Train of the Week

By Koman90 - Own work , CC BY-SA 3.0 , Link Sometimes I feel like I'm running out of things to write about on this blog, but maybe that's because there are really too many things out there. It's hard to decide, and I can't keep up lately. One of the very first posts on this blog I started quite a few years ago was about the C-Train. For those of you who don't know, that's the name given to the Light Rail Transit system in the Canadian city of Calgary, Alberta, a place I reluctantly (at first, anyway) called home due to its lack of public transit infrastructure (still true today, but hell, we've got oil and pickup trucks) despite having a population of over one million. Though, never had I known was that the C-Train would become one of this meaningless but nonetheless interesting coincidence in my life. You see, the oldest of the C-Trains are the Siemens-Düwag U2. They were built in the city of Düsseldorf, a few stops down the line on the RegionalExpress ...

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...

A very well made video by YouTube user Mikhail@Novgorod showing various types equipment on the Córdoba to Málaga High-Speed Line I have already written about some of the  Siemens Velaro family of high-speed trains in earlier posts, but I wanted to dedicate this one to the Velaro E (for España), or more commonly known as the AVE (Alta Velocidad Española or Spanish High Speed) Class 103 . A Class 103 towards Barcelona on the outskirts of Madrid On the outside, the Velaro E looks almost identical to the ICE 3 , which is a product jointly developed by a number of companies in Germany. However, due to licensing issues, Siemens re-developed components on the ICE 3 it did not make, thus completing the Velaro platform of high-speed trains. The Velaro E also received an upgrade in the traction department, in order to cope with the demand for higher acceleration and maximum speed by Renfe (the Spanish national railway company). As a result, the AVE Class 103 is authorized for ser...

Although it is still premature to pop the champagne on the Brightline High Speed Rail between Orlando and Miami, this week marks a milestone in the history of this much-anticipated rail service. The first fully assembled trainset (two Siemens Charger locomotives plus four intermediate cars) has arrived in South Florida, after a special transcontinental delivery from its birthplace of Sacramento, California. With the year 2017 looming around the corner, we can almost hear the "all aboard" call from Brightline's Phase One opening between Miami and West Palm Beach (Click here for more from the Railway Gazette). The second phase of the service, covering the rest of its length to Orlando, however, wanders in limbo. Once promised the funding of this rail service, the Government had pulled the rug from underneath. In the meantime, please enjoy these early footages of what I shall call the "Brightliner," and feel free to explore more about this project o...

4 AM. Excited and foggy at the same time, I crawled out of bed. The instant coffee from the hotel would do. Dressed in clothes warmer than I usually would, in anticipation of beautiful snowy mountains, I marched towards the S-Bahn station in the empty streets of Vienna. A slight hesitation saw to it that the suburban train left me behind. But what was to come, was better than I could have hoped for. A shiny Siemens Desiro came to a stop. As I stepped inside, I was greeted by that new train smell, still lingering in the air. The clock had just ticked past the quarter hour mark past five, but Wien Hauptbahnhof was already a bustling place. Following the signage, I ascended onto the mainline platforms, where my Zürich bound Railjet stood. This was my first time onboard one. The interior was simple but functional, indeed, a very clean and modern design. At 5:30 sharp, the train effortlessly pulled out of the station. Unlike most people, who traveled one station far, I was on thi...

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 ...

This week, I thought I'd take a bit more time to write about a high speed electric multiple unit (EMU) from the other hemisphere. To give you some very brief background, a decade or so ago, this country called China bought a whole whack of high-speed trains (among other passenger and freight equipment) from pretty much every major rail equipment manufacturer in the world (Siemens, Bombardier, Kawasaki, Alstom, and Toshiba). They didn't buy it normally though, like how one would put in a order, and a period of time later, some products would show up in shiny wraps. The Chinese bought very few finished products, but the license to use the technology and manufacture products from those companies with whatever equipment supplier they fancy. The feature rail related thingy of the week, the CRH380CL EMU, is a bit of a mash up of a lot of the aforementioned things China has bought from the Western World. “ CRH380C-6301L ”，作者 Jwjy9597 - 自己的作品 。采用 CC BY-SA 3.0 授权，来自 维基共享资源 。 “ ...

This is a brief one again but it kind of has gone under my nose undetected until not long ago. Did you know that the Turkish State Railways also bought the Siemens Velaro D (well, it's called the Velaro TR in this case) and it went in service in 2014? I didn't, until maybe a month or two ago when I accidentally stumbled upon this video of it on YouTube (this one I'm posting here below). I gotta say that's a very nice color scheme for the train and North America is pretty much officially the third world of passenger rail travel... it makes me a little sad to think about this latter thing.

