5/2005

The manufacturers of the compensation filters installed on the Czech Pendolino has announced that these do indeed solve the problem of the train’s asynchronous traction equipment causing track circuit interference. Now this difficulty has - it is hoped - been surmounted, ČD is anticipating drafting the Class 680 tilting trains into commercial service with the start of the 2006 timetable. In summer 2005 the 680.004 was fitted with the devices developed by AŽD Praha and ELCOM in the hope of fulfilling the strict Czech requirements regarding EMC. In the same time, the DÚ discovered that there were small, but nevertheless excessive differences between the technical diagrams of the air reservoirs and the real things.

Early in 2004 Stadler won a 60 million CHF contract to build 24 new panorama cars for the Glacier Express, the order comprising four of each types Api, Ap and WR, and twelve type Bp. The vehicles will enable the creation of trains of uniform appearance, and will enable many more passengers to enjoy the scenic splendours of this route to the full, and in even greater comfort than hitherto.

Our last report on developments concerning the Metrowagonmash Class 63-41 DMUs appeared in R 4/04, p. 9. The 40th and final member of the batch arrived in Hungary in January 2005, to join the ranks of those then stored at Budapest-Nyugati and Szentes.

On 1 September 2005 RaiLogistics of Switzerland launched a new road/rail service to convey timber chips from Les Verriéres in the French Jura to the Borregaard pulp mill at Riedholz. The chips are carried in Cargo-Changer swap-body containers supplied by rexwal services s. a., and the operation runs under the name "Le Bostriche" - "The Bark Beetle".

RZD’s locomotive fleet is sadly ageing. However, over the next few years rejuvenation is on the cards, with new machines in all power categories entering service. Freight is RZD’s mainstay - in particular the movement of fuel from oilfields to refinaries, and onwards from there to indigenous users and to ports for export.

In 2007 Vossloh Motive Power will launch the EURO 4000, a Co'Co' diesel-electric locomotive powered by a 3,178 kW engine supplied by EMD. With a top operating speed of 120 km/h, a fuel tank capacity of 7,000 l and a range of 2,000 km, this powerful machine will offer a way forward for the operation of heavy freight trains over long distances on a European network which is becoming increasingly congested and increasingly dominated by fast and frequent passenger trains.

American involvement and investment within the European rail industry has produced mixed results. This is often because of the quite differing technologies, requirements and market demands that exist on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Some American-controlled concerns in Europe have migrated eastwards in a drive to slash production costs. One company which has resisted this temptation is Greenbrier Europe, and its policies are now bearing fruit. In this feature we take a look inside the long-established wagon works at Swidnica in southwest Poland.

Mobility is a prerequisite of efficiency in the global economy. However the importance of a well functioning public transport system as a location factor for regional and national economy is often underestimated. From 7 to 9 November rail # tec 2005 will give the necessary impetus to rethink at the Messe Westfalenhallen in Dortmund.

The demise of Lyon's urban tramway network came about shortly after the Second World War. However, in 1990 the first line of a new network was inaugurated, and in October 2005 line T1 will be extended by four stops. Among the construction subcontractors are several of Czech companies, who became involved in a race against the clock to build a rather unique tramway/ road crossing.