SeaRail
Encyclopedia
SeaRail operates a train ferry
Train ferry
A train ferry is a ship designed to carry railway vehicles. Typically, one level of the ship is fitted with railway tracks, and the vessel has a door at the front and/or rear to give access to the wharves. In the United States, train ferries are sometimes referred to as "car ferries", as...

 for railway freight wagons between Turku
Turku
Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...

, Finland
Finland
Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

, and Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

. Because the track gauge of the Finnish railways (VR
VR Group
VR or VR Group is a state-owned railway company in Finland. Formerly known as Suomen Valtion Rautatiet until 1922 and Valtionrautatiet / Statsjärnvägarna until 1995...

) is 89 mm (3.5 in) wider than the standard gauge
Standard gauge
The standard gauge is a widely-used track gauge . Approximately 60% of the world's existing railway lines are built to this gauge...

 of much of the rest of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 (including Sweden), a special fleet of freight wagons with interchangeable bogie
Bogie
A bogie is a wheeled wagon or trolley. In mechanics terms, a bogie is a chassis or framework carrying wheels, attached to a vehicle. It can be fixed in place, as on a cargo truck, mounted on a swivel, as on a railway carriage/car or locomotive, or sprung as in the suspension of a caterpillar...

s is used. The break-of-gauge
Break-of-gauge
With railways, a break-of-gauge occurs where a line of one gauge meets a line of a different gauge. Trains and rolling stock cannot run through without some form of conversion between gauges, and freight and passengers must otherwise be transloaded...

 point is several hundred meters inside Finland at Turku and the bogies are exchanged in a specially-equipped depot; this procedure can be achieved in 10 minutes and involves jacking up each wagon. The short section of (standard gauge) track at Turku is sometimes known as "Little Sweden".

The Tallink
Tallink
Tallink is an Estonian shipping company currently operating Baltic Sea cruiseferries and ropax ships from Estonia to Finland, Estonia to Sweden, Latvia to Sweden and Finland to Germany. They also own Silja Line and a part of SeaRail...

 train ferry Sea Wind conveys the SeaRail wagons between Finland and Sweden. These operate twice-daily from Turku and Stockholm.

SeaRail's headquarters is located in Turku
Turku
Turku is a city situated on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura River. It is located in the region of Finland Proper. It is believed that Turku came into existence during the end of the 13th century which makes it the oldest city in Finland...

. Additional offices are in Stockholm and in Helsingborg
Helsingborg
Helsingborg is a city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 97,122 inhabitants in 2010. Helsingborg is the centre of an area in the Øresund region of about 320,000 inhabitants in north-west Scania, and is Sweden's closest point to Denmark, with the Danish city...

. The company is jointly owned by Tallink Silja
Tallink Silja
Tallink Silja Oy is a Finnish company that operates the Silja Line. It is owned by the Tallink Grupp of Estonia.-External links:*...

 Oy, Finland's VR Group
VR Group
VR or VR Group is a state-owned railway company in Finland. Formerly known as Suomen Valtion Rautatiet until 1922 and Valtionrautatiet / Statsjärnvägarna until 1995...

 and the Swedish rail freight company Green Cargo AB.

Rail car traffic onboard ferries Turku-Stockholm will be closed down in December 2011. This means that SeaRail will be closed down.

See also

  • Bogie exchange
    Bogie exchange
    Bogie exchange is a system for operating railway wagons on two or more gauges to overcome difference in the track gauge. To perform a bogie exchange, a car is converted from one gauge to another by removing the chassis containing the wheels and axles of the car, and installing a new chassis with...

  • Ramsey Car Transfer Apparatus
    Ramsey Car Transfer Apparatus
    In railroad industry, the Ramsey Car Transfer Apparatus was a proposed device to replace bogies on railroad cars to permit transfer of a train between railroad lines with different gauge....

  • Variable gauge axles
  • Wheelset
    Wheelset (railroad)
    A wheelset is the wheel-axle assembly of a railroad car. The frame assembly beneath each end of a car, railcar or locomotive that holds the wheelsets is called the bogie...


External links


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