Morning Mist

I drove my daughter to school at about eight. There was mist in the air. Quite a lot of it actually. The nights are getting longer and colder. We're clearly into the tail end of the summer. We had a couple of days of hot weather (about 30 C) a week ago on Thursday and Friday. Since then, it's been pretty normal at around 20-25 C in the afternoon. I drove to Lake Mytäjäinen, the same lake I went for a swim in last Friday, close to the city centre on the way home. The lake, or pond really, is very close to the railway. I walked on the south side of the lake to take a few photos of the railway and some train cars parked on the side tracks.

Lake Mytäjäinen

Mallards. Despite the prohibition to feed birds these guys look quite fat. They were in no particular hurry to get out of my way.

This is a public road right next to the southern edge of Mytäjäinen. What you're looking at is the main railway. No fences here at all.

Do you find the black and white version better?

You can barely see Mytäjäinen.

B&W. Better?

Some tens of meters toward the railway station there were switches on the side of the road. The yellow ones are new and the gray ones are old. They're being replaced according to a schedule. I had a chat with a man who was replacing an utility pole nearby.

One of the new ones. It doesn't look brand new at all. But I'm just repeating what the utility pole guy told me.

One of the older ones.

The guy taking down the utility pole was driving that lorry. When I was photographing the train cars on the right he struck up a conversation with me. I thought he'd tell me that what I was doing was forbidden and that I should bugger off. But no. He asked me if I were some kind of hobbyist. We had a surprisingly long conversation. I could be imagining things but it appeared as if the employees had been instructed to keep an eye on civilians showing interest in things in the rail yard. That road is public and part of the street network of Lahti and I had every right to be there, though.

Which version do you prefer?

I prefer the black and white versions.

It wasn't really that long, maybe 5-7 cars. But the mist makes it look like it continued forever.

Those cars are Russian. The utility pole man thought they were probably used for transporting coal. There is a coal mine in Vorkuta just north of the Ural mountains and the arctic circle about 2500 km from here.

On the way back to my car, I walked down to the lake shore and found this metal part leaning against a platform. It looks like part of a train wheel. It looks very rusty.

Here's a close-up of one of the rusty parts. Notice the cobweb.