Okay folks, before watching this video, I invite you to watch this video first : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bGNT5Uh-WKw.html Enjoy the video :-)
Surely it would be quicker for the passengers to change trains at the border. The bogey changing exercise is so labour-intensive and takes place early in the morning when you've already had your sleep disrupted by customs and immigration in both countries. The best solution is for Moldova to join the EU, the permanent way converted to 1,435mm and both Romania and Moldova (plus Bulgaria), to join the Schengen area. Oh yes! I'd also get rid of those stupid brass buckets holding plastic flowers.
Actually there were several production lines. Ammendorfs were before 1970's. Yet around 80's the production was expanded to Soviet city Kaluga or Tagil - where newer variant of passenger cars were built. Ammendorfs are older variant.
Ugly or ancient? It's the most elegant and beautiful interior of a carriage I could find among non-luxury trains, it's simply cute, not old but vintage, not demodé but Classic. Thank you for showing it!!😊
Do you ever think about that ? Why Moldova still use soviet trains after this long time after european integration and Russia use more modern local produced train nowadays ?
@@vovixs.567Russia by itself is not cleptocratic, some people are. And you definitely can steal more money not building anything, including trains. So most of us, Russians, are honest folk. Second, Russia isn't an Empire. No more, at least then the US, China, Turkey or India.
@@vovixs.567 Why Israel just will not GTFO from Golan Heights, UK from Malvinas Islands, Azerbaijan from Karabach? Do you think only empire have territorial issues with other countries? This conflict is post imperial conflict, almost every country who were part of the empire had similar conflict. India-Pakistan, Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan, Georgia-Abkhazia, Russia-Checnya, Russia-Ukraine. And considering that the land of Crimea, Donbass were given to Ukraine by communist dictators, Russia has my sympathies. F communism.
The swinging flower pots on the windows, the curtains, the carpet, the bed sheets.... I love this "Grandma-Style"! ❤👍👍❤ So cozy, lovely und adorable. Great review, thanks for sharing!
Traveled from Berlin to St. Petersburg (36 hours) on a similar train back in 1997. We also went through Belarus. Change of bogies at the Poland-Belarus border.
i went from Moscow to Vienna by train 3x. The first time,during the wheel change, we still were allowed off the train and excursions to the - Fortress Brest -, from WW2- were offered. Second time, no more. Only off onto the platform and the duty free shop. NO local access there though. And the third time we had to sit in the coaches. The first two coaches were then later added to another train that went to Vienna. In Warsaw. - Our - train went then further on to Berlin. AND the Austrians did not want to have those coal fired Water Boilers and heating system. Spoils their beautiful city...So it was all electric. And of course, for 4 hours no electricity, no hot water, only freezing cold...@@Eurobazz
At 77 I love being able to experience these things vicariously. Great video. I have clear memories of my first sleeper journey in the USSR some 40 years ago with my wife and very small daughter. There were stops involving floodlights, armed soldiers and a lot of shouting. Really dystopian. Keep up your excellent work.
1981 USSR sleeper train for me. The soldiers were a real hoot with their rifles jabbing out the ceiling tiles looking for "contraband". They confiscated two copies of *Good Housekeeping magazine!* Ha ha!
@@rridderbusch518 Ironically, the guy who was allotted the fourth bunk in our compartment had been arrested on arrival in Leningrad as it was then because he had bibles in his luggage which were confiscated (apparently he was a Baptist missionary) but he was released to travel on to Moscow. We were quizzed because we had felt tipped pens, tights and crayons which we had been told would be very acceptable gratuities!
