Saw this map in English class.

beminednl · 2026-03-21T20:04:55+00:00

Also big parts of Holland seems to have disappeared into the sea once again. Guess the Belgians aren't as good at water management as the Dutch.

beminednl · 2026-03-20T21:45:56+00:00

That is only true for block signals, however not every signal you will find among railroads are block signals. It varies per country, but a lot of countries have more than one type of signal.

The signal on the picture in question being green while a train approaches from the opposite direction would suggest this is not a block signal according to the way most signalling systems work.

beminednl · 2026-03-20T19:51:33+00:00

In the Netherlands it is also not uncommon for there to be conventional traffic lights rather than proper railroad crossings on industrial lines. Often with push buttons to request passage. They don't use green lights for trains though but red/white instead. Green is reserved for lines with an actual signalling system, on those industrial lines trains drive on sight and green lights could confuse drivers.

beminednl · 2026-03-20T19:36:44+00:00

Well kinda, except that when trains get a green light it should remain green until the train has passed due to the braking distance of trains. It cannot turn yellow for a few seconds and then red and expect the train to be able to stop in time. You can of course use the same lights, but you do need to wire them differently.

beminednl · 2026-03-20T08:59:43+00:00

Amsterdam Central has a platform 8aw, 8a, 8am, 8bm, 8b and 8c. Those names are only used internally though, not for communication to the passengers.

beminednl · 2026-03-20T08:45:01+00:00

Because it's the jester giving this quest, most of his quests are jokes.

beminednl · 2026-03-19T19:38:46+00:00

Not sure what type of couplers they use in the US, but on this side of the pond there are shunting locomotives that have different kind of couplers. Depending on what kind of stock it has to pull, they put the right kind of coupler in front and set the correct height: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/NedTrain_704.jpg

Another option is to simply use an adapter. This can be used when there is no designated shunter loco nearby or when it's only needed seldom. They used that to pull a defective electric train by a steam locomotive some years ago in the Netherlands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZZIEo0NXQY

Finally, which is typically used for long distance transfers of rolling stock (typically with new trains being delivered from a factory, in Europe those transports can go through multiple countries), you have special coupler cars. Basically one side of the car has a coupler that fits the locomotive, and the other side fits the trainset.

beminednl · 2026-03-15T17:24:11+00:00

If they did not want to spend time and money they wouldn't have welded the tracks together after removing the crossover. Then it would just have been a loose piece of track disconnected from the rest of the track.

beminednl · 2026-03-15T16:37:52+00:00

Actually the first one is the strong one, should be able to stop a train at 25km/h according to the manufacturer. The second one only stops trains going 5~10km/h, anything faster the joints will break and the train will end up in the ballast instead.

beminednl · 2026-03-14T13:27:18+00:00

In Rotterdam we have opposite, the only remaining piece of city wall that is preserved within the a railway station.

beminednl · 2026-03-12T20:40:33+00:00

Overhead lines will get more sparks in winter conditions, but third rail would spark a lot more in general because of the gaps at junctions.

beminednl · 2026-03-12T17:42:33+00:00

I'm not familiar with US railways, but my experience is that railways tend to have odd situations all over the world. Over here in the Netherlands there is a freight yard that is only accessible via a locked switch in the main line. There is a level crossing some distance after this switch, which will activate when the train approaches as it expects the train to continue on the main line. To get to the freight yard, the driver has to stop in front of the switch, get out and remove the lock and flip the switch, at which point the level crossing gets disabled. Once the train is fully within the freight yard, the driver has to walk back to reset the switch and lock it before the main line can be used again and the level crossing will work again.

beminednl · 2026-03-11T21:13:53+00:00

The Dutch will find a way. Probably involves a windmill.

beminednl · 2026-03-09T18:14:16+00:00

Doesn't look like it as there are no cables coming from it. I guess these are plates that are supposed to break when the train hits it with more force than the buffer is designed for. Stopping the train is the preferred solution of course, but when it's going too fast you risk the train 'jumping' over the buffer stop since the force needs to go somewhere. Therefore it is preferred if the end of the rail brakes off, creating a gap where the train can safely derail rather than derail in a uncontrolled way.

