Recent content by MarcVD

Le Touquet line was for the Silver Arrow service. London to Paris half by train and other half by plane. The train came on the airport's apron but as far as I know did not cross any runway. Still needed a clearance from the airport's tower to open the entry signal. Today the track has been...

Yes you can... Note that there is such an arrow on each of the 4 tracks. So not only to the attention of belgian drivers, as the two leftmost tracks come from Vlissingen and are thus only used by Dutch drivers. These arrows are used in Belgium also, for the same reasons. 1746130593 Yes...

OK, let's look at this border crossing in full detail. See the pictures below. First one is a Google Street View at the level crossing north of the station, looking north. You first see the "administration change" sign, telling the driver that from now on, he must drive in accordance to the...

The border is just a few meters north of Essen Station. For people who know what to look for, the border location is obvious : OHLE equipment as well as lineside signals are totally different. Note however that the voltage change is not located at the physical border : the Dutch catenary...

And then there is the Ouigo Train Classique between Brussels and Paris which is made of SNCB I11 rolling stock and hauled all the way by an SNCB HLE18 loco. At least the loco and the driving trailer are not in Ouigo livery. But more often than not, other cars are not in Ouigo livery either...

Swiss franc is the currency used for all international transactions between railways affiliated to the UIC. For example, when a loco or carriage runs on a foreign railway (like a French CC40100 hauling an international from Paris to Brussels), the price for those kms is expressed in Swiss francs.

I crossed à lot of them. The most interesting one was the border between Burgaria and Greece. Stopped at the Bulgarian border station of Kulata, where the 25 kV catenary ends, to replace the Bulgarian electric loco by a Greek diesel one, and remove the Bulgarian cars that did not travel further...

You might want to read this : https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/international-trip-4-days-from-belgium-to-italy.277604/

I spent a night in Craiova in, I think, 2015 or 2016. Nothing to write home about, for sure, but a good meal and a good night anyway. Hotel just 5 minutes walk from the station. I left in the morning too early for breakfast, but I got a packaged meal to take away. Nice people...

It depends on the relative position of the activation zone relative to the last signal before the crossing. In many cases, the activation zone is behind the last signal. In that case, nothing will inform the train driver that the crossing does not work properly. If the activation zone starts...

Which I totally recommend. The landscape on Sofia - Vidin is absolutely terrific, and the Calafat (other side of the Danube from Vidin) - Craiova part is a time travel in the past, unless it has been recently revamped : mechanical signals, manually operated points and level crossing barriers...

It's independant of the signalling for its activation, yes. But the signal would be held at danger if the level crossing equipment reported a malfunction. Which is not the case here, as the level crossing is not activated yet. Keeping the level crossings completely tied to the signalling system...

Belgian 3 kV locos and EMUs run in Roosendaal and Maastricht under 1.5 kV catenary all the time - at least once an hour in each station. With highly reduced power of course, but as it’s essentially flat over there, it doesn't matter much. The change-over between the two voltages is just a...

We handle 1200 trains per day on the 6 tracks of Brussels Central Station...

If you have got time, and are ready to cross the Channel via ferry to the Netherlands, it is perfectly possible to reach your destination without taking any TGV at all.