Witness the brave new world in full bloom: the locomotive is of US maker EMD's JT42CWR type; it was built in Canada; the design was originally for Britain; this one is owned by UK leasing company Porterbrook; this Anglo-Saxon on the continent was leased to Belgian open-access freight operator DLC; this train ran on rails of German Railways infrastructure branch DB Netz. DLC(PB) PB 12 with a container train near Thüngersheim (in the Main river valley near Würzburg) on 21.08.2008. Photo by Philipp Schäfer from Bahnbilder.de

Like in the two-parter on electric locos, there will be bits on industrial history and technology, European unification, company politics, and a review of current models according to producers -- this time, in groups.

A new poll released yesterday by the federal government's Commissary for the East, Wolfgang Tiefensee (the federal transport minister; himself from Saxony) again raised the alarms of the second faction: 57% think that the GDR had more good sides than bad.

Their job is... BLS class Re 485 008 and a sister (Bombardier TRAXX 1 family, type TRAXX F140 AC1) with a freight train in North-South transit across Switzerland, reached Lalden on their descent of the South ramp of the old Lötschberg route, 25.05.2007. Photo by user Titane8226 from Wikipedia

This is a journey into industrial history -- with subplots about technological advances, merger mania and neoliberal excesses, political and intra-company intrigues, and European unification.

The first part traced the origins in a wholly different project: the universal locomotive, which can pull any kind of train, a cost-benefit win for integrated national railways. The innovations enabling such a loco were named: asynchronous AC motors and high-power semiconductors. On the example of running gear, I gave a first indication of what led to modular: the possibility of "dumbing down" the universal.

In this diary, I will trace the rest of the - still far from straightforward - development for each of the three main makers separately.

The process started long ago with diesel locomotives. Next were the electric and diesel multiple unit families created towards the end of the nineties. With the roll-out of French maker Alstom's PRIMA II prototype on 3 June, the process now concluded for electric locomotives, too.

The PRIMA II prototype. Photo from Alstom press release

What follows is the first half of a journey into industrial history -- with subplots about technological advances, merger mania and neoliberal excesses, political and intra-company intrigues, and European unification.

Is there a danger, is there something to worry about?

Or, could one say that neoliberalism is more dangerous?

I discussed these issues in reply to a comment in In Wales's Look left and right diary, which I converted into a diary below.

Promoted by Sassafras

There has been much discussion about how the EP elections campaigns are non-campaigns, or national campaigns. I thought to illustrate that with the posters I got to see.

There has been no phonier campaign I saw before...

The River LINE is a transit service on a railway line along the Delaware River in New Jersey, run by that US state's public transport company NJ Transit. It operates GTW 2/6s, European-standard low-floor articulated diesel multiple units (DMUs) made by Swiss maker Stadler. Due to the higher US structural stiffness requirements, they are categorised as "light rail".

NJT 3509 headed north to Trenton passes over the Crosswicks Creek on the curved trestle at Bordentown. October 2008 photo by Gerald Oliveto from RailPictures.Net.

During my recent sickness, I thought of checking Wikipedia on a subject for which I came across conflicting data: body temperature. Well, Wiki doesn't bring total clarity either:

Normal human body temperature - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 1861, Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich claimed to measure the temperatures of one million people, and reported the average to be 37 °C.^[1] In the United States, normal human body temperature is commonly quoted as 98.6 °F, which is an inappropriately exact conversion of Wunderlich's 19th century announcement that the human body temperature is 37 °C.^[2] In Russia and former Soviet countries, the commonly quoted value is 36.6 °C (97.9 °F), based on an armpit reading.

...In humans the average temperature is 36.8 °C (98.2 °F)

...the median daytime temperature among healthy adults are as follows...

• Temperature under the arm (axillary) is about 36.4 °C (97.6 °F) ^[2]

Fever - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

At a first glance, fever is present if...

• Temperature under the arm (axillary) is at or over 37.2 °C (99.0 °F)

You can find the submitted pdf uploaded here on ET, but the text is also reproduced below the fold.

As in the first Debate thread and nanne's Draft diary, we answered the questions suggested on the Public Consultation page, but fronted it with a more general chapter, confronting the competition fetish in EU energy policy.

Excellent work by DoDo and nanne, bumped by afew for more visibility

In Hungary last weekend, at the annual party conference of the Socialist Party (MSzP; which runs the minority government), PM Ferenc Gyurcsány declared his resignation as PM.

Rather than a sign of failure, political analysts saw a cunning move: for, this resignation shut up his inner-party detractors and got him a re-election as party chairman by a high margin -- and, with that, put him in the pilot seat to influence the selection of a new PM.

However, that was a week ago. Today, we have a PM candidate, but the regional bosses of the MSzP forced Gyurcsány to resign as party head, too.

