From 5 to 7 June 2026, the European Railway Challenge took place in Bad Schussenried, Germany. This international competition brings together student teams from across Europe to present and put to the test locomotives they have designed and built themselves, running on a 10¼-inch gauge track.
Throughout the event, the teams competed in a series of technical and practical challenges covering areas such as locomotive design, automatic stopping accuracy, ride comfort, energy storage systems, business presentations and technical posters.
The PUTrain team, representing the Public Transport Engineers Student Research Group at Poznan University of Technology, achieved remarkable success, taking 1st place overall and earning the prestigious title of Grand Champion.
In addition to their overall victory, PUTrain won the following individual challenges:
- Auto-Stop Challenge
- Ride Comfort Challenge
- Energy Storage Challenge
- Design Report Challenge
- Business Case Challenge
This outstanding achievement highlights the technical expertise, creativity and engineering skills of the PUTrain team and demonstrates that students from Poznan University of Technology can successfully compete – and excel – at the European level.
