Rembrandt (train)

Route diagram (1987–2002)
	Legend
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*Rembrandt*
	EC90 panoramic coach (Apm 19) of; Swiss Federal Railways in Utrecht
Overview
Service type	Trans Europ Express (TEE); (1967–1983); InterCity (IC); (1983–1987); EuroCity (EC); (1987–2002)
Status	Discontinued
Locale	Netherlands ; Germany ; Switzerland
First service	28 May 1967
Last service	14 December 2002
Successor	ICE, EC Rätia
Former operator(s)	Deutsche Bundesbahn ; Swiss Federal Railways
Route
Start	Amsterdam CS
End	München Hbf. / Chur
Distance travelled	887 km / 985 km
Service frequency	Daily
On-board services
Catering facilities	Restaurant car
Observation facilities	from 1991
Technical
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Electrification	1500 V DC (Netherlands); 15 kV 16,7 Hz (Germany) & (Switzerland)
Route diagram (1987–2002)
	Legend
	This diagram: view ; talk ; edit ;

Last updated May 04, 2019

The Rembrandt was an express train that linked Amsterdam in the Netherlands, with Munich in Germany and later Chur in Switzerland. The train was named after the renowned Dutch painter Rembrandt.^[1] For its first 16 years it was a first-class-only Trans Europ Express, becoming a two-class InterCity in 1983 and finally a EuroCity in 1987.

Express trains are a form of rail service. Express trains make only a small number of stops, instead of stopping locally. In some cases, trains run express where there is overlapping local train service available, and run local at the tail ends of the line, where there is no supplemental local service. During overnight hours, or other times where it is practical, express trains may become local, but still running to where an express train would terminate.

Amsterdam Capital city of the Netherlands and municipality

Amsterdam is the capital city and most populous municipality of the Netherlands. Its status as the capital is mandated by the Constitution of the Netherlands, although it is not the seat of the government, which is The Hague. Amsterdam has a population of 854,047 within the city proper, 1,357,675 in the urban area and 2,410,960 in the metropolitan area. The city is located in the province of North Holland in the west of the country but is not its capital, which is Haarlem. The Amsterdam metropolitan area comprises much of the northern part of the Randstad, one of the larger conurbations in Europe, which has a population of approximately 8.1 million.

The Netherlands is a country located mainly in Northwestern Europe. The European portion of the Netherlands consists of twelve separate provinces that border Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, with maritime borders in the North Sea with Belgium, Germany and the United Kingdom. Together with three island territories in the Caribbean Sea—Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba— it forms a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The official language is Dutch, but a secondary official language in the province of Friesland is West Frisian.

History

Trans Europ Express

With the completion of the electrification works at the Dutch–German border on the Arnhem–Oberhausen line, the Rembrandt was launched on 28 May 1967.^[2]^[3] Of the then-three TEE services on that line, the Rembrandt was scheduled as the afternoon service from Amsterdam, between the Rheingold in the morning and the Rhein-Main in the evening. The Rembrandt conveyed through coaches for the TEE Helvetia that were exchanged in Mannheim,^[3]^[4] thus providing an afternoon TEE service between Amsterdam and Zürich via the Rhine Valley, alongside the TEE Edelweiss which departed from Amsterdam in the morning and was routed via Brussels and Luxembourg en route to Zurich. It carried a dining car staffed by the German Sleeper and Dining Car Company (DSG).^[3]^[5]

A railway electrification system supplies electric power to railway trains and trams without an on-board prime mover or local fuel supply. Electric railways use electric locomotives to haul passengers or freight in separate cars or electric multiple units, passenger cars with their own motors. Electricity is typically generated in large and relatively efficient generating stations, transmitted to the railway network and distributed to the trains. Some electric railways have their own dedicated generating stations and transmission lines but most purchase power from an electric utility. The railway usually provides its own distribution lines, switches and transformers.

The Oberhausen–Arnhem railway is a two-track, electrified main line railway running close to the lower Rhine from Oberhausen via Wesel, Emmerich and the German-Dutch border to Arnhem and forms part of the line between the Ruhr and Amsterdam. The line was opened by the Cologne-Minden Railway Company in 1856 and is one of the oldest lines in Germany.

The Trans Europ Express, or Trans-Europe Express (TEE), is a former international first-class railway service in western and central Europe that was founded in 1957 and ceased in 1995. At the height of its operations, in 1974, the TEE network comprised 45 trains, connecting 130 different cities, from Spain in the west to Austria in the east, and from Denmark to Southern Italy.

