Fun Fact: The word "Kolari" means either "car crash" or "snowpusher", depending on the context. The former gives a hilarious twist at the car loading station where the signage says "Kolariin menevät autot" or "Cars heading to car crash"
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.
I did the journey to Kolari once in December about 20 years ago spontaneously simply because there were no hotel rooms available in Helsinki. I imagined Kolari would be a big town but it was nothing but the end of the line and there was no return train for days. Ended up with a 4 hour bus journey to Rovaniemi where I spent 3 days. All unplanned. Great journey and the bus travelling on ice packed roads was something else! Thank you for bringing back the memories.
@@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.
For those wondering, the red wagon attached along with the Dr16 locomotives at 8:17 is a generator car used to give electrical power to the passenger cabins.
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.
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😎
@@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.
11:37 Not just any sleeper compartment - but one designated for pets. Notice the vinyl sign on the door and the courteously provided water bowl + bottle of water on the floor for your dog.
That art deco station in Helsinki is magnificent. Finland is a great country. I've only visited once briefly, but I intend to stay for longer next time.
Ahhh the good old blue carriages. These are the most comfortable carriages ever - but I'm talking about the seaters (which you'll find only on museum trains these days)! Those seats may not have power sockets and such but boy are they comfortable - I've spent half of my life traveling on them! Hell, the first time I did the night trains up to Kolari and Kemijärvi I slept on those seats just fine (well I was somewhat younger back then too)! Anyway for these blue sleepers they are comfortable enough, but that orange color just gets me every time. Easyjet, anyone? Anyway they have one major flaw which is the lack of air-conditioning. For April (and well most of the year in Finland!) it's not exactly a problem, but on those rare hot summer days they can be quite hellish. Back in June 2022 I was coming home from Kolari during a 30+ degree heat wave and those cabins were like ovens! People were actually sleeping on the floor and corridors of the carriages to try to escape the heat! To add insult to injury it was too hot even for our pair of diesel locomotives so they actually broke down somewhere halfway between Kolari and Tornio and it took several hours to get a replacement loco from Kemi, and the rest of the journey until Oulu was super slow as the single locomotive had serious issues with the long and heavy train... not a very comfortable journey let me tell you that! But apart from that they're a nice blast from the past. Good for you to catch one!
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.
Love that you can bring the car on the train! I would love that in Sweden too! That’s the reason I’m driving now, need a car at the destination and it’s more expensive to rent than to drive all the way.
When you showed us the more modern cabin at 11:36 you actually showed us a pet cabin. Haven't yet tried them but it is great to know that they are on the ground floor and even have a water bottle and towel for your pet (stashed in the drinking bowl). And the 50 minute break is perfect for a walk.
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
A Finn here. This was a very nice and informative video! Personally I don't use trains very much here in Finland because I travel with my motorhome. Afrer 12:43 you crossed the Kemijoki which is the longest river in Finland, about 550 kilometers. For them who wonder that "VR" logo everywhere in the trains, it comes from "Valtion Rautatiet" which is Finnish for "State Railways". Welcome to Finland everyone and enjoy our railways and country :)
@@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!
It comes from Valtion rautatiet but it doesn’t mean that anymore, not for 30 years. Ever since it was turned into a state owned corporation. It is now VR-yhtymä or VR-group, and the vr doesn’t mean anything.
Thank you for the nostalgic trip! In the 80's I travelled with my Mom from Southern Finland to her home in Tornio. If I remember right, we had to switch train in Kemi, but not sure. The old rails kept clonking, and it was so exciting to sleep in the train. Flashbacks from the smell and sound of the train! 😅
Tikkurila is also an interesting train station because it offers a direct connection to the Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport (the biggest and most important in Finland), which is super handy if you have a flight to catch and want to take the train. It literally stops underneath the airport.
I remember the time when all the VR sleeper cars were these old ones. Did a lot of work travel by then and it was always a gamble how the other persons in the cabin looked, smelled and sounded like. Back then the government only reserved one bed for the trips, so the cabin was filled up by strangers. You having the whole cabin for yourself was a luxury, but you missed the real experience. 😅
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.
Nice concise clip! Well researched, and you also pronounce our strange language very well. I rode on these cars often during my national service in Rovaniemi back in the early 1980s. Perhaps I'll ride a nostalgia trip before all are taken out of use.
Fun fact, the Tornio line has not been used since 1967 (had to actually check), and is planned to be reopened "soon". I am glad they haven't scrapped all of the old carts so they can actually go to that line until they will electrify the whole route.
For some reason the old blue sleeping cars are still much better than the new double-deckers. As you said, they are quiet, but also cosy - the new double-deckers are excellent on paper, but they have some shortcomings: they are sterile white like a hospital room, the sound insulation is horrible (you can hear the mandatory door beeps on the stations through the walls and even someone in the neighbouring cabin farting), and there are bright LED lights (including the digital clock) that are very nasty when you want to catch sleep. I recommend anyone who takes the double-decker to bring some duct tape or blu-tac as well as earplugs, then they are bearable
I did the journey in the opposite direction in the summer of 1972 after walkkng from Haparanda. No sleeping car but I got a good night's sleep jammed between two national servicemen going home to Helsinki on leave.
I made my last trip to Kemi in a sleeper wagon in Feb 1973. That was an adventure as the wagon was very old-fashioned, maybe from the 1930's or so. I met interesting people who I will never forget.
