Originally published at: All we know about Kim Jong Un's fortified choo-choo train | Boing Boing
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Train fetish must be a dictator thing. Putin has his own armored train, which oddly is more like a spa on tracks. Stalin had a train. Lenin had a train. There are probably more examples.
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I kinda like that they call them bomb proof, which sounds like a challenge to explosives engineers.
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Makes sense I guess. There are only so many kinds of amenities you can pack into a private jet.
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Gotta keep an eye on the proles at the back of the train though.
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Russian leaders used trains a lot, historically because it was the only way to get to the east with any semblance of speed and guarantee you’d get there, or move around in the east at all. The roads were non-existent or impassable - at least for much of the year. It’s been a continuing tradition.
After WW1 when the west was supporting the Russian White Army against the Bolsheviks, the British Expeditionary Force there in 1920 (?) was there to provide logistical support only - i.e. help with railway/train stuff.
My grandfather was there for that reason.
ETA - also this - Russian aviation not exactly in a good state (bad pun - oops)
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Well, it’s much harder to shoot down a train, and when trains do crash, most of the passengers usually survive, at least if you’re not in the first car or two. I can’t help but believe that part of Kim’s decision would have been such security considerations – too many people want him dead to make much air flight time advisable.
I have to admit, I’m curious enough to check whether a new set of bogies had to be fitted to allow the train to go to Russia, and while I don’t know enough about trains to be sure it sure looks like nearly 10 cm of difference means they would have had to adjust or replace them at some point on the journey:
Russia uses a gauge of 1,520 mm. The North Korean systems use a range of gauge widths, but 87 percent of its tracks are 1,435 mm.
Anyone know for sure?
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The bogies are swapped at Tumangan, the last station on the North Korean side.
Simply changing the bogie takes less than an hour (for cars that are designed for bogie changes in regular operation, such as the sleeping cars on the Vienna
- Kyiv
route, see #ВіденьКиїв or photos)
For an entire train, this depends on how many wagons can be processed at the same time, i.e. how many lifting systems etc. there are in the respective gauge changing system.
In 2008 I only saw 4 lifting systems (for 2 wagons) in Tumangang (border station to Russia), see photo…
The author of these tweets is the ÖBB timetabler responsible for the Vienna-Kyiv service, which changes from standard gauge to broad gauge on the Hungary-Ukraine border.
In 2008 he went by train from Vienna to Pyongyang.
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The Spanish have developed a clever machine that does all the hard work as the train rolls through - making it much easier to run trains across the border into France:
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I have to admit, though I am not a fan of Dear Leader, I am a fan of getting around by rail!
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Armored trains played a role in the Russian Civiil War, so there may be some historical symbolism going on. We do know that the Russian army logistics (so to speek) relied on the railway,
And here is an article that through time, has had its leading question answered.
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The Guardian has a photo taken inside the train. To whet your appetite - pink leather sofas:
As a Brit, the very thought of sitting in a train and actually talking to someone leaves me deeply uncomfortable. Stony, frosty silence and the occasional tut if someone rustles their newspaper too loudly is the only way to travel.
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Tracks are very rarely bomb proof.
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I’ve always found the passengers on British trains more talkative than on German ones.
Yevgeny Prigozhin probably wished he had a train.
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It wouldn’t help him get back to Africa. As long as the bomb can be timed to blow up while the plane is still in Russian airspace, no problem for Putin.
Especially when you’re cruising along at 28MPH.
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True. “Echelons” in the particular sense of armoured railway cars have an almost mythic status in the Soviet mindset, whatever country we’re talking about.
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Makes sense. Might explain the need for megayachts too.
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