The night train carriages Finland doesn't want you to know about... Helsinki - Tornio/Lapland review 

I love that, what a coincidence :D

The name of the city comes from Swedish "kolare" which means a person producing charcoal from wood. But you are right the word can have several different meanings in Finnish. 😀

@@vaenii5056 I mean at least in the south we call car crashes a "kolari" but i do not doubt the original name was borrowed from swedish, Kolari being a semi-border town and all 😄

I don't think anybody would use the word "kolari" to mean "snowpusher". The commonly used grammatical case for a thing actively pushing snow is "kolaaja", and you wouldn't use the word "kolari" to mean that because that word has a prominent alternate meaning. Same way the most commonly used grammatical case for a thing cleaning chimneys is "nuohooja", and while you can say "nuohari", it just sounds weird, and as such is almost never used. Even tho that word doesn't have an alternate meaning. So for practical application of language, the noun "kolari" means "car crash" approximately in 100% of use cases. Also "[are] heading to" is a little too generous translation for the verb "menevät". As you wouldn't use the verb "mennä" for something heading for a crash. More honest translation would be "cars en route to car crash". And there the "wrong" verb would be implied indication that the car crash is a name and not a noun. The wording "autot matkalla kolariin" is much more ambiguous, and that would actually translate as "cars heading for car crash". So as not that fun fact summary, the word kolari does mean car crash, but because of the way finnish language works, you can almost always formulate a sentence in a way where it becomes contextually clear whether it's being used as a name or a noun.

Not snowpusher but chimney sweeper = nokikolari, nokisutari, nuohooja.

Thanks for watching! That sounds like it turned into a great trip from a unfortunate situation :D

Interested to know why you chose Kolari of all places :D

@@vermillionrotThat was simple. Stood in Helsinki station and looked at the departures board and found the train with the longest journey. Then went to the ticket office to find out whether a sleeping car compartment was available. It was the first weekend in December but I can’t remember what year.

im adventuring spirit, but that style would be too much for me! i bet it sucked, but was best time of your life, the memory will las forever.

Haha, should hane taken bus to Äkäslompolo, Hotel and watching northern lights with some new reindeer-friends ;-)

I was thinking the same. He should have had some Floyd Cramer's or similar type pianomusic on the background :D

There are rails already. Swedish rails goes to Tornio and Finnish rails goes to Haparanda. Unfortunately not electrified so maybe thats why everyone have to wait... Only diesel locomotives cross the border sometimes with cargo or maybe less than ones in year with tourist train. Btw name "Haparanda" is Swedizided🇸🇪 Finnish language🇫🇮. Its Haaparanta but because Swedes dont know how to pronounce it right way, they wrote the name how they say it with their strong accent and thats why its "Haparanda" in Swedish. Haapa means Populus tremula (a typical tree in that area) and ranta means beach😎

How do they solve the gauge diff?

@@macjonte Haparanda station has an island platform with the station house in the middle. It was built with “European” gauge track on the south-facing platform and Russian gauge track on the north. There is a short section of interlaid track over the bridge as far as Torino’s old station and freight yard. Finnish and Swedish trains can cross the bridge as far as each station. Current project is electrifying the Finnish track from Haparanda station over the bridge to Tornio and then as far as junction with the (already electrified) Rovaniemi - Oulu railway.

@@jameslovestokyo They are also building new platforms to tornio and haparanda stations on the Finnish gauge. We are in the process of relocating the powerlines that go above the rails underground so they can put up the new wires.

​@@macjonteFinland 1524 mm (russia 1520 mm), Sweden 1435 mm

Thanks for that, I was wondering that exact question. I was thinking it might have been a fuel bowser, but had the vents. generator, duh. seemed awfully large compared to the locos tho. cheers

The older blue cars are self-sufficient, in that they have generators powered from the wheels charging on-board battery banks, and additionally they have on-board liquid fuel powered heating systems. The old blue cars can stay comfortable for a veeeery long time. Caught in a blizzard? No problem! The modern cars when moving outside the electrified area need to be accompanied by a generator car, which you saw in the video. @@arjovenzia

@@arjovenziaThese generator cars are built using decommissioned passenger cars (same generation as the blue sleepers) as the base, they likely have plenty of unused space within. Cheaper than to build a bespoke frame just for the genset. And freight cars as the base couldn’t do the speed required.

