Train of the Week

What I’m blogging about today, doesn’t exactly exist in real life yet, but it’s been a while since the last time I wrote about anything British. It was just on the news , by the way. Don’t know if the little Pacer DMUs ring a bell to anyone who reads this blog, but they are literally busses on rails (bus frame plus four steel wheels). They are interesting to see, and ride once in a while. They sound like an old bus, rattle like an old bus, and the experience is quite unique. Sadly, or maybe not so to people who might be stuck with them on their commute, they are about to be replaced by new Spanish built DMUs that will enter service when Arriva (pronounced Deutschebahn) takes over the Northern franchise. The new DMU is called the Class 195, and its production has officially commenced this week. For that reason, there’s only this artist rendering which I can't share with you (but here it is in Wikipedia), but I’m sure pictures will surface when the time comes. These trains are e...

After the post on the shiny rebuilt GE road power, it's only fair to have a look into what Progress Rail has to offer on their side of the table. I'm using the company's recently-changed, formal name of course. For those who are not up-to-date on the current state of North American railroading affairs, Progress Rail is the company (owned by Caterpillar) that purchased EMD a few years ago. The SD90MAC was arguably the biggest gong show in EMD's recent memory. It happened at a time when they were comfortably resting on their laurels, unaware the fateful changes that were about to occur in the locomotive market in the not-so-distant future (they got beaten badly by GE). What was supposed to be one of the most remarkable locomotives whose presence is to grace the mainlines in modern history, turned out to be an utter disaster (I'll redirect further readings to Wikipedia). As a result, today, the number of SD90s still in operation on a Class 1 Railroad is, if not id...

Last week, I linked a couple of clips that I posted on Instagram from the Fototag at the local museum. I actually have more footage, and I briefly patched them together in iMovie, and here it is, in one video.

It was a long weekend here in Germany last week, and the Eisenbahnmuseum Bochum put on a good show to celebrate its 40-year history. Well, I confess, of course I hadn't found out about any of it until it was almost too late. Click here to view the entire album In the spirits of the East Meets West theme, many locomotives from other railway museums across Germany joined their brethren in Bochum-Dahlhausen. I attended on the extra-special day, May 1, der Fototag (Photo Day), where locomotives paraded down the track, providing lots of photo ops for foamers of all sizes and shapes. Of course, the typical Bochum-weather did not bother to show us any blue sky, but boy, do those steam locomotives look beautiful in the rain. Three pairs of diesel and three pairs of steam locomotives participated in two rounds of parades throughout the day. Each pair shared performed similar duties for the Deutsche Reichsbahn and Deutsche Bundesbahn. First was a presentation in their individualit...

Let me come back to my own side of the pond for now and write about a locomotive in the warm parts of the continents. The slight mystery surrounding them intrigues me a little, but I'm sure it's nothing a seasoned railfan can't educate me on. I shall begin by talking a little about the previous life or lives of what are known today as the MP32PH-Q. Unlike its brethren MPXpress locomotives, it is a direct re-iteration of its ancestors from MPI's Morrison-Knudsen days. By Artystyk386 - Own work , CC BY-SA 3.0 , Link When MK Rail was still a thing, they were known for rebuilding locomotives of other origins. Many transit agencies enlisted their service to provide spin-offs of the proven EMD GP38 and GP40 locomotives. Known as the GP40WH-2 in their previous life under MARC (Maryland Area Regional Commuter), the MP32PH-Q already packed lots of mileage hauling passengers under their belt. These days, they work down south, serving in Florida and soaking up all the ...

