Thread by @ayranundspeck

Es ist Tag 2 im #polarkreisverkehr und ich frag mich immer noch where Åre we going???
Änyhow pt.1 gibts hier

Aufgewacht bin ich zu einem reenactment von Snowpiercer

Dann passierte das

Und das

Und sowas hier

Ich kann so ewig weiter machen #trainwindow

„In Schweden aus’m Fenster gucken“ seit September mein Lieblingshobby. Aber warte, es wird besser.

Ihr erinnert euch?

I present you: the S12

You love cinema? You love trains? The only sad part is the 2 don’t go together? Well look no further 🤩

Ein Kino auf Schienen! Mit eigenem Kinobuffet!!

Leider ist vom Kino nur noch das Buffett in Gebrauch, das Kino selber ist Stromkosten abgeklemmt. Ist aber alles noch da! OK ich hätte da Vorschläge was die Wahl der Projektionstechnik angeht aber…

Proudly made in Malmö. Guys as a cinema projectionist turned night train conductor my heart jumps like a gummi ball. Now I need to troll SJ into letting me get that thing to work again and marshall it into the Berlin sleeper. I can then die a happy man.

Achja, zwischen der ganzen Aufregung gab’s auch noch Frühstück. Für umgerechnet 6,50€ (ohne den extra Saft, ich hab nicht gecheckt dass schon einer inklusiv war) ist das ein hervorragendes PLV.

Der „BIO“ Wagen heißt mittlerweile nur noch Bistro. Leider. Aber: wir sind in Åre! Und wir haben ein Problem!

Der Zug ist weg. Und der Anschluss Richtung norwegische Grenze: war schon vor einer Stunde da. Und der fährt… 2x am Tag 🥶

Ich hatte mich schon auf 9h Bergwelt anschauen eingestellt. Oder Ölkafé.

But then: cheers to SJ‘s excellent customer service. They organised, and payed for, a Taxi all the way to Trondheim for me and 3 other passengers *without* me even asking. @kristianaas the @Lenny_du_Nord asked me to tag you here because you might want to know this.

Cheers to the lovely colleagues who made it happen instead of a fuss

tbc they organised the taxi for the passengers who had booked through. Me, travelling on Interrail didn’t even show up on the list. I just told them I was heading the same direction and they made sure to get a taxi to accommodate us all.

Storlien. This is the border station where I normally would have changed trains. But I missed the only train for the day ( the late one is cancelled and replaced by a bus). So we just dropped off a fellow passenger and off to Trondheim!

BTW this is a classic example for #crossborderrail
A beautiful border station, under-served from both directions with a mandatory interchange as the Swedish side is electrified, the Norwegian isn’t, yielding the less-than perfect transfer times.

Should @jonworth ever plan to extend the project beyond the core-EU area… (so sad he is t on Twitter any more, what a loss)

Nobody ever diss DB again this is WILD. Half of trains cancelled, one with an insane 7-hour delay. With an incredibly sketchy service to start with. Note this is Norway’s third city.

I understand from a fried who lives here that Norway is not at all a train country. Decades of neglect by consecutive conservative governments have reduced reliable service to in and around Oslo.

Many projects of line improvements and new lines are about to turn the tide, yet fail to compensate for the huge backlog in rail investment.

But we’re here for the fun part, right? Like Norwegian Sh2 Tafeln

Hard trigger. 3 companies struggling to run trains and 1 successful in destroying them.

SJs livery is halfway between badass and why you tryna hide your train??🥺

What is he hearing wrong answers only

I really liked this building. As well as the integration of the public walkway.

Stop with trains for a second I got other passions as well:
🤤

🤤🤤

😇🫢

Hidden underneath the city’s concert hall I by chance discovered this gem

Aaaand a Cinemecc 🤩

BTW the Ultra Star HD “gold” series was the second best projection lens ISCO ever made. Lot of professional cinemas and cinematheques used - and still use - way inferior lenses. And the Vic8 is not a bad projector either! Having those as “display” is a statement.

Inside: children’s birthday party 🥳
Ghibli🥰
Myazaki🥰🥰
Howl’s Moving Castle🥰🥰🥰
Thanks Svein for giving me a tour. And hope to catch you during Berlinale!

Trondheim has some vistas

And a bridge

Where you can see the sun set at … 3 pm.

