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Super High Speed Main Manufacturers EU and Railroading European Operators North Am. Operators RR Country Reference         | 4rail.net - Visions - Winter Pics by Stanislav Voronin | |
 Welcome
to the new Visions
Winter Pictures by
Stanislav Voronin 2009 - 2010 page which is a collection
of some
great pictures taken often in challencing lighting conditions and cold
weather with snow. Click any picture below to see an even larger version of it! | Created for 4rail.net by Stanislav Voronin and John McKey. Pictures by Stanislav Voronin, John McKey and Ken Storey.  Also in this section  Traxx family of locomotives by Bombardier has been very successfull in Europe. Take a look at the 4rail.net Traxx Locomotives Page! | |
| Winter Pictures - January - March 2010 - the Allegro! | |
 This is the first picture _ever_ of the Allegro Pendolino unit of Karelian Trains online! The Karelian Trains four Pendolino 400 series trains will start their revenue traffic between the Metropolitans of Helsinki, Finland and St Petersburg, Russia. The seven car unit trains will slash the travel times to almost half 3,5 hours on this 331 kilometer distance (slughtly more on the rail)  The new high speed tracks will be built for this traffic on both sides of the border so expect the demand to be _much_ higher than just 4 units! The Russian Railways RzD could order more Velaros for this stretch, extending the route maybe even to Helsinki - St Petersburg - Moscow, and VR-Yhtyma in Finland could easily adapt and deploy some of it's large Pendolino fleet to the international traffic.  The Allegro Pendolinos of Karelian Trains have both Finnish and Russian railway systems installed: the train is double current unit capable of using both 25kV 50 Hz (Finnish and Russian) and 3000V (Russian) electrical systems. It also has train control for both Finnish and Russian systems. ETCS is not yet implemented widely on the Finnish rail networks, so there is a need for old expensive system as well. Radio systems are installed for both countries. Notice the pole sticking from the smooth Pendolino roof! There is another a little further back and a wire between these. This must be similar radio system that you could find in use on many U.S. railroads in the pre WW2 era, even the measurements are about the same. Some old analog stuff still works well enough not to be replaced by newer model! Above the headlight behind the airconditioning unit looking bulge there are actually horns for both countries (as Russia is not part of the European Union, two systems are needed on everything...). The horns look pretty much like what you see in the U.S. What a shame they are covered, would had added much to the looks of the train!  The unit 01 of the four train fleet of the Karelian Trains is snaking to it's bay at the depot area of Ilmala Helsinki. Due to demanding winter conditions these depots are obligatory for the maintenance of the state of the art new tilting Pendolino units and have earlier proven their value with the large Finnish VR-Yhtyma Pendfolino fleet as well.  Allegro 400 series Pendolino and VR-Yhtyma 400 -series Pendolino inside the depot. Noticeable much of the trains, 10 years apart in designing, are the same! Why change something that works well and sacrifice using the same maintenance parts! However, once you start looking at the details you will see some differences like a different roofline (not visible on Allegro from this angle), improved headlights, etc. Allegro has the orange colored front due to the Russain regulations for the better visibility.  Another angle to the tilting Pendolino lines. Notice that the mirrors have been replaced by the rear view cameras!  Ali Huttunen the CEO of Karelian Trains and his Russian counterpart Akulov (Vice President of the RzD) pose for the camera during the official press meeting of the Allegros. Huttunen has an impressive record on maniging the taking into use of the Pendolinos in an exceptionally short time for Finnish VR-Yhtyma, so expect to see Allegro Pendolinos in traffic in record time too! The nationalities show well, guess who is Finn and who Russian? | |
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Winter
Pictures
- December 2009
 Picture above: The new (Sm5 Flirt train number 02) and the to be withdrawn units (Sm1 unit number 6046/6246) meet under the arches of the Helsinki Main station train shed. Picture below: 3 out of 4 rolling stock types at early morning Helsinki Main station picture are already of the common European family. From behind: the Sr2 (Swiss Re460 copy), Sm4 of Alstom, Sm1 manufactured by Valmet and Strömberg of Finland and the new class Sm5 Flirt EMU out of the to be 32 unit fleet. The new trains will bring low floor travelling into everyones reach, making boarding and unboarding trains both faster, more comfortable and safer. You can literally fall to the icy platform from the heights of the obsolete Sm1 and Sm2 trains! Besides the Flirt units can accelerate and decelerate faster while conserving braking energy back to the electric networks.   Picture above: Unit 6044 of the obsolete and soon to be withdrawn Sm1 and Sm2 fleet. Picture taking in the semidarkness is extremely hard and to make things even worse you get your fingers frozen with the camera, so this picture in the calm Kerava station before the morning rush is a masterpiece from Stanislav! Look at the handling of the light! Picture below: One of the first revenue runs for the Sm5 to Kerava the unit is already bathing in the snow! Look at the baby cart on the station platform, for the Flirt trains you can just roll the cart in, in the obsolete Sm1 and Sm2 you have to raise it for over half a meter (3 steps), which is quite an accomplishment in any situation. This can also be seen as a curious design mistake from the people in Finland who designed the Sm1 and 2 several decades ago, probably they never thought families with little kids could use local commuter trains or elderly for that matter, and at the time the disabled obviously did not wheel around with their manual or electric chairs either.   Picture above: One of the large fleet of Sm4s of VR Yhtyma stops in the snow at Koivukyla station in Vantaa, Finland. These units are partly low floored as well and have a remarkable 160 km/h (100 mph) top speed for use between the larger population centers around Helsinki. | |
 Picture above: Unit 01 of the Paakaupunkiseudun Junakalusto Oy owned Flirt (Fast light Innovative Rail Transport) fleet is making its way trought the snow in Vantaa. Picture below: Yellow lights show the still shiny new paint of the Sm5 number 02 in Kerava station, Finland. The white, green and blue livery combined with gray bring a fresh wind to Finns accustomed to see the VR Yhtymas all red-gray-white fleet. | |
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 Picture: Flirt train seen from above. In earlier trains the technical parts have been shielded from the weather behind the covers to keep the snow out. it will be interesting to see how these open top trains handle the snow and ice packing on them.  Pictures above and below: The Sr2 locos pull most of the IC2 trains in Finland, above seen in the snowy weather at Helsinki Main and below a similar setting bathing in light in the summer weather (still almost half a year away at the time of publishing this story). 
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