European Railroad Discussion > Question re: Swedish sleeping cars

I was in Stockholm in May of this year and by chance happened to be at Central Station when the 2122 train for Luleå, Kiruna and Narvik (which had originated at Göteborg at 1700) was getting ready to depart. I was intrigued by the variety of sleeping cars on the train. They included both Sovvagn (which I understand to be first class cars with private compartments and showers) and Liggvagn (couchette cars).

Following are photos of a couple of Sovvagn cars. Can anyone tell me what the difference in configration (if any) is between the WL4 and WL6 cars? Is there a source of information about these cars on the Internet?

Thanks!

Tom Murray

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And here are a couple of Liggvagn cars -- can anyone tell me about the difference (if any) between the BC2 and BC4 cars? Again thanks for any information you can provide.

Tom

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Interior diagrams for all four of the car types BC2, BC4, WL4, and WL6 can be seen here;

http://www.acprail.com/pdf/Seating-diagrams-4.pdf

You have to scroll down a long way to see the BC2.

Thank you, SOO6617. That's exactly the type of resource I was hoping to locate.

T.M.

Here is another good resource: http://www.jarnvag.net/index.php/vagnguide?option=com_customproperties&task=show&Itemid=656&bind_to_section=2&cp_vagntyp=sovvagn&cp_klass=&cp_status=&cp_bygg=&cp_egenskaper=&submit_search=S%C3%B6k

Although is Swedish. I created this search so you would not need to learn to browse the Swedish menus.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/02/11 02:29 by McKey.

Thanks, John. Fortunately, Google Translate does a nice job of converting this Swedish page to English.

T.M.

About 1996, I traveled from Gavle to Boden in a WL4 sleeper -- had a room and bath to myself. Car had wood paneling, very nice. The "Nordpilen" also at the time carried a half-diner, half movie car. Food in the diner was okay (a bit like what Amfleet serves in the Amfleet "diners" on the Cardinal).

Since the WL4 first class car goes to Lulea, had to vacate and transfer to a coach at Boden, but with arrival at Kirina only a couple of hours later, not a problem.

The WL4 and WL6 cars are the only first-class sleepers in Sweden. Everything else is couchettes. In Norway, there are only second-class cars (not couchettes, but individual rooms, but WC facilities are at the ends of the car).