Just a few days after they released Google Street View imagery in the Amazon, Google has now released imagery of the Swiss Alps aboard a Rhaetian Railway train.
Capturing this imagery was likely easier than capturing the Amazon imagery (or other creative Street View tools like the Street View snowmobile), because they were simply able to load the Street View Trike onto a flatbed train car and capture the imagery that way. The result is quite awesome, and here’s a video showing how they did it:
To see this new imagery for yourself, you can visit the Swiss Alps section of the Street View gallery, or fly there and see it in Google Earth by using this KML file.
If you’ve not used Street View mode in Google Earth before, here are some tips to get you started.(via Google Lat Long Blog)
About Mickey Mellen
Mickey has been using Google Earth since it was released in 2005, and has created a variety of geo-related sites including Google Earth Hacks. He runs a web design firm in Marietta, GA, where he lives with his wife and two kids.
Nice – something special.
Whats about other ways? They should mount it on a narrowboat and do the British waterways or Canal du Midi, or Venice, or Amsterdam…
Now, that’s a beautiful way to offer glimpses of society and cultures from around the world. Awesome!
A welcome addition to Street View, but it took some time to go live after the first publicity, and it’s a pity that some imagery is shot into a low sun.
It’s slow going if you use the normal navigation to travel along the line, and Street View is rather better for following tram lines along city streets if you like that sort of thing.
I’ve just started looking through the panos. A LOT of photos near Ospizio Bernina have been removed. I’m guessing, based on the remaining photos, Google might not have bothered to blur faces. Very disappointing having to navigate through one “this photo no longer available” to another. Hopefully, they’ll blur and get them back online asap.
I hope they’ll soon include railways in the US as well as around the world. This would be a boon to model railroad modelers as well as travelers.
I found another train journey in Street View, from the Railway Station of Poroy near Cusco in Peru all the way to Aguas Calientes (near Machu Picchu).
From Aguas Calientes there is a beautiful walkway Street View to Machu Picchu it self.
In Estación Poroy (Poroy Railway Station) it is also possible to have a look inside some rail coaches !
I suspect more such “train rides” are possible in Street View, but how to find them, is there some kind of list of these railway lines ?