European Train trips

[ECOCKS]

And how about the stop for changing wheels?       

For those who don't know it - European and USSR railroad tracks are differ in width.   Supposedly it was a German conspiracy - German engineers designed Russian railroads right before the WW 1 and made those tracks narrower on purpose, so Russians wouldn't be able to chase Germans into Europe later on...   

Hmmm, I'll try to track down my pics of them changing wheels. Some of you might find them interesting. Particularly if you notice the bits and pieces of toilet paper clinging to the wheel assemblies.......

[ECOCKS]

Actually, at 1,520 mm the FSU rail gauge is wider than the 1,435 mm gauge prevailing in Europe (except Spain and Portugal, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_gauge), and I remember reading somewhere that its purpose was to impede traffic from invading European countries .

I like the version of the story I heard about this.

The Czar, during one of his especially enlightened phases, had the Okrana (forerunner of the KGB/intelligence service) form teams of engineers, doctors, military, etc. to disperse overseas looking for the best ideas in medicine, construction, technology and the like. It was not a big secret particularly, no early James Bond missions or anything, just go find the best things in the rest of the world and bring the information back here. This action supposedly helped in many high-profile areas, such as ironclads for the Navy, artillery pieces for the Army, fashion, medicine, etc. but also influenced more mundane fields such as road/bridge construction, building materials/methods, sewage systems and railways.

On learning of the "standard" for track gauging in Europe, the reaction was that since Russia was such a large country, they should widen the tracks for additional stability and load-carrying capacity.

On a sidenote, I was also told that the reason train stations are called Vokzals was because the team which outlined the railroad report mentioned that the starting point for trains in their study was in a place called Vauxhall.

Good thing the team didn't go to Piccadilly first or every little country town would have a Pikadili in the center.....

Maybe that story is true, maybe it was only a bit of urban legend, either way I enjoyed it.

[SANDRO43]

Hmmm, I'll try to track down my pics of them changing wheels.

Do the actually change them, or just re-adjust them on the axles?

[Aloe]

I take a train all the time between Brussels and Paris.  Are you going 1st or second class?  Your fiance should probably meet you in Paris as you will not get much help with your baggage.  I assume your on the high speed train which is less than 1 hour from Paris to Brussels.

I always bought ticket in train station but I have never done it during tourist season of June and July.  Trains could be sold out.

Learn some basic French words and you will have no problems.  I know about 20 words and never had problems with French speaking people switching over to English.  Saying hello in English is rude in a non English speaking country.

Since your going to live in Brussels Belgium you will need to start learning French, Dutch, Flemish.  English is not widely spoken here unless you live more north near Netherlands outside of Brussels.

I find people in Kiev speak more English than in Brussels.  Which is not saying a lot of people speak it.

i got 1st class, cuz it was cheaper with youth discount than regular 2nd class ticket
we are gonna be living in a small village like 40 minutes from brussels, in flemish brabant.
As for english, my fiance's entire family speaks english, so i've been under impression it's quite common for everyone there to be able to speak english. 
If everything goes well, i'll spend only 4 hours in France, at the airport, there is a train terminal right there at the airport. Never heard that it was impolite to say hello in english i guess i better practice bonjour

[SANDRO43]

On a sidenote, I was also told that the reason train stations are called Vokzals was because the team which outlined the railroad report mentioned that the starting point for trains in their study was in a place called Vauxhall.

Here's another source:

Vauxhall, Russian railway stations and Pushkin

There are competing theories as to why the Russian word for a major railway station is (vokzal), which coincides with the canonical 19th century transliteration of "Vauxhall".

It has long been suggested that a Russian delegation visited the area to inspect the construction of the London and South Western Railway in 1840, and mistook the name for a generic title of the building type. This was further embellished into a story that the Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, visiting London in 1844, was taken to see the trains at Vauxhall and made the same mistake. The L&SWR's original railway terminus was shown boldly and simply as "Vauxhall" in the 1841 Bradshaw timetable.

Another likely explanation is that the first Russian railway, constructed in 1837, ran from Saint Petersburg via Tsarskoye Selo to Pavlovsk, where extensive Pleasure Gardens had earlier been established.

In 1838 a music and entertainment pavilion was constructed at the railway terminus. This pavilion was called the Vokzal in homage to the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in London. The name soon came to be applied to the station itself, which was the gateway that most visitors used to enter the gardens. It later came to mean any substantial railway station building (a different Russian word, stantsiya, is used for minor stations).