Ah yes that's true! I should have pointed that out 😊

The lantern statues were designed by Emil Wikström, whose studio and home, Visavuori, is definitely worth visiting in Valkeakoski, near Tampere.

Sounds like you have lots of memories with the old cars! I was very happy to catch one, with the order for more sleeper cars they probably don't have many years left

Yes, those old blue ones are the best! I've only traveled in one once but it was so cozy and nice inside. The newer carriages do do their job but I prefer the blue ones by a wide marigin.

Thanks for the detailed information. I've actually spent 1.5 years living in Turku, so i saw the loading going on there at the station often :D Its very cool not that many car carrying trains left in europe

Totta, vanhat oli mukavempia. Melusta en muista, että olivatko hiljasempia?

I didnt have much issues with noise in the new ones, but i deffo agree those led lights are so annoying!

You actually cannot share with strangers any more. It's not possible to book just one bed

That is very interesting. The strangers with you were in a way the best part of the experience, it was exciting to see with whom you travelled. It was divided between women and men. Now that I think about it, it was just before covid when I went to Rovaniemi in a sleeper and I had a stranger there with me. Perhaps it is a very new policy.

@@duzzzz94 Yes it was changed during covid and i guess it have stuck. I've done plenty of shared night trains and its most of the time its great fun! Seems wierd to take away the option to share for a cheaper price.

That orange plastic basin is always what I think when I think the overnight train. 😅

Can imagine the long distace-trip with sum smelly alcoholic bum😂😂😂

Check out the metro in Helsinki :D

I've been in such a wagon only once in 1993 when I was 4 years old, but that smashing orange is something I've remembered through the years 😅

Mielenkiintoista, mitä reittiä/paikkakuntia pitkin tuo suljettu reitti kulkee?

@@masaman123Torniosta Haaparantaan siltaa pitkin.

Now I wonder if you can bring your motorhome with the car wagons on the train, that's a good way to save on fuel :D

@@Simon-Andersen i think it's too big.

@@oh2mp Yeah.. I somewhat remember that you used to be able to get a Caravan on-board, but only "if not fully booked" as even for those old-styled small Caravans there was like only one space where they'd fit.. and those were usually reserved for Vans!

@@Makapaa yeah and that one is about 7 meters long and a bit over 3 meters high.

Sounds like a lot of fun and memorable expiriences! The night trains are still great but the resturant cars seems to be little less party filled these days :P

@@Simon-Andersen We Finns know that it's too expensive there, so it's a custom here, that we bring our own bottles to Train, and drink it on our own seat ,in secret.. 😉

I miss those trains. 😢 Back then train travel was fun, cheap and comfortable. The seats were so good. ❤ I can't even use these new trains. Sitting on the floor and having your back against a wall would be 100 times more comfortable. At one point I had to travel from Helsinki to Lappeenranta and back on the next train twice a week for couple of years. I did it once and joined a car leasing app immediately after that. When I got to Lappeenranta I was already in terrible back pain and when I finally got back to Helsinki I was literally crying from all the pain. It was even cheaper to just rent a car than to buy all the train tickets.

Plan it well in advance and you can go for as little as 49 euro! It's a fun trip, thanks for watching 😀

tietääkseni näitä vaunuja otetaan roihin vain kiireisenä sesonkiaikana nykyään eli kannattaa suunnitella nostalgiatrippi etukäteen

Not many of those kind of short night trains left anywhere, i think Stockholm-Malmö/Gothenburg still has a similar arrangement

Very true! I actually transfered there from the airport on a recent trip

Ah yes thats right! Its right on top of the bogie so there is a few steps up from the door, but not much :-)! I saw 2 others walking their dogs during the stops in Oulu

Sounds like a great way to take a trip with the Motorcycle in places you normally wouldn't!

Thank you 😃

Turku to Rovaniemi was my first night train journey in FInland, but that was on the new carriges :D

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the kind words

Interesting! New sleepers have been ordered this year, so they likely only have a few more years left these blue ones

It seems like the opinions on the new and old sleepers are quite divided. But at least on the Kolari train you can choose between both :D

Thanks John 😊

and soon they will be no more, with the order for new wagons being placed this year.

It’s the only country still using the original Russian gauge (1524mm or 5 feet) which was imported from the Southern USA since Russia and the rest of the former USSR uses the Soviet gauge which was rounded down to 1520mm.

