Welcome to the Finnish Russian rolling stock page! While the Russian locomotives currently only run a few kilometers to Finland on the eastern border, the Russian freight railcars are abundant both in types and numbers. There are also dozens of Russian passenger cars visiting Finland every day. These connect Helsinki to St petersburg and Moscow by rail (both countries share the 1520/1524mm or 5ft gauge). Depending on how the EU and Russian relations develop, there might be some private companies and RZD (the Russian railways) locomotives on the Finnish networks as well (there has been aplications for that) in the future. The year 2010 will bring a joint venture Karelian Trains Pendolinos on the rails of  both Finland and Russia.  

* Freight Locomotives - 2Te116 * Passenger Locomotives * Russian built locos in use in Finland * Karelian Trains Pendolinos * Russian (RzD) Passenger Coaches in Finland *  

 Freight Locomotives - 2Te116s in Imatra    

An RZD monster locomotive 2Te116 is leading the pulpwood and log train into Finland in Imatra, near the Russian vborder. The Russian wood was earlier processed in Finland to paper and exported to Central European markets. This traffic is now getting smaller, as Russia wishes to process the wood itself. However, it's missing massive amounts of paper making capacity, so processing is only made by saw industry. There are also reports of millions of qubic meters of wood rotting across the border from Finland. Picture above by Ilkka Siissalo 2008 and below a few kilometers towards the Russian border by John McKey 2009. Notice the locomotive below is of rebuilt M-type 2Te116M number 1020, but it is significantly in the worse condition that the one above. Notice also that it is running all the went and openings wide open probably to take care of the underpowered cooling on the warm summers day. 



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 Passenger Locomotives in Vainikkala 

The VL82M leads this train from Finnish border town Vainikkala into Russia. The VL28M number 069 shown in the picture is one of the two electrical systems fleet of the RZD, capable of both using the 3000V DC and 25kV 50 Hz available in Russia and 25kV 50 Hz on the Finnish side. If Russia and Finland both were EU member countries (and the rolling stock certified for use in several countries), the locomotive would take the cars all the way to Helsinki on the Finnish side, making the time consuming locomotive change unnecessary. The 5 hours spent on the 330 km trip between Helsinki and St Petersburg currently is a really poor figure and should be fixed, the simplest ways to do this are to remove the unnecessary loco change and to streamline the Visa and passport buraucracy!     
     
Below one of the typical Russian RzD Tep70 model locomotives stopping at the border check point. This locomotive Tep70 number 0306 according to the builders plate was built in the Soviet Union in 1992 although the country became Russia already in 1991 (again)! Notice how high the locomotive is compared to the typical Finnish single story passenger coaches.

Below one of the more rare locomotives visiting Vainikkala occasionally, the EP10 number 004 "Vuoksa" (Vuoksi in Finnish) also visits Finland occasionally. Here the impressive locomotive is seen in St Petersburg a hundred miles east. Picture by Denis Shalyapin 2006.



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 Russian built locomotives of VR-Yhtyma Finland  

While almost all the Finnish locomotives are of Western heritage, one model makes an exception: The Sr1 often called "Siberian Wolf" was built by Novocherkassk in the Soviet Union and electronics slightly altered for the Finnish use in 1970s. The Sr1 was the first electric locomotive to be taken into use in Finland. Around 110 of these locomotives still survice today, thanks to the regular maintenence + rebuilding + repainting by their owner VR-Yhtyma. Picture in the summer of 2009 by John McKey outside the Kouvola locomotive works, a place for "lighter" servicing for the model.  
  See the "Hunting Wolfpacks Page" for more info on this locomotive! 

The VR-Yhtyma double Sr1 locomotives lead the "Sibelius" passenger train into Tikkurila, Vantaa to board additional passengers travelling to St Petersburg Russia. Sibelius makes a daily trip across the border to the Russian side while many Russian trains make their daily trip to the Finnish side.   
      
     
 Karelian Trains Rolling Stock in Finland  

Karelian trains is a subsidiary of the RzD (Russain railways) and the VR-yhtyma in Finland. The first commonly owned trains for the company will be the Allegro 400-series Pendolinos, starting their revenue runs in the late 2010 between St Petersburg in Russia and Helsinki Finland.    
  See the "Finnish Winter Pictures Page" for more pictures!
   
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 Russian Passenger Coaches visiting Finland  

The overnight 100% Russian built nightly service "Tolstoy" arriving from Moscow to Helsinki, here seen at Kerava. Below the coaches of the dailu "Repin" service connecting Helsinki to St Petersburg, coaches again 100% Russian built, but pulled by the Swiss/Italian designed Sr2 locomotive. Picture above by Gerard J. Putz and below by John McKey.  

   

More pictures to be added...
   
   
Other interesting subject in this category    

  Finnish Main Page...   
  Finnish Gallery Page...   
  Finnish Operators Page...   

    Most common Russian locomotive types...

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