So this week we'll go across the Pacific instead and have a look at a passenger locomotive developed by the Chinese that's based on a popular Germany family of locomotives. China has apparently bought the technology to Siemens EuroSprinter and Bombardier TRAXX along with thousands of heavy-haul freight locomotives from Germany and they have been busy developing with the technology ever since. Is it just me or does it look German? So this locomotive, the HXD1D is a 6-axle locomotive designed to haul long distance passenger trains on China's existing railroad network (I'm guessing since Chinese passenger trains are long, around 20 cars, they need a bit of tractive effort with all the available horsepower and hence 6 axles). The latest government directive apparently dropped the maximum operating speed on existing railroads from 124 mph (or 200 km/h) down to 99 mph (160 km/h) and that's how fast this locomotive is supposed to go. Interestingly the locomotive ...

Okay, I'm gonna be really lazy this week. But I found the English version of the ICx promotional video on YouTube! It probably wasn't hard to find at all but I still just never realized it was there until now. Embedding is disabled on it however, so I'll have to use the new school way of including YouTube videos which may not work with mobile users. Here's the link to the video if the little preview frame below doesn't show up somehow.

News! Well, right now as I'm writing this on the 8th anyway... See I kind of shot myself in the foot when I named this blog Train of the Week... So the first 12-car ICx has taken to the rails! I had to specify the number of cars because there's also a 7-car, slightly less fast (because it's not slow either), version coming later. I'd think ICx wouldn't be the final name for this EMU though. I mean what's next then? ICy? Anyway, at least for now, to distinguish the two variants, the 7-car version is classed as the K1n, and the 12-car version the K3s. Clearly I didn't pay enough attention to InnoTrans back in 2012, or I forgot, the ICx was first unveiled there. She's intended to replace the current push-pull IC, ICE1, and ICE2 trains in corridors where it's not practical to operate new ICE trains. At the beginning, K3s was supposed to be 10-car sets, this was changed by DB in 2013. Thank Wikimedia Commons for the picture below. A mock-up, kind ...

I'm sure the excitement of riding some new unknown equipment for the first time lingers in a railfan's heart for a long time. I knew nothing about this EMU at the time I first stepped onto it at Heathrow Airport in the summer 2009, except that the conductor told me we could ONLY do 100 mph. It was a smooth ride to London Paddington, with the gentle whine of electrical wizardry at the helm and blurry scenery rushing by. 100 mph seemed like a hell of a deal for trains where I come from, but here the word "only" went ahead of it. The avid trainspotters of course know it by now, I'm talking about, the Class 332 used in the Heathrow Express service. Class 332 in Heathrow Express Service at London Paddington Then there's the Class 333, roaming the gentle landscape of West Yorkshire, far away from London. They are mechanically very similar if not identical to the Class 332 but have an entirely different interior layout. The Class 333 are used in regional comm...

I've missed this blog again, this time due to some family medical stuff that required quite some of my attention. All is fine though. Anyway I had a chance to stroll around the vast inter web for some time again, with the hopes that I'd find some technical papers of my interest. I found this, a catalogue of bogies  by Siemens, or in North American English, trucks, offered on various rail vehicles. It's not all that technical, more of a marketing brochure. The interesting bit is though, this catalogue does reference the types of rail vehicles in service each truck has been fitted to. Are some of your favourite equipment listed in the reference sections of the catalogue? Now it's your chance to have a more complete look on what they really look under those skirts. Cheers!

North America has always been at the forefront of diesel traction in railroad heavy haul freight service. Although not heaviest in tonnage and not fastest in speed, our freight railroad system is balanced with longevity, interchangeability, and most importantly, service affordability. Today though, I will write about a locomotive in a state-owned and operated heavy haul system where technological prominence is placed at a higher priority. The HXD1 is the first of the massive numbers of European electric locomotives China Railways has ordered in the early 2000s. Her primary assignment is the 10,000 tonne high speed coal trains on the Daqin Railroad . The looks of the HXD1 show traces of the EuroSprinter The HXD1 is an 8-axle electric locomotive with 2 permanently coupled sections. The locomotive is based on the Siemens EuroSprinter , and is built by Chinese manufacture CSR Zhuzhou under license. The HXD1 combines some of the best Europe and North America can offer. Wit...