After re-watching this, I realized you might be the first non Finnish person to mention the car carrying wagons. Everyone else just wonder why the night trains stop so soon after Pasila. All normal night trains stop at Pasila autojunaasema (Pasila car train station) and some winter/Christmas time extra night trains even start their journey from it, hence the nearly 450 meter long platform. 😉 There are currently two types of car carrying wagons. The fully enclosed ones are type Gd (formerly Hccmqqr) and the open top ones are type Gfot.
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
Thank you for the nostalgic journey ❤. When I was young (20-25 years ago) I often travelled from my home town Rovaniemi to Southern Finland on these carriages but even more often on the blue day carriages that they used before the IC trains and then alongside them as a cheeper option. I miss them because those velvety old seats were so much more comfortable to sleep on than the modern seats that are harder and you could also open the windows in the summer which worked more reliably than the aircon in IC carriages. Back then the student discount was 50% and you could buy a ticket without an asigned seat. It was 5€ cheaper, a good deal as you could get a beer from the restaurant car with that money 😆. Usually there were only couple of other crazy people travelling all night in the day carriages but if you were unlucky and the train was full, then you'd have to sit in the restaurant car or on the floor next to the doors. I even slept in the freezing cold freight car a couple of times (it used to be between the sleeping cars and the day cars). Back then the night trains were known to be a bit of a party trains and I have some great memories drinking with strangers and smoking in the tiny booth that smelled worse an ashtray if that's even possible 🤣.
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.
So fun to see these very familiar images! I've done Tampere-Kolari twice, with motorcycle loaded on, since it saves a few days riding and allows more days up north into Lapland. I live actually 2 hours north of Tampere, but riding south first is worth the good night sleep and 3 saved riding days near home.
There used to be a lot more night trains in the past. I was using a one to Kuopio a lot, which ceased in year 2006, after over 100 years of operation. Great memories, e.g. very special and friendly atmosphere in the reastaurant car particularly in the light summer evenings! The sleep carriages were parked in a side rail in Kuopio and one could sleep there a few hours before departure and after arrival - it's only less than 400 km to Helsinki so othewise even with the slowest possible drive it would have been too short for a long enough sleep - what a service!
They put a Burger King in the place of Eliel Cafe, or whatever it was called. Criminal. We stopped there for a coffee and meat pie every time when heading out to grandma's in the 70s.
The memories, 6 months ago on 14th of April, I was there looking at the information display at 0:27. From there I embarked on a 41 day Interrail trip across Europe and ending where I began. I did take the blue wagons up North too then! They were still surprisingly good! (Way better than Snålltäget ) However, I had hard time sleeping and the next day was kinda rough. Though, that was less of the train's fault and more of mine as I had forgotten melatonin at home. Thankfully, I slept very well between Luleå and Stockholm!
The old sleeper cabins are so cozy! Almost like a small cabin in the woods type of experience compared to the more streamlined capsule hotel feel of the new ones. I go up north only once or twice a year so I rarely am lucky enough to be able to book a new cabin in time lol. Thanks for the outsider POV of one of my favorite train routes!
Ah, the blue sleepers. Maybe I am bad at sleeping, but I've never enjoyed good night sleep in one of those. All that noise and vibrations kept me awake. And during summer months, heat too. But glad that you enjoyed it. I've only once travelled with those new sleepers, and slept almost as good as home. Granted it felt more cramped that blue ones, but for me it was much more comfy.
AH. the old restaurant cabin. i remember when i was a kid i used to go to Iisalmi from Espoo (we traveled to Helsinki first and then took a train to Iisalmi) to meet with my grandparents for holidays/summer. I can still imagine the scent of those blue trains As much as i love intercity trains, i truly loved the old blue trains. they were more homey. thank you for the small bit of nostalgia :)
7:25 As a fellow train geek, it baffles me that you completely missed to mention that Finland rail gauge is wider (1,524 mm vs the standard gauge of 1,435 mm). You probably unconsciously noticed that the wagons were more spacious than in e.g. Denmark or Sweden ;)
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.
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 .
Fun fact: 7:04 That building in Oulu is "Enviroment department/Enviroment Office". It is made from Cor-Ten steel, which is american-finnish innovation used for example to build New River Gorge Bridge in Appalachian Mountains, West Virginia. Steel develops protecting rust on the outside of the panels.
This was really interesting video. I have traveled in a normal/green nigth train and non-sleep blue train but never in blue nigth train. This video feeled longer than 15 minutes but in a goot way 10/10 video❤❤
Nothing secret about those carriages really, Just the last ones from the legendary "blue series" still running. Railway company just made an order year ago for 25 new doubledecker carriages to replace the last blue series carriages in a couple of years. Blue series started moving in the 1970's replacing old wooden carriages, and have been moving till this day. New, modern doubledeckers started moving at the turn of the century/millenia, and are now the main gear they operate. And in case you are wondering the car wagons shown in Oulu, that's because Oulu is one of the stations you can load and unload cars on to the train, so they take the car wagons from the end of the train, drop some carriages on to Oulu, and take the Car transporters heading up north back to the train via new locomotive. Carriages must be in that order, so that they can chop the train and unload cars in Kolari.
Little clarification about commuter units. The first shown green/white commuter unit (codename: sm4) are serving only long distance commuter services. You can ride them with HSL tickets (Helsinki region transpotation company), but only for certain stations that are inside HSL area. After they leave the local area they switch to VR commuter ticketing area. Basically they are commuter trains that run longer distances. These trains are usually only used on Riihimäki-Helsinki, Tampere-helsinki and Lahti-Helsinki services. All local Helsinki/Espoo/Vantaa area services are run by FLIRT (codename: sm5) units.
that slightly clonking rhythm of the blue car is really soothing and helps you sleep better than any white noise machine. You only wake at stations when clonking stops for a longer period. but sad, this one had modern 2000's restaurant car. the original blue (rk/rkt) from same era as sleep cars is definitely worth to see. I used to serve in one, last time on the W-E line between oulu-kaajaani-jyväskylä back in 2010's. not sure if you still can see one in use but take a look, some of them are museum cars: fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rkt_(ravintolavaunu)
Very nice and cool video! I was surprised to see that VR still uses those! So I went and read about them. It seems VR is phasing the blue carriages by the end of 2025.
