What’s the Longest Train in the World? 

1. The reason Finland has 1524mm guage is becouse the Russian Empire had it, but Russia switched to 1520mm to run the newer trains more "tight" and smooth, but Finland stayed with 1524mm. There is a direct train from Helsinki to Saint Petersburg that has a wheel distance of 1522mm so that its compatible on both countries. 2. There is a narrow guage train half and hourly from San Sebastian to the french border called Topo that connects with the French national railroads. You dont need to walk the bridge from Irun. 3. Spain uses a wider track than the rest of Europe becouse Spain needed more powerful and bigger locomotives for its mountainous region. Also, they thought that european countries would eventually use wider tracks (like Ireland, Russia...). The invasion thing is a myth. You cant even invade a country with trains LOL (just use a switch to derail or divert them). Source: I live in San Sebastian, I'm half finnish and a train nerd. Please like so that people get their facts right. Thanks for reading!

I lost my *train* of thought when you made that smooth ad transition Isn't that *brilliant*

"How long is the trip?" "Seventeen." "Minutes?" "No, Seventeen." "Hours?" "No." "Then Seventeen what?" *"DAYS."*

I mean seriously, Russia, How big are you? I can't believe Alaska was yours!

*I love this guy's train of thought*

Wow I'm getting super nostalgic, my husband's grandfather was obsessed with trains. He spent an entire Thanksgiving explaining track gauges to me one year.

I took that 65 hour Chicago-Los Angeles train in February. It’s a the Amtrak “Texas Eagle”, taking three nights end to end. It takes so long because, similarly to that NK/Russia sleeper, service to Los Angeles is only operated by two cars. At San Antonio, the Texas Eagle transfers a sleeper and coach to a different train that heads on to Los Angeles. It’s a wildly indirect route, but a lot of fun!

In the Spain explanation, I definitely missed the talk about Talgo trains and how you CAN cross from Spain to France with a modern system that change the gauge on the fly and it doesn't take hours.

"Previous testing has proven that trains don't work well off the track."

"Finland being Finland..." Great quote.

The Talgo used to depart Madrid in the evening and arrive in Paris the next morning. It would change gauges on the go. It was only a first class service

finland and russia have different tracks but same trains work on both of them becouse difference is so small

18 days on a cargo train sounds like a special kind of hell.

Actually, you *don't* need to cross the bridge to Irun. To the left of the main (SNCF) Hendaye train station is a smaller, narrow-gauge station operated by the Basque Government's own railway company, Euskotren, that runs direct trains to San Sebastián every half-hour. The only walking necessary is a 1-minute trek through the main station's parking lot. Oh yeah, and there's no buses to San Sebastián from Hendaye. Well, there are, but they're long-distance buses - the same ones that go to Madrid, and you'll probably have to cough up 7 euros for the ride. Not exactly cheap. source: i live in irun

Finnish rail gauge is so little off from Russia that same trains can operate. 1524mm and 1520mm. It’s a relic from Tsar era.

I'm a spanish engineer and the reason of the different width of the railway was not the fear of a french invasion. The real reason was that Spain is a very mountainous country and for that reason spanish train engines had to be bigger than the rest of europe. As the spanish trains were bigger, railways had to be bigger too.

I took the train from Moscow to Beijing, stopping off in a few places. That stop at the Mongolian border so they can change the train gauge is no joke. I remember I was bursting for a pee but they close the toilets because they don't want you peeing straight onto a track in a station and I've never been closer to pissing myself in my life. Ended up having to pee into a bottle, not fun! Definitely an experience though...

In the 1980s, my neighbour took a train from Paris to Madrid, sleeper from Paris. He was a bit alarmed when he woke up in a shed with the carriage jacked 10 feet or so up in the air as they changed the wheels for the Spanish tracks.

"Now you can actually change the guages of trains but it's massivly difficult. At best it takes hours for a full length passenger train." Talgo: "Allow us to introduce ourselves."

"Previous Testing has Proven Trains Don't Work Well OFF the Track." Hmmm thanks Wendover I learnt something today.

0:55 Freedom units. I laugh whenever I read or say that.

Me When I See The Title And Thumbnail: *it was time for thomas to leave, he had seen everything*

Talgo and CAF trains have systems that allow to change the gauge without even stopping. There are even high speed trains (Renfe 120, 121, 130 and 730 series) with that system, and Renfe ordered 2 years ago 15 350 km/h dual gauge trains, wich are expected to be in service in 2020.