Shall we continue with the retro theme of the recent weeks? The DB Class 420 EMU screamed 1970s the very first time I laid eyes on it (not in a bad way). It's not bad looking by any means. In fact, it is actually refreshing to see something relatively old among all the shiny modern passenger equipment around me in the NRW. By Manfred Kopka - Own work , CC BY-SA 4.0 , Link Like the Class 111 locomotive featured last week, the Class 420 was developed by the Deutsche Bundesbahn for the S-Bahn service. It, however, was assigned to the S-Bahn networks of Munich, Stuttgart, and Frankfurt am Main instead. Each trainset consists of 3 cars. As usual, they can doubled up and work in multiple units. Like older subway cars, these mass-transit mainline trainsets do not have through gangways between cars. If you were unlucky, you'd be stuck in a very packed car, while the next one could be nearly empty. By Michael Bienick - Own work , CC BY-SA 3.0 , Link By Rolf Heinrich, Köln , C...

Beautifully made videos by  TheKnaeggebrot  in stunning Southern Bavaria Aha, it's that time of the week, and I haven't forgotten about this blog this time around (which is a little sad, really). Let me bring your attention to the DB Class 111 , another locomotive from the Deutsche Bundesbahn days. It seems to be making a comeback? (Not sure if that's really the case, but there seems to be more and more of them on RegionalExpress trains around the area I live in, and even on some S-Bahn trains). By Lars Steffens - Flickr : Baureihe 111 , CC BY-SA 2.0 , Link Built from the mid-70s, throughout to the mid-80s, the Class 111 was originally designed for regional trains and the then new S-Bahn Rhein-Ruhr. Capability for InterCity service was added in the early 1980s, with an increase of maximum permissible speed from 93 to 100 mph. Like many locomotives of the same era, the Class 111 was built by a consortium of builders, consisting of Krauss-Maffei, Henschel, Krupp, S...

The Class 120 is an inconspicuous looking locomotive (in today's standard, anyway). It occasionally, casually drifts across the rails right in front of my eyes, almost blending into the background, hardly noticeable at all. I would've probably have never thought much of it, until now. The amount of information the English Wikipedia page has provided is a bit of a pity. Luckily, though, it is 2017, and there's Google Translate (well, hopefully at least one version of me in some alternate universe is actually learning German). There is no way this post can contain (nor should it) all the wealth of information found on the locomotive's German Wikipedia page. Here, I'll just show off a few what I think are highlights. Von Benedikt Dohmen ( User:Benedictus ), Archiv-Nr. 63/28 - Eigenes Werk , CC BY-SA 3.0 , Link So beneath the underwhelming looks of the Class 120 is one of the first production three-phase AC locomotives equipped with regenerative braking. It w...

I've had the fortune to go on yet another getaway to the not-so-distant country of Spain, where conventional lines use the Iberian gauge of 5' 5-21/32''. Although it was devoid of any long-distance train trips, I still had the pleasure of experiencing the suburban Cercanías service in Madrid. The Class 446, De Hugh Llewelyn - 180 Uploaded by Oxyman , CC BY-SA 2.0 , Enlace The Renfe Series 446 and 447 make up a portion the current Cercanías fleet. Since they look almost identical from the outside, I'm lumping them together in this post. In reality, though, the two series differ considerably mechanically. The Class 447, De Jordi Verdugo - 447 doble en Vilajuïga , CC BY-SA 2.0 , Enlace In a nutshell, the Series 447 is lighter and faster. They have more modern electric motors that help them accelerate more rapidly (more details on Class 446  here and Class 447 here ). The two series are compatible in multiple-unit, if necessary, and up to 4 sets...

By Hisagi - 投稿者自身による作品 , CC 表示-継承 4.0 , Link Hyperloop seems to be all the hype these days. Given the progress in its development, it's about time we can call it for what it is (as far as a "new" invention goes). I won't directly address it, however. Instead, here is another system, currently under construction, that will serve as a case study to the rest of the world on the mass adoption of maglev technology. CC BY-SA 3.0 , Link Formally called the Chūō Shinkansen , the new central mainline in Japan is fundamentally different than the high-speed lines that come before it. It utilizes the SCMaglev , or Super Condicting Magnetic-levitation, technology that has been under development since 1962. The SCMaglev uses one of the three principal implementations of magnetic levitation, called EDS , or Electro Dynamic Suspension. The other two consist of EMS (Electro Magmetic Suspension), used by Transrapid, and Inductrack System (Permanent Magnet Passive Suspension...

