Innotrans

In September 2016 I visited the Innotrans
international rail market trade show.
Although this was a business visit some of my photos
are suitable for hobby purposes.

1 The Innotrans is a bi-annual trade fair where over 3.000 exhibitors active in the European rail market and beyond display their products. The entire Berliner Messe is used for the Innotrans	2 China's high speed rail is developing at an incredible pace. Over 20.000 km of high speed rail have been built over the last 10-15 years. China now has more high speed rail kilometers than the rest of the world together. And the pace at which the high speed rail network expands is hardly abating. The Chinese clearly have the ambition to participate in the European market and made their presence on the Innotrans felt.	3 The new generation high speed standard EMU "Golden Phoenix" has a design speed of 350 km/h. The first high speed EMU's where directly derived from Siemens ICE and very much looked like ICE's but China is now clearly taking it own course.	4
5 An impressive image of one of the control centres of the Chinese Railways.	6 Ultrasonic proofing station to detect cracks in wheels.	7 CRRC is China's major rolling stock producer and in terms of annual turnover it's the world's largest. CRRC's stand was one of the largest on the Innotrans. China has clearly set an ambition to penetrate the European market and no doubt they are going to cause the established producers like Siemens, Bombardier and Alstom a real shake up.	8
9 HXD1G Electric Locomotive, top speed 160 km/h, 11,200 kW. Wow	10 Both Chinese standardized high speed EMU's: the Blue Dolphin and the Golden Phoenix. Need I point out which is which?	11	12 CRRC also offer maintenance services. This is a demo of their 3D maintenance instruction visualisation.
13 CRRC is also a major car producer	14 Sorry for the bad lighting, the underfloor lights did not help to make a decent picture	15	16 "Intelligent windows". Nothing intelligent about it, it is simply a transparant display, but ingenious nonetheless.
17 Make your hotel reservation on the window of your train.	18 A mockup of the Aeroliner 3000, intended for the HS2 in the UK. More: European Railway Review	19	20
21 Bombardier is stong as ever on the European market	22 The latest TRAXX design	23 Bombardier Zefiro high-speed passenger trains have a design speed varying between 250 km/h and 380 km/h. (More information)	24 A more modest design is this bread-and-butter EMU for deployment in the UK.
25	26	27 And now the competitor Alstom, which did not have interesting models to show you	28 Some manufacturers are completely unknown, at least I was oblivious of their existence. Considering their bad English in their slogan, this might better stay this way.
29 A Spanish manufacturer, less known but with a wide range of products, supplier to the new Sprinter trains (SNG) of the Dutch Railways by the end of 2017	30 SNG Impressie in Rotterdam Soon in the Netherlands	31	32
33 There was a host of part manufacturers both OEM as well as after sales market players.	34 Roller bearing. I simply like the looks of them.	35 Power transmission line by Henschel	36 A bit of a combustion engine
37 Voith had a relatively modest but nonetheless conspicuous stand.	38 Modern materials gradually find their way into the relatively conservative rail world: a carbon fiber reinforced plastic variant of the age old leaf spring.	39	40
41 Pesa is a Polish rolling stock manufacturer	42 Pesa produce head turning designs. They should however attract a better model builder.	43	44
45	46 Siemens with a design for a high-speed capacity intercity train in the Gulf region. More	47 A model demonstrating bridge building equipment	48
49 The Hyperloop is a new initiative of a capsule travelling through a vacuum tube at ultra high speed. More. Personally I don't think the idea will fly because the high speeds will require high safety margins between the pods. Although technically and maybe even economically feasible I don't think it will replace mass transport by train. Maybe it could an environmentally more friendly alternative for flying.	50 An elevated bus on rails that offers a drive under option, minimizing hindrance to others modes of transport. Nice idea. Again apart form the technical ingenuity I don't think we will see it very often in a practical application. Simply too cumbersome. But time will tell. More	51 An MRCE X4E "Vectron" locomotive by Siemens	52 Forgot to note this one. Sorry.
53 Stadler is very active in the tram and small regional train market.	54	55 The E6ACTd "Dragon" by Newag, a rather unknown Polish player in the market. With a power output of 5000 KW their product is certainly worth noting.	56
57 Contral tabe of the Dragon	58	59 Not entirely new is this 744 class loco by CZ Loko, a Czech product.	60
61 A Schalke MT-S-600-BE Multi System Service Locomotive powered by batteries especially developed for use on Vienna’s public transport system. (More info)	62 At long last: the Dutch Railways brand new SNG (Sprinter Next Generation) based on Stadler's FLIRT. Soon in service in the Netherlands.	63	64
65 The SNG sports Jakobs-bogies, supporting two car bodies. Advantages: better stability, less noise, less maintenance, less weight (on bogie less, no separate couplers needed). Disadvantage: breaking up and recombining of train sets is cumbersome, car body lengths are shorter (no overhang).	66 SNG's interior: open and light	67 Waste separation. I am doubtlful that this will work. The Dutch general public is, let's say, less disciplined than desirable.	68 The sliding doors of the first class compartment appear to have stained glass doors.
69 Stadler's EC250 high speed EMU for the Swiss federal railways. Top speed 250 km/h; length 200 m; capacity 400 passengers; costs appr. 31 million Euro per EMU.	70	71	72
73 Skoda is one of the "smaller" manufacturers, Bombardier, Siemens and Alstom being the biggies.	74 The ED161 "Dart" by Pesa, the Polish manufacturer which has a knack to produce head turning designs.	75	76 Another head turning Pesa product
77	78 Another Vectron by Siemens	79	80 VR Group awarded Siemens a €300m contract in 2014 to supply 80 Vectrons. Data: 25kV AC 50Hz, 6,400 KW, mixed-traffic, 1524 mm broad gauge, max. 200km/h. 10 pre-series locomotives will enter service in 2017. Series production will begin in 2018 and the final locomotives are due to be delivered to Finland in 2026 (source: IRJ)
81 The ÖBB cityjet entered service in 2015 and is still in production. It will be introduced gradually in Vienna, Lower Austria, Upper Austria and Styria. Maximum speed: 160 km/h. Seats: 259 or 244. (Source: ÖBB)	82 The Class 707 is an EMU being built by Siemens for South West Trains. A total of 150 vehicles will be built, formed into 30 five-car units, and are being built to provide initially for 18,000 additional peak-time passengers into London Waterloo, with a further 6,000 additional passengers capable of being accommodated on completion of associated infrastructure improvements (Source: Wikipedia)	83	84 Thier was also a lot of rail related equipment on display, but I had very little time to spare so I only moved along quickly.
85	86 And this is a nice surprise	87	88
89	90	91	92
93	94	95	96
97	98	99	100 Turkish Railways. Do they exist?
101 Yes they do and are very much alive and kicking, developing a high speed network, based on Siemens ICE.	102	103 An overview of the very crowded outdoor display area. The weather was gorgeous for the second half of September: dry and sunny weather with temperatures just over 20C. From here on I turned to my business goals again so this ends the hobby display of what I saw.