In contrast to Glasgow, where the gauge allowed railway wagons to be hauled (by steam locomotives) along streets near the shipyards.
From the National Transport Trust website:
Glasgow's tramlines had a highly unusual track gauge of 1,416 mm (4 feet 7¾ in), allowing 1,435 mm (4 feet 8 1/2 in) standard gauge railway wagons to operate over parts of the tram system (notably in the Govan area) using their wheel flanges running in the slots of the tram tracks.
The USSR was for many years the world's greatest user of trolleybuses, but AIUI the system in Moscow closed some years ago. Many other cities in what was the USSR still use them.
Given the sheer size of the system in Moscow, however, and in other places, the use of trolley lorries seems sensible.
Perhaps this tangent should now carefully reverse into the depot...a most undignified and awkward manoeuvre for a trolleybus...
Before it does, having followed that link,
"It passes through the Crimean Mountains across the Angarskyi Pass, reaching 752 metres (2,500 ft) at the highest point, then descends to the resort town of Alushta on the coast."
I can't help wondering if that is the biggest altitudinal pitch that any trolleybus system in the world has ever had.
There was a stretch of tram track in Glasgow, by the shipyards, which was regularly used for goods traffic. Without checking, I believe that the gauge was very slightly under "standard" and the wagons ran in the groove on their flanges; and that there was a small electric loco to haul them.
The Ian Allan ABC bus book on Glasgow Corporation depicts a short goods train behind a Barclay 0-4-0ST, alongside a Standard tram, but I can't find it online.
This headline, from "RailAdvent", could really be in the headlines thread: "Gornergrat Bahn to welcome new POLARIS trains with stunning Matterhorn views". Surely the views have been there since the line (on which I travelled many moons ago) opened in 1898.
And I can't imagine that the new trains are "engineered to handle gradients of up to 200%" ...!
RailAdvent also announces a special "Asparagus Express" on the Gloucestershire/Warwickshire Railway next Saturday "carrying fresh produce alongside passengers" - that should make for some interesting conversations.
On trolleybuses, I do not know anything about Russian ones, but can well remember UK trolleybus systems in various cities, e.g, Derby, Nottingham, Walsall, Bradford and outer suburban London. I am fairly sure the Derby and Nottingham systems were connected with a through service between the two.
Growing up in the borough of Harrow I find this poem by John Betjeman evokes memories of smoggy nights softening the images of the hissing trolleybuses slowly passing by on the main streets, creating an aura around their headlights.
I can't remember if I rode on a trolleybus when we visited Budapest in the early "noughties", but I definitely recall riding on one in Coimbra, Portugal in 1982 (a system now sadly defunct). More recently I rode an ex-Bournemouth one at the East Anglian Transport Museum (they have quite a fleet).
I haven't checked, but weren't some HSTs sold to Mexico? This was certainly one of BR's most successful designs, and IMHO the faux-Blue Pullman looks much better than the originals...
There were some sets built for New South Wales - well, power cars; the carriages were very different.
I'm sure that the HSTs ride better than the Blue Pullmans ... but I still remember the Pullmans' sheer charisma on the dingy and old-fashioned Midland main line of my childhood.
I hadn't anticipated the difference in platform heights. At work that is a training course...for every passenger! (And in Nigeria the fitted steps might do something to the fuel economy at high speed - if it runs up to high speed?).
Mind you, in their last days the GW HSTs were used on Plymouth-Penzance "all stations" services - hardly what they were built for (13 stops in 79 miles, so somewhat better)!
This place is crawling with HSTs. The train from Stonehaven to Waverley this afternoon consisted of four carriages and two power cars - grotesquely over powered. I asked the driver if he'd been running both engines, and he said they always do. He also said they were rubbish, which I protested, pointing out that they were rougher when new, before the suspension had been reworked. Then I realised I'd been riding in them since before he was born...
The new "Backtrack" magazine, which arrived today, has a tribute to the HSTs. It seems to have forgotten about Scotland - I have written to the editor.
In other news, we've been watching on iPlayer an old programme about Laura Ashley. At the beginning of WW2 she was evacuated from London back to South Wales. Obviously someone making the programme had been asked to provide footage of a Welsh train, and duly obliged with one on the Ffestiniog Railway, complete with double Fairlie. (In any case, it ceased running passenger trains on 15.9.1939).
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From the National Transport Trust website:
Glasgow's tramlines had a highly unusual track gauge of 1,416 mm (4 feet 7¾ in), allowing 1,435 mm (4 feet 8 1/2 in) standard gauge railway wagons to operate over parts of the tram system (notably in the Govan area) using their wheel flanges running in the slots of the tram tracks.
Quite a climb, though the trolleybus system in Mexico City (7000+ feet above sea level) might be the highest in the world.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/51227209@N03/5993394402
The Ian Allan ABC bus book on Glasgow Corporation depicts a short goods train behind a Barclay 0-4-0ST, alongside a Standard tram, but I can't find it online.
And I can't imagine that the new trains are "engineered to handle gradients of up to 200%" ...!
RailAdvent also announces a special "Asparagus Express" on the Gloucestershire/Warwickshire Railway next Saturday "carrying fresh produce alongside passengers" - that should make for some interesting conversations.
https://www.poeticous.com/john-betjeman/harrow-on-the-hill
The nearest trolleybus system to the UK is now that at Arnhem in the Netherlands:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolleybuses_in_Arnhem
AFAIK the single trolleybus route in Ghent, Belgium, is no longer in operation, though the tramway system is very much alive and well.
There were some sets built for New South Wales - well, power cars; the carriages were very different.
I'm sure that the HSTs ride better than the Blue Pullmans ... but I still remember the Pullmans' sheer charisma on the dingy and old-fashioned Midland main line of my childhood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK4_BeRp5p0
and Nigeria:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1P4uvEJ7e8
Mind you, in their last days the GW HSTs were used on Plymouth-Penzance "all stations" services - hardly what they were built for (13 stops in 79 miles, so somewhat better)!
In other news, we've been watching on iPlayer an old programme about Laura Ashley. At the beginning of WW2 she was evacuated from London back to South Wales. Obviously someone making the programme had been asked to provide footage of a Welsh train, and duly obliged with one on the Ffestiniog Railway, complete with double Fairlie. (In any case, it ceased running passenger trains on 15.9.1939).