Sunderland And Sleepera?

 S iemens

 S uper

 S leepers

It is not long ago that the headlines were predicting the total demise of sleeper trains in Europe.

And it wasn’t just Covid that seemed to toll the bell of death for the sleeper. 

Poirot, eat your heart out.

Yet, Austrian State Railways (OBB) has been positioning itself as a hub for new (or re-started) sleeper services. In particular the operator has just launched a new-style train of sleeping cars. 

The brand is called “NightJet” and fbb will leave his very intelligent readers to translate that from German into English.

The Siemens NightJet train was launched by a gaggle of the great and good a few days ago.

The trains look equally great and good from the outside …

… and the vehicle below is not a locomotive; it is a driving trailer for the seven car sets.

There is a proper engine on the other end! But at the moment that are not authorized for push-pull operation.

fbb doesn’t know why? Bureaucracy?

Inside there are three classes of accommodation. There are four berth counchettes …

… complete with splendid ladder.

These beds are placed at right angles to the track as usual but there is more room than in a UK sleeper because of the bigger loading gauge.

Then there are two bed luxury cabins …

… c/w shower, toilet and hand basin.

fbb wonders whether he would be too f to fit in the shower? 

In this case the beds run parallel to the body sides of the coach – and that is unusual.

Also, there are single person “pods” …

… which are a bit larger than Japanese hotel “pods” and they have a “small window”. fbb thinks the silvery bit is a sliding door with the window alongside. Whether there is provision for sitting and whether you can see out of the window is unclear. But fbb doubts it!

OBB has ordered more of these trains and clearly aims to replace Wagons-Lits as a Europe-wide sleeping car company.

Would Poirot approve?

He might, just about, cope with single occupancy of the luxury cabin, but he would NOT approve of the catering on the NightJet – if any!

C’est incroyable!

HO railway modellers can own loco …

… and coaches by Roco. 

For N gauge modellers, similar are on offer from Fleischmann.

They will be pricey!

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There are at least FOUR good reasons to accept the truth of the resurrection.

1. Nobody has offered a better explanation, certainly not one that even comes close to fitting the recorded facts.

3. The disciples who met the risen Jesus kept quiet, hiding behind closed doors.

4. Very soon the Christian Church grew like wildfire despite persecution

None of these attitudes looks in the slightest like an invented narrative to support a supposed resurrection lie. 

The incidents simply could not have happened as they did unless the resurrection was real.

But something else must have ovcured to drive the frightened followers out of their self-inflicted isolation and silence.

Yep! That is what happened.

The video is a reasonable attempt to reproduce the Biblical narrative from the Book of Acts. 

Again it has a touch of the.miraculous, another example of a God from outside our universe stepping into.our space and time to make things happen.

However you interpret Luke’s words there is not the slightest doubt that the untrained frightened fishermen, tax collectors, rebels etc. etc. began the spread of the Christian Good News with fearless fervour. The spread was huge and continues worldwide today.

It is the why and how these snippets get writ!

And it begins at CHRISTmas!

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