@@malcolmprice3654 My trip to the USSR was a one-credit class in college. We had 6 weeks of classes with a professor who had done this before. He warned us about the bibles. I brought pantyhose for the hotel guard ladies, cleaned out my jewelry box of junk (they loved it!) Chewing gum, etc.. A different professor of mine had a relative who was also a professor in St. Petersburg, so I delivered a full denim suit to his secretary (he wasn't in,) and her jaw nearly hit the floor! :-D
Amazing trip report! Lots of respect to the CFM staff on keeping this train in the best state they can; it's obvious that a lot of items/decorations are clearly not made to be used in a train, but to me it shows how much they try to make the best out of it and to make passengers feel at ease. I've always thoroughly enjoyed any trips on those Ammendorf coaches throughout the former USSR. They're so spacious and I find them comfy to sleep in. Surprisingly, quite some of those old Ammendorfers have some sort of slow AC that functions as long as the train is in motion, probably same technology as the AC of the old SNCF MU sleeper cars. Thing is that it only works as long as the windows and doors are closed. Not sure if the Moldovan ones are equipped with it though; I know quite some Ukrainians are and tix are also sold as AC car in the online module.
This is worlds away literally and figuratively from me. Yet this is the first video of yours that takes me back to my childhood. Thank you. And that beard is not fooling anyone, we know it's you.
I love it! Its literally my taste of interior. Lots of brown wood 😍😍. And the bedsheets are amazing what a beautiful sleeper! Would love the ride it one day!
@@digimaks Spain has had automated gauge changers for decades. My nah against your nah. :D Plenty of procedures have been common and have been "worked out", such as doing laundry by hand etc Usually people tend to agree that it's crazy amount of work in modern world and are happy to climb to higher levels of productivity and comfort, but of course noone can forbid people from saying "nah" and sticking with the low wages they receive
Thanks for the memory. I rode one of these from Hook of Holland to Moscow in 1970, in the Iron Curtain days. And then from Moscow to Helsinki. We had the same bogie change as we passed from Poland into the USSR. Back then, you couldn't choose your hotel in Moscow and were assigned one, and each floor had a woman sitting at a desk by the lifts. Not sure what their role was. I was on the train for two nights and could still feel the movement during my first night in my hotel bed.
The woman with the desk near the lift - were the floor attendant/housekeeping. Large Soviet hotels had this as a standard, so they could quickly service the room or help out foreigner with questions.
I took international sleeper trains between Poland and Ukraine many times in my life, with similar cars and bogie change. I really love the vibe of Eastern European railroads, it's like connection between time travel and nice adventure, I miss such trips so much! 15:44 clacking track with concrete railbed is very common in ex-USSR states, concrete then was very cheap and mass produced, while track technology wasn't well developed and it remained like that :)
It's really cheap all things considered, at around 250 RON. A trip by car would take 8 hrs of non-stop driving and cost you almost the same in benzine/petrol. So it makes sense why it's full. It's definitely a better alternative to going by car.
Nice ! I see old Dutch trains on Bucharest ! The red ones are trains that our traincompany NS sold ! In the Netherlands they were called Wadlopers thrn they served the North of the Netherlands on dieseltracks ! Nice to see these old NS trains again !😅
I'm a techie by nature. I love tech ( engineering and all. Big and small). This is the strangest tech I ever saw. I've loved trains since childhood. Never drove. This bogies is outstanding. You do worldclass videos.
Except Soviet era train did not have those hanging plants on the windows. This is Romanian addition. Also the two bunk rooms were made later. Commonly the Soviet era passenger trains had 4 bunks in the compartment, and your ticket only reserved one. SO it was very common that you will have 3 accquaintances to meet for the trip, that may come and go on the intermediate stations. From my childhood experience, it was OK, sicne I traveled with mom and dad, so we took 3 bunks from the room, with less annoyance. However one time we had an annoying chubby woman on top bunk, which used the table to climb up to her top bunk, instead of using the side laders designated for this. In result- the table latch broke, and she landed on the floor ! stooopiiiid.... 😄
@@digimaks Дополню\поправлю )) В европейских купе RIC 3 спальные полки на одной стене - в длительном путешествии это очень неудобно! Или все сидят, или все лежат. В Союзе и России подход другой, поездка может быть 7-8 суток, поэтому схема 4 полки, по 2 на стене. Вообще классификация такая: 18 мест спальный вагон (как на видео) - 2 места в купе 36 мест - классическое купе 4 места 54 места - плацкартный вагон (купе не отделены от прохода - общее пространство), 4 места в открытом купе + 2 места напротив через проход вагона, т.е. в одном горизонтальном отсеке 6 мест. Также над верхними полками есть ещё 3 ярус для хранения вещей и матрасов. Иногда там и люди ездят )))
I've just watched this video and find it fascination - the sleeping cars that are so retro and the bogie exchange. I hope you will find time to visit Australia some day, where we have three! gauges, although I don't know of any bogie exchanges on operating passenger trains.