Whatever the outcome (some new PM elected by parliament or new elections), it will be nasty. Update [2009-3-30 8:14:29 by DoDo]: After a long hard struggle, MSZP's new shock therapist candidate seems to have secured a majority -- see comments for details.

An S-103 near La Fuensaviñán on Madrid-Barcelona service last summer. Photo by José Ignacio Esnarriaga San José from Flickr.

The ridership statistics released on the anniversary give me occasion to highlight some broader patterns for high-speed lines, with forays to France and East Asia. (Though all my examples will be fancy HSR, the lessons are valid for other modes of fixed-guideway passenger transport, too.) In place of photos, this diary will be heavy on diagrams and book excerpts.

bumped by afew

A 4-5,000-strong funeral march for a dead sporter yesterday. The bilingual (Hungarian-Romanian) banner reads: "We will never forget you". (Photo from Index.hu.)

The story:

On 8 February in a nightclub in Veszprém/Hungary, for reasons still not entirely clear, a newly arrived group attacked another. At the end of it, two of the attackers, said to be heavyweight felons, drew their knives. End result: two seriously hurt, one dead. One attacker was arrested with an accomplice by Austrian highway police the next day, the other surrendered a few days later.

I don't know how frequent such disco fights are. But this one was special for a number of reasons:

1. the attacked party was prominent: seven players of the top-notch local handball club (which competes in the EHF Champions League);
   
2. the one killed, Marian Cozma, was Romanian, the seriously injured were Croatian and Serbian;
   
3. the stabbers were ethnic Roma, and this happened just after the row over a police captain, who claimed that 100% of violent crime committed in his city last year was perpetrated by Gypsies.

Updated with some photos and an English match report link

Last August, I read and reviewed Ken Follett's magnum opus, Pillars of the Earth: the story of the construction of the cathedral of a fictional English monastery and city embedded in the real-world history of the emergence of Gothic architecture, with an unromantic view of Middle Age life. That month, I also read the recent sequel: World Without End.

World Without End continues the story of the city and cathedral to the 100 Years War and late Gothic. However, the main theme is not architecture: it is medicine, at the time the Black Death visited Europe.

Two joined trainsets as railjet 63 to Budapest pass high above the large pre-Alpine lake Wallersee.

The name is an allusion: the three-class interior, its styling, the premium class comfort, the speed should imply an airplane on rails.

The trains are certified for 230 km/h. Not that much in international comparison -- but a world record for locomotive-pulled 'normal' trains. What's up with that? Follow me for an explanation below the fold, where I also detail my personal impressions -- illustrated with several photos of my own.

Alstom rattled by Asia's train exports

By Robert Wright, Transport Correspondent

Published: January 1 2009 23:33 | Last updated: January 1 2009 23:33

Other countries, suggests Philippe Mellier, chief executive of Paris-based Alstom Transport, should consider blocking Chinese train exports. It is only the latest sign of worsening tension about increasing competitiveness of Asian train manufacturers.

Sounds like sour grapes -- indeed the reaction from China was stingy:

"If Alstom really made the remark to media, the only explanation is that the company is depressed (by its declining businesses)", the Chinese newspaper [Global Times] quoted an unnamed senior official from a domestic train manufacturer as saying.

However, I think Mellier raised a number of valid and interesting points, so I won't just deconstruct the FT article. I am also using the occasion for a little review of the new export competition in the rail industry (with heavy focus on high-speed).

Above: an ETR 500 train in new Frecciarossa livery passes the new Po bridge (cable-stayed, main span: 194 m) in autumn fog. Photo from FS. Below: parallel test run at 300 km/h on the new line by test units ETR 500 Y1 and Y2, filmed by apparent test train driver 44Nikko87.

Let me introduce the line (doing some more parallel bridge blogging) and say a few words about high-speed in Italy below the fold.

Bumped to showcase a recent example of Train Blogging, a regular feature on European Tribune.

So I made a test.

The fame of my rail photo location skills has spread in RL, so I got a "present" in the form of a riddle the other day: two photos showing a train passing through the middle of an open air food market!

Photos from Francesco Gusmeri of Cinema Sereno.

Update [2008-11-23 6:51:2 by DoDo]: The snow remained this morning, and another blizzard came when I visited a new rail bridge -- so five more photos and some Bridge Blogging below the fold.

150 224 pulls fast train R 704 GALÁN from Ostrava to Prague where the line shortens across a valley curve near Brandýs nad Orlicí (German: Brandeis an der Adler). The class 150 and 151 "Gorila" locos are the most powerful (4000 kW, = c. 5440 HP(metric) = c. 5365 HP(US/UK)) of the Czech Railways (ČD), 150.2 is a 140 km/h rebuild.

The photos below can also be viewed just for the landscape -- all but two were made at locations other than for the photos of the previous diary. I also made up for an omission therein, by including two maps.