Yearly Archives: 2021

Riding the Children’s Railway in Budapest

Up in the hills above Budapest is a unique railway – the Gyermekvasút (Children’s Railway), where children aged 10 to 14 operate the railway under the supervision of adult staff. Opened in 1948, the 1.2 kilometres long 760 mm narrow […]

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McFoxy – the McDonalds knockoff

On my visit to Kyiv I found an interesting local fast food chain – McFoxy. Best described as a McDonalds knockoff, they served burgers, chips and drinks. The real McDonald’s opened their first restaurant in Ukraine in 1997. With McFoxy’s […]

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Catching the train to Domodedovo Airport

I ended my epic rail trip across Europe in Moscow, so what better way to get to my flight home than to catch the ‘Aeroexpress’ train to Domodedovo Airport. I started my journey by catching the Moscow Metro to Paveletsky […]

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Customer service counters onboard Amsterdam trams

Onboard the trams of Amsterdam is a strange sight – customer service counters! Photo by Rob Dammers, via Wikimedia Commons The customer service counters are located onboard 151 Combino trams operated by GVB. GVB photo And replaced an enclosed conductor […]

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Mobile traction substations for powering trains and trams

The power for an electric railway has to come from somewhere – and that place is a traction substation, a facility that convert hogh voltage electricity from the power grid to the voltage and frequency that trains or trams use. […]

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Turning trams on a turntable in Kiev

Unidirectional trams are common across Eastern Europe and the former USSR, with reversing loops provided so trams can turn around for their reverse journeys. But the Ukrainian capital of Kiev once turned trams a different way – on a turntable. […]

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What happens if you combine a turntable with a train lift?

Turntables are a common sight on railways, allowing rolling stock to be turned around. But the Kiev Metro had a unique piece of engineering at their first train depot – the «Метролифт» (metrolift) that combined turntable with train lift. The […]

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Abandoned escalators in Rome

Recently I came across an interesting photo on Twitter – a grass covered set of escalators headed underground somewhere in Rome. An abandoned metro station, or something else? One of those Rome projects that didn’t quite work out…. pic.twitter.com/FQS59U943u — […]

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Crossing international borders by train

When I travelled across Europe by train, I crossed a few international borders. Some were simple, but others were more involved. The uneventful My first border crossing by train was on my journey from Germany and Austria, and it was […]

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Another tram bent like a banana

A few years ago I found an articulated tram bent like a banana following a collision with a road vehicle, and now I’ve found another – this time in the Dutch city of Utrecht. Donald Ikkersheim photo via ad.nl Koen […]

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