Netherlands: the whole country is a hot spot!

That most iconic of Dutch trains, a Koploper, slowing for the station in the mid-sized city of Amersfoort, Netherlands. Rachel and I visited the Netherlands in early June for a rail safety conference. Steps away from our hotel in Amersfoort, 15 or 20 minutes of trackside loitering yielded eight or so trains in glorious late afternoon light. We rode a train very similar to this directly from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam to Amersfoort.

A Bombardier TRAXX locomotive in the colors of Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS, the national railway of the Netherlands) pushing a passenger train out of Rotterdam station. I liked the NS TRAXX so much, I bought Arnold's N scale digital version as souvenir, along with a suitcase full of Gouda cheese.

A tram in Rotterdam, just outside the train station. Rotterdam boasts beautiful green spaces, modern architecture, and like the rest of the Netherlands, bicycle paths and lanes everywhere. Tram right-of-way in Rotterdam looks like lawns with rails and overhead wire.

A westbound Koploper enters the Amersfoort station. Nary a hassle or second look from security personnel or passengers while photographing Dutch trains. 

In the Amsterdam Centraal station, a Thalys high speed train bound for points south in Belgium and France. By the way, I didn't go out of my way for any of these photos--Rachel and saw trains, trains, and more trains just minding our business as tourists.

Across the station, a Germany-bound ICE train, jointly operated by the DB (Deutsche Bahn, German railways) and NS. Both the Thalys and ICE arrive on special tracks equipped with high-voltage AC catenary. The NS system runs on 1500 VDC--like the South Shore!--and as a result, it's unusual to see electric locomotives from other AC-equipped European railways on Dutch rails.

A Valleylijn Stadler car departing Amersfoort. Valleylijn is a private railroad operating branchline passenger service in central Netherlands--a kind of latter day interurban. Had we a few more days in the Netherlands, we would have ridden the Valleylijn to Arnhem and Nijmegen to see the sites of the WWII Operation Market Garden, the allies's ill-fated push across the Rhine in September 1944, immortalized in Cornelius Ryan's book A Bridge Too Far and David Attenborough's epic film of the same name.

A Belgian TRAXX drags a grungy freight through Amersfoort. Note the four pantographs; this a dual-mode AC/DC locomotive. One of maybe three freights I saw during a week or so of intensive train riding and observation.

The purpose of the trip was an international rail safety conference, and NS staged a tour of notable grade crossings around the Amersfoort area. This particular grade crossing is a rat's nest of safety challenges: it cut through an active station, is adjacent to a school and an al fresco restaurant, and the roadway has motor vehicle, bicycle, and pedestrian lanes. NS is using some sophisticated sensoring and AI-enabled video to appropriately monitor and signal this crossing. But that wasn't what interested me most--I was intrigued by those cement arch catenary towers, which appeared to be unique to this line. Our NS host explained that this line was built in the middle of WWII when steel was in short supply, so these concrete arch bridges were used. They are currently considered 'heritage' architecture, which means that when one of them was damaged in a recent traffic incident, NS had to replace it with a custom made structure using WWII era techniques and materials.

The older iconic NS electric MU, the Hondekop, or 'Dog Face', on the museum track at Amersfoort. The banner on the side is leftover from a fan trip sponsored by Pijp-Lines, a major Dutch hobby shop. I bought Piko's N scale edition as a souvenir.  

The Hondekop is such an icon of Netherlands' beloved railroads, that this cartoon 'Dogface' is a stand-in for NS workers. This statue adorns the entrance of the NS training facility in Amersfoort, where Rachel' rail safety conference was held.