The Rembrandt was the first TEE to call in Baden-Wurtemberg's capital, Stuttgart.^[6] Northbound, the Rembrandt departed for Amsterdam from Munich early in the morning, thus providing a morning service complementing the existing afternoon TEE service provided by the Rheinpfeil . On 27 May 1979, the exchange of coaches with the Helvetia was discontinued,^[7] and the stop at Mannheim was replaced by a stop at Darmstadt.^[8] On 1 June 1980, the route was shortened to Stuttgart at the southern end.^[5]

Stuttgart is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. Stuttgart is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known locally as the "Stuttgart Cauldron." It lies an hour from the Swabian Jura and the Black Forest. Its urban area has a population of 609,219, making it the sixth largest city in Germany. 2.7 million people live in the city's administrative region and another 5.3 million people in its metropolitan area, making it the fourth largest metropolitan area in Germany. The city and metropolitan area are consistently ranked among the top 20 European metropolitan areas by GDP; Mercer listed Stuttgart as 21st on its 2015 list of cities by quality of living, innovation agency 2thinknow ranked the city 24th globally out of 442 cities and the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked the city as a Beta-status world city in their 2014 survey.

Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, the second most populous German federal state. With a population of around 1.5 million, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, as well as the 12th-largest city in the European Union. The city's metropolitan region is home to 6 million people. Straddling the banks of the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps, it is the seat of the Bavarian administrative region of Upper Bavaria, while being the most densely populated municipality in Germany. Munich is the second-largest city in the Bavarian dialect area, after the Austrian capital of Vienna.

The word Rheinpfeil was used to name a number of express trains that ran in Germany between the 1950s and 1991. For much of that period, a train carrying the name Rheinpfeil also linked Germany with at least one neighbouring country.

The Rembrandt's last day of operation as a TEE was 28 May 1983. The following day, its southern terminus was moved farther north, to Frankfurt am Main, and the train was converted to a two-class InterCity service.^[9]^[10] It continued to carry a full dining car. Its train number was IC 122 northbound, IC 123 southbound.^[10]

Frankfurt is a metropolis and the largest city of the German federal state of Hesse, and its 746,878 (2017) inhabitants make it the fifth-largest city of Germany after Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, and Cologne. On the River Main, it forms a continuous conurbation with the neighbouring city of Offenbach am Main, and its urban area has a population of 2.3 million. The city is at the centre of the larger Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, which has a population of 5.5 million and is Germany's second-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr Region. Since the enlargement of the European Union in 2013, the geographic centre of the EU is about 40 km (25 mi) to the east of Frankfurt's central business district. Like France and Franconia, the city is named after the Franks. Frankfurt is the largest city in the Rhine Franconian dialect area.

InterCity type of long-distance passenger trains

InterCity is the classification applied to certain long-distance passenger train services in Europe. Such trains generally call at major stations only.

EuroCity

On 31 May 1987, with the start of the EuroCity network, the EC Rembrandt replaced the TEE Rheingold , although the Swiss terminus was not Geneva but Chur. The original route of the Rembrandt was served by EC Frans Hals. When new Swiss rolling stock of type EC90 became available in 1991, the Rembrandt was formed with class EC90 coaches, including observation cars – or "panoramic" coaches – Swiss class Apm 19. As the Rheingold had carried observation cars from 1962 until 1976, the 1991 change to the Rembrandt's consist returned such cars to the train service through the Rhine Valley, although in a newer form, not the vista-dome type that the Rheingold had carried. On 14 December 2002, the Rembrandt was replaced by an ICE service between Amsterdam and Basel.^[11]

EuroCity, abbreviated as EC, is a cross-border train category within the European inter-city rail network. In contrast to trains allocated to the lower-level "IC" (InterCity) category, EC trains are international services that meet 20 criteria covering comfort, speed, food service, and cleanliness. Each EC train is operated by more than one European Union or Swiss rail company, under a multilateral co-operative arrangement, and all EC trains link important European cities with each other.

The Rheingold ('Rhinegold') was a named train that operated between Hoek van Holland, near Rotterdam, and Geneva, Switzerland, a distance of 1,067 kilometres (663 mi), until 1987. Another section of the train started in Amsterdam and was coupled to the Hoek cars in Utrecht. The Rheingold ran along the Rhine River via Arnhem, Netherlands, and Cologne, Germany, using special luxury coaches. It was named after Richard Wagner's Das Rheingold opera, which romanticized the Rhine. From 1965 until the train's discontinuation in 1987, the Rheingold was a first-class-only Trans Europ Express (TEE) train.

Chur or Coire is the capital and largest town of the Swiss canton of Grisons and lies in the Grisonian Rhine Valley, where the Rhine turns towards the north, in the northern part of the canton. The city, which is located on the right bank of the Rhine, is reputedly the oldest town of Switzerland.

