Green-skinned train

Train 4416, a "green train" operated by the Beijing Railway Bureau
External image
image icon Green painted East German type 24 passenger car for China Railway in 1989

The terms green-skinned train[1][2] and green train[3] (Chinese: 绿皮车; pinyin: lǜpíchē; lit. 'green skin carriage') refer to a type of design which used to be the mainstay of the passenger railway fleets of China and other communist countries during the Cold War. These words carry connotations of slow travel on old vehicles with few amenities, most notably lacking air conditioning. Despite these connotations, most locomotive-hauled passenger railroad cars in China have been repainted to a shade of dark green.

China

Although strictly speaking only a subset of Chinese carriages have green as their original paint color, such as the Type 23 and Type 25B, colloquially the term "green-skinned train" usually refers to the service classes of "普通旅客快车" (conventional fast train) and "普通旅客列车" (conventional slow train) which use locomotive-hauled trains without a fixed consist of railroad cars. Starting from 2014 almost all conventional rail cars have been gradually repainted to a "olive green" colour, supposedly to reduce operating expenses and make military use of railways harder to spot.[note 1] Only a few cars still retain their original color, in particular Type 25G cars maintained by Xidaku (西大库) depot in Beijing. This green-painting ("刷绿") has angered many Chinese railfans, and original-colored cars ("原色") are considered very valuable to photograph and film.

Original

Modern

Other countries

Asia

USSR

Europe

North America

Notes

  1. ↑ This is a possible reason as military rail vehicles in China are all green in contrast to the many original colors of passenger cars, however many railfans can easily tell them apart using differences in top-mounted air conditioners and chimneys, window shapes and sizes, and other physical features, so the effectiveness of this argument is doubted.

References

  1. ↑ Staff, W. S. J. (2 July 2014). "Smelly, Slow, Unforgettable: Bidding Goodbye to China's Green Trains". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  2. ↑ "A ride on old-fashioned green train through southwest China mountains - Xinhua - English.news.cn". www.xinhuanet.com. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
  3. ↑ hermes (4 February 2019). "China's 'green trains' transport hope amid era of high-speed rail". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2020-04-26.
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