I moved to Leiden to study Japanology. After two years I left, because of the appalling education situation there, for Bonn, Germany. Now I've finished studying Japanese and switched to Asian Religious and Religious Art Studies where I'm intend to write my BA as well. After that I'll be moving back to the Netherlands.

The place where I now live is the old station building from Buschdorf on the line 16 (ex-Rheinbahn from the KBE) from the SWB and KVB. Every 20/30 mins. a direct connection to Bonn and Cologne and a few supermarkets nearby to boost. A quiet neighbourhood, so not much to complain

Ah yes, attached is a photograph of the station around 1963, when it was still in function.

[scott]

The trackwork around that station would make a most excellent minirail layout.

Imagine trying to do that as a physical layout--you'd have to buy stock in your favorite model-track maker, and rent a warehouse!

Reminds me of the guy who modelled Stuttgart HBf in N scale:

http://www.freymodell.de/1.html

The place where I now live is the old station building from Buschdorf on the line 16 (ex-Rheinbahn from the KBE) from the SWB and KVB. Every 20/30 mins. a direct connection to Bonn and Cologne and a few supermarkets nearby to boost. A quiet neighbourhood, so not much to complain

Any apartments available in your building?  ;-)