Related Research Articles

The trainsets of Class VT 11.5 were diesel multiple units built by Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) in 1957 and used for Trans Europ Express (TEE) services. Perceived as flagships of the DB rolling stock, they carried first-class seating only. When the UIC numbering scheme became effective on 1 January 1968, the power heads of the trainsets were renamed to Class 601 whilst the middle cars became Class 901 according to the DB locomotive classification. They were used for TEE service from 1957 until 1972 and thereafter on German InterCity services.

The Bavaria was an express train that linked München Hbf in Munich, Germany, with Zürich HB in Zurich, Switzerland. Introduced in the 1950s, it ran through to Geneva until 1969, when it was cut back to Zurich. The train was named on the basis that Bavaria is the Latin equivalent to the German word Bayern, the official name of the federal state of Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital. It was operated by the Deutsche Bundesbahn / Deutsche Bahn (DB) and the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB-CFF-FFS). The route also included a single stop in Austria, at Bregenz. The 24 km (15 mi) section between Lindau, Germany, and St. Margrethen, Switzerland, is located mostly in Austria, but Swiss locomotives hauled the train over this section, most of which is part of the Vorarlberg line of Austrian Federal Railways.

The Iris is an express train that links Brussels Midi/Zuid in Brussels, Belgium, with Chur station in Chur, Switzerland.

The Helvetia was an express train that, for most of its existence, linked Hamburg-Altona station in Hamburg, Germany, with Zürich HB in Zurich, Switzerland. Introduced in 1952, it was operated by the Deutsche Bundesbahn / Deutsche Bahn (DB) and the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB-CFF-FFS). The train's name, Helvetia, is the Latin word for "Switzerland".

The Goethe was an express train that, for most of its existence, linked Paris-Est in Paris, France, with Frankfurt Hbf in Frankfurt, Germany. Introduced in 1970, it was operated by the SNCF and the Deutsche Bundesbahn / Deutsche Bahn (DB).

The Albert Schweitzer was a short-lived express train that linked Dortmund Hbf in Dortmund, Germany, with Strasbourg-Ville in Strasbourg, France. Introduced in 1980, it was operated by the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) and the SNCF.

The Prinz Eugen was an express train that linked northern Germany with Wien Westbf in Vienna, Austria. Introduced in 1971, it was operated by the Deutsche Bundesbahn / Deutsche Bahn (DB) and the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB).

The Roland was an express train that ran in Germany. For part of its existence, it was also an international train. Introduced in 1939, suspended during World War II, and reintroduced in 1952, it was operated in Germany by the Deutsche Reichsbahn Gesellschaft (DRG), the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) and the Deutsche Bahn (DB), respectively.

The word Mediolanum has been used to name three distinct international express trains that have run to and from Milano Centrale in Milan, Italy since 1957. The focus of these trains on the city now known as Milan reflects the fact that Mediolanum is the Latin word for ancient Milan.

The Catalan Talgo was an international express train introduced in 1969 that linked Geneva, Switzerland, with Barcelona, Spain. It was named after the Spanish region Catalonia and the Talgo equipment it used. It was an extension and upgrading of a predecessor train, Le Catalan, a first-class-only French (SNCF) Rapide train that had been in operation since 1955 but running only between Geneva and the stations nearest the Spanish-French border, connecting with a second-class-only "autorail" trainset to and from Barcelona. The national railway network of Spain, Red Nacional de los Ferrocarriles Españoles (RENFE), was using Iberian gauge for all of its main lines, while those of France and Switzerland use standard gauge. As a result of this break-of-gauge, train journeys between Geneva and Barcelona consisted of two separate parts, with travelers having to change from a French to a Spanish train or vice versa at the border—at Portbou on southbound trains and at Cerbère on northbound trains. In 1968, this was resolved with the introduction of the Talgo III RD trainsets, which featured variable gauge wheelsets. At Portbou station, the wheel spacing of each passenger carriage was adjusted by a gauge changer for the difference in gauge, and passengers no longer had to change trains. After successful test runs, the Catalan was extended from Port Bou to Barcelona as a through train on 1 June 1969, becoming the Catalan Talgo and upgraded to a Trans Europ Express (TEE). Most other rail journeys through this border crossing continued to require a change of train at Cerbère station or at Port Bou, as most trains did not use Talgo III RD trainsets.

The Blauer Enzian is a named express train service that currently runs between Frankfurt in Germany and Klagenfurt in Austria. Introduced in 1951, it originally ran via the German North–South railway line between Hamburg and Munich. Labelled as an international Trans Europ Express (TEE) train, it also linked with Zell am See and Klagenfurt in Austria from 1969. Trains were operated by the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) and its Deutsche Bahn successor, from 1970 also by the Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB).