A Harry Potter meets GoT cathedral

I imagine they crowned Kings there

And slaughtered them immediately afterwards

Portal to the next dimension

The most important sight to visit is of course:
The worlds first and only bicycle lift 🤩🚴🚡

Sadly decommissioned for the snowy period.

The mountain top station has a rather stately station building. For cyclists the best is just good enough.

Public playground for grownups

And a built-in view

I crashed my butt only twice on the way down. As a reward I invested 2 salaries and a kidney into an ounce of imported French

I cannot approve Trondheim also fell victim to the #gadgetbus #faketram hype. I’ll take „light“ rail over this any time @GarethDennis 😁

Soviet supremacy manifested in their space crafts, Norway acknowledges.

-mal mal Zahl druff
-ja was für eene
-ja halt,

Look what just landed

And look who’s on top 😎

I had an excellent dinner on top. Which I will soon regret, more on that later. And yes, the restaurant rotates 😵‍💫

Back on that funny wannabe tram thingy and of to Sentral. There is some serious train to be ridden.

Side note: public transport is terribly expensive - 4€ for the cheapest single zone single ticket - but at least said ticket allows a return trip within 3h so it’s not so bad.

Side side note: it was fresh cold pleasant air all day. Then suddenly at 4pm it started to bite, eyes to sting and nostrils to burn. @Kachelmann is right. Wood „comfort“ furnaces are a pest and need to be abolished.

Now that’s a pleasant surprise. We’ve got a pre boarding check-in. And somebody is happy to see me ☺️

Excuse for myself: they are ridiculously overstaffed. I counted 6 personnel for 5 carriages (I might have miscounted though). This is SJ also. Alas, a very distant sibling company from what I am used to 🥲

Let’s not quabble. You’re here for the train I’m here for the train. And, oh boy, what train it is. Hold tight.

🥳

I give you the sleeper first, for then I can better contain my excitement. This. Thing. Is. HUGE.

I mean look how wide it is. For comparison this is the „premium plus“ coach which already is the width of the Nordic loading gauge. The sleeper extends well beyond that!

That corridor 🤯
You can have breakfast on tip up seats and fold down tables and still other passengers can pass with ease.

What a terrible waste of space that corridor is but you still have full length beds in the cabins. Oh, disclaimer, I got assigned the wheelchair accessible one. This is not standard, it’s wider by about 20 cm than the other compartments.

Nerd heart rejoices: RAFI-Taster 🤩🤩🤩

Why? Because it’s the same push button switch that my beloved FP30 uses both for the on-projector controls and the optional external control panel. I just love the the affirmative „click“ it gives you when pressed.

Nerd heart rejoices pt2: this is the most ironic door button ever. It’s no button at all, just a sticker. But if you (try to) press it you inevitably trigger the optical sensor in the ceiling. Works better than frantically waving in front of the sensor. Tried it.

Teaches you: the best engineering doesn’t do you any good if it’s not intuitive to use. Go figure, industrial designers 😜

Quick tour of the premium plus: So much space! Recline is decent, leg rest extends, and an average sized person will have trouble touching the seat in front with their toes.

Standard seating class comes with another surprise. Anybody see anything familiar?

Very basic. But still very large seat pitch. BTW the lights dim in both classes once the train has departed.

Short stop just outside Trondheim. I love the sign that proudly says elevation 6.6 metres.

And finally, you guessed it, the @_DiningCar 🥳

I am a little grumpy because I am so full I can’t even have desert. I just dint expect it
To be there
To be open all night (SJ’s domestic services close theirs at 23:00) and
To have a completely different menu than the usual SJ portfolio.

Did you know that KitKat Chocolate bars come from Norway but are originally (and are still) called Quick Lunch there?

Oh and there’s free coffee.

Oh and it also has bike racks. Because of course it has.

One single complaint: there are no showers in the sleeper. I’m still 2 nights away from my first hotel stay and only had couchette yesterday. Someone is in trouble 😬

And, this train is diesel galore. Not only do we have some of the strongest 6axle diesels pulling the consist

But theres a generator car roaring right behind it. This has quite an obscene quality to it. And I have to admit I like it. 🫣

One reason why i feel Home might be this is a former NSB Di4. It’s successor the Di6 was a failure in Norway. But it now very reliably pulls the AutozugSylt motorails by my company mother. And the occasional night train also. But that is a story to be told another time ☺️