So, Wendover is about planes. HAI is becoming about trains... Is there gonna be a third channel in the future?

from 1:20 to 1:25 thats not true. It was done like that because of spanish mountainous relief. Wider track could hold more powerful train engines (with bigger boilers) so trains could overcome larger slopes. The other thing is just an urban myth of that time, as france had invaded spain not much before (with terrible consequences for Spain) I actually had an exam about this today lol😂 Pleases like this so other people know about it

Hey Sam, good job on this!! Even if a few few details were a bit of, you clearly put in a lot of effort to understand a complicated topic, and I appreciate you.

This is my favorite "information" youtube channel by far!!! You take yourself just the right amount of serious XD

I'm afraid 2:04 is not true. There are systems which automatically convert a trains gauge simply by driving over a special designed part of tracks and the train has to have a special set of wheels. Although the train has to slow down, it only takes maybe minutes to do and the passengers mostly don't even notice it. It is for example used on trains from Europe to Moscow

*Fun Fact:* Even when neighboring countries use the same track gauges, they are not always using the same voltages for power, resulting in a lack of overhead cables in border regions. This means the standard protocol for a train travelling through the French-German Border is to: 1. pick up a lot of speed, 2. retract the pantograph mid journey, 3. reconfigure the train for the new voltage, 4. wait for the overhead cables to reapear 5. extend the pantograph again.

Wow, now I’ve watched every one of your videos. Thanks for all the interesting, educational and humorous content!!

In August I got the overnight train from Chisinau, Moldova to Bucharest, Romania. Cranes picked up the carriages and changed the wheels under us.

The real reason for Finland having different tracks is actually because Finland was a part of Russia when our first railroads were built and thus we used the same size as Russia.

I laughed hard at the "Foreign French units" vs "Freedom units"! 0:50

Very good AD segue ! I love it when people sneak them into vids (honestly).

Actually, according to Amtrak’s timetables, the longest American passenger route is the California Zephyr from Chicago, IL to Emeryville, CA, which is 2438 miles. The Southwest Chief from Chicago to Los Angeles is 2265 miles.

0:54 Who made that map, deserves a cookie.

Thank you so much for using km

2:02 Actually, wrong. Using the same example of Spain, the national train rolling stock company, Talgo, developed a gauge-changeable train that could switch between the Iberian gauge and the standard one in just seconds, without the train even having to stop. It just went through a small cabinet located within the journey, even with passengers, without stopping and at around 20km/h. The gauge changed, magic. It's still used nowadays.

I love how good these videos are that you regularly hit trending 👏

Not sure if anyone else has said this before, but the Spanish-made Talgo train called “Strizh” that the Russians run between Berlin and Moscow actually switches gauges automatically in a matter of minutes with a special transfer track. There are some cool videos of the process here on YT! It sort of scoots along the rail on what look like skis on a bit of track that’s kept wet with sprinklers to keep things lubricated as the wheels change to a broader/narrower gauge.

0:46 Yay, it looks like Finland is truly alone in this category.

Spanish Talgo trains have flexible axles and can easily change gauge. They do it in a few minutes when going from standard gauge high speed lines to the wider Iberian gauge.

A few years ago my father and I did an around the US train trip. What a great time! Over 10,000 miles in 2 weeks.

Previous testing has shown trains don't work well off the track. Interesting observation

you should do a collaboration with wendover productions.

Hey I’ve been watching your videos for a year or so now and I love them. I used some of them for my urban geography class. I am sorry I have an amend to mehr to this video: changing the width of a train for it to circulate on different tracks is right now a matter of minutes. There is great technology that has been in use for that for decades now, eg on the overnight train Paris - Madrid. Keep it up!!

Congrats! I love wendover and all there productions, insert bad pun. And just wanted to say good job on 17th on trending.

Gauge change doesn't have to take hours. Swapping out the wheel sets is doing it the hard way. Some trains in areas like Spain and Japan are equipped with telescoping axles. The train drives across some specialized machinery at about 10 km/hr and the axles are unlocked, stretched or compressed to fit on the new track gauge, and relocked. Takes less than a minute to process the entire train. See ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZiH4kt14yGw.html for an example.

