4 ms·

You know what? I'm sometimes wondering why I can't see any picture of something I've experienced while I traveled by train from Bonn, Germany to Madrid, Spain t

You know what? I'm sometimes wondering why I can't see any picture of something I've experienced while I traveled by train from Bonn, Germany to Madrid, Spain to visit my best buddy, who moved away to there with his parents. For my summer holidays, about 1980 or so. Alone. For two days on the trains! Yay! What I will never forget was while I had to take the Metro in Paris to switch from one terminal station to another, the Metro rode trough some subterran depot/switching yard, which was a large rectangular hall, at least several 100 meters long, almost 100 wide, and 10s of meters high. Dark. Except for the signals, warning-lights, whatever in orange, white, yellow, red, green, blue lining all tracks and the ramps going up and down into and out of it. I'll never forget that, because it was so unexpected. Almost like the glide-path indicators during night approaching large airports, as seen from the cockpit. But below the ground. And not old and grimy at all. Modern, light concrete. Really very 'spacy'. Maybe because it would be unwise to go there, because not abandoned? Anyways, at the times I rode through there it was empty, no other trains at all. Just the blank tracks and switches reflecting all those colored lights and signals. I really wonder what and where exactly that was.

oliv__ 5y ago
Maybe near Nation?
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
  I can't tell anymore. I didn't even take the Metro initially because according to the city maps/plans I had, I thought I would just walk. Then I got lost and tired with two suitcases after walking through some busisness district with tall high-rises and colored glass facades(blue, green, bronze/golden, darkgray) and given up. I wanted to see the Eiffel-Tower, but didn't. That made me angry and feel stupid at the times :-) However, I needed to catch my train from the other terminus, so I capitulated and took the metro from some other large station which I can't remember anymore. What I do remember was desperation with the ticket machine there with instructions I couldn't really read at the time. Been lucky because there were some tourists there who spoke german, and they helped me with the thing. (Bling! Multipass!) Arrived at Gare du Nord, had to go to some other 'Gare' which I also can't remember anymore. But at that time the trains to Spain over Hendaye/Irun departed from there. Which meanwhile changed, I guess.
johncoltrane 5y ago
I can think of one such place, a three tracks layup on the so-called "Boucle des Invalides". It is used everyday to park trains from the line 13 between rush hours but I don't remember it being used for normal traffic. Maybe back when Invalides was the terminus of line 13, but that would put us back to circa 75-76. You can _sort of_ "see" it in this very dark video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IzCeoqn3B8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IzCeoqn3B8. As for UE worthiness, I can certainly imagine someone doing long exposure shots down there, and capture the kind of impression you got, but it probably lacks the mystique of ghost stations and secret places you can feel in the parent article.
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
  Thank You for looking/thinking. I watched the video, but that wasn't in it, not even close. As to the UE worthiness, I don't know. It really 'flashed' me at the time. No long exposure needed. Just the movement. Had to be Sunday, late morning/early noon because i took a night train from Bonn/Cologne with sleeper cars(didn't slee at all!) over Belgium, where I only remember Liège and Charleroi, and nothing else until Paris. Can't remember exactly anymore how much time I wasted on foot in the city. Had to catch the train to Madrid over Hendaye/Irun in something like late noon, 14:xx. So that was the timeframe. I remember feeling hot from schlepping two suitcases for several kilometers, crisscrossing Paris while the weather was good. Had to be June/July, otherwise no summer holidays :-) Imagine sitting almost alone in the cab, on the right side. Driving trough some tunnel, suddenly going down noticably, which opens to some sort of ramp on the right side, where you can see a large open hall with almost no columns, dozens of tracks, at least several football fields long. On the opposite side also a ramp, also descending to the other side of the field of tracks. The ramps illuminated by orange lights spaced maybe 2 to 3 meters apart, on the ground, besides the tracks. In the 'field' between the dozen of parallel tracks elevated ways of metal mesh(gridiron?). Crossing the field of tracks on both ends and in the middle diagonal tracks and switches, making something like three X-es over that. Almost all metal surfaces shiny, reflecting. All the colored signals which were also there, mostly on the ground besides the tracks, some on poles between the tracks, some on the walls where the ramps come down. You moving from the left side, through the middle X to the right side, maybe for half a minute to short of a minute. All the lights and signals changing their reflections. Turning around, looking to the left side. Seeing the same play of reflections there. Another tunnel exiting from the middle of the field between the two end ramps. All rather dark if not for the signals and orange lights lining all tracks. Thinking... "Whoa! What was that?!" while moving up the ramp on the right side into another tunnel. So that had to be some deep place, because at least the ramps on both ends on both sides descended down into it for at least two floors, and it had one tunnel in the middle of one end which I couldn't see much of, but it seemed level, no grade. Anyways, I think I'll search for Paris Metro subterran infrastructure/depot/switching yard, or something like that. Das lässt mir keine Ruhe! (deepl.com) Ça ne me laissera pas un instant de répit ! That gives me no peace!

