The Samarkand Train Station

Most of the train stations in Uzbekistan are generic in design, modern, white cube looking things that have been repeated throughout the country. Make sure you read the city sign to confirm where you are. Not so for Samarkand, which has something of a modernist statement. You have arrived!

The station is kind of monumental. Big clock tower, powerful columns with funky, splayed tops.

Funky, diamond shaped designs and an overhang that really hangs.

Columns are repeated in the main waiting area.

Interior details, round, stained glass inserts and a round opening for a stairway leading down to the tracks.

Looking a bit like a cathedral for transportation.

Meandering Maldon

Maldon is a small town in Victoria, Australia, notable for its old western feel, a leftover from the gold rush days. What else is left over?

The mines, not much left save for a few foundations of buildings and a lot of scars. Maldon has turned one mining area into a park. The centerpiece is an old smokestack.

Foundations and mining cuts, charismatic scars to history.

Near the old mines is the old train station. You gotta move it out after you dig it up. The station has a quaint, Victorian design, which the town has restored.

It's now a museum with trains scattered about and the Market man stashed around back.

A Pullman car.

Training In Japan

Japan has an amazing rail system, so many options and the ability to get most anywhere without a car. In Tokyo, the trains are everywhere. You can even sit back at a platform cafe and train watch.

Train arriving.

Details. Platform security monitors and destination information in a train car.

So disciplined in Japan, all neatly lined up for embarkation.

The station and the big city.

The Mandalay Train Station

Where's the classic colonial style vaulted main train station? Not here. The central rail depot is a station buried beneath a blah 1980s office building. It's a bit of a hardscrabble affair, not dressed up, but everywhere to go.

Looking down at the platforms.

Cargo pulling out of the station and through the gritty yard. Passengers waiting to load up.

Station cafe.

You think you're special? The train car begs to differ. The Ordinary Class on the waiting platform.

Down at the cargo end of the platform, an ad hoc playground.