Yearly Archives: 2023

Zürich Selnau railway station under the River Sihl

I’ve written about a few different railway stations located under mountains, but this is something new – one located under a river! Photo by Allie_Caulfield, via Wikimedia Commons The station is Zürich Selnau on the Zürich S-Bahn system in Switzerland, […]

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Underground trams in Vienna

Like many cities the Austrian capital of Vienna has both a Straßenbahn (tram) system alongside their underground U-Bahn rail system, but it also has something in between – the untergrundstrassenbahn or “underground tramways”. Under the beltway The first section of […]

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Car vs steam train on the streets of Germany

The other day on Twitter I found a video of an odd scene – a steam train driving along a narrow street, then crashing into a Mercedes Benz after the driver decided to pull out from the curb. pic.twitter.com/RU4qQUxvqV — […]

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ÖBB switching from left to right hand running across Austria

Trains switching between left and right hand running has been a theme on this blog for some time, and here is one example I’d missed – Austria. When I visited Austria I only found trains running on the right hand […]

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Caissons and underground vestibules on the Kyiv Metro

I’ve written about Arsenalna (Ukrainian: Арсенальна) station on the Kyiv Metro in Ukraine before – at 105.5 metres below ground, it takes two flights of escalators to reach the surface, passing through an underground vestibule at the halfway point. But […]

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Turning trains on the Wuppertal Schwebebahn

The Wuppertaler Schwebebahn is a suspension railway in the German city of Wuppertal, where trains hang from a single rail built underneath a supporting steel frame. But how do the trains turn around at the end of the line? Photo […] Continue reading

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Chapels on the tracks of Russia

Russia is a massive country, which combined with a religious population has resulted in an odd sight – Вагон-храм – railway carriages converted into mobile chapels. Photo via Журнал «Всемирная иллюстрация» Chapel of St. Olga (1896) Construction of the first […] Continue reading

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Vladimir Putin’s private railway stations

For heads of state around the world private aircraft are a common model transport. But for Russian president Vladimir Putin, he also has a private armoured train, and a network of private railway stations. Photo by Mikhail Korotkov The train […]

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Porta Alpina – a railway station beneath The Alps

I’ve written about a number of railway stations located deep beneath mountain ranges before, and here is another one – Porta Alpina, which was to be located in the middle of the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland. Photo by KlausFoehl, […]

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Crossing over on the Charleroi Metro

The Belgium city of Charleroi is home to the Charleroi Metro – a curious light rail system, with 33-kilometres of track circling the city centre in an underground tunnel, and forming three above ground branches to the surrounding suburbs, along […]

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