Half as interesting is an incorrect name for your channel. It is at least twice as interesting. Great stuff.

I love the new found humor in your videos! They used to be really interesting and informative but now they're also funny sometimes. :)

I've traveled in a normal train from my city to Paris through Irun/Henday. It doesn't take that long to change from one width to the other. The train stopped for less than an hour at the border.

The train stops at Hendaye and you have to run to *IRUN* to catch the next one

FYI: calculus doesn't teach you numbers. you mostly deal with letters actually. you should probably consider retaking calculus.

The Finnish 1524 mm and the Russian 1520 mm gauges are actually fully compatible although they are nominally different. The loading gauge is the same as well. The exception is that HST trains running between the two countries have a nominal 1522 mm gauge.

Great videos as always!

At 2:05 that is not always the case. As you pointed out, most spanish railway tracks are "iberian gauge", but the newer ones are being built with the european gauge. Therefore Spain is the largest user in the world of variable gauge systems: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable_gauge#Spain . They are quite convenient, as they consist in a small building placed above the tracks with entrances at both ends, and the gauge change mechanism inside. The Spanish-built Talgo trains have what is called a "Self Propelled Bogie of Variable Lenght" system (Sistema BRAVA in Spanish). This allows to perform the gauge change seamlessly, by just slowin the train to about 10km/h and crossing the facility, which is a bit longer than a train car. I have gone through many of these myself, since when I go from Madrid to my hometown in the peripheria of the country I have to switch from a high-speed railway line to an iberian gauge one. It takes about the same time as a regular stop in a station.

1:25 ILLEGAL PHOTOGRAPHY

I appreciate how you also answered the other question in the beginning

Thank God, Brilliant! Without you I would have never seen this video!

How convenient that I'm on a 24 hour train trip and it gonna feel super long and this pops up

Actually, modern Talgo trains can change their gauge relatively rapidly

god damn I love you and everything you do man keep this up. Its so good

I absolutely love this video. And your channels. The attention to detail is just incredible. Freedom units got me 😂😂😂😂

hahahaha "French foreign units" or "freedom units"

Just to shed some light on the Spanish gauge situation, because what it is said on the video is not entirely accurate. 1 - Spain didn’t choose the 1668 mm gauge because of a hypothetical invasion by the French, that’s an urban myth. It’s on Wikipedia, a study was carried out in the 1800s that determined that a wider gauge would facilitate the introduction of bigger and more powerful locomotives that could prove useful due to the mountainous orography of Spain. A few years later technology would allow for such machines in the standard gauge, but Spain stuck to the new gauge. We’ve never prioritized changing the gauge of the entire network, which would eliminate a lot of headaches (Cough cough, I’m looking at you, Corridor Mediterráneo). 2 - We have trains that can change gauges, in fact the service provided by RENFE’s Alvia (i.e S-130) usually does that, it runs on the high speed network with speeds of up to 250 km/h and then it changes gauge (and electrical system) to run on the conventional network. On trains travelling across the border with France this capability has been present since the late 60’s (i.e. Talgo III RD), so passengers wouldn’t have to switch trains. 3 - We also have other gauges, the most extensive, of around 1000 km, belongs to the former FEVE network which has a width of 1000 mm. Metro de Madrid and some other local trains use different gauges as well. Anyway, I love your videos! Keep them coming!

"Freedom Units"...LOL! Bravo, Graphic Designer...whomever you are.

Great video! I didn't know about the differing track widths in France and Spain before.

In spain, if you want to travel from Madrid to Pamplona (near San Sebastian), the Alvia train ( the not high-speed for long distance) starts the journey in high-speed rails (European wide), and then at half the travel it changes to spanish sized rails in a few minutes. Also, a train goes from China to Zaragoza, in Spain (funfact, near the place the train I mencioned early changes rails) not sure but I think is longest than the trip to London

1:26 That's the same picture of Paris as in your Eiffel Tower Copyright video. But this time not censored. Brace yourself for the lawsuits.

Research a bit before you claim things. Variable gauge trains don't take hours to change gauge.

Nowadays there are trains that can switch gauge in a few minutes. They operate e.g. in Spain to connect High speed line on european gauge and conventional line on iberian gauge. They implemented this on a Berlin-Moscow service too.

