Train of the Week

This week let's talk about a little regional DMU that we will soon be able to see/ride on in Ontario, the Coradia LINT by Alstom. LINT stands for Leichter Innovativer Nahverkehrstriebwagen, or Light Innovative Local Transport Rail Vehicle. Well, that didn't sound French at all did it... Apparently the family of DMUs was originally designed by Linke-Hofmann-Busch (LHB), a German company, which was acquired by Alstom in the 1990s. The LINT comes in 4 flavors, 27, 41, 54, and 81. Each number denotes the approximate overall length of the trainset in meters. Of the four, LINT 27 is a single car unit, and 41 is an articulated 2-car DMU sharing a single Jacobs bogie in the center. The new Ottawa O-Trains will be the Coradia LINT 41 (currently using Bombardier Talent ). LINT 41 or DB (German Railways) Class 648 Not all trucks are powered on these DMUs. The 27, 41, 54, and 81 have 1, 2, 3, and 4 powered trucks respectively. Trucks are mechanically driven by diesel engines mo...

Hey y'all. It's been a hectic week so far and I haven't had much time to put much thought into the blog this week. So I'll share with y'all a website I've recently discovered but haven't either had the chance to go through carefully. It's called BritishRailways.tv . This is a website that specialises in videos on the railroad networks of the Great Britain. From the looks of the homepage, it also has lots of films of vintage British equipment. So, have fun! Oh and don't be alarmed by my y'alls. I'm from nowhere near Texas but I do have just returned from a work trip in Greenville, Texas (I stayed near Dallas Fort Worth Airport and drove back and forth on the amazing freeways of Dallas).

This week we'll take a look at an old workhorse on commuter railroads of the Northeast. She doesn't have the looks or the glory of the more famous trainsets of North America, but for many people, life cannot go on without this stainless steel EMU. The name Silverliner has first been used by the famous Pennsylvania Railroad on new advanced stainless steel commuter EMUs ( Budd Pioneer III or PRR MP85) serving the Philadelphia area in 1958. The cars are said to have made a good impression and the name SIlverliner has been carried on as the name of the EMU herself since the Silverliner II , aka PRR MP85B (there are 5 generations to date). I'll elaborate a little more on this series, i.e. the Budd Silverliner or Silverliner II, in this post. The letterboard still says Pennsylvania on the ex-PRR units on the SEPTA The Silverliner II first saw service in 1963 and a total of 59 cars (55 for the PRR and Reading, 4 for the USDOT for high-speed rail research) were bu...

This week let's tall about this EMU some Big Bang Theory fans may recall from the opening. You may remember the red nose and slender body of this 7-car trainset. Still doesn't ring a bell? Well, maybe this picture below will remind you. She's the ICN , InterCity-Neigezug (inter city tilt train), or RABDe 500 by SBB-CFF-FFS designation. Technically she is half Italian, with exterior design by Pinifarina, and tilting mechanism by Fiat (right, builder of Pendolino, later absorbed by Alstom). The rest of her is genuine Swiss engineering, by Adtranz in Zurich, now part of Bombardier. The ICN serves several lines in Switzerland and can be seen in all major cities. The 8 traction motors equipped in the end 4 cars produce a total of 6,970 horsepower and the ICN achieves a top speed of 125 mph where track speed permits. A total of 44 sets have been built and put in service between 2000 and 2005. The ICN tilting around a curve