Category Archives: Trains

Ghost stations of the Kiev Metro

Posted on August 2, 2018 by Marcus Wong

Hidden beneath the streets of Kiev, Ukraine is something unusual – a trio of unused metro stations that see train pass through, but never stop. Львiвська Брама (Lvivska Brama) Львiвська Брама (Lvivska Brama) is the best known of the three […]

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«Саквояж СВ» – inhouse magazine of the Russian Railways

Posted on June 7, 2018 by Marcus Wong

Inflight magazines are a common sight whenever you fly, but the Russian Railways also have give their passengers something to read on long train journeys – inhouse magazine «Саквояж СВ». «Саквояж» is the Russian word for a leather travel bag […]

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Builder’s plates on Russian-built trains

Posted on May 10, 2018 by Marcus Wong

A builder’s plate indicates who built a particular piece of machinery, as well as the the model number, serial number, and date of manufacture. Here are some examples from the rolling stock of the railways of Russia and Ukraine. ЭД4МК […]

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Setting sail on the Railklipper

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Marcus Wong

What happens when you send a train out to sea? You get the Railklipper – a vessel built by Nederlandse Spoorwegen (Dutch Railways) in 2005 to celebrate the country’s maritime history. Photo by Edwtie, via Wikimedia Commons Dutch-language Wikipedia has […]

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Sacrificial buffer stops at Munich Hauptbahnhof

Posted on March 29, 2018 by Marcus Wong

Across Europe a common theme at major railway stations is dead end platform tracks ending at buffer stops, with the main passenger concourse behind. But there was one thing I didn’t realise – sometimes the buffer stops are designed to […]

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Russia’s ‘robotic fire-fighting train’

Posted on March 15, 2018 by Marcus Wong

As well as ‘conventional’ fire-fighting trains used to put out the flames anywhere conventional fire trucks can’t reach, the Russian Railways have also started rolling out a fleet of ‘robotic’ trains that can be used to fight fires in railway […]

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Track laying trains of Russia

Posted on March 1, 2018 by Marcus Wong

My my journey across Russia by train I came across a curious looking piece of equipment parked in a siding – a track laying machine. Called a Путеукладчик in Russian, here is a similar machine at work laying track for […]

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Шаропоїзд – a Ukrainian monorail that ran in a trough

Posted on February 1, 2018 by Marcus Wong

Monorails are a mode of rail transport that is yet to break into the mainstream, despite decades of research and development on a wide variety of track standards. Most monorail trains are suspended from a track, or run on top […]

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Fire-fighting trains of the Russian Railways

Posted on January 4, 2018 by Marcus Wong

Russia’s rail network stretches the length of the country, from cities to mountainous forests. Fires can happen anywhere – even in the middle of nowhere – so the Russian Railways have their own fleet of fire-fighting trains, to put out […]

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Interchange stations on Soviet metro systems

Posted on December 7, 2017 by Marcus Wong

Interchange stations on Soviet designed metro systems are a little odd for anyone accustomed to urban rail networks elsewhere in the world – the platforms for each line are treated as their own station, with their own street entrance, and […]

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