The Term “#FensterAuf” is a Hashtag widely used on twitter by railway enthusiasts. It consists of the German words “Fenster auf” and can be directly translated into “window open”. It means that windows of a railway carriages are possible to open.
This hashtag is commonly used as a quality criteria and is often combined with pictures or videos taken from a moving train with the window open. It is a quality criteria as the passenger is closer to the “railway experience” (speed, smell, fresh air,…), as pictures and videos are better than without a window in-between and as a certain nostalgia is combined with this fact as usually only older carriages are with windows to open.
It is especially also a quality criteria with dining cars. #FensterAuf carriages became rare on rails all over the world, but especially in Europe. Some examples:
- The DB “ARkimbz” BordBistro has one window to open.
- While maintenance works a “WRl” by SŽ comes with EC 150/151 “Emona”.
- The Tren Italia (TI) “WR” which was last seen with the “Connecting Europe Express” and until 2020 with EN 200/201 “Thello” between Venice and Paris.
- Currently the seasonal summer vacation service IC 1204/1205 “Adria” between Budapest and Split has a beautiful MÁV “WRm” attached.
Some see this also as a down-side, as trains with #FensterAuf-carriages are usually slower.
The hashtag was introduced to the train bubble by user @TrainTracksEU in 2017…
…and it got viral with the extensive use by user @schienenstrang in June 2018, starting with the following tweet.