OSShD

This section is about the OSShD, (see also OSJD) i.e. mainly about their signals.

OSShD-Karte

OSShD is the Latin transcription of the Russian abbreviation ОСЖД (Организация Сотрудничества Железных Дорог - Organisation for the Combined Operations of Railways). The Chinese characters 铁组 are pronounced tiě zǔ - Iron[way] Group.
(Note that as the transliteration from Cyrillic to Latin letters is different among various languages, you may also come across the spellings OSJD or OSZhD.)

The OSShD is headquartered in Warsaw and was founded in 1956, its membership is comprised of the Transport Ministries and central state bodies responsible for railways. The main areas of OSShD's activity are the development and improvement of international rail transport, particularly between Europe and Asia, including combined transport, coordination of international rail traffic transport policy; improvement of how standard (1435 mm) and Russian wide gauge (1520 mm) rail networks work together; co-operation with other international organisations; improvement of international transport law.

It currently has 25 member states (Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Iran, Kazakhstan, Korea (North), Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam) plus four observers (Finland, France, Germany, Greece). The trackage of the members combined equals nearly 300.000 km or roughly a third of the world's railways trackage. In the former COMECON and some neighbouring nations, OSShD was the common railway standardization body and remains so today.

Among other things, one important subject they were able to standardize are the colour light signals, which have very similar aspects throughout the member states, so you can drive your train from East Germany to Vietnam while seeing just about the same signal aspects.

Upon the Reunification of Germany, the member state East Germany ceased to exist while Germany took observer status.

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Members
	OSShD abbrev.	Railway name	Railway name (engl.)	Country	km of tracks
	ADDY	Azərbaycan Dövlət Dəmir Yolu	Azerbaijan State Railway	Azerbaijan	2.957
	BC	Белорусская Железная Дорога Belarusskaya Želesnaya Doroga	Byelorussian Railway	Belarus	5.512
	BDZ	Български държавни железници Blgarsky D'ržavni Železnichy	Bulgarian State Railways	Bulgaria	4.294
	KZD	中国国家铁路集团 Zhōngguó guójiā tiělù jítuán	China Railway	China	71.898
	CD	České Dráhy	Czech Railways	Czech Republic	9.543
	EVR	Eesti Raudtee	Estonian Railways	Estonia	958
	GR	საქართველოს რკინიგზა Sakartvelos Rkinigsa	Georgian Railway	Georgia	1.612
	MÁV	Magyar Államvasutak	Hungarian Railway	Hungary	7.937
	RAI	شركت راه آهن جمهوری اسلامی ایران Rahahan-e Jomhori-e Eslami Iran	Islamic Republic of Iran Railways	Iran	7.203
	KTŽ	Қазақстан темір жолы Qazaqstan Temir Žoly Kazakhstan Temir Zholy	Kazakhstan Railways	Kazakhstan	13.700
	ZC	조선민주주의인민공화국의 철도 Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwagukŭi Ch'ŏlto	Democratic People's Republic of Korea Railways	Korea (North)	5.214
	KTZ	Кыргыз Темир Жолу Kyrgyz Temir Žoly	Kyrgyz Railway	Kyrgyzstan	470
	LDZ	Latvijas Dzelzceļš	Latvijan Railway	Latvia	2.303
	LG	Lietuvos Geležinkeliai	Lithuanian Railways	Lithuania	1.998
	CFM	Железная Дорога Молдова Železnaya Doroga Moldowa Calea Feratǎ din Moldova	Railway of Moldova	Moldova	1.138
	MTZ	Улаанбаатар Төмөр зам Ulaanbataar Tömör Zam	Ulaanbaatar Railway	Mongolia	1.810
	PKP	Polskie Koleje Państwowe	Polish State Railway	Poland	23.852
	CFR	Căi Ferate Romane	Romanian Railways	Romania	11.385
	RŽD	Российские железные дороги Rossijskie Železnye Dorogi	Russian Railways	Russian Federation	87.157
	ŽSR	Železníc Slovenskej Republiky	Railways of the Slovak Republic	Slovakia	3.662
	TDŽ	Rokhy Okhany Tochikiston	Tajik Railways	Tajikistan	482
	TDÝ	Turkmendemirýollari	Turkmen Railways	Turkmenistan	2.440
	UŽ	Українскі Залізниці Ukrainski Zalizniči	Ukrainian Railways	Ukraine	22.473
	OTY	O'zbekiston Temir Yo'llari	Uzbekistan Railways	Uzbekistan	3.950
	DSVN	Đường Sắt Việt Nam	Vietnam Railways	Vietnam	2.600
Sum					296.548
Observers
	abbrev.	Railway name	Railway name (engl.)	Country	km of tracks
	VR	Valtionrautatiet (VR)	State's Railway (VR)	Finland	5.851
	SNCF	Societé National de Chemins de Fer Françaises	National Society of the French Railways	France	29.519
	DB	Deutsche Bahn AG	German Railway, Inc	Germany	46.166
	OSE	Οργανισμός Σιδηροδρόμων Ελλάδας Organismos Siderodromon Ellados	Greek Railway Organisation	Greece	2.571