We took these older sleepers in summer in 2009. Back then they did not have AC. Maybe they still don't have? That was the only negative I could say of them. They were hot.
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. 🥵
In 1997 i went to Peera in North Finland to see the northern lights. I went on a night train from Riihimäki to Kemi and then further to Rovaniemi and a bus to Peera. The nighttrain you could see the footlights lighting the snow it was ploughing through. And the restaurant carriage i really saw a Sami woman with those beautiful clothing but she was drunk (they drink a lot in Finland) . In Dutch we call someone who drinks too much a 'zatlap' but a lap is also used to depict Sami people, so i literally saw a 'zatlap' in that train 😁.
As a poor student I spent at least a hundred hours on the blue sitting wagons. I still think the seats were more comfy than modern ones, but it was hell to wake up after every stop as someone left the door open and the alarm just kept going.
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.
Alarm? There were no alarms in my day and the doors were free to open. I remember my dad smoking there with the door open and us kids sitting on the steps. Modern world is so boring.
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.
If you'll be in Slovakia some day, I recommend to try the night train Bratislava-Košice(-Humenné) R614/615. From the 5 sleeper cars going all the way to Humenné, only 1 is planned being a newer type (car number 10), other 4 are original old carriages from GDR. Similar to those in video, but without those modernised bits. And even then, the car 10 is often replaced by old stock if they need it elsewhere (they probably can't use those old ones internationally). In that case, it is a really archaic piece without any modernization. Once I went in such a replacement and the toilet was in the exact shape as in some video from 80s as I later found out! Those old ones that are normally used have at least the toilet a bit modernised, but that one... nothing :D
11:06 last 2 times i have taken the night train in Finland I have pulled the all nighter its so fun trust me. I have been only one time in the cabins and it was the blue carriage😂😎
I was born in the 80's and traveled a lot by train both into the south and north as we had relatives in both parts of Finland, so I spent a lot of time in these old sleeper cars. Great to see they're not gone extinct yet. ☺️
Although you say correctly "Dr16" in the video the text and the description currently says "Dv16", which is a completely different loco class. The red/white car coupled with Dr16s is generator car for the 1500 V supply for the other cars. The Dr16s do have a 1500 V supply too but their power is a bit limited and unreliable for a long night train like this.
Thanks for answering my own question about it's presence. I guessed it was either for power or a 'compatibility car' - used when two carriages or a loco and carriage cannot mate directly.
The blue cars are self-sufficent with dynamos in the bogies and diesel burners for heating but the double-deckers and their predecessors, the inter-city stock, that the restaurant car represents, needs the generator car for their heating and power supply
And I rode the same train to Tornio couple of weeks ago and slept in an old car and it was only 50eur. So you could basicly have three of your friends have same cabin for 50eur wich is very nice.
@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.
VR = Valtion Rautatiet (founded in 1862) is translated "State Railways". Usually we finns make jokes about the name, like "VR, Venaa Rauhassa" wich is translated "Wait with no hurry", because time to time there is big problems with the schedules.
Fun fact , me and my dad +brothef use to paint railway station roofs. We found all kind of stuff in there (attic) old vine bottles ,library,shooting area ,pointing in Kaisaniemi. 😅 i also have been working at those night trains. Put water in there etc maintenance. Helsinki station is kinda like weird version at Harry Potter all kind of shortcuts etc in there
You didn't show my favourite part of these trains, which is the old restaurant seating area with the lovely booths and dated gold pipe design. Ugh I love them.
those new luggage storage facilities seem much easier to work with than the old ones. We had so much trouble retrieving our bags from the old ones that we needed to call for help, and it took so long they had to hold the train for us. The old cars are great, btw. Another thought: Central Europe has no more auto train services, but Finland have kept theirs.
Hey, thanks for the video! Quick question, they said on their website that the cabins of the old cars do not have air conditioning. Is that true? And if we are traveling in the winter time, do they have a heater in the cabin? Thanks
I like the Ukrainian flag flying from the station. Finland was once a country fighting for its own independence and still shares a border with them, I hope they can be considered parallels one day
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.
@@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.
Brings back memories.. Why doesn't want 2 know? I miss those trains.. The toilets were like a flap with some shower.. Now it's like airplane.. I just ride'd with VR.. Been working with them... Damn they are "responsible".. I love Valtion Rautatiet.
That carriage from the 70’s is the same type as the one and only prisoner transport carriage. Only without the modern stuff inside. There’s 2 metal beds on top of each other and a toilet, no sink. There’s also a radio, but only volume control (it’s busted in every room tho, barely works) and if I remember correctly, no on/off button. Certainly no channel select. You can ask for a water bottle from the guards. The windows are ”milked out”, you cant see through them, only some lights maybe at night for a split second.
Did you notice that the electricity is cut off (sockets) when train stops at the stations? Not good if one needs to use a cpap breathing machine (sleep apnea) while sleeping.
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.
I have taken the blue carriage night train to Kolari countless times, as my family went to Levi quite frequently in the winter, once a winter in the average when I was young and even when I was older and had kids of my own, although now with my family, parents and my sister’s family we would not all fit into one cabin in any easy way. I did not know the intercity two deckers went there, I just thought that the blue carriages went there as the track is, as you said, not electrified (there are plans for that though)
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.