Fully aware, I think I've mentioned it in some of my other videos from Finland :D Not this one tho

Reason why they changed it from 1524 mm to 1520 in Soviet Union was very simple _ lack of money.Tens of millions wagon wheelsets and rails became so worn out in 1970-ies ,tolerances became so big, it became dangerous.Then Soviet rail engineers had "brilliant" idea : we dont have money to replace millions of wheelsets and tens of thousands km of rails to new ones, lets nail our railway gauge 4 mm narrower so our trains wouldnt swing like drunk drivers from right to left and to back to right again. And that was exactly what they did. Changing to 1520 mm gauge everywhere took almost 20 years But Finland had plenty of money, they repaired their railway properly and constantly and replaced worn wheels with new ones when they had to, they remained on 1524 mm gauge By the way 1520 mm train can run on 1524 mm track and vice versa ,Russian passenger trains ran in Finland until covid restrictions stopped it. Allegro speed train between St. Petersburg and Helsinki had 1522 mm wheelsets to run fast on both tracks .

Thanks for the intresting information! I do plan to revisit Slovakia, probably next year and their sleepers are high on the list :D

Yes. Very reliable principle of operation. So reliable that we have saying "toimii kuin junan vessa" (works like a train toilet)

In my early 20s I spent alot of time on the blue sitting wagons. In summertime they were dreadful, but summertime only lasted 2 months, if even that. The rest of the year the comfort was superb. There's nothing like it today.

They really are more comfy.

Thanks, yes VR have ordered a new batch of the double deckers so these will be gone probably by the end of 2025

Will have to try it out next time I'm in Helsinki!

They are great, i've had many great trips with VR :D

I must have missed it then, seems stange for it to only be in over other carrige :-)

me neither maybe the waterlines have higher pressure every other carriage :D@@Simon-Andersen

i use this train a lot to go to my grandparents place in pello the train ride is always wonderful i must say@@Simon-Andersen

Be quick because these carriges will be gone probably next or the year after!

The loading timeslot in Pasila (where most but not all cars are loaded) seems to be about 40 minutes per train. In case of Pasila, there is 20 minutes between the end of loading time and the departure of the train from the Pasila station (about 400 meter walk from the loading area). VR reserves 20-30 minutes long time slot in Pasila for attaching the car-carrier wagons to the train. When things go as planned, it's quite quick and efficient. However, things don't always go as planned. Connecting cars of any kind to a train mid-journey can go wrong in so many ways. I'd assume that connecting break (and electricity?) lines can be quite difficult if ice or dirt has built up in/around the connector. Besides, there are so many other things that can go wrong. Passangers (with cars) might be late, some vehicles might be too large to fit in, locomotive doing the shunting might fail, switches might fail etc. This can lead to rather lengthy delays, from tens of minutes to couple of hours. For example (the first one I found after 1 minute of searching) PYO 269 (same service as in the video) on January 5th 2023 got delayed by 90 minutes when connecting car-carrier wagons in Pasila. The reason for the delay is marked as "delay in train formation". This also delayed the following car-carrying sleeper train by an hour. The way VR has "solved" this unreliability problem is having quite a bit of slack in the schedules for sleeper trains. The service I mentioned left Tampere only 54 minutes late, Oulu only 8 minutes late, and arrived to Kolari 2 minutes late. TLDR; It's quick but prone to severe delays. I'm not a railway worker, these are only my observations from a passenger POV and if anyone is involved with this kind of stuff, please correct me.

​@@klapiroska4714 There is another reason why night trains are so slow. You need to have actually time to sleep. I think they are already too fast for traveling between Oulu and Helsinki since you only have around 9 hours on board. You'll have to get to sleep almost instantly to get 8 hours of sleep and you'll not have any time to actually enjoy the train. But when traveling to Lapland, I think they are slow enough.

Very cool! Finland has a lot of intresting things on its railways :D

Ah yes! I totally should have, must have forgot to got a clip of it.

I use Premire Pro and After Effects

Only on this service to Kolari during the low season, and on extra trains during peak times in the winter, so they are getting very rare!

Its such a cool service!

my sister who temporally is staying at Rovaniemi for studying has used that to travel back to Helsinki @@Simon-Andersen

Yes!

Cool! Ive seen so many conscripts use the train during my time in finland :D

Sounds like a fun job!

Yes

Its ussualy a mix of double and blue carriges off season, but during the ski season it varies, i think they prefer to send the double deckers to Rovaniemi during the winter peak times.

