[QUOTE=Marc87dk;15157]People here seem very friendly to help, so I hope you could answer this question. Considering how large Russia is, I am not even sure if this can be answered easily
Does the russian network have any specific categories that they sort the trains by?
Like in most european countries, they have InterCity, regional, etc.
There is gradation of passenger trains, which is encoded into train/route number.
1)express trains. (numbers 001-099)
2)seasonal express trains (100-139)
3)"normal" long distance trains (140-299)
4)"seasonal" long distance trains (300-499)
5)regional trains (numbers 600-699)
6)regional "express" trains served by EMU/DMU (numbers 800-899)
7)mail/luggage trains (numbers 900-999)
8)commuter trains (numbers 6000-6999)
seasonal means trains running only in summer months or on non-regular schedule.
"normal" trains run all year around
"firmennyi poezd" ("branded" or "named" train) is a commercial brand, assigned to particular train/route.
it usually have special attributes: individual painting scheme of cars, better service, better inner equipment, and price is higher.
they can be express trains or regular long-distance trains, or even regional.
trains of categories 1-4 consist mostly (or only) from sleeping cars.
trains of type 5 usually have coach cars (with seats),but sometimes also included sleepers
trains of type 6 are usually operated by permanently coupled consist (EMU, DMU) with coach cars , there is often also snack bar included
any type of train from 1-5 category, but not 6, can optionally have mail or luggage car.
mail/luggage trains consist only from luggage or light cargo cars, but they considered as "passenger trains" , as they carry people too, and sometimes have regular sleeping cars included. they are not recommended for long-distance travel, becouse these trains are painfully slow and do as many stops as possible for loading/unloading cargo or mail.
long-distance trains (all cats of 1-5) can have 10 to 20 cars, 14-15 can be considered as standard length. In the summer time, trains can be longer , up to 20-22 cars (especially on the routes to Southern resorts).
regional and commuter trains on some branch lines with low traffic can be shorter, in extreme case even 1 car pulled by 1 locomotive. Sometimes such train is called "bichevoz" (hobo train)