Sunday, 21 September 2014

NL-2653357 SW EP-360 'de Koploper' of the Netherlands

The Intercity Materieel or ICM is an electric multiple unit (EMU) train type operated by the Nederlandse Spoorwegen in the Netherlands. The prototypes were built in 1977 and production lasted from 1983 to 1994 by Talbot.

No 4011 painted in KLM livery
The trains are designed for long distance Intercity services. Their maximum speed is 160 km/h. Their cabs are on the roof, which initially allowed through gangways between sets when coupled together.  Because of this, the name of Koploper was given to these trains. Koploper translates to “head walker (i.e. walking through the head)”. When ICM units joined together, the doors at the end of the train would open out and a walkway would emerge, coupling with the other set and allowing passengers to walk through to the next set. However, since 31 October 2005 these were put out of use. The reason given was that they were not used and they also had many technical problems that made the trains late on a regular basis.
This postcard came from Marjan (2 December 2014) Swap-bot.
Between 1986 and 2002 many train sets featured advertisement.  4011 was painted in KLM livery.  This KLM koploper postcard came from Wietze (15 September 2014) Postcrossing.

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