A FAST TRAIN TO CHINA

I've just returned from a trip to the European mainland, where I spent a happy and sun-baked week on the North West German coast and a glorious single Sunday on the coast of Holland.

 

Any holiday which involves boats, both real and plastic ones, I'm a very contented boy and this trip was chock full of them. I'll describe the various vessels I saw and toys I bought later in the week, but first I wanted to share an interesting event, which happened whilst I was there - not on the water but on the railways.


The first freight train ever to arrive in Hamburg [North West Germany] from Zhengzhou in Eastern China pulled in whilst I was in Germany. It took it 15 days to cover the 10,214 km or 6,347 miles.


For some reason I was simply amazed by this. In my mind China is just so far away. Maybe on an American scale it's not that far perhaps, but I was impressed. China to Europe! It struck me that one day I may even be on a passenger version of the line!

 

Up to press the two longest train journeys I've made have been Recklinghausen to Garmisch-Partenkirchen [both Germany], 722 km or 450 miles and Recklinghausen to Dresden [Germany again], 548 km or 340 miles. What's your longest train journey readers?

 

Footplate: Although railway gauges have never been my thing, regarding the train from China, you maybe interested to know that "its 51 containers were transferred to 1520mm-gauge wagons at Alashankou on the China-Kazakhstan border, continuing through Russia before being tran-shipped back to standard-gauge wagons at the Belarusian – Polish frontier."

 

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