Don't know if it still runs, but when I was in Moldova in 2017 there was another internal sleeper there, though it wasn't advertised on timetable as such. There was one scheduled train a day between Basarabeasca and Chisinau, the return service leaving Basarabeasca. about 10 past 2 in the morning. I was expecting usual Ganz DR1 unit, but it was a single TE10M with two hard class sleeping cars, the main part of turnaround being restocking with logs for the wood fired heating!! No reservation, just grab a bed! Really characterful train, thoroughly enjoyed trip.
Used to ride this train back and forth a lot in the early 2000s. Always loved watching the scenery go by and the bogies being changed. Also, at 15:47, the clickety clack is the normal railroad sound for me. Having been on trains in countries with better investments in their infrastructure, the smooth, near-silent rides were very weird to me 😂
I wonder if they keep track of the bogies for the return trip, or if they end up using whatever bogie is available, even if it came from a freight car.
The bogies of Russian gauge cars are always waiting for their original car. On the European gauge, these cars use any available bogies corresponding to the type of car. In addition, one of the bogies of the passenger car is connected to the drive of the undercar generator, since these cars cannot receive power from the locomotive. The bogies of passenger and freight cars are incompatible with each other, as they have different designs and sizes.
Great trip. Ah yes P42 and Velaro. I think this is first time taking a train with manual gauge changing like this, unlike previous one which automatic.
I think I had not seen any other rail travel video about the bogie change (though I had heard of this weird mode of crossing from Soviet to normal gauge... Cheap labor haha, no need to invent any automation right) The curtains in the train swinging in the breeze from the open windows, great mood indeed
The bogie change brings back memories of going between Moscow and Prague in the 80s... I also traveled from Moscow to Georgia, no bogie changes but it was a few days on a sleeper like that one, those were the days... (for train travel, not so much other stuff hehe)
That's (almost) exactly what it is - it's a GE Genesis derivative that the Moldovans call TE33A, and they've got 12 of them! That means the curtain can't be more than 2-3 years old.
Thanks. I looked up the TE33A locomotive and, after comparing it with the P42, I can say with complete confidence that the one portrayed in the curtain is a P42.@@frunzaverde1
Reminded me of Eurovision, when Moldova's voting results phone call was always someone calling from CHisinau but with the New York City skyline background, for a laugh.
The livery of these carriages looks exactly like that of the Ukrainian railways, so I assume these have been sold to Moldova by Ukraine after they were replaced with newer carriages. It's either that, or they just use the same livery.
А кишиневский железнодорожный вокзал построен пленными немцами взамен прежнего, разрушенного ими же во время войны. Очень симпатичный вокзал получился.
Replacement of railway carriage bogies: until a few years ago this also took place in Hendaye for what concerns sleeper carriages from Paris to Lisbon. They were released at Hendaye while the rest of the train continued to Irun (border station for the France - Spain direction). After the bogies were replaced, the sleeper cars (of the SNCF) were sent to Irun on the broad gauge track. Finally they were included in the composition of the legendary Sud Express (Sud-Express in francese, Surexpreso in spagnolo e Sud Expresso in portoghese).