"These carriages are super quiet". Funny because the common complaint when they were still in regular service was the exact opposite. The pipe from the water basin goes directly onto the tracks, so the clacking of the wheels on rails and other related noises like braking would be very clearly audible inside the cabin. Why there is that giant heavy lid on the thing. There used to be all kinds of life hacks like putting a water cup over the drain hole or stuffing the basin with a towel etc. Now I don't know for sure.....but they may have modified the cars to have gray water tanks so maybe the pipe doesn't just go direct to open air under the carriage like it used to, but I'm not sure.
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 :-)
I did also Helsinki-Tornio-trip but in january 2023 and I loved it. Even if I live in Finland I have never done this before. Unfortunately I think that when they electrify rails between Oulu and Kolari I think they gonna change these old nostalgic trains to boring new ones. There is also rails to Swedish side the border Haparanda (also Swedish rails goes to Tornio). Unfortunately there are only cargo trains and sometimes in summer some tourist trains once(or less) in year when old Finnish lättähattu-train or steam train crosses the border.
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.
@@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??)
If youre talking about the lockers yes! But there is a good space in the cabin too in the old carriges and they can be locked from the outside with your keycard.
1:40 på finsk er der tryk på første stavelse i *ALLE* ord. Så Kolari udtales med samme tryk som når du siger selleri på dansk. Udtalen af pikajuna er næsten korrekt :) 4:18 På finsk er der forskel på a og ä. A er et åbent a, som du så fint udtaler i Kolari og pikajuna eller i appelsin på dansk. Ä er lukket, på samme måde som du ville finde i ananas på dansk :) 5:30 K, P og T er alle bløde på finsk: For at ramme det K, skal man prøve at sige en mellemting mellem K og G. For at ramme det P, skal man prøve at sige en mellemting mellem P og B. For at ramme det T, skal man prøve at sige en mellemting mellem T og D. Jeg ved jeg er en detaljerytter her ;) Ikke ment som kritik, blot feedback som en mulighed for at lære og blive endnu bedre :)
I didn't know VR still uses the old blue sleeper cars. I've only seen the blue "vankivaunu" cars with narrow barred windows that they use to transfer prisoners across the country.
![ประสบการณ์ จ้าง Developer ที่ผมจะไม่มีวันลืม [ภาค2]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pZbsSDRrmXA/mqdefault.jpg)
Fun Fact: The word "Kolari" means either "car crash" or "snowpusher", depending on the context. The former gives a hilarious twist at the car loading station where the signage says "Kolariin menevät autot" or "Cars heading to car crash"
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.
I did the journey to Kolari once in December about 20 years ago spontaneously simply because there were no hotel rooms available in Helsinki. I imagined Kolari would be a big town but it was nothing but the end of the line and there was no return train for days. Ended up with a 4 hour bus journey to Rovaniemi where I spent 3 days. All unplanned. Great journey and the bus travelling on ice packed roads was something else! Thank you for bringing back the memories.
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 ;-)
For those wondering, the red wagon attached along with the Dr16 locomotives at 8:17 is a generator car used to give electrical power to the passenger cabins.
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.
Can’t wait for Haparanda 🇸🇪 - Tornio 🇫🇮 - Kemi trains to be resumed. Fingers crossed for December 2024.
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
Haha, extremely 1970's color scheme in the cabin. Brown and orange, I love it!
I was thinking the same. He should have had some Floyd Cramer's or similar type pianomusic on the background :D
11:37 Not just any sleeper compartment - but one designated for pets. Notice the vinyl sign on the door and the courteously provided water bowl + bottle of water on the floor for your dog.
Ah yes that's true! I should have pointed that out 😊
That art deco station in Helsinki is magnificent. Finland is a great country. I've only visited once briefly, but I intend to stay for longer next time.
The lantern statues were designed by Emil Wikström, whose studio and home, Visavuori, is definitely worth visiting in Valkeakoski, near Tampere.
Ahhh the good old blue carriages. These are the most comfortable carriages ever - but I'm talking about the seaters (which you'll find only on museum trains these days)! Those seats may not have power sockets and such but boy are they comfortable - I've spent half of my life traveling on them! Hell, the first time I did the night trains up to Kolari and Kemijärvi I slept on those seats just fine (well I was somewhat younger back then too)!
Anyway for these blue sleepers they are comfortable enough, but that orange color just gets me every time. Easyjet, anyone? Anyway they have one major flaw which is the lack of air-conditioning. For April (and well most of the year in Finland!) it's not exactly a problem, but on those rare hot summer days they can be quite hellish. Back in June 2022 I was coming home from Kolari during a 30+ degree heat wave and those cabins were like ovens! People were actually sleeping on the floor and corridors of the carriages to try to escape the heat! To add insult to injury it was too hot even for our pair of diesel locomotives so they actually broke down somewhere halfway between Kolari and Tornio and it took several hours to get a replacement loco from Kemi, and the rest of the journey until Oulu was super slow as the single locomotive had serious issues with the long and heavy train... not a very comfortable journey let me tell you that!
But apart from that they're a nice blast from the past. Good for you to catch one!
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.
Love that you can bring the car on the train! I would love that in Sweden too! That’s the reason I’m driving now, need a car at the destination and it’s more expensive to rent than to drive all the way.
When you showed us the more modern cabin at 11:36 you actually showed us a pet cabin. Haven't yet tried them but it is great to know that they are on the ground floor and even have a water bottle and towel for your pet (stashed in the drinking bowl). And the 50 minute break is perfect for a walk.
