AUG 8, 15 .. THE MONGOLIAN RAILWAY .. PART 2

This so-called ‘language thing’ can really be cunning .. baffling .. powerful. Because of all the riding-around-town that I have done in the past 2+ weeks .. I KNEW .. because I had seen them myself and made a mental note of them .. that somewhere near the downtown area of Ulaanbaatar there was a display of railway engines. The operative word here is engines.

When I was talking with the nice lady in the Station Master’s Office ..

I asked her .. “Where is the display of the railway engines? It seems to me that they are around here somewhere close.”

She looked at me with a totally blank look. I repeated myself .. “The railway engines.”

What-to-do?  I got out my camera and I showed her a photo of one of the engines that I had taken.

“Oh!” .. she smiled up at me .. “The LOCOMOTIVES are up the street in front of us about two kilometers!”

The left balloon is the railway station .. The upper right balloon is the Post Office .. The lower right balloon is where the .. taa-daa .. LOCOMOTIVES are on display.

“Changer before we get to the post office .. Will you please show me where the railway LOCOMOTIVES are on display?” ..

“Sure Kanbaatar they are right-on-our-way.”

Here we go loop-de-loop .. Here we go loop-de-li .. Here we go loop-de-loop on a sunny and lovely Saturday morning ..

I shot all of these photos from outside of the fence. We could not get inside of the fence to walk on the sidewalk you see above and below. Had we been able to get inside of the fence we could have gotten much closer to the LOCOMOTIVES ..

The below photos began at the far end of the display. We then worked-our-way back up to where we were standing above.

What do you call the below unit?  I call it a steam engine .. I don’t call it a steam locomotive.

Notice the Mongolian Horses on the fence above! Such a handsome fellow this steam engine / locomotive is! How about this .. it is a steam powered locomotive!

I wish I had some details on each. Changer told me several facts but I did not write them down.

The below locomotive .. because in my mind it looks more like a SWITCH ENGINE than an over-the-line locomotive .. is another reason for my calling them all engines!!

I imagine I could get into a real debate about this .. But neither of these two seem to me to be over-the-line locomotives.

Well! Well! What have we below? On Tuesday August the 11th .. Several days after I published this Post .. I was waiting to board my train .. The Mongolian / Siberian Express to travel North from Ulaanbaatar to Sukhbaatar on the Russian Border .. when what to my wondering eyes should appear but the below SWITCH ENGINE!!  Now there is no doubt in my mind that the above two engines are indeed over-the-line locomotives.

“Hi Dad .. Aren’t I cute Dad?” .. /SIGNED/ .. THE REAL LITTLE SWITCH ENGINE THAT COULD !

Hello Mister Switch Engine Engineer ..

I find it very interesting that both the museum engine and the above and the below currently active engines are painted blue with yellow trim. The below engine photo was taken in Suhkbaatar several hundred road-miles North of Ulaanbaatar so it is not just the Ulaanbaatar railroad yard that uses these colors on their engines.

In the lower right of the below photo you can see an informational plaque.

Yes .. as you will see more clearly further below .. that IS an image of Joseph Stalin on the front of the below locomotive. Changer pointed out to me that it was built in Russia.

Unmistakable image of Joseph Stalin. Both above and below you can see informational plaques.

Each certainly has its very own personality!

A real classic below.

The below magnificent locomotive is my very favorite of those on display. It reminds me of the distinctive looking locomotives that pulled the Hiawathas .. a fleet of named passenger trains popular when I was a child. They were based in Chicago and Minneapolis – St. Paul and served the Midwestern and Western United States. I have a photo of myself in front of one of these locomotives taken when I was about five-years-old. I rode the train on a long run out West with my mother. The current-day Amtrak service has a train they call the Hiawatha. GOOGLE AND WIKIPEDIA I JUST LOVE YOU BOTH.

Thank You So Very Much Changer for this tour.

Here we go loop-de-loop .. Here we go loop-de-li .. Here we go loop-de-loop YES by now it is on a Saturday night here in Ulaanbaatar Mongolia.

Over And Out .. Cap ..

• ← AUG 6, 15 .. THE MONGOLIAN RAILWAY .. PART 1
• AUG 10, 15 .. DEEP BREATH .. HOLD IT .. DRAMA .. →