You are correct since that train uses a conventional Boogie which must have the carriage lifted in order to put the new bogie in. In the case of Talgo Variable gauge the axles contain both gauges and use a special track to change them. This used to be done between Poland and Belarus Spain to France currently the Spanish high-speed Network meeting conventional lines
Excellent Video and if you are wondering who made the carriages it's VEB Volkseigeiner Betrieb Waggonbau Ammendorf, which itself is part of VEB Waggonbau Görlitz. It would say German Democratic Republic (Deutschen Demokratischen Republik) which you spell as République Démocratique Allemand. If they have been modernized perhaps a Polish SUW 2000 Bogie fitted under them to speed up the change from 1.435 Romania to 1.520m former Soviet Union Moldova Finland
Those red trains you see on the station were formel Dutch trains from the eighties, back then they were yellow and blue nice to see formel Dutch NS trains there in Romania😅
Fantastic! I love the cozy look of that compartment. So do you stay ON the train while the bogies are changed? I never thought about it before. If so, what is that like?
It's typical practice, you stay inside the train during bogie change. Just a long stop and some noise and activity outside. Lifting is very slow and is not felt at all.
The best is to be in a restarant/dinning car when that happens! When I was taking a trip Paris-Moscow, it was a torture to sit in our coach while bogies are being changed, while right across the work paltform there was our dinning car, with wonderful smell of roast chicken!!! 😝
One of my dream trains to ride is most of either German trains, Austrian trains, or Swiss trains, as they consider having the Nightjet. The reviews sound pretty good.
There have been no such passenger wagons in Russia for more than 15 years. Even on seasonal summer trains, which are assembled from everything that can be found.
Between 22013 and covid I rode the Prietenia once or twice a year either solo or traveling with Young Pioneer Tours. This train and the Moscow-Kishinev trains were probably my favorite old school Ammendorf equipment rides. Great trip report as usual! Zdob și Zdub should have won but Ukraine won because, of course.
I love videos like this showing Soviet era trains, maybe it's because of the old style trains in Russia (before some were phased out, if not all, for the newer style ones with 2 floors) that I rode on/in when I was growing up. I am very interested in the Sofia or the Istanbul bound trains you mentioned -- do you have any videos on those?
The whole train had an old creepy vibe to it. I thought how can he stand on that carpet barefoot, how clean can it be. Then when you went into the toilet barefoot, I lost it thinking how unclean that would be.....LOL
The experience of travelling in a Soviet carriage would be incomplete without fried chicken, boiled eggs and tomatoes. And salt in a matchbox. That's exactly what people travelled with on Soviet trains :)
May I suggest you reserve blur transitions for chapter change only. It is very distracting and a let down when the transition comes and then you end up looking at the same thing from some different angle.
That old soviet stock rides nicer than the latest caledonian sleeper mk5s! Also loved seeing the bogie swap ooeration but amazed they havent moved over to standard gauge by now.
An Opinel knife...you packed well, my friend! I think I just saw the most dangerous job in the world: climbing under those lifted cars while they begin to descend onto those bogies!
Поезд тоже и очень натурально как в Брест так и Чикаго, экспресс обычно на огороды а в охране вообще пистолеты выдали и вкрутили на сейшелы и прочую кубань, так что думайте когда св или общий вагон, чемодан, Чебоксары, чебурашка, короче всем кумыс продавали как туристы.
ооо классический поезд) не то что эти ваши скоростные электрички) родной зараза. и еще по приезду в Молдову на вокзале играла какая-то советская музыка.
Not realy, since they are receiving the trains with large volume of cargo from Russia or Ukraine. It would cost not only to change rails, but also ALL bogies, including all bogies of the locomotives which is nearly impossible! And if they also have electrified track, they will have to replace the entire power grid and transformer stations, to accomodate the entire rail system to the European standard locomotives - which may be AC instead of DC or vise-versa, different voltage, different frequency. That's unrealistic.