The Diamant was an express train operated by the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB), using different routes over the years. The name Diamant, Flemish for diamond, refers to the city of Antwerp, which is the European centre of diamond trade and has a diamond district. The initial service started in 1962 as a first-class-only FernTriebwagen linking the West-German capital Bonn with Antwerp, using a class DB Class VT 08 diesel multiple unit (DMU).

The Saphir was an express train operated by the Deutsche Bundesbahn linking the port of Ostend with Dortmund as part of a link between London and the Ruhr. The name Saphir, German for sapphire, refers to the Belgian gemstone industry.

L'Oiseau Bleu was an international express train linking Antwerp with Paris. The train was named after the play L'Oiseau Bleu as a tribute to its author, the Belgian Nobel prize laureate Maurice Maeterlinck.

The Ticino was an express train that linked Milan in Italy, with Zürich, Switzerland and for some years even to Munich, Germany. The train was named after the Canton of Ticino in the south of Switzerland. Introduced in 1961, it was a first-class-only Trans Europ Express (TEE) service until 1974. Later, it was a EuroCity service.

The Rhein–Main was an express train that linked Frankfurt am Main with Dortmund in Germany and later with Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The train was named after the two rivers, the Rhine and the Main, that join west of Frankfurt. For most of its life, it was a Trans Europ Express (TEE).

The Paris–Ruhr was an express train that linked Paris in France, with Dortmund in Germany. The train was named after its two termini, Paris in the west and the Ruhr district in the east. For most of its life, it was a Trans Europ Express (TEE).

The Parsifal was an express train that linked Paris with Dortmund in Germany and later Cologne. The train was named after Wagner's opera inspired by the legendary knight Percival.

The Erasmus was an express train that linked The Hague, the Dutch seat of Government, with Munich in Germany. The train was named after the Dutch Renaissance humanist Desiderius Erasmus.

References

↑ TEE, p. 22.
↑ La Légende des TEE, p. 266.
1 2 3 "Summer Services, 1967" (changes taking effect). Cooks Continental Timetable (February 1967 edition), p. 406. London: Thomas Cook Publishing.
↑ La Légende des TEE, p. 267.
1 2 Thomas Cook International Timetable (March 1–April 5, 1980 edition), pp. 67, 556. Peterborough, UK: Thomas Cook Publishing.
↑ TEE Züge in Deutschland, p. 114.
↑ Das grosse TEE Buch, p. 86
↑ Thomas Cook Continental Timetable (May 27 – June 30, 1979 edition), p. 67.
↑ TEE Züge in Deutschland, p. 117.
1 2 Thomas Cook Continental Timetable (May 29 – June 30, 1983 edition), pp. 6, 67.
↑ La Légende des TEE, p. 269.

Works cited

Centre for publicrelations UIC (1972). TEE (in Dutch). Paris: Union International des Chemins de Fer.
Hajt, Jörg (2001). Das grosse TEE Buch (in German). Bonn/Königswinter: Heel Verlag. ISBN 3-89365-948-X.
Mertens, Maurice; Malaspina, Jean-Pierre (2007). La Légende des Trans Europ Express (in French). Vannes: LR Presse. ISBN 978-29-036514-5-9.
Goette, Peter (2008). TEE-Züge in Deutschland (in German). Freiburg: EK-Verlag. ISBN 978-3-88255-698-8.

International Standard Book Number Unique numeric book identifier

The International Standard Book Number (ISBN) is a numeric commercial book identifier which is intended to be unique. Publishers purchase ISBNs from an affiliate of the International ISBN Agency.

External links

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[1] TEE, p. 22.

[2] La Légende des TEE, p. 266.

[cooks1967feb-3] 1 2 3 "Summer Services, 1967" (changes taking effect). Cooks Continental Timetable (February 1967 edition), p. 406. London: Thomas Cook Publishing.

[4] La Légende des TEE, p. 267.

[cooks1980mar-5] 1 2 Thomas Cook International Timetable (March 1–April 5, 1980 edition), pp. 67, 556. Peterborough, UK: Thomas Cook Publishing.

[6] TEE Züge in Deutschland, p. 114.

[7] Das grosse TEE Buch, p. 86

[cooks1979jun-8] Thomas Cook Continental Timetable (May 27 – June 30, 1979 edition), p. 67.

[9] TEE Züge in Deutschland, p. 117.

[cooks1983jun-10] 1 2 Thomas Cook Continental Timetable (May 29 – June 30, 1983 edition), pp. 6, 67.

[11] La Légende des TEE, p. 269.