VR Group

The first lines were built while Finland belonged to the Russian Empire, and so were built to Russian broad gauge. Finland still uses 1524 mm today, which practically matches the Russian measurement. The country therefore has no continuous rail link into the European standard-gauge network – vehicles from Central Europe cannot run there.

They are abbreviations of Finnish words. S stands for electric drive, D for diesel, r for heavy main-line machines, v for vehicles from shunting and transfer duty, m for railcars. An Sr3 is therefore a heavy electric locomotive, an Sm5 an electric railcar. The number after it is a running type number.

Practically never. Because of the track gauge, they stay in the country. There are, however, close technical relationships: the second generation of heavy electric locomotives is closely related to the Swiss Re 460, and the newest generation is based on the Vectron platform. Anyone who knows these body shapes recognises them again instantly.

A state transport infrastructure authority that sits outside the VR group; network operation lies with a separate state-owned company. VR is thereby a pure transport company with no tracks of its own. This separation matches the European model, as also seen with the Norwegian and Swedish railways.

Because the loading gauge is larger than in Central Europe. The broad gauge allows wider, taller vehicles, and Finland has made use of that room. It's most visible in the double-deck coaches in long-distance service, which look noticeably more spacious than comparable Central European designs. On the platform, the difference is obvious at once.

A night train that runs with car-transport wagons attached. Travellers hand their car over in southern Finland and get it back at the destination station in the north. For spotters that's a rare subject: a night train with attached car wagons looks unlike anything running in Central Europe.

In freight, yes, though on a small scale: a private company has been running alongside VR Transpoint for a few years. In passenger services, VR remains dominant, but local services in the Helsinki region are commissioned by a regional transport authority. Some of the vehicles there don't belong to VR – so in Finland, too, the data panel is the more reliable source.

Realistically, above all at Helsinki Central Station. Long-distance services, suburban traffic and night trains all converge there, and the train frequency is the highest in the country. Outside the metropolitan area, things thin out quickly: many lines only see a handful of trains a day, and a day out photographing has to be planned around individual train workings.

The lines carry letters instead of numbers and are shown large on displays. The vehicles mostly come from modern railcar families adapted to broad gauge – relatives of them are known to you as the FLIRT from Central Europe. Note the line letter down as well, or you won't be able to reconstruct the diagram afterwards.

Only to a limited extent, photographically. Days in the north are extremely short, and a large share of services run in the dark. In return you get subjects with snow and winter light that are hard to find elsewhere. How to prepare for that is covered in the article on winter railway photography and the article on weather and emergencies at the spot.