6/2007
HighSpeed1 - the first truly HSL in UK complete
A Royal opening ceremony on 6 November 2007 and a public inauguration on the 14th of the month heralded the completion of both the 300 km/h high speed line from London to the Channel Tunnel, and also the restoration and extension of the magnificent St. Pancras terminus, built in the 1860s to a design by William Barlow.
A London-bound Class 373 heads away from the camera at Church Lane Bridge, east of Ashford. On the left is the 750 V DC third rail main line from Ashford to Folkestone and Dover.
Photo: LCR/QA Photos
A Little FLIRT-ing Firmly Establishes Stadler In Poland
Assembly of FLIRT EMUs at Stadler's new factory in Siedlce, Poland, started in June 2007, and the establishment, which currently has a workforce of 50, was formally inaugurated on 5 September, during a visit by "ambassador" TILO unit 524 001.
TILO FLIRT 524 001 attracts a good deal of attention as it arrives at Poznan Glowny during its Polish tour in early September 2007.
Photo: Stadler
Moskva To St. Petersburg: RZD Faces Up To The Competitors
The 650 km Oktyabrskaya zheleznaya doroga (October Railway), which links Moskva with Sankt Peters-burg, is a very busy part of the RZD network, in terms of both passenger and freight traffic. In 2006 over six million passengers were carried, so it is not surprising that the emergent open access operators in Russia are focusing most of their attention on this important corridor.
On Mondays and Fridays, when the „ER200“ operates (trains 167/168), there are two „sprinter“ daytime express pairs between Moskva and St. Petersburg, but on other days just one, the locomotive-hauled „Nevsky Express“ (trains 165/166). The latter is seen here on 14 September 2007 at Moskva Leningradsky vokzal (station), behind ChS200-005, shortly before departure. Just visible on the right of the locomotive, is the cab of the ER200, which will leave 15 minutes later.
Photo: Jaromir Pernicka
TRAKO 2007
TRAKO is held in Gda?sk every other autumn, and attracts a good deal of inte-rest among visitors and exhibitors from right across Eu-rope. The seventh edition of this popular trade fair for the rail industry took place between 10 and 12 October 2007, and on the following pages we tour the showground ...
One of the TRAKO exhibits was Siemens’s 1216 050, which in 2006 broke the world speed record for an electric locomotive. However here we see the company’s ES64F4-011 (189 011), currently on hire from Dispolok to CTL Logistics, one of Poland’s foremost open access freight operators. Standing on the right is radical rebuilt CBRail’s 311D-04. It started life as a type M62 Co’Co’ diesel (the equivalent of a PKP Class ST44) - a ubiquitous machine which in more recent years has become notorious for its gluttonous fuel consumption and environmental unfriendliness.
Photo: Jaromir Pernicka
Posezenie Brynskogo Zavoda
Bryansky mashinostroitelny zavod - BMZ, which translates as the Bryansk engineering works, is the largest train builder and industrial complex of its type in Russia. It is situated in the town of Bryansk, about 380 km southwest of Moskva, and its output ranges from diesel locomotives - both main line machines and shunters - through freight wagons to diesel engines for ships and locomotives. We visited the works in September 2007, in order to research and prepare this article.
The main assembly hall at Bryansk, with Peresvets under construction. On the left can be seen both sections of 2TE25K-0002, while on the right, still in undercoat, is one section of 0003.
Photo: Tomas Kuchta
Oil And Transport (6)
People criticise rail transport because they feel it does not live up to their expectations in terms of quality of service. Although in general using rail for the transport of people and freight brings considerable benefits in terms of energy savings, and is also environmentally friendly, there is still a great deal that rail must do in order to demonstrate the fact that this really is always so.
Forty years ago nobody was concerned about the fact that oil was a non-renewable fuel resource. In Czechoslovakia in the late 1960s a litre of oil cost just 0.50 CZK, the equivalent of 0.02 EUR, and on the railways the policy was to eliminate steam traction and replace it with a fleet of diesel locomotives. Basic requirement of that time was to deliver as many locomotives and as soon as possible. CSD ordered its machines from works in Praha, Dubnica nad Váhom, Martin and Voroshilovgrad. The photo shows beginning of the operation of fine-looking Class T 679.0 diesel locomotives. Mountain railroads of Central Slovakia from where our photo from 21 September 1975 taken near Turcek comes, provide really beautiful sceneries.
Photo: Jiri Pohl
And much more!
Cover of 6/2007
Poster
Features: the train 31335, near Barneveld on the Ede-Wageningen to Amersfoort line, on 23 September 2007. This was the first day that the PROTOS carried fare-paying passengers.