Well, here I am, back from a brief vacation over the Easter weekend . As my girlfriend's uncle had his 60th birthday yesterday we had assembled at Kaub on the east bank of the Rhine - which of course is a major transit artery both on the water as well as on rails.

As some of you will probably know, two major rail lines have been built along both banks of the Rhine. The West Rhine Railway ("Linke Rheinstrecke") serves to connect Cologne and Mainz, passing Bonn and Koblenz along the way, while the East Rhine Railway ("Rechte Rheinstrecke") connects Cologne and Wiesbaden. The lines have a length of 181 and 179 kilometres respectively, and are fully electrified. River crossings exist at Niederlahnstein and Neuwied. The West Rhine Railway handles long distance passenger services as well as regional and goods traffic, while the East Rhine Railway is dominated by regional and goods traffic. Naturally, both lines are favourite spots for railfans, both due to the variety of motive power and the outstanding natural beauty of the region .

Anyway - I naturally shot a number of rail photos, which I would like to share with you!

In order to unwind after arriving at Kaub on Friday I headed for the station and spent some two hours snapping away, and while the amount of traffic was not that big - probably owing as much to the holidays as to the weekend as such - there were a few nice bits of prey, if you will .

First up was 185 294 which I believe was heading the FR 52925 service from Koblenz-Lützel to the Mannheim marshalling yard. However, I should like to caution you that I am not completely sure whether the service number references for the goods trains in this report are correct.

Then came 152 113, at the head of what probably was the TEC 43246 road-rail service from Verona to Cologne's Eifeltor marshalling yard...

...and 143 198 heading the RB 15530 regional from Wiesbaden Central Station to Koblenz Central Station. As you can see, the weather was quite unsteady that day.

Then came 185 574, owned by MRCE Dispolok and hired to Railservice Alexander Neubauer (RAN), a small independent goods operator from Karlsruhe. This was the first of three trains that day where the driver greeted me with his horn .

A few minutes later the signals in both directions were showing clear, and it soon became apparent that whatever would come up would be a close call to photograph. This here was 185 202 with a rake of tankers...

...immediately followed by 155 168 coming the other way with another set of tankers. This might have been the CSQ 47563 service from Antwerp Noord to the BASF chemical plant at Ludwigshafen - if it was, it would have been delayed by about thirty minutes, which does happen frequently enough with international goods trains.

The clouds then finally broke and allowed a satisfying amount of illumination for me to capture 145 063 with what I would assume to be the FE 45206 service from Gremberg to Woippy...

...but decided to close up again for Crossrail's 185 578 - actually owned by CBRail - on what looks like the DGS 40183 service from Muizen to Brindisi. However, this service would normally operate on the West Rhine Railway, but it can, of course, have been detoured for some reason or other.

There was still quite a bit of sun on the hills in the background, but not on 189 996 (ES 64 F4-096) which is currently hired to TX Logistik. Again, the driver blew his horn in what I hope was a greeting .

There also was something for the "old school" fans, namely 140 037 on what may have been the FR 52325 service from Gremberg to the Bischofsheim marshalling yard in Mainz.

And then there was a streak of luck in the shape of 103 235 travelling light . This was actually the first time I ever snapped a 103, and, fittingly, her driver greeted me with the whistle.

I then called it a day after this photo and headed back to our apartment. The next day, however, a trip to Koblenz was on the agenda, and there, too, I took some time