Between the Internet and the LKAB presentation at the Heavy Haul Conference in Calgary some five years ago, I've become no stranger to these iron ore trains of the Arctic Circle. I was quite excited to see a big train again It has been a while since I last laid my eyes on some AAR 100-ton trucks, although they were surrounded by otherwise unfamiliar equipment. Photos don't do the IORE justice when it comes to their incredible might. In person, they, even with just a single section, almost in a weird way, look really long. The City of Kiruna itself feels like a deja vu. Snow and mountains in the backdrop, fatally frigid temperatures, sizable, heavy freight trains, and a passenger depot that was moved out of the city centre (although for different reasons than we are used to in our neck of the woods), to the yard at the edge of town. Fortunately, Kiruna isn't very big. It takes less than half an hour to complete a leisurely walk downtown, and there is a bus that...

The night I was on the Arctic Circle Train, it felt more like an Asian tour bus than anything. I had no idea there would be so many Asian tourists in Stockholm and heading north all at the same time. Anyway. I boarded the train before it was overrun The train itself, a locomotive hauled night train with aging long-distance cars, feels more familiar than the typical futuristic European multiple units. There are the relatively large seats (no leg rests, unfortunately) and the 100 mph top speed, which we are more accustomed to on our side of the Atlantic. I would go as far as calling the Arctic Circle Train the Canadian (of course, minus the Skyline and observation cars) from another dimension. It comes from a world that looks and feels similar but sounds completely different. Oh, did I mention that almost the entire network in Sweden is also electrified? An intermediate stop somewhere, early morning on Boxing Day Ready to depart Kiruna towards Narvik in Norway

Last week, I disappeared for a little while. But rest assured. I have brought great experiences to share. Succumbing to the craving for some mountains and snow, I decided to head south (yes, south), to where the majestic mountains met the white fluffy. Into the Alps, I went. Conveniently, I had also in my possession, an Austria-Germany rail pass with 3 days still unused, 2 weeks from its expiry. It took two trains (both InterCity Express), and the better part of a day to get to Vienna, where I chose to host my overnight stays, from the NRW. Despite all that I’d heard about German efficiency and precision, 33 minutes proved to be not quite enough of a layover to change trains. As I watched the ICE 3 that brought me to Würzburg depart towards its final intermediate stop of Nuremberg before reaching Munich, 40 minutes behind schedule, an extra 2 hours had befallen into my hands. No love lost at this point, Würzburg had been on my bucket list for a day trip, I just needed to make ...

I didn't have much time to write much this week as I just completed an almost-transcontinental move from Alberta back to my homeland of Ontario (over a distance of over 2 000 miles). I spent 3 days driving and 2 nights staying at campsites along the way. On the second night, I camped at the beautiful Neys Provincial Park on Lake Superior, somewhere along Highway 17 between Schreiber and White River (it's about a good 12 hour drive from the Toronto Area). The northern border of this park is defined by the right-of-way of the Canadian Pacific transcontinental mainline (well, yes, there's the possibility that you'll be woken up by a really long freight train snaking their way through). Anyway, the footage below was shot by a fellow camper at the park 2 years ago. Hope you enjoy it.

Remember the Flying Hamburger (or well, a better translation, Hamburg Flyer) I wrote about on this blog a while ago? The good ol' SVT 137 high speed articulated diesel multiple units from the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft  (German Imperial Railway) era? The trainset had also been used for an international service called the, Berolina, introduced in 1959 between Berlin and Warsaw. They weren't replaced by locomotive-hauled trains until the 1970s. Given the trainset was designed in the 1930s, that was quite the life it had. Anyway, I found some more old footages of the trainset on YouTube. The second video on this page is a documentary on how the SVT 137 was made in the factory. It's in German but it's quite entertaining to watch.