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
A Finn here. This was a very nice and informative video! Personally I don't use trains very much here in Finland because I travel with my motorhome. Afrer 12:43 you crossed the Kemijoki which is the longest river in Finland, about 550 kilometers. For them who wonder that "VR" logo everywhere in the trains, it comes from "Valtion Rautatiet" which is Finnish for "State Railways". Welcome to Finland everyone and enjoy our railways and country :)
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.
It comes from Valtion rautatiet but it doesn’t mean that anymore, not for 30 years. Ever since it was turned into a state owned corporation. It is now VR-yhtymä or VR-group, and the vr doesn’t mean anything.
Gotta love the 70's orange for the sink cabinet, that colour was common in UK carriages of the 70's but always dissappeared in later renovations.
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 😅
Thank you for the nostalgic trip! In the 80's I travelled with my Mom from Southern Finland to her home in Tornio. If I remember right, we had to switch train in Kemi, but not sure. The old rails kept clonking, and it was so exciting to sleep in the train. Flashbacks from the smell and sound of the train! 😅
Tikkurila is also an interesting train station because it offers a direct connection to the Helsinki-Vantaa International Airport (the biggest and most important in Finland), which is super handy if you have a flight to catch and want to take the train. It literally stops underneath the airport.
Very true! I actually transfered there from the airport on a recent trip
I remember the time when all the VR sleeper cars were these old ones. Did a lot of work travel by then and it was always a gamble how the other persons in the cabin looked, smelled and sounded like. Back then the government only reserved one bed for the trips, so the cabin was filled up by strangers. You having the whole cabin for yourself was a luxury, but you missed the real experience. 😅
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😂😂😂
Nice concise clip! Well researched, and you also pronounce our strange language very well. I rode on these cars often during my national service in Rovaniemi back in the early 1980s. Perhaps I'll ride a nostalgia trip before all are taken out of use.
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
Fun fact, the Tornio line has not been used since 1967 (had to actually check), and is planned to be reopened "soon". I am glad they haven't scrapped all of the old carts so they can actually go to that line until they will electrify the whole route.
Mielenkiintoista, mitä reittiä/paikkakuntia pitkin tuo suljettu reitti kulkee?
@@masaman123Torniosta Haaparantaan siltaa pitkin.
For some reason the old blue sleeping cars are still much better than the new double-deckers. As you said, they are quiet, but also cosy - the new double-deckers are excellent on paper, but they have some shortcomings: they are sterile white like a hospital room, the sound insulation is horrible (you can hear the mandatory door beeps on the stations through the walls and even someone in the neighbouring cabin farting), and there are bright LED lights (including the digital clock) that are very nasty when you want to catch sleep.
I recommend anyone who takes the double-decker to bring some duct tape or blu-tac as well as earplugs, then they are bearable
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!
I did the journey in the opposite direction in the summer of 1972 after walkkng from Haparanda. No sleeping car but I got a good night's sleep jammed between two national servicemen going home to Helsinki on leave.
I made my last trip to Kemi in a sleeper wagon in Feb 1973. That was an adventure as the wagon was very old-fashioned, maybe from the 1930's or so. I met interesting people who I will never forget.
9:00 Wood is big business in Finland, for those who don't know. More than 73% of Finland is covered in forest.
After re-watching this, I realized you might be the first non Finnish person to mention the car carrying wagons. Everyone else just wonder why the night trains stop so soon after Pasila. All normal night trains stop at Pasila autojunaasema (Pasila car train station) and some winter/Christmas time extra night trains even start their journey from it, hence the nearly 450 meter long platform. 😉 There are currently two types of car carrying wagons. The fully enclosed ones are type Gd (formerly Hccmqqr) and the open top ones are type Gfot.
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
Thank you for the nostalgic journey ❤. When I was young (20-25 years ago) I often travelled from my home town Rovaniemi to Southern Finland on these carriages but even more often on the blue day carriages that they used before the IC trains and then alongside them as a cheeper option. I miss them because those velvety old seats were so much more comfortable to sleep on than the modern seats that are harder and you could also open the windows in the summer which worked more reliably than the aircon in IC carriages. Back then the student discount was 50% and you could buy a ticket without an asigned seat. It was 5€ cheaper, a good deal as you could get a beer from the restaurant car with that money 😆.
Usually there were only couple of other crazy people travelling all night in the day carriages but if you were unlucky and the train was full, then you'd have to sit in the restaurant car or on the floor next to the doors. I even slept in the freezing cold freight car a couple of times (it used to be between the sleeping cars and the day cars). Back then the night trains were known to be a bit of a party trains and I have some great memories drinking with strangers and smoking in the tiny booth that smelled worse an ashtray if that's even possible 🤣.
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.
So fun to see these very familiar images! I've done Tampere-Kolari twice, with motorcycle loaded on, since it saves a few days riding and allows more days up north into Lapland.
I live actually 2 hours north of Tampere, but riding south first is worth the good night sleep and 3 saved riding days near home.
Sounds like a great way to take a trip with the Motorcycle in places you normally wouldn't!
There used to be a lot more night trains in the past. I was using a one to Kuopio a lot, which ceased in year 2006, after over 100 years of operation. Great memories, e.g. very special and friendly atmosphere in the reastaurant car particularly in the light summer evenings! The sleep carriages were parked in a side rail in Kuopio and one could sleep there a few hours before departure and after arrival - it's only less than 400 km to Helsinki so othewise even with the slowest possible drive it would have been too short for a long enough sleep - what a service!
