#nmbs-sncb

[valtionrautatiet-official]

I was just listening to my favourite Belgian band today and realised that not only have a kind-of railroad themed song, the music video for it features much rolling stock from our friends at @nmbs-sncb-official. So you should all watch it, despite it having absolutely nothing to do with Finland.

[general-hugss]

Battle of the low countries’ m-class double deckers! Which one wins your heart?

@nmbs-sncb-official

[i-think-pictures]

[weirdowithaquill]

Random Trains I Found Part 2:

So, I did a Part 1, and now I'm doing a Part 2 because there are many trains, and I enjoy procrastinating on just about everything. With this in mind, here's what I have in store:

Southern Pacific MC-1:

Ok, so these things were behemoths - 2-8-8-2 American giants which were built in 1908. And while they weren't the most useful engines built on this earth, they lived surprisingly long... as rebuilt cab-forward engines. Yup, the Southern Pacific swapped them around and turned them into Cab-Forward locomotives in the 1920s, having been the basis for the MC-2 and later AC models of Cab-Forward. Not a bad legacy!

SNCB Type 36:

Big Belgians! This 1909 class of 2-10-0 was built to work heavy freight trains over hilly terrain. And if you know anything about European history, then you'll know this class got caught up in WWI - only, for some reason they ended up in Russia, Poland and Ukraine? The reason for that is that they were sold to Russia to work lines in occupied, standard gauge Austrian territory (and Ukraine?) Five of them were eventually returned by the Poles. The type also influenced the L&YR to design their own 2-10-0... that wasn't built because of the same war.

Royal Bavarian State Railways S 3/6:

I like these purely because they look fabulous - and they were the second Pacific type in Germany, after their Baden brethren. See, prior to 1920, Germany wasn't served by one single railway, but rather a number of railways built by the nations that preceded the German Empire (which was only founded in 1870). So while Prussia was busy building the P8 class, the Bavarians built this! And annoyingly, I cannot find a model of one anyone, because Marklin won't ship to where I live.

JNR 9700 Type:

These engines are where we get the nickname 'Mikado' for the 2-8-2 wheel arrangement. They weren't the first 2-8-2's built, but were instead heavily promoted by Baldwin at a time when Japan was very interesting to the Western nations - a Savoy Opera of the same name had premiered in England in 1885, and Emperor Meiji was known in the US as 'the Mikado'. As for the engines? Apart from their part in wheel arrangement history, they were the most powerful engines in Japan when they arrived... but very little is actually known about their careers, only that they were scrapped in 1922.

LNWR DX Goods class:

For a class built in the 1850's, these engines sure are modern! By which I mean, they built 943 of them, making it one of the largest locomotive classes in Britain and also one of the first examples of standardisation and mass-production. They were also 0-6-0s, had an equivalent tank engine class (the LNWR Special Tanks) and were all gone by 1930, with none surviving. However, considering the first was built in 1858, that is still a 72-year working life. They were rebuilt several times, caused an injunction by private companies when the L&YR bought 86 fresh from Crewe, and were the LNWR's go-to goods engine.

I still want these engines - and I have more I want to talk about in the future. Unfortunately, it's not easy to discover much about engines from outside the Anglosphere due to the lack of translations out there (I have resorted to Wikipedia in other languages, and then google translate). But it makes finding those oddities that much more fun!

And as usual, all images belong to their respective owners.

[fictionalred-photos]

Train ride

[conatic]

Dans un train à destination de Quiévrain

On est Dimanche matin

Il ne pleut pas

[elmax0]

I always forget to put these pictures online so here they are, several months after it happened.

[fictionalred]

Moon is pretty over Bruges today, pity I don't have my camera with me.

[general-hugss]

Debian trademark stability fails you every once in a while

@nmbs-sncb-official

[i-think-pictures]

Eurocity Paris, France - Mons & Brussels, Belgium

[dirklagast]

Actie!

De NMBS wil het seniorenbiljet afschaffen. Dat mogen wij niet laten gebeuren! We geven nu vrijdag 13 december om 8u30 rendez-vous aan het Deltagebouw, Frankrijkstraat 56 in Sint-Gillis, vlakbij het Brusselse Zuidstation. S-Plus zorgt voor een fluohesje en een paraplu. Laat weten of je er zult zijn via brabant@s-plusvzw.be of op het nummer 02/546.15.29 of 016/20.88.69. La SNCB veut supprimer…

[feigeroman]

Saturday Movie Night: Link Span (1956)

As touched upon in previous Saturday Movie Nights, British Railways had a number of sea-going interests, the most obvious being the regular cross-channel ferries they ran between Britain and the Continent. This film looks at a typical day's operations, with emphasis on three services: the Dover-Boulonge service carrying motorists and their vehicles; the Dover-Dunkirk night ferry, carrying the London-Paris sleeper train over this part of the route; and the Zeebrugge-Harwich ferry, carrying wagons from all over Europe to the markets of London.