Sadly we don't have Valtion Rautatiet anymore since now it is an company called VR Group :(

​@@santerikarna9139Valitettavan monet luulee että asiat toimii vielä kuten Valtionrautateiden aikana vaikka se lakkasi olemasta jo 1. heinäkuuta 1995

One of the main reasons the latest events in Ukraine occurred was their dream to become an investment center of USA like Finland was after the WW2 right on the border to be a bright showcase for the Russians. Though during WW2 Finns messed up big time and they became amenable and stayed low but Ukraine doesn't, or more likely it is just not allowed to by their mentors.

I'm from Finland and I don't like it. Finnish flag should be there, not Ukrainian flag. Complete BS

@@justarussian8714 Is it Putin's business to dictate what sovereign nations do and who they do trade with? No, it's not. And Russia can blame only themselves for being stuck in the 50's while the rest of the world continues forward.

@justarussian8714 I think the statement that Finland was an american investment center post WW2 is misleading. Immediatly after the war the countrys leadership was so anxious that they even declined marshall aid. The paying of reparations was also a key priority which called for very rapid industrialization to meet demands of the peace accords. Finland was pretty much an inbetweener during the cold war. Soviet union had a very strong influence on Finland back then. "finlandizierung", as the germans called it. Since the country was still free and open, american influence grew by the year with different products, media, etc. but direct economical and political ties were much stronger with USSR. In the 90's USSR ceased to exist. It was economically damaging, but politically it granted us full self determination that had not been there in the Soviet times.

@@timo94752 'misleading' - what a term, haven't heard it for quite a while, people use it while running for president at the debates forcing their political agenda upon the audience. As for the term 'inbetweener' you are right but it was an inbetweener with a strong drift to the USA: all the machinery, architecture and techologues were generously shared by the USA with Finland in exchange for loyalty. From there Finland also stayed low for collaborating with nazi Germany and for the winter war with USSR, so they didn't bark at Russia otherwise they would been immediately shut off by the Soviets. Finland was an American ally back then as it is now. Period.

The Saarinen family architects 😃

Ive taken a sm2 from Lahti to Riihimäki, old trains but in nice clean condition!

VR has ordered new night train cabins from Transtech. I think the first ones will be in service in 2025. They'll probably start using them even if the rail is not electrified since there should not be any restrictions doing so.

As of now they are only electrifying the Kemi-Tornio-Haaparanta -section. Tornio-Kolari will still remain un-electrified for the foreseeable future.

@@lassipitkanen1446 Power of De-wagon? It probably can't get power to whole train if all are doubledeckers.

@@artokmt oh yeah, that's true. I just thought that they were replacing all of the blue wagons, but maybe it's just to get as many of them retired as possible.

They actually are thinking about starting a Luleå - Oulu line once the electrification of the rail to Tornio is finished (maybe late 2024 early 2025??)

Probably on this train or one of the prison ones

I did not find them to be any louder than other night trains ive been on, but in general both the double deckers and these seem to be kept in good condition, which can not be said for all other night trains in europe ive been on :-)

No, but that would be an issue. I think the carriges are powered by the wheels and have no or minimal batteries, so once the train is stopped no power is being provided.

Thanks for watching 😃

I doubt they have retrofitted them. Might still be best to avoid during the summer then

@@Simon-Andersen Yup, they can be a bit sweaty. Good thing is that you can open the window.

@@Simon-Andersen yeah theyre really warm and well insulated in the winter but in the summer it feels like a sauna

This is an important point. Although I love the retro style, these cars are horrible to ride in July - August during the heat of the summer. They have no AC and the dark blue color means they get really, really warm in the depot's direct sunlight. I rode one of these from Helsinki to Kolari in July 2022, and leaving Helsinki the thermometer inside showed 34°C. Didn't get much cooler during the night - very little sleep, just sweating all night long. 🥵

They should be at least slighly different, as Finland use a different gauge for it's tracks :-)

@Simon-Andersen OK. Didn't know that they have a different gauge there. But Wagon Lit was active in many countries and its rather common to put different chassis on rail cars according to the gauge in the countries they are used.

​​@@pmfx65 The gauge is 1524mm in Finland. As opposite to 1435mm elsewhere.

Yes! Sadly it has now been moved to the less impressive location on the western side of the station

What happened to all those wonderful PHOTO murals?@@Simon-Andersen