Not many of those kind of short night trains left anywhere, i think Stockholm-Malmö/Gothenburg still has a similar arrangement
Just clicked on this video and I'm so excited to see the video
Nice report on an interesting train connection - as we can expect from you!
Thank you 😃
1:08 Olivia restaurant is in the old ticket hall, and is a really nice place to eat with good service.
Will have to try it out next time I'm in Helsinki!
They put a Burger King in the place of Eliel Cafe, or whatever it was called.
Criminal. We stopped there for a coffee and meat pie every time when heading out to grandma's in the 70s.
Thank you for bringing some childhood blue carriage memories. Nice to see it for other eyes.
Well-done good attitude travel video by Simon. Enjoy good and safe trips wherever you rail.
The memories, 6 months ago on 14th of April, I was there looking at the information display at 0:27. From there I embarked on a 41 day Interrail trip across Europe and ending where I began. I did take the blue wagons up North too then! They were still surprisingly good! (Way better than Snålltäget ) However, I had hard time sleeping and the next day was kinda rough. Though, that was less of the train's fault and more of mine as I had forgotten melatonin at home. Thankfully, I slept very well between Luleå and Stockholm!
Such nostalgia... I loved to travel on these with family when I was kid and that train seems to be exactly same one that I was in 20years ago 😌
The old sleeper cabins are so cozy! Almost like a small cabin in the woods type of experience compared to the more streamlined capsule hotel feel of the new ones. I go up north only once or twice a year so I rarely am lucky enough to be able to book a new cabin in time lol. Thanks for the outsider POV of one of my favorite train routes!
Last time i used those blue wagons (about 25 years ago) the toilet flush went straight to the rails and it was exciting use as a kid :)
Yes. Very reliable principle of operation. So reliable that we have saying "toimii kuin junan vessa" (works like a train toilet)
Ah, the blue sleepers. Maybe I am bad at sleeping, but I've never enjoyed good night sleep in one of those. All that noise and vibrations kept me awake. And during summer months, heat too. But glad that you enjoyed it.
I've only once travelled with those new sleepers, and slept almost as good as home. Granted it felt more cramped that blue ones, but for me it was much more comfy.
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
AH. the old restaurant cabin. i remember when i was a kid i used to go to Iisalmi from Espoo (we traveled to Helsinki first and then took a train to Iisalmi) to meet with my grandparents for holidays/summer.
I can still imagine the scent of those blue trains As much as i love intercity trains, i truly loved the old blue trains. they were more homey.
thank you for the small bit of nostalgia :)
So familiar! Many many many trips over the decades to Rovaniemi From Turku, and back, in these wagons. : )
and soon they will be no more, with the order for new wagons being placed this year.
7:25 As a fellow train geek, it baffles me that you completely missed to mention that Finland rail gauge is wider (1,524 mm vs the standard gauge of 1,435 mm).
You probably unconsciously noticed that the wagons were more spacious than in e.g. Denmark or Sweden ;)
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 .
Fun fact: 7:04 That building in Oulu is "Enviroment department/Enviroment Office". It is made from Cor-Ten steel, which is american-finnish innovation used for example to build New River Gorge Bridge in Appalachian Mountains, West Virginia. Steel develops protecting rust on the outside of the panels.
Gives me good childhood memories, I used to travel in those old trains with mom when visiting Finland, we took the train from Turku to Rovaniemi.🤟🤟
Turku to Rovaniemi was my first night train journey in FInland, but that was on the new carriges :D
This was really interesting video. I have traveled in a normal/green nigth train and non-sleep blue train but never in blue nigth train. This video feeled longer than 15 minutes but in a goot way 10/10 video❤❤
Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for the kind words
Nothing secret about those carriages really, Just the last ones from the legendary "blue series" still running. Railway company just made an order year ago for 25 new doubledecker carriages to replace the last blue series carriages in a couple of years. Blue series started moving in the 1970's replacing old wooden carriages, and have been moving till this day. New, modern doubledeckers started moving at the turn of the century/millenia, and are now the main gear they operate.
And in case you are wondering the car wagons shown in Oulu, that's because Oulu is one of the stations you can load and unload cars on to the train, so they take the car wagons from the end of the train, drop some carriages on to Oulu, and take the Car transporters heading up north back to the train via new locomotive. Carriages must be in that order, so that they can chop the train and unload cars in Kolari.
Little clarification about commuter units. The first shown green/white commuter unit (codename: sm4) are serving only long distance commuter services. You can ride them with HSL tickets (Helsinki region transpotation company), but only for certain stations that are inside HSL area. After they leave the local area they switch to VR commuter ticketing area. Basically they are commuter trains that run longer distances. These trains are usually only used on Riihimäki-Helsinki, Tampere-helsinki and Lahti-Helsinki services. All local Helsinki/Espoo/Vantaa area services are run by FLIRT (codename: sm5) units.
I used many times in that ”makuuvaunu” when travelled from Helsinki to Lapland in the 70’s.
that slightly clonking rhythm of the blue car is really soothing and helps you sleep better than any white noise machine. You only wake at stations when clonking stops for a longer period.
but sad, this one had modern 2000's restaurant car. the original blue (rk/rkt) from same era as sleep cars is definitely worth to see. I used to serve in one, last time on the W-E line between oulu-kaajaani-jyväskylä back in 2010's. not sure if you still can see one in use but take a look, some of them are museum cars:
fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rkt_(ravintolavaunu)
Don't think they run in service anymore unfortunately!
Very nice and cool video! I was surprised to see that VR still uses those! So I went and read about them. It seems VR is phasing the blue carriages by the end of 2025.