[conatic]

Je retourne en train avec le train pour Mons

[valtionrautatiet-official]

Oh I agree, there is a semblance in the overly functional exterior design for sure. And at least in that photo the MS62 even has a similar livery to the Finnish electric train livery from the 1970s-80s period.

Actually come to think of it, the original Sm1 livery from the 1960s was even more similar:

Helsingin kaupunginmuseo/Helsinki City Museum

An introduction to VR multiple units, part 1: Sm2

The robust milf of our fleet, probably familiar to everyone who has ever traveled with out commuter trains: the Sm2 electric multiple unit.

A pair of Sm2 units in different liveries on the A train service from Helsinki to Leppävaara. My photo from 2015.

The Sm2 class units are an updated version of the older Sm1 class. Externally the two were almost identical, but the Sm2 was easy to tell apart as the slightly sleeker of the two classes – the Sm1 had horizontal stiffenings on the sides, while the Sm2 with their bodies of aluminium (instead of steel) have flush sides. The aluminium body also meant a notable reduction of weight, which resulted in a corresponding reduction of electricity consumption. All this while retaining the sexy chunky exterior looks.

An Sm2 in the hot original livery at Kannelmäki station on the M train service to Vantaankoski. Today, the letter M is used to designate our commuter train service around Tampere. My photo.

A total of 50 Sm2 units were delivered by Valmet between 1975-81. One unit consist of an Sm2 power car and an Eioc control cab car at the other end. They were used in the Helsinki commuter train network alongside the Sm1:s, which which they could be coupled together to form ten-carriage trains if needed. As they are fairly reliable, the Sm2 units have occasionally been used on long-distance trains and at least on one occasion even an Intercity, but their relatively low top speed of just 120 km/h has made them less than ideal on long-distance services.

Original interior of the Sm2. Photo Skorpion87, Wikimedia commons.

All Sm2 units were modernised between 2002 and 2010, with the interiors rebuilt and a new red-white livery applies to the exterior. Overall, the refit followed the pattern set by refits carried previously on the Sm1:s, the two classes remaining near-identical (and fuckable) inside and out.

An Sm2 after the first rebuild, photographed at the Helsinki main station in 2009. My photo.

The star of the Sm2 started to decline with the acquisition of the new Sm5 units (Stadler Flirt) for HSL's (Helsinki Regional Traffic Authority) commuter network starting 2008 (These are owned by Pääkaupunkiseudun junakalusto oy, not us). A total of 81 Sm5's were delivered by 2017, which meant that the Sm1, Sm2 and Sm4 units were retired from the HSL routes.

Sm2 interior after the first rebuilt. Photo Edvardbeijar, Wikimedia Commons.

However, the Sm2's can still be occasionally spotted in Helsinki on longer-distance commuter services we operate to destinations outside the HSL area. Primarily they were moved to the local services around Tampere and the lines linking Riihimäki, Lahti, Kouvola and Kotka to each other. 36 Sm2 units remain in use for these services, and most of them have been given a light refurbishment, including repainting in our current white-green colours, as seen in the first photo.

The 14 retired units have been stripped for spare parts to use in the remaining units; in 2022, we entered a tentative agreement to sell them to our startup competitor Suomen Lähijunat Oy, who plan to heavily modernise them and use them on commuter train services in and around cities we currently don't offer local train services in, for example Turku. Suomen Lähijunat had some trouble securing funding, but the deal was eventually finalized at the end of November 2023.

Suomen Lähijunat's vision of a rebuilt Sm2. Photo Suomen Lähijunat/Idis Design

Meanwhile, we have signed a contract for 20 new Stadler Flirt units of our own (the Sm7 class) to be delivered starting 2026. (We also have an option for 50 additional units). With the delivery of these, our remaining Sm2's will be phased out. So if you want to experience traveling inside our hot milfs from the 1970s, you still have a few years!

[dorianmathay]

Watch "The Unusual Filming Technique That Saved Christian Bale’s Health in Rescue Dawn - #ahorts #short" on YouTube

revers

[godverdomme-toch]