Just a random thing I got curious about, what are your favourite EuroCity trains? Doesn't matter if it's because of cool name, route, consist or whatever else. Mine is probably EC Sobieski running from Vienna to Gdynia near the Baltic sea, not only because I got to ride it so many times but also because of the pretty cool name. Second place is EC Hungaria because it has the absolute longest route (running from Budapest all the way to Hamburg) and also because of the beautiful MÁV coaches that always manage to stand out in stations.
Apperently it was from Oslo to Hamburg. Later shortened to only run in Germany and Denmark and downgraded to an IC train.
Hamburg - Copenhagen - Malmö. There it was split with one section going to Oslo and one to Stockholm.
Split in Malmö with one section to Oslo and one to Stockholm. I think the Stockholm section conitnued a year or two longer than the Oslo one
From Norway, at least, there never was a direct train per se, only a direct carriage (via Sweden, ferry Ystad - Poland and then to the Soviet Union) that was attached to various ordinary trains over the distance
Which sounds confusing as Norway and Russia have the same track gauge so a coach going via Sweden would need a bogie swap and then again in Poland. As there is a direct service between Helsinki and Moscow not sure of the point of going via Sweden
No. Norway has standard gauge (1435 mm), Russia (ex-Soviet Union) + Finland have broad gauge (1524 mm, actually 1520 mm in Finland).
From what I've heard, there were bogies that could switch from 1435 to 1520mm track gauge so it might not be that big of an issue. Also I remembered a story about sleeper trains running from Soviet Union to Czechoslovakia. Apparently the Soviet 1520mm coaches were pretty wide for a standard-gauge network and had trouble crossing with other trains inside tunnels (don't know why specifically that), which required some special rules.
From what I understand the Soviet carriages that ran to Norway/Sweden, at least, was built to the UIC standard measures for standard gauge. The carriages were lifted with special lifts on the Polish-Soviet border where the 1435 bogies were simply removed and replaced with 1524 mm ones, and at the same time the UIC chain couplers were exchanged for Soviet SA-3 couplers. I think there's a video expalining it on Youtube.
Cool. I guess running trains to western europe does require meeting a couple more regulations compared to when it's on your own territory.
When you look at the 12 digit number on the side of coaches and wagons it tells you if the vehicle can only run in one or two countries or all over Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UIC_identification_marking_for_tractive_stock Traction - locos and units - are slightly different as they need to have the required Signalling for each country they work in.
Well, I guess I lost the point. It's just that anything can run anywhere with an explicit agreement but the eastern and western railways were so different in terms of rolling stock design that it's pretty hard to achieve.
If the tunnel was a bit slim and rails moved closer, it could cause issues with the loading gauge. I recall in my own country some trains are limited to meet at one of our capital city terminus tunnel (Déli pályaudvar). Also new double deck trains (KISSes) were triple checked.
