Tag Archives: railways

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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Using a railway carriage as a bridge

I stumbled across this interesting scene via Facebook recently – what looks like a retired railway carriage being used as a bridge. So what is the story behind it? ‘Squatting Slavs In Tracksuits‘ on Facebook Thankfully the person who shared […]

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Complicated crossing for train and trolleybus in Zurich

I’ve previously written about how tram and trolleybus wires cross over, and in my home of Melbourne, Australia railway and tram wires cross at multiple locations. But this massive steel bridge above a level crossing takes the cake for mechanical […]

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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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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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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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Four platform stations of the Moscow Metro

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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Moscow Metro trains on display

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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Hidden tracks of the Kiev Metro

The Kiev Metro is a relatively simple system – three independent metro lines running across the city, with passengers changing between them at one of three interchange stations. However trains do have a way of making their way between the […]

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Turning a locomotive on a reversing star

There are many ways for a locomotive to be turned – reversing loops, turntables, and triangular junctions. But there is one bizarre track configuration that can also do the same job – a reversing star. Google Maps How they work […]

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