Thanks, yes VR have ordered a new batch of the double deckers so these will be gone probably by the end of 2025
We took these older sleepers in summer in 2009. Back then they did not have AC. Maybe they still don't have? That was the only negative I could say of them. They were hot.
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. 🥵
I’ve been here and you’re right, fabulous station
Theres also one old steam train with fitting carriages :) I learned about this few days ago and still researching it
In 1997 i went to Peera in North Finland to see the northern lights. I went on a night train from Riihimäki to Kemi and then further to Rovaniemi and a bus to Peera. The nighttrain you could see the footlights lighting the snow it was ploughing through. And the restaurant carriage i really saw a Sami woman with those beautiful clothing but she was drunk (they drink a lot in Finland) . In Dutch we call someone who drinks too much a 'zatlap' but a lap is also used to depict Sami people, so i literally saw a 'zatlap' in that train 😁.
Was the additional red carriage attached to the 2 diesel èngines a generator car to provide power to the rest of the train.
Yes!
As a poor student I spent at least a hundred hours on the blue sitting wagons. I still think the seats were more comfy than modern ones, but it was hell to wake up after every stop as someone left the door open and the alarm just kept going.
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.
Alarm? There were no alarms in my day and the doors were free to open.
I remember my dad smoking there with the door open and us kids sitting on the steps.
Modern world is so boring.
Seeing the car-carrier operations would be interesting. I'm curious how quick/efficient the load/unload process is.
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.
These old sleeper cars are only ones I have ever experienced personally. The nostalgia is strong 😂
Привет 🙋🏼♂️ Прекрасное и интересное видео 📹👍🏻🔝✅️🙂
If you'll be in Slovakia some day, I recommend to try the night train Bratislava-Košice(-Humenné) R614/615. From the 5 sleeper cars going all the way to Humenné, only 1 is planned being a newer type (car number 10), other 4 are original old carriages from GDR. Similar to those in video, but without those modernised bits.
And even then, the car 10 is often replaced by old stock if they need it elsewhere (they probably can't use those old ones internationally). In that case, it is a really archaic piece without any modernization. Once I went in such a replacement and the toilet was in the exact shape as in some video from 80s as I later found out! Those old ones that are normally used have at least the toilet a bit modernised, but that one... nothing :D
Thanks for the intresting information! I do plan to revisit Slovakia, probably next year and their sleepers are high on the list :D
Brilliant post Simon
11:06 last 2 times i have taken the night train in Finland I have pulled the all nighter its so fun trust me. I have been only one time in the cabins and it was the blue carriage😂😎
I immediately recognized that roundabout in time 5.56, it´s located in Korso.
Trains go by in our backyard. I have seen those go by
Probably on this train or one of the prison ones
I was born in the 80's and traveled a lot by train both into the south and north as we had relatives in both parts of Finland, so I spent a lot of time in these old sleeper cars. Great to see they're not gone extinct yet. ☺️
Interesting! New sleepers have been ordered this year, so they likely only have a few more years left these blue ones
Gotta love that 70's design and tech.
Although you say correctly "Dr16" in the video the text and the description currently says "Dv16", which is a completely different loco class.
The red/white car coupled with Dr16s is generator car for the 1500 V supply for the other cars. The Dr16s do have a 1500 V supply too but their power is a bit limited and unreliable for a long night train like this.
Thanks for answering my own question about it's presence. I guessed it was either for power or a 'compatibility car' - used when two carriages or a loco and carriage cannot mate directly.
The blue cars are self-sufficent with dynamos in the bogies and diesel burners for heating but the double-deckers and their predecessors, the inter-city stock, that the restaurant car represents, needs the generator car for their heating and power supply
Thanks for the info about the generator car! Yup slight typo in the text :-)
@@MonttukaniDiesel boilers were replaced by direct electric heating.
@@subbaaja100 Oh! Didn't know that, thanks for the info!
i have been in that train many times because my grandad lived in Kolari (its a place in Lapland) the cabins are quite nice to be honest.
It's a bit sad to see the old sleeper trains go away in a couple of years and the electrifying of kolari line. :')
And I rode the same train to Tornio couple of weeks ago and slept in an old car and it was only 50eur. So you could basicly have three of your friends have same cabin for 50eur wich is very nice.
This sleeper cars are identical to the Wagon Lit cars used here in Austria in the 1990ies.
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.
VR = Valtion Rautatiet (founded in 1862) is translated "State Railways". Usually we finns make jokes about the name, like "VR, Venaa Rauhassa" wich is translated "Wait with no hurry", because time to time there is big problems with the schedules.
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
Fun fact , me and my dad +brothef use to paint railway station roofs. We found all kind of stuff in there (attic) old vine bottles ,library,shooting area ,pointing in Kaisaniemi. 😅 i also have been working at those night trains. Put water in there etc maintenance. Helsinki station is kinda like weird version at Harry Potter all kind of shortcuts etc in there
Very cool! Finland has a lot of intresting things on its railways :D
You didn't show my favourite part of these trains, which is the old restaurant seating area with the lovely booths and dated gold pipe design. Ugh I love them.
Ah yes! I totally should have, must have forgot to got a clip of it.
those new luggage storage facilities seem much easier to work with than the old ones. We had so much trouble retrieving our bags from the old ones that we needed to call for help, and it took so long they had to hold the train for us. The old cars are great, btw. Another thought: Central Europe has no more auto train services, but Finland have kept theirs.
Very nice looking train. Good video!
Thanks John 😊
What do Helsinki Station, Dulles Airport and the St. Louis Arch have in common?