First of all yeah! you mentioned the Basque Country (we're I'm from) in one of your videos! Secondly, for the change between Irun and Hendaye, there is no need to cross the bridge on foot! The international bridge is fitted with dual gauge tracks, and most Spanish trains end in Hendaye, and most French trains in Irun. Finally, I'm sorry to say that you got it quite wrong with the gauge-changing trains. Since the late 2000s, the "Alvia" trains were put in service throughout spain. These special trains, can "drive through" the gauge changing without even stopping. The process takes a maximum of 5 minutes, while you don't even get off the train. With these new trains, RENFE could use the existing high speed lines (with speeds up to 250 kmh), and then branch routes to places with still no HSL and old track infrastructure. You can read more about them here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvia

Can we get a Wendover Production and Half As Interesting channel collaboration video?

In Spain and Portugal there's a different gauge because in Iberian Peninsula there are lots of mountains and the steam locomotives haven't got enough power to cross them. So a bigger gauge means more capacity in it's boilers, and more power. Also, between 1969 and 2012, there were some international services between Spain and France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, which has got a tecnology made by Talgo. They made a system that allowed bogies to change gauge easily. If you want for more info, look for "Catalan Talgo" in Google or RU-vid. Also, some French trains arrive to Irun, and some Spanish trains (in this case are from the vasque country operator EuskoTren and not from the Spanish national operator, Renfe) arrive to Hendaye

Is that train from Pyongyang is a escape train?

Errr... Half as Interesting, FYI there are gauge changers that allow Spanish trains to cross freely between different gauges. The *intercambiador* Talgo, or CAF, are two examples of such thing. That is how Portugal is currently planning to introduce high speed in the country, by installing these gauge changers on the border, and run high speed trains on broad gauge... anywhere. Except where the gauge is metric. :)

Damn...now I wanna know about that 4.5 mile long train!

The longest train is the train that stops you when your in a rush, I can confirm.

Very well explained.....u r the best youtuber..im subbing u right now!

The graphic design on these videos of yours are great.

There is a metre-gauge (1000mm) line from Hendaye to Irun and beyond; all the way to Ferrol, branching off here and there. From Ferrol to Bilbao it is run by Renfe(formerly FEVE), from Bilbao to Hendaye by Euskotren :)

Biarritz to San Sebastian, both lovely cities. Have family in Biarritz i would recommend a visit!

Half as Interesting: In the United States its the 65 hours, 2,700 mile trip from Chicago to Los Angeles Actually, HAI is only Half as correct. The train Sam's talking about is the Texas Eagle, which runs from Chicago to LA. The major difference is while the Southwest Chief, the daily train between Chicago and LA goes through Southern Colorado, the Texas Eagle runs daily between Chicago and San Antonio, TX, and a few through cars are hooked onto the Sunset Limited(3 times a week) for the trip to Los Angeles. Similar scenario with the Pyongyang through-car.

More useless information that I definitely needed! 😂love your videos bro, keep it up!

The difference between Finlands and Russias is neglible and trains can go from finland to russia no problem. The reason for them being different is Ussr who 'modernised' their tracks in the 50s.

Yea Technically you can reach from San Sebastian to Hendaye by a thing called "Euskotren" which is a Basque train company. It works more like a metro but it works. Been on that "metro", great experience.

That was a smooth transition from the main topic of the video to the ad

I can't be the only one who watches the whole of the sponsor every time purely because of how unbelievably smooth you are in the transitions

0:58 "Tests have proven that trains do not run well off the tracks." 😂

Man I love this channel more than the infographics show, that show drags too much unnecessary crap just to reach longer minutes and get more watch time, you just do your thing and go. I respect that.

I love your stuff man

Longest train route* bait

The sponsor transitions are beautiful yet extremely frustrating.

The Alvia Train in Spain can change its track with from 1435mm to 1668mm while its driving (to get from Spain to France)

when you said spain and Portugal at the start,both Irelands have the same kind of track as iberia

Tell me more about that 7.2 km train.

I love how you made fun of the imperial system😂

In Switzerland you actually find a special kind of "traincar" that's essentially a set of wheels, so a narrow-gauge train drives up a ramp onto those ("Rollwagen"), and then uses those wheels instead of it's own. Only the locomotive has to be replaced.

Brave Dave. A British man who freight hopped from Montreal to Vancouver.

I need a video on that 4.5 mile train