Yearly Archives: 2021

Mobile traction substations for powering trains and trams

Posted on August 5, 2021 by Marcus Wong

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

Posted on July 1, 2021 by Marcus Wong

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?

Posted on June 3, 2021 by Marcus Wong

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

Posted on May 6, 2021 by Marcus Wong

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

Posted on April 8, 2021 by Marcus Wong

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

Posted on March 25, 2021 by Marcus Wong

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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Four platform stations of the Moscow Metro

Posted on March 4, 2021 by Marcus Wong

I’ve previously written about the standard interchange station design found on Soviet designed metro systems, and the non-standard platform configurations on the Moscow Metro – this time we look at the four track stations that offer cross-platform interchange. Кита́й-го́род (Kitay-gorod) […]

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Battery-electric locomotives of the Moscow Metro

Posted on February 4, 2021 by Marcus Wong

On the Moscow Metro can be found a curious piece of rolling stock – Контактно-аккумуляторный электровоз – battery-electric locomotives converted from retired metro carriages to haul maintenance trains through underground tunnels. Photo by Anakin, via Wikimedia Commons The seats have […]

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Moscow Metro trains on display

Posted on January 7, 2021 by Marcus Wong

Plenty of cities have railway museums filled with old trains on display, but on the 80th anniversary of the Moscow Metro they did something different – they brought the museum pieces to the people. Photo by Artem Svetlov from Moscow, […]

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