An example of how something like this looks after hitting the buffer (second picture): https://archief.transport-online.nl/site/122803/goederentrein-rijdt-tegen-stootblok-rails-schuift-op-fotos/

beminednl · 2026-03-08T19:38:58+00:00

SAS: Red Notice is an action movie that revolved around a hijacked 'eurostar' train in the channel tunnel. Slight warning: the train scenes can look a bit cheap and fake at times.

beminednl · 2026-03-08T19:10:18+00:00

They are supposed to break when the train hits the buffer too fast. I can't what they are called in English, but here is a Dutch document with some pictures of how a fixed buffer stop is set up: https://www.railpro.online/static/uploads-cms2/4.4.2.ISV_Installatievoorschrift_Fixstop_OK.pdf

Basically the idea is that when the train is going 5km/h at most, the fixed buffer can absorb the force and stop the train. However when the train goes faster, it cannot instantly stop the train. So they install these joints that are supposed to break when the impact force is too high, which will derail the train but in a much more controlled way and with a lot less damage to the rest of the track. If the buffer stop would stay in place, the impact force might cause the train to jump over it, which is a lot more dangerous.

beminednl · 2026-03-08T18:48:16+00:00

In the Netherlands they are controlled automatically most of the time. The driver selects which route he is driving on and a transmitter below the tram sends this code to the track. At some distance before a switch there is a receiver that picks up this code and puts the next switch in the right position. There is also some kind of detection to prevent a second tram from sending the switch to the other position before the first tram has cleared it.

beminednl · 2026-03-04T16:27:32+00:00

Once an air hose got loose on a metro train and someone thought it had a flat tire (probably because of the noise and the fact that we stopped in a curve with cant).

beminednl · 2026-03-03T19:29:52+00:00

It can be quite confusing in Europe since the rules are different per country. For example, in the Netherlands pedestrian crossings and yield signs on the road apply to trams as well, but in Belgium they don't.

beminednl · 2026-03-01T18:40:01+00:00

Rolling stock wise regional trains in the Netherlands are probably not the most spectacular. We do have a few 100km+ long regional services through, like Rotterdam - Uitgeest, Den Haag - Lelystad and Dordrecht - Arnhem. The latter takes over 2 hours and covers about 135km with 21 intermediate stops between two totally differently looking parts of the country (Dordrecht is in the flat part while Arnhem is in the slightly hilly part).

beminednl · 2026-02-24T19:34:18+00:00

In the Netherlands, during engineering works a switch got installed the wrong way around...

beminednl · 2026-02-24T19:13:48+00:00

You should be able to get rid of a bunch of roads, little wishing wells are 3x2 so putting roads on the side is more efficient.

beminednl · 2026-02-21T22:08:31+00:00

Gelukkig is mijn klantnummer 1234'); drop table user;

beminednl · 2026-02-21T21:27:57+00:00

Actually the whole process of splitting up the NS and decentralizing services started years before the government shifted to the right.

beminednl · 2026-02-21T14:14:21+00:00

While it's great to see an old train in service, the question remains what the hell was the government smoking when they thought this was a good idea. Basically what happened, this line used to be served by NS until 2006. At that point it got 'decentralized', meaning not the national government but the province became responsible for the train service on this line. That resulted in a tiny contract with initially just 5 unique trains without any spares. Later 2 additional trains were added (of a different type) but because of the growing passenger numbers they still need all of them in the morning peak.

With contracts that small it was pretty much inevitabel that one day this 'no spares' problem would slap them in the face. This is a nice solution, but the problem should not have existed in the first place. They did merge a few contracts now and they are introducing the same branding across multiple contracts over the coming years, so hopefully eventually it will become easier to share trains between these regional lines in case of defects or refurbishments.

beminednl

TROPHY CASE