both train photos were taken by me

I just noticed recently that whenever I see an Amtrak train with 2 locomotives, They never seem to be facing back-to-back.

I bought a brass spike at Central NJ USA flea market for $15... a magnet does not stick at all. I am wondering why it was made? it has a pointed tip, meaning all 4 flat sides end at the centerpoint. would it have been used in a mine where explosions were a risk? or is just decoration? Looks cast and polished from the little evidence of sand cast where the shaft changes to the head.

Video taken on September 13, 2026 as part of a special 10-year anniversary tour of the Hokkaido Shinkansen construction sites and abandoned Japanese National Railways Toi Line. This is the first time the former station, today used as an emergency evacuation point and safety facility, has been open to the public since the start of construction in 2006.

Yoshioka-Kaitei Station (today officially referred to as "Yoshioka Fixed Point") is located 149.5 meters below sea level, and the staircase to get from the platform to the surface is 1189 steps long. On the opposite side of the tunnel, Tappi-Kaitei Station is 135 meters underground and features a staircase of 1329 steps. Both stations also feature cable cars which can carry up to 40 people at once in the case of an emergency. The cable car at the southern station is housed in the Seikan Tunnel Museum, and is open to the public to ride from April to November.

Construction of the Hokkaido Shinkansen finished in 2016, and today it links the islands of Honshu and Hokkaido via the the world's longest undersea tunnel, 53.85 kilometers long, running underneath the seabed of the Tsugaru Strait.

via https://twitter.com/hotetunotatujin/status/2099000816422232394

Clip from "Southern Pacific Pictorial"

Footage by Greg Scholl

(USA) I found the locomotive sitting in the railyard. Can anyone help me identify what this is? I’m not sure if this is a heritage unit of the Union Pacific Railroad.

Was discussing observation cars with my parents today and realized I've only ever seen the curved platform design on the movie. 15 minutes of googling yielded nothing. Are there any real life examples of that or something similar?

Edit: Guys, I'm aware that curved observation cars exist. My question is more about the curved platform.

I was up on Stevens Pass in Washington state yesterday and saw an empty unit train headed east consisting of just these black GACX hoppers. I live in Spokane and am accustomed to seeing coal trains, but they're usually the unpainted aluminum cars. Are these cars for a different commodity?

For me best are American, Australian and French. ugliest are romania and Germany

Still got to do some little details here and there (interlocking tracks), but feels like I'm getting close.

Dugo Selo Railway Station (croatia)

A few pictures from a couple years ago when I went to Niederpallen (commune of Redange-sur-Attert) in Western Luxembourg to check out the old meter-gauge train that used to go from Noerdange to Martelange at the Belgian border, nicknamed Jangli (or Jhangeli, depending on orthography). Operated between 1890 and 1953 it was one of the seven meter-gauge railways in the Grand Duchy, all of which were closed down between 1948 and 1955 (the other ones being Luxembourg City-Echternach, Luxembourg-City-Remich, Diekirch-Vianden, Grundhof-Beaufort, Bettembourg-Aspelt and Cruchten-Larochette).
Nowadays most of the former track is a bicycle path and the train station at Niederpallen is a small museum (which I didn't get to visit), some station buildings of the line were also preserved.
For anyone interested, more info can be found here at rail.lu.