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    Cologne - Any loco hauled services remaining in the area?

    If you don't mind going a bit north (30 minutes by RE train) to Düsseldorf, you get the RE 2 trains (Düsseldorf-Osnabrück) which are all double deckers hauled by class 146.1 locos.
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    Slowest and fastest services in continental Europe

    That's actually what the line was built for in 1887.
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    Slowest and fastest services in continental Europe

    I'll throw in the german Chiemseebahn for the slowest average speed. The booked 8 minutes for the 1.91 km long line work out to an average speed of 14.325 km/h.
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    Belgium rail ideas

    The 5000 train series (Aachen-Spa) is still a safe place (IIRC until December 2023) for the last class 66 and 70JH EMUs (the last "classic" EMUs with camshaft control gear and the oldest rolling stock still in regular service) and also relatively scenic.
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    Suggestions for stopover Hook of Holland to Austria

    The Chiemseebahn (the 2 km long metre gauge railway between Prien station and the Chiemsee) is worth a visit just to ride on their original rolling stock built in 1887 and in regular service ever since. The steam loco is booked run on saturdays and sundays during the summer (from the 20th of May...
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    Trivia: Longest tram in the world.

    Considering that about all systems on the longest formation list are similar, it would be very unfair not to include them as long as they are regulated by the BOStrab (german regulations for the construction and operation of trams) and not fully grade seperated (to keep out the definitively full...
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    Steam events, tours etc in Europe between 27th Oct and 1st Nov.

    Both narrow gauge railways (Molli and the line on Rügen) on the german baltic cost still run their intensive summer timetable until the 31st of October using steam locomotives in regular service.
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    ICE derailment in Karlsruhe today, 08 September 2022

    That derailment happened during a shunting move with ECS and the very likely cause is that a set of points has been thrown beneath one of the vehicles. Nothing that spectacular (apart from being rolling stock with windows and a top speed of 330 km/h).
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    Voltage change at Bad Bentheim - how does it work?

    The signalling system (Siemens type Spurplan 60 relay interlocking) can only detect if the track section is occupied and is interlocked with the overhead switching equipment. When the track sections beneath an electrical overhead section is empty, the voltage can be selected automatically by...
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    Telling people you're a train driver

    A good description for anyone without at least some basic railway knowledge I heard is "It's like an air traffic controller but for trains".
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    [TRIVIA] What are the longest routes between two close places for each of the TOCs, using only their trains/routes

    Blaenau Ffestiniog to one of the nearby stations on the Cambrian coast line (Llandecwyn, Penrhyndeudraeth, Minffordd) should be good candidates for TfW.
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    Does Dresden still have Tatra trams?

    Dresden still holds on to a few Tatras (quite remarkable considering that they had their farewell celebration in 2010) which only work some additional services. According to a german forum (https://www.drehscheibe-online.de/foren/read.php?005,10014380,10014866#msg-10014866 for Dresden...
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    Trivia: Settlements where rail infrastructure is more well known than its namesake

    The first thing that came to my mind was Maschen in Germany (just south of Hamburg) being a small town (population of about 9000) with a large (in fact the largest in europe and second largest in the world) marshalling yard. Healey, Tinsley and Toton all follow a similar pattern.
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    Which tramways have you used?

    Just the normal tram systems I remember... Germany: NRW: All systems, including BMB Wuppertal, easier to list where I haven't been (a single stop in Bielefeld, a short new built section in Bochum and some minor bits and bobs in and around Cologne and Bonn) Bavaria: Munich, Nuremberg, Augsburg...
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    Austrian Steam in the Twilight Years - esp Branch lines north of Vienna

    1976 was the final year of regular standard gauge steam, apart from the Erzbergbahn where steam lasted until the end of rack operation in 1978. Things were a bit different on the narrow gauge side. The Waldviertelbahn only had sufficient diesels for regular service in 1986 and retained the...
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    Unusual moves Belgium

    You can find the planned trains for particular types of rolling stock on https://www.beluxtrains.net/indexen.php. Mechelen is quite a convenient location for the HLE27 (older type of electric loco from the early 1980s) workings on some of the IC trains between Brussel and Antwerpen.
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    Shortest-lived rolling stock

    They only had a very short working life on the DLR and were far from life-expired when being retired. The whole fleet was sold to Essen in Germany where they were fitted with cabs and pantographs in 1996 and all of them are still in service 25 years later with the units replacing them (and the...
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    "Real steam" by one definition, about to vanish from the world

    The german "Molli" (Bad Doberan-Kühlungsbron West) is public transport (line RB31) using steam locomotives paid for and ordered by the Bundesland Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, integrated into the local PTE and runs a normal service frequency for the area (one train every two hours during the winter...
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    Compartment Coaches on Heritage Lines

    The Isle of Man Railway mostly uses non-corridor coaches.
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    UK locomotives in preservation abroad?

    The first ten locos of the 500 series (pretty much identical to the 600 series but without train brake equipment) were ex WD with No. 508 (WD 70269) being preserved at the national railway museum of Utrecht. All other locos were delivered new to the NS. The obvious one in the Netherlands is No...

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