In the late 1960s, the Canadian National Railway bought some new passenger cars for intercity services between Toronto and Windsor/Sarnia. These cars were called Tempo cars. Unlike most other passenger cars in North America (especially from the time) that were inadvertently somehow a Budd or Pullman of some sort, the Tempo cars had aluminium body shells and were built by the Canadian division of British builder Hawker Siddeley in Thunder Bay, ON. " Ski Train Tempo cars (2851886846) " by vxla from Chicago, US - HPIM7117 . Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons . " D&RGW Ski Train 01 " by NateBeal - Ski Train . Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons . " CN Tempo service to Windsor " by Robert Taylor from Stirling, Canada - CN Tempo service to Windsor Uploaded by Skeezix1000 . Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons . The Tempo cars were one of the earlier examples of passenger cars with inboard bearings with outboa...

We are going Polish this week again, since we have so little exposure on that part of the world regarding their railroad equipment (I mean honestly, until I started looking for things to fill this blog with, I didn't even know they made locomotives and trainsets). So the feature this week comes from the same manufacture that has been gaining some more attention in recent time. This locomotive has also been on display at the InnoTrans in Berlin, it's called the Gama from Polish builder Pesa. According to the Polish Wikipedia page of this locomotive (thank goodness for Google Translate), the Gama has quite a few variants, which makes me think that this locomotive is still work in progress. Nonetheless, it's interesting to see different manufactures coming up with their own designs. In the most part, the Gama is a pretty standard product you'd get from builders today. I'll leave it up to you to have a look at the locomotive's official site on their market...

I missed a week and I'm late for this week... I would've been fired if I was writing for somebody else... Anyway. I was traveling a little, in a big metropolis, but believe or not, I didn't have reliable internet access because of a few hiccups here and there. Anyway. There is some big changes coming up in my life, and I think I might do a few things differently here. So yeah, this week's blog has pretty much pictures and a few words descriptions only. On a foggy day, in front of Toronto Union Station on the renovated Front Street On the right is the former Canadian Pacific Royal York Hotel. Now a Fairmount property The front of Toronto Union Station This is looking east, with the gold plated Royal Bank of Canada buildings in the center Looking out the window of my intercity train, a GO commuter train in the recently updated new color scheme This is the AMT Roxboro-Pierefonds station in Montreal. This is the only electric commuter rail in Ca...

So at this very moment that I'm getting ready to update my blog for this coming week, I am fascinated by this Wikipedia page on the list of InterCity Express services offered by the Deustche Bahn. I know this probably makes me a total weirdo and nerd, but I just think the numbered lines are so neat. " ICE-International 1826 Bahnsteiganzeige " by Lüko Willms - eigene Aufnahme (german for: I took the picture myself). Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.5 via Wikimedia Commons . " Db-401064-01 " by K. Jähne - Own work . Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 de via Wikimedia Commons . It amazes me how many places one can go from Frankfurt by train (if you take a moment to look at the actual routes, wow), and in the very near future, there is supposed to be a direct service from Frankfurt to London St Pancras International. " Db-403xxx-09 " by K. Jähne - Own work . Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons . Yes, many of the romantic and nostalgic long...

The train of this week is a modern electric passenger locomotive from Russia. It's called EP20 and it's the product of a collective effort between Alstom and CJSC Transmashholding , the largest Russian locomotive builder. You may remember this locomotive from recent news, because it's featured in some of the photographs in the articles on the commencing of Talgo sets on the Russian Railways (RZD). " 2 EP20 na Rostov Glavny " by Gwinogradow - Own work . Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons . Unlike the other European passenger locomotives, the EP20 has six axles, and uses somewhat of an unusual axle arrangement. Instead of using two 3-axle trucks, the EP20 has three 2-axle trucks (i.e. B-B-B). Locomotives like this do exist; they are just rarely seen outside of, say, Japan. " Фирменный поезд "Буревестник" " by Айнар - http://www.train-photo.ru/details.php?image_id=142288&mode=search . Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via W...