oliv__ 5y ago

Maybe near Nation?

LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
I can't tell anymore. I didn't even take the Metro initially because according to the city maps/plans I had, I thought I would just walk. Then I got lost and tired with two suitcases after walking through some busisness district with tall high-rises and colored glass facades(blue, green, bronze/golden, darkgray) and given up. I wanted to see the Eiffel-Tower, but didn't. That made me angry and feel stupid at the times :-) However, I needed to catch my train from the other terminus, so I capitulated and took the metro from some other large station which I can't remember anymore. What I do remember was desperation with the ticket machine there with instructions I couldn't really read at the time. Been lucky because there were some tourists there who spoke german, and they helped me with the thing. (Bling! Multipass!) Arrived at Gare du Nord, had to go to some other 'Gare' which I also can't remember anymore. But at that time the trains to Spain over Hendaye/Irun departed from there. Which meanwhile changed, I guess.

johncoltrane 5y ago

I can think of one such place, a three tracks layup on the so-called "Boucle des Invalides". It is used everyday to park trains from the line 13 between rush hours but I don't remember it being used for normal traffic. Maybe back when Invalides was the terminus of line 13, but that would put us back to circa 75-76. You can _sort of_ "see" it in this very dark video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IzCeoqn3B8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IzCeoqn3B8. As for UE worthiness, I can certainly imagine someone doing long exposure shots down there, and capture the kind of impression you got, but it probably lacks the mystique of ghost stations and secret places you can feel in the parent article.

LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
Thank You for looking/thinking. I watched the video, but that wasn't in it, not even close. As to the UE worthiness, I don't know. It really 'flashed' me at the time. No long exposure needed. Just the movement. Had to be Sunday, late morning/early noon because i took a night train from Bonn/Cologne with sleeper cars(didn't slee at all!) over Belgium, where I only remember Liège and Charleroi, and nothing else until Paris. Can't remember exactly anymore how much time I wasted on foot in the city. Had to catch the train to Madrid over Hendaye/Irun in something like late noon, 14:xx. So that was the timeframe. I remember feeling hot from schlepping two suitcases for several kilometers, crisscrossing Paris while the weather was good. Had to be June/July, otherwise no summer holidays :-) Imagine sitting almost alone in the cab, on the right side. Driving trough some tunnel, suddenly going down noticably, which opens to some sort of ramp on the right side, where you can see a large open hall with almost no columns, dozens of tracks, at least several football fields long. On the opposite side also a ramp, also descending to the other side of the field of tracks. The ramps illuminated by orange lights spaced maybe 2 to 3 meters apart, on the ground, besides the tracks. In the 'field' between the dozen of parallel tracks elevated ways of metal mesh(gridiron?). Crossing the field of tracks on both ends and in the middle diagonal tracks and switches, making something like three X-es over that. Almost all metal surfaces shiny, reflecting. All the colored signals which were also there, mostly on the ground besides the tracks, some on poles between the tracks, some on the walls where the ramps come down. You moving from the left side, through the middle X to the right side, maybe for half a minute to short of a minute. All the lights and signals changing their reflections. Turning around, looking to the left side. Seeing the same play of reflections there. Another tunnel exiting from the middle of the field between the two end ramps. All rather dark if not for the signals and orange lights lining all tracks. Thinking... "Whoa! What was that?!" while moving up the ramp on the right side into another tunnel. So that had to be some deep place, because at least the ramps on both ends on both sides descended down into it for at least two floors, and it had one tunnel in the middle of one end which I couldn't see much of, but it seemed level, no grade. Anyways, I think I'll search for Paris Metro subterran infrastructure/depot/switching yard, or something like that. Das lässt mir keine Ruhe! (deepl.com) Ça ne me laissera pas un instant de répit ! That gives me no peace!