As production and commission of the Siemens ACS-64 come to full swing, it is only appropriate that I write some more here about this important locomotive that brings North American passenger rail into a whole new era. What a beautiful looking thing For those still not familiar with this name, ACS-64 is the new workhorse of the Regional (name for the locomotive-hauled 125 mph intercity service) fleet on the Amtrak Northeast Corridor . Seventy of them all together, projected to be delivered by 2015, will effectively replace all other electric locomotives currently in use. The model number decodes into Amtrak Cities Sprinter and rather than horsepower, the number 64 denotes the locomotive’s maximum short-term rating of 6,400 kW. That is a whopping 8,660 good ol’ horses (and remember, this is a 4-axle locomotive, so one axle of the ACS-64 is more powerful than a GP38!). Like the AEM-7, the ACS-64 is a full fledge European locomotive that is build in America. The Cities Sprinter is b...

Hell I'm late again... but anyway. History was made on the 6th of Feburary, 2014, as Amtrak 600, as the first ACS-64 rolled down the red carpet at Washington DC Union Station on Train 171 to head north with 9 cars. This began a new era on the North East Corridor of modern European high horsepower locomotives. Soon, and hopefully soon enough, all the good old Swedish workhorses ( AEM-7 s) and couldn't-really-work HHP-8 s would be replaced by these sensible but powerful 8,660 hp German Engineered speed machines. I'd like to redirect you to Amtrak's official blog and to some video footages gathered by railfans along the NEC of the inaugural run of the AMTK 600, Train 171. JOE BIDEN WELCOMES 1ST CITIES SPRINTER LOCOMOTIVE

It has been a while since I’ve talked about fast trains. This week, we’ll do just that. Let me introduce you a beautiful derivative of German Engineering from Siemens, the next Channel Tunnel High Speed Train, the Velaro D based British Rail Class 374 , the e320 Eurostar electric multiple unit . Most likely to be introduced sometime in 2015, the e320 will rule the Channel along side the current Eurostar, the Alstom push-pull  TGV, British Rail  Class 373 , aka le train à grande vitesse transmanche super train. Though the Eurostars will not be the only trains operating in the Channel Tunnel at the time, Deutsche Bahn ’s London-Frankfurt InterCity Express service will have hopefully begun by then, with DB’s own Velaro D, or DB Class 407s (and we are off topic). A mock up of the e320 shown in Britain For the safety of Channel Tunnel operation, the e320 has a consist of M-T-M-T-T-M-T-M-M-T-M-T-T-M-T-M (M denotes motor, or powered cars, T denotes trailer, or unpowered cars;...

So it's the end of a year again and it's time to look back on some of the train trips I've taken in 2012. Since most people who visit this blog will probably only read the first few sentences or so, I'll say happy holidays and happy 2013 here instead. The first two picture albums down here are from my little 3-day getaway to Portland, Oregon. One from when I was on my way, the other from me strolling around in the little gem in the Pacific Northwest. I drove for a few hours to Shelby, Montana, the closest Amtrak station from the unfortunate and middle-of-nowhere Albertan city I live in (where there had been no passenger rail service for decades), in order to board the Empire Builder, a wonderful long distance train that took me to destination. Then in June, I went on an overseas trip to England, where I had the chance to attend an elaborate train show hosted by the National Railway Museum in York, called Railfest 2012. It was during the opening day of Railfes...

This week let’s look at another Desiro trainset designed for operations in the UK. We’ve talked about two series used in the UK so far, the Class 350 for London Midlands, and the 185 Pennine Desiro . This week feature is the Class 380, used in Scotland by First ScotRail . The Class 380 was intended to be used on the Glasgow Airport Rail Link , but due to public spending cuts, the line was canceled and the Desiros have been dispatched onto the Ayrshire Coast Line , Inverclyde Line , and the North Berwick Line all linking Glasgow Central. Class 380 featured at Railfest 2012 Two flavors of the Class 380 are currently available, one with a 3-car consist, and one with 4-car. A total of 38 sets have been purchased, all of which have been built between 2009 and 2011 at Siemens’ plant in Krefeld, Germany. Like the other Desiro series trains in the UK, the top speed of the Class 380 in service is 100 mph. Very nice and modern looking cabin

This week’s post is about a Train Show in Berlin, Germany that is happening as this blog is being updated. I wish I can be there and I will be one day. InnoTrans is the world’s largest trade show focused on the railroad industry. The show first started in 1996 and have steadfastly grown in number of participants every 2 years. For the first time, the InnoTrans 2012 has all the exhibition space leased out at the Messe Berlin Exhibition Center. InnoTrans includes both indoor and outdoor venues where technology and rail vehicles are shown off and is open to public the weekend after the industry events. InnoTrans has been the place for passenger train manufactures to unveil their latest and greatest offering to the world. Here are a few links I’d like you to visit to see more about this great fair: InnoTrans 2012 official website Railway Gazette International’s coverage on InnoTrans 2012 Alstom at InnoTrans 2012 Bombardier at InnoTrans 2012 Siemens at InnoTrans 2012