Room with a view

[SantaFe1970]

An unexpected trip to Chicago last week had an unexpected bonus: the view from my 22nd floor room in the Merchandise Mart Holiday Inn, overlooking the El and Metra tracks far below, crossing the Chicago river and snaking west over the prairie... 

 

So, what's been your best experience, expected or otherwise, of a room with a (railway) view?

[railsquid]

The old decrepit apartment I had in Berlin from ca. 1995 ~ 2000 with a view over the eastern approaches to Berlin's Ostbahnhof.

[kvp]

When i was little and the area around Nyugati (western) station in Budapest was less built up, i could see the main turnout district and the signal tower from my window. People living around Deli (southern) station could see everything as the station does not have a train hall and situated on the bottom of a small valley near the castle hill in the middle of the city surrounded by residential buildings and next to a large park.

 

For other cities i did live for some time next the approach tracks of Montparnasse station in Paris.

Edited March 11, 2015 by kvp

[spacecadet]

There was a short thread about this hotel here just about a week ago, but my favorite was probably the Shinagawa Prince. I think we stayed there just because it was convenient, but we ended up with a full view of the yard and trains entering and leaving the station. I had no idea it had a view like that ahead of time.

 

This is the pic I posted in that thread - this was 2001 so my camera was not the best:

 

 

On a later trip, we went to Kyoto and we stayed at the Hotel New Miyako, which had a view of the shinkansen tracks that was good enough to be put on a magazine cover, if somebody was doing a cover story on Kyoto Station. I didn't know about that in advance either.

 

 

We were on a very low floor; up higher you'd be able to see the actual tracks, and more trains, but I actually liked being at eye level with the trains.

 

At that time they were running pretty much every major shinkansen type that ever ran on the Tokaido line (up to the 700 series) so it was fun to watch the variety.

 

Unfortunately I only have a couple pics from this angle, one with no train and this one. These days I take a lot more pics, because I always regret the pics I didn't take.

Edited March 11, 2015 by spacecadet

[JR 500系]

Thanks for sharing the pictures! Especially like the Kyoto one with the 300 series! Now that is a good place to watch the trains!

[miyakoji]

On a later trip, we went to Kyoto and we stayed at the Hotel New Miyako, which had a view of the shinkansen tracks that was good enough to be put on a magazine cover, if somebody was doing a cover story on Kyoto Station. I didn't know about that in advance either.

 

I remember standing in front of that hotel once, thinking how damn big it looked, like a Japanese Rossiya or something, a monolith. Then, inside the station on that side, I remember seeing a characterless staircase labeled "Kyoto Conductor Office" or something, I wondered what would happen if I just walked on up. I didn't have the nerve :).

[Ken Ford]

London 1975 - the window in my youth hostel window overlooked the approach to a major station. I've had a thing for British railways ever since.

[westfalen]

The view from my room at the New Miyako in Kyoto.

 

In 1990. :)

[spacecadet]

The view from my room at the New Miyako in Kyoto.

Hey, it looks like you were right on the other side of the hallway from me, about 15 years earlier :)

 

That is the view if you just turn left from the photo I posted earlier. So you were just looking in the other direction, but obviously from the same floor.

 

Interesting to see the difference before they built the new station.

[velotrain]

In 199? I took a two-week bicycle tour of the low countries, and on my last night in Amsterdam my room looked down on the main station.  I have an analog slide.

 

However, I mostly remember that night for something else.  The room had one of those TV's mounted at the ceiling, that you can only watch lying in bed - which I am not willing to do.  I went downstairs and told the desk person that I needed something from my bicycle, which was in the luggage room.  I removed my toolkit, then went back to my room and detached the TV from its support bracket, and brought it down as much as the cables would allow me.  That must have been a surprise for housekeeping in the morning.

[velotrain]

Perhaps the only thing better than a room with a view - a room with a layout.

 

No doubt some of you know where this is, or perhaps have even stayed there.

 

Now - if the room had both a view and a layout . . . . .

 

 

 

[miyakoji]

West, do you have any other pics of the station from that time? I've sometimes searched for images of the previous station building, it seems like there are not that many :(

[westfalen]

West, do you have any other pics of the station from that time? I've sometimes searched for images of the previous station building, it seems like there are not that many :(

I went through my photos from 1990, 94, 96 and 97.  I have photos of trains at Kyoto station but none of the station building itself.

[SantaFe1970]

Ken -- do you remember which London station?

 

And, on a broader track, I started this thread with my unexpected view on a trip to Chicago last week. But, now that I think about it a bit, I realize there was one view from a room that proved lastingly influential... 

 

When I was a small boy we lived, for about a year and a half, in England. One of my little school friends -- it was my first ever school experience -- was the son of a station master, and the view from his bedroom (I have a hazy memory still) was over the tracks and trains. My memory was that this family actually lived in the upper floor of the station itself. Not sure how reliable that memory is, at all. Real Thomas the Tank Engine stuff. This would have been about 1968, in or near Aldbury in Herts.

 

Lastly, I really need to stay at this New Miyako hotel in Kyoto some day.

[bikkuri bahn]

The corner twin at the Kintetsu Hotel at Kyoto Station. Very hard to get reservations, but a goal one of these days.

[bikkuri bahn]

As for an actual experience, the best was probably a stay at the Toyoko Inn at Gifu Hashima, near the Tokaido Shinkansen station.  Not particularly scenic or a good view of the tracks, but serendipity reared its head, and the stretch of track visible from my room was being worked on by a ballast renewal/tamping team.  I was up three or four hours in the early morning watching the complete process.