Yesterday, officials with Sondia’s Federal Consolidated Railways (Ferrocarriles Consolidados de la Republica) stated in a press conference that the Sondian rail system has reached approximately 110% capacity, and that upgrades to existing equipment had reached fever pitch, with new orders being placed almost every other day. One of Sondia’s smaller northeastern cities, San Martin, has received a lot of attention recently, as the local government implemented several tax hikes to pay for upgrading the existing local network. Pictures from the city’s rail corridors were released at the press conference mentioned above.
An intermodal train heads southeast on the non-electrified western line.
An oil train rolls along the electrified Los Palacios corridor, which stretches between San Martin in the south and Los Palacios in the north, near the Dertinian border.
A view of the high-speed intercity line connecting Los Palacios and San Martin, with the oil train and intermodal train in the background.
A mail train behind a demonstrator locomotive from Robinson Global Enterprises overtakes the intermodal train. This shot shows off FCR’s strange policy of painting individual batches of locomotive orders in often radically different liveries.
The pair of C-CM62-B1 electric locomotives powering the oil train roll underneath the north bridge, which carries the Boca Del Mar line over both the Los Palacios corridor and the western trunk line.
A commuter train powered by a new Tenya Electric locomotive waits patiently at a suburban commuter station, with part of the San Martin skyline in the background.
A westbound express charges north along the western trunk line as a local passenger train takes the Boca Del Mar line to the west.
A closer view of the RGE locomotive providing the motive power for the express.
An example of FCR’s most common single locomotive type, the H-CF30 or Class 28, throttles up in anticipation of the run-up to the north bridge.
An intercity trainset glides over the San Martin river. The bridge that carries the intercity line over the river is one of the first things that San Martin’s government has stated they will replace.
The McLane warehouse in the San Martin industrial park. An FCR will shortly pick these boxcars up and take them to San Martin yard to be sorted into a train.
The grain port of San Martin.
San Martin has a very large lumber port, and it is seen here.
The entrance to San Martin yard. This yard sorts goods from the docks and from other industries around the city, and puts them into trains which then go to FCR’s northeast classification yard to be resorted and sent to their final destination.
An electric-powered express whisks by the commuter train we saw earlier.
The mail train and the western express meet. The intermodal train will soon follow.
Another shot of the meet.
The intermodal train follows the mail train south.
The southbound oil train rolls by on the corridor as the three trains meet on the trunk line.
The northbound express blasts by the oil train.
Both the mail train and the westbound express have now cleared the trunk line, and the oil train clears the center track of the corridor.
The power car of the express passes the camera. FCR has only recently started ordering locomotives with head-end power, and power cars are now only used on the most prestigious of trains.
The intercity trainset now roars past the camera.
The intermodal train rolls smoothly into town, passing the still stopped commuter train.
The engineer of the intermodal train plays catch-up with the tail of the mail train as they approach the San Martin river.
The northbound express blasts through another suburban commuter station.
The southbound oil train crosses the San Martin.
The eastbound passenger local now crosses the corridor as the commuter train accelerates.
The tail of the eastbound crosses the bridge as the commuter train rolls by the camera.
A final shot of the commuter train.
Officials declined to comment on when upgrade programs might be completed.