The word "voksal"had been known in Russian language in the meaning of "amusement park" long before the 1840s and may be found, e.g., in the poetry of Aleksandr Pushkin:(To Natalie (1813): "At fêtes and in voksals, /I've been flitting like a gentle Zephyrus" [here "Zephyrus" is an allegory of a gentle, warm and pleasant wind ]) According to Vasmer, the word is first attested in the Saint Petersburg Vedomosti for 1777, which may reflect an earlier English spelling, Faukeshall.

Englishman Michael Maddox established a Vauxhall Gardens in the Moscow suburbs in 1783, with pleasure gardens, a small theatre/concert hall and places for refreshment. Archdeacon William Coxe describes the place as a 'sort of Vauxhall' in that year, in his 'Travels into Russia' .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall

[OlgaH]

I'm surprised OlgaH didn't step in on that, it's more in her bailiwick .

Robert and I have been busy.

The first Russian gauge
The first railroad in Russia “St. Petersburg - Tsarskoye Selo” had the gauge of 6’ (1829 mm)...

In English
http://vilaris.com/en/terminal/history.php

In Russian
http://www.vilaris.com/ru/terminal/history.php

[ECOCKS]

Do the actually change them, or just re-adjust them on the axles?

They change the entire wheel carriage assembly. Jack the train car up about 2 and half feet, disengage the assembly then push them out from one end with the wider/narrower assembly for the next leg of the journey.

[OlgaH]

Found some photos

Changing the wheel carriage

[SANDRO43]

Expatriate railway engineers sometime leave behind more than just good railways - a French one left us Frédéric Chopin .

[Ooooops]

Particularly if you notice the bits and pieces of toilet paper clinging to the wheel assemblies.......

That is they had toilet paper in those toilets...   

[OlgaH]

That is they had toilet paper in those toilets...   

Even if they have it is better to have your own.

[SANDRO43]

Are there still any coal-driven locomotives in the FSU? I understand there are in China, particularly for freight trains.

[kievstar]

Hi Sandro, ready for lesson three?  maybe thanks. 

[ECOCKS]

Even if they have it is better to have your own.

My wife thought it was funny that I was always remembering to pack a full roll of toilet paper on our travels. She carried the flat packets in her purse but eventually we switched and she carried all the wet wipes while I kept us stocked with TP.

Never had any use for that drain plug they said to carry though, just always took showers rather than baths while I was over there.

[SANDRO43]

Hi Sandro, ready for lesson three?  maybe thanks. 

OK, here it is, pay attention Aloe .

Mэрси бoкy (Merci beaucoup - Many thanks)
Эkckyзé myà (Excusez-moi - Excuse me)
Жэ нэ парл па франсé (Je ne parle pas français - I don't speak French)
Парлé вy aнглé? (Parlez-vous anglais? - Do you speak English?)

Remember that French is an oxytonic language, i.e. its accents fall on the last syllable of most words (it goes ta-TA, ta-ta-TA, etc.)

[Donhollio]

 Travelling from Munich to Odessa in 2003. This is on the Slovak/Ukraine border.

[Ooooops]

Do the actually change them, or just re-adjust them on the axles?

They actually change the wheels - train goes to the special track, gets separated in few sections, workers bring huge pneumatic jacks, lift few cars at the time, disengage Russian set of wheels, rolls them off, put European set instead and - voile! - you are good for train travel through Europe.       And all of that done, while passengers are still inside of the train cars.   

[JR]

Then we got to Ukraine where the bathrooms dump directly onto the tracks.....

Hahahahahhaaaa!!!!

I had the same thing happen when I rode the train from Moscow to Krasnodar. The first time I lifted the lid I had to do a double-take! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I kept thinking "Don't these people know how unsanitary this is?" "What about the poor kids walking home from school?" In the end I had to go....but man it didn't feel right. There's someting wrong about that...

[kievstar]

Thanks Sandro. 

Aloe, I was looking at my words I wrote yesterday.  In Brussels people know basic phrases of English as it is a big tourist destination.  But your not going to have very good discussions in English with them.  Most restaurants have no English menus.   

I also speak in French to someone first in Brussels not knowing if they speak French or Dutch.  Reason as the Dutch people do not get offended if you speak French to them.  The French people seem to get offended if you speak Dutch to them.  Just based on my experience and people I work with. 

Where you will be living is outside of Brussels and tends to be English speaking. Very nice location of Belgium.

[Aloe]

Thanks Sandro and Kievstar
i remember мерси боку from an old soviet movie song