More Than You Think!
Although Bulleid's class 4DD were the only double deck trains to operate on British Railways tracks, the recent order for twin deck Eurostar trains does mean that modern double deck trains will operate in the UK once again. But they will be restricted to the High Speed line from St Pancras International to and via the Channel Tunnel.
We tend to forget that such high capacity units, as here from Sydney ...
... have been around for years! Here, for example, are older versions of the above stock.
And here in the traditional suburban maroon.
They show a similar train but with different front end treatmen; the blue train being from Italian manufacturer, Rivarossi.
fbb has to guess the dates, but probably early post WW2 woud match the body style.
Railway modellers might wish to research these two. They are both from the Deutsche Reichsbahn, so built in the early 1930s.
But the daddy of them all is this monster ...
... which is from Russia. It would have been loco hauled and clearly from an age when "accessibility" was not a great concern.
This renewed interest in double decks was provoked by this man ...
... who probably doesn't look like that anyway. He posts two sorts of videos on YouTube. One genre is his model railway news ...
... which encompasses UK and European products, sometimes even a passing tilt at the US. His other forte is reviewing second hand European stuff. He covers the full range of locos, coaches and wagons. This screen shot is of a video about a couple of unusual wagons by Marklin.
[Pedantic Point : there is an umlaut over the 'a' so the company is pronounced "Mare-Klin" and NOT "Mar-Klin". He, like most UK modellers and pundits, gets it WRONG!]
He does refer to using models on his layout, but we have never seen it! The only evidence of a working model is his loco test track ...
... and his really ancient controller. fbb guesses that the latter is anything up to 60 years old.
Anyway, a recent model carriage review concerned these.
The two together make up one of these ...
... a model of a two car loco hauled set from the 1930s. Mr Locomotion suggests that one of these weirdo locos might haul the two car unit.
Or you could have the unit with the front bit, the first class section ...
But the carriages are double deck.
So that's sorted!
The two cars are articulated on a single bogie and the model, cleverly, has the corrugated corridor connection fixed to the bogie.
That ensures that there is no gap between the vehicles. There is flush glazing and a full interior.
A nice model of an intriguing prototype rarely mentioned in articles.
And double deck!
And Today, For Real
Westbahn is one of the many "open accss" train companies that are flexing their wings all over Europe. They are spreading because EU rules require the nationalised operators to open up their tracks to competitive services.
So Westbahn is going double deck.
Here is an extract from its on-line tinetable. It looks like a substantial network ...
... but some journeys may be by "associate" companies.
The core service is between Vienna and Saltzburg.
Westbahn is the route coloured cyan.
BUT, Wikipedia clarifies everything. Possibly. The Wiki comes riding a white charger bringing rescue to fbb.
11 December 2011, Westbahn formally commenced operations on the Vienna–Salzburg route, becoming the first open-access operator to enter Austria's domestic long-distance railway market. It is operated in direct competition with the government-owned ÖBB, which promptly started offering heavily-discount fares on the same route.
August 2019, it was announced that Westbahn would take on the open-access operations on the Vienna - Brno - Prague route from incumbent operator RegioJet on 15 December of that year.
8 April 2022, Westbahn expanded its service westwards into neighbouring Germany, initially operating four daily trains that served Munich East station and München Hauptbahnhof beyond Salzburg.
December 2022, Westbahn expanded three of its services from Salzburg to Innsbruck, which also serve both Kufstein and Wörgl.
December 2023, Westbahn extends one Wien-Innsbruck return trip further west to Bregenz.
December 2024 sees the extension of two Wien-Munich trips west to Stuttgart, and the extension of a Wien-Innsbruck return trip to Lindau-Insel via Bregenz.
March 2025, Westbahn announces the start of a new line between Wien Hauptbahnhof and Villach via Graz in March 2026.
So that's sorted!
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Three more Star Trek Lego Brick Characters.
What position did they hold on "Enterprise" and what was the actor's name in each case.
Geordi Laforge
Deanna Troi
Will Riker
Answers tomorrow!
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Thalys Technology blog : Tues 11th Nov
