Recent content by Fireless

If you don't mind going a bit north (30 minutes by RE train) to Düsseldorf, you get the RE 2 trains (Düsseldorf-Osnabrück) which are all double deckers hauled by class 146.1 locos.

That's actually what the line was built for in 1887.

I'll throw in the german Chiemseebahn for the slowest average speed. The booked 8 minutes for the 1.91 km long line work out to an average speed of 14.325 km/h.

The 5000 train series (Aachen-Spa) is still a safe place (IIRC until December 2023) for the last class 66 and 70JH EMUs (the last "classic" EMUs with camshaft control gear and the oldest rolling stock still in regular service) and also relatively scenic.

The Chiemseebahn (the 2 km long metre gauge railway between Prien station and the Chiemsee) is worth a visit just to ride on their original rolling stock built in 1887 and in regular service ever since. The steam loco is booked run on saturdays and sundays during the summer (from the 20th of May...

Considering that about all systems on the longest formation list are similar, it would be very unfair not to include them as long as they are regulated by the BOStrab (german regulations for the construction and operation of trams) and not fully grade seperated (to keep out the definitively full...

Both narrow gauge railways (Molli and the line on Rügen) on the german baltic cost still run their intensive summer timetable until the 31st of October using steam locomotives in regular service.

That derailment happened during a shunting move with ECS and the very likely cause is that a set of points has been thrown beneath one of the vehicles. Nothing that spectacular (apart from being rolling stock with windows and a top speed of 330 km/h).

The signalling system (Siemens type Spurplan 60 relay interlocking) can only detect if the track section is occupied and is interlocked with the overhead switching equipment. When the track sections beneath an electrical overhead section is empty, the voltage can be selected automatically by...

A good description for anyone without at least some basic railway knowledge I heard is "It's like an air traffic controller but for trains".

Blaenau Ffestiniog to one of the nearby stations on the Cambrian coast line (Llandecwyn, Penrhyndeudraeth, Minffordd) should be good candidates for TfW.

Dresden still holds on to a few Tatras (quite remarkable considering that they had their farewell celebration in 2010) which only work some additional services. According to a german forum (https://www.drehscheibe-online.de/foren/read.php?005,10014380,10014866#msg-10014866 for Dresden...

The first thing that came to my mind was Maschen in Germany (just south of Hamburg) being a small town (population of about 9000) with a large (in fact the largest in europe and second largest in the world) marshalling yard. Healey, Tinsley and Toton all follow a similar pattern.

Just the normal tram systems I remember... Germany: NRW: All systems, including BMB Wuppertal, easier to list where I haven't been (a single stop in Bielefeld, a short new built section in Bochum and some minor bits and bobs in and around Cologne and Bonn) Bavaria: Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg...

1976 was the final year of regular standard gauge steam, apart from the Erzbergbahn where steam lasted until the end of rack operation in 1978. Things were a bit different on the narrow gauge side. The Waldviertelbahn only had sufficient diesels for regular service in 1986 and retained the...