The Saarinen family architects 😃
Good video, with a lot of information. Thank You
Hey, thanks for the video! Quick question, they said on their website that the cabins of the old cars do not have air conditioning. Is that true? And if we are traveling in the winter time, do they have a heater in the cabin? Thanks
They have a very powerful heater, but yes, only opening windows-no air conditioning! :-)
Does the red carriage behind the diesels carry generators for train services?
Yes
I like the Ukrainian flag flying from the station. Finland was once a country fighting for its own independence and still shares a border with them, I hope they can be considered parallels one day
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.
Brings back memories.. Why doesn't want 2 know? I miss those trains.. The toilets were like a flap with some shower.. Now it's like airplane..
I just ride'd with VR.. Been working with them... Damn they are "responsible".. I love Valtion Rautatiet.
They are great, i've had many great trips with VR :D
Ah! It's so great to see the old VR red on the cars/engines still; that's all but gone in the south.
That carriage from the 70’s is the same type as the one and only prisoner transport carriage. Only without the modern stuff inside.
There’s 2 metal beds on top of each other and a toilet, no sink.
There’s also a radio, but only volume control (it’s busted in every room tho, barely works) and if I remember correctly, no on/off button. Certainly no channel select.
You can ask for a water bottle from the guards.
The windows are ”milked out”, you cant see through them, only some lights maybe at night for a split second.
10:48 You went upstairs and missed the space for bikes, which is a new thing on these night trains. 🙂
Did you notice that the electricity is cut off (sockets) when train stops at the stations? Not good if one needs to use a cpap breathing machine (sleep apnea) while sleeping.
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.
I have taken the blue carriage night train to Kolari countless times, as my family went to Levi quite frequently in the winter, once a winter in the average when I was young and even when I was older and had kids of my own, although now with my family, parents and my sister’s family we would not all fit into one cabin in any easy way. I did not know the intercity two deckers went there, I just thought that the blue carriages went there as the track is, as you said, not electrified (there are plans for that though)
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.
Oddly fascinating
"These carriages are super quiet". Funny because the common complaint when they were still in regular service was the exact opposite. The pipe from the water basin goes directly onto the tracks, so the clacking of the wheels on rails and other related noises like braking would be very clearly audible inside the cabin. Why there is that giant heavy lid on the thing. There used to be all kinds of life hacks like putting a water cup over the drain hole or stuffing the basin with a towel etc.
Now I don't know for sure.....but they may have modified the cars to have gray water tanks so maybe the pipe doesn't just go direct to open air under the carriage like it used to, but I'm not sure.
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 :-)
Whoa! A third bunk???? No thanks that's too high for me and with my fear of heights, the voices in my head urging me to jump will go haywire 😅
There is a shower in the older carriages!!! Its just only every other carriage
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
I simply loved the old train cars from the 1990's urban area trains. Cheap and very comfy.
Was Olivia the ticket office in 2012 when I visited Helsinki in 2012?
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
i like how the public transport also supports drivers by the car cars
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
I did also Helsinki-Tornio-trip but in january 2023 and I loved it. Even if I live in Finland I have never done this before. Unfortunately I think that when they electrify rails between Oulu and Kolari I think they gonna change these old nostalgic trains to boring new ones.
There is also rails to Swedish side the border Haparanda (also Swedish rails goes to Tornio). Unfortunately there are only cargo trains and sometimes in summer some tourist trains once(or less) in year when old Finnish lättähattu-train or steam train crosses the border.
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??)
If you are travelling with bags, can you put them in the main double decker area even if you are travelling in the old blue ones?
If youre talking about the lockers yes! But there is a good space in the cabin too in the old carriges and they can be locked from the outside with your keycard.
8:45 did You mean The Dr16 locomotive?
Yes slight typo in the text
1:40 på finsk er der tryk på første stavelse i *ALLE* ord. Så Kolari udtales med samme tryk som når du siger selleri på dansk.
Udtalen af pikajuna er næsten korrekt :)
4:18 På finsk er der forskel på a og ä. A er et åbent a, som du så fint udtaler i Kolari og pikajuna eller i appelsin på dansk. Ä er lukket, på samme måde som du ville finde i ananas på dansk :)
5:30 K, P og T er alle bløde på finsk:
For at ramme det K, skal man prøve at sige en mellemting mellem K og G.
For at ramme det P, skal man prøve at sige en mellemting mellem P og B.
For at ramme det T, skal man prøve at sige en mellemting mellem T og D.
Jeg ved jeg er en detaljerytter her ;)
Ikke ment som kritik, blot feedback som en mulighed for at lære og blive endnu bedre :)
Tak for hjælpen! Det må jeg kigge på næste gang jeg laver en video om Finland
I didn't know that those railroad cars are still used today. it's pretty cool actually.
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!
This is a good comparison to the current state as they are refurbishing the station. Looks much better already!
We have the same old carriages in Bulgaria. only ours are not clean, not quiet and not comfortable. :(
Ive heared some of them have been upgraded, i wanna come try them in the future :D
I didn't know VR still uses the old blue sleeper cars. I've only seen the blue "vankivaunu" cars with narrow barred windows that they use to transfer prisoners across the country.
They are in very limited use, outside of peak travel days, they can only be found on the sleeper to Kolari which runs as litte as twice pr week.
1992 was the last time I did this Trip. My 1st visit to Finland.
Must make time to do it again.
Be quick because these carriges will be gone probably next or the year after!
Used to work in the trains someway back. Like 4 years ago. Worked as a barista. Easily top 3 workplaces for me.
Sounds like a fun job!
Thank you for the wonderful video.