The small station of Högboda serves a tiny village - but it features its own coop grocery store. In the middle of nowhere! 🤯 We didn't complain, this was ideal to stock up on food, as the weather was about to clear up and it looked like this would going to be a long evening.
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Too bad, as Regina showed up as well and, of course, a fika break was held.
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Hector came to say hello at our next photo spot. The sun, that old grump, however preferred not to take part in this gathering. Too bad.
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Interestingly, apart from a northbound empty train, no more freight? Maybe a maintenance time window?
Anyway, after a lunch break at lake Värmeln, we're back for the next train. Great that Värmlandstrafik's fantastic branding is now also applied on trains! 🥰
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No timetabled passenger trains for nearly two hours now. Bad for us, as we'd like to get to a spot a few dozen kilometres south. Good for us, because that gap looked very much like a freight train window, and sure enough, the level crossing bell rang barely 10 minutes later.
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Emergency photo spot at the level crossing. I was grumpy, the light couldn't have been any worse. But SJ’s black Intercity trains are kind of a supernatural phenomena. No matter how rubbish the light is – like here, straight against the midday sun – you still manage to get a shot.
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Back to last week’s trip, when the pace of our assimilation into Swedish culture started to become mildly worrying: We were now staying in a stuga, and I’d swapped my classic croissant breakfast for an ostfralla. 😱
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Ok, quick nerd spin-off of #HullerOmBullar. I made this remark about the track layout at Uppsala C earlier and I'd like to elaborate on this.
Mini thread.🧵👇

After Kil, the Värmlansbanan curves through a hilly landscape with countless lakes. The sun has just set and all is illuminated by a magical light! 🥰
Fortunately, we can enjoy this a little longer as we (again!) don't cross the border to Norway and leave the train at Arvika.
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A quiet and cozy ride in a comfortable seat through beautiful landscape in the soft late afternoon light. This is exactly how I like my train trips! 🥰
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And then, finally, a good train! We're on SJ's old but very cozy loco hauled Intercity service towards Oslo. The train features a bistro car, coffee supply is provided. 🥰
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Today's meetings do look more interesting and we pondered on popping in to hold an impromptu talk on how to build an integrated clockface timetable. 😁
Instead, we took the train down to Stockholm for a fika to try Vete-Katten's seasonal Höstbulle. Ok, but not as good as the classics.
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Back to town with the bus and a short walk through lovely Uppsala with its huge Domkyrka to Ofvandahls Bakery, a recommendation by a local Mastodon user, to get some bullar for later. I didn't expect much, but Uppsala really is a lovely city! 😊
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And finally: The Mälartåg Regina! 🥰 The company operates nine of these 2-car units alongside their 53 ER1 double deck trains. They're among the few Reginas without any unpainted metallic parts. So far, we've only spotted these ones on the Eskilstuna - Uppsala route via Sala.
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Swedish priorities! 🇸🇪☕️
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Monday morning. The Mälartåg Regina are back in service, which means we have a task left before we leave. ☝️ We take the Citybus by Gamla Uppsala Bus, which is not Gamla at all and again in an impeccable Länstrafik branding, and go for a little walk through a forest.
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Back to the next village and "home" to Uppsala. I didn't expect to find #NeonSweden content in a 800 inhabitants countryside village!
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Change of spots to avoid the freshly ploughed field. I totally forgot how long the shadows already are up here at this time of the year. And of course you get sunlight when you don't want it, so it was rather a close call for the Snälltåget train at around five.
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I really wanted to get an X2000 in full sun here. Not only this wasn't going to happen - things got even worse. 😬 A rain front came in and the farmer started to plough the field. Minutes later, we stood soaked in front of an ugly brown field. At least, we got a quite dramatic photo.
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After way too many trains passed in the shadow, timetable and a sunny spell finally matched for the SJ Intercity to Malmö. These black locos are just too bad-ass looking. 🥰
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