Links to the dKos diaries:

• Part 1 on 'normal' stopping trains (guest-posted by Jerome a Paris),
• Part 2 on commuter rapid transit (posted by Daneel=DoDo),
• Part 3 on subways, metros and RER (posted by Daneel=DoDo),
• Part 4 on light rail and tram-bus (posted by Daneel=DoDo),
• Part 5 on light metros, tram-trains and conclusion (posted by Jerome a Paris).

Spin-offs:

• connections to high-speed rail (by BruceMcF),
• that buses and trains should be friends (by BruceMcF),
• Transit-Oriented Development (by The Overhead Wire).

Many thanks to those who helped in editing/posting/commenting/recommending, especially Jérôme and Bruce.

Network maps

The original diary only showed Metro Madrid's network map (with Cercanías = suburban rapid transit too), now I picked a map for each type of local rail. For stopping trains, just a small one in the illustration for 'winged trains':

Above: the Bayerische Oberlandbahn serves the lines from Munich into the mountains to the south with trains branching into wings twice. On the left, the already joined VT 101 (from Tegernsee) and VT 111 (from Lenggries) roll up with coupler doors opened to VT 110 (from Bayrischzell) to continue to Munich as trio, August 2, 2003. All three are diesel multiple units themselves (type Integral). Photo by Günther Glauz from Bahnbilder.de

Below: the fast coupling of two of the famous Danish "rubber-noses". After coupling, the front with the driver's desks are folded up, to open up a comfortable gangway

For suburban rapid transit, I again picked a city with subway too:

Schematic map of Munich's S-Bahn (rapid transit) network, with U-Bahn (subway) also shown in light grey. Almost all lines pass through an east–west central artery. The inner white zone (which is magnified) is the city proper. Original map as pdf

For trams, to demonstrate the idea of orbital lines superposed on radial heavy rail rapid transit, I chose my hometown (well, now only office-town):

Map of the current tram network of Budapest (yellow/red), with subway (dark grey, dashed: in construction) and local and commuter rail (thick resp. thin light grey) also drawn in. Note the five concentric partial orbital lines on the east bank of the Danube. Based on map on Villamosok.Hu

For an illustration of 'mode-mixing' light metros, I picked a former hometown:

Frankfurt's U-Bahn, a light metro system (apart from the purple line); with the core of the superposed S-Bahn system (thick yellowish-brown) and normal light rail (dashed grey) also drawn in, as are other railways (thin brown) and highways (grey). The metropolitan area is right of center, where stations are frequent: note how three metro lines go way out from the city. Original full-size map at JohoMaps

Stopping trains

There were a couple of bike friends both on dKos and The Oil Drum, this was for them:

Roll-on transport: bikes in and outside the lower floor of the driving trailer of a German Railways bi-level push-pull train, at the door the foot of a man in wheelchair; May 4, 2006. Photo by Michael Katai from RailFanEurope.net

As example for a modern railbus (actually not the most modern – only from the nineties), and further illustration for that line re-opening success I presented:

One of the Schönbuchbahn's railbuses (ADtranz (now Bombardier) type RegioShuttle) arrives in Böblingen-Zimmerschlag – with freight car attached, July 12, 2006. Photo by Uwe Schnell

Rapid Transit

I smuggled this one into the stopping train diary:

Another modern EMU: A wide-gauge, wide-body series 3400 (Siemens-Bombardier type Viriatus) of Portuguese state railway CP approaches Campanhã on the outskirts of Porto, February 26, 2004. Photo by Roberto V. Sousa from RailFanEurope.net

Two Scandinavian wide-bodies:

Need for space: the eight-car SA sets (an Alstom-Siemens co-production) on Copenhagen's rapid transit (S-tog) are wider where they can be, above platforms. Here two of them stop at Valby on line B+, October 4, 2003. Photo by Heinz Steiner from RailFanEurope.net

Another high-capacity Scandinavian: Two of Stockholm rapid transit's (pendeltåg) six-car EMUS of the new X-60 series (Alstom type Coradia Lirex) at Karlberg, March 21, 2006. Photo by Günther Glauz from Bahnbilder.de

Finally, an Aussie diesel multiple unit:

A CityRail DMU of type Endeavour en route to Newcastle overtakes a Pacific National freight train at Maitland NSW, Australia, July 24, 2006. Photo by Stuart Jackson from Perthtrains

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Check the Train Blogging index page for a (hopefully) complete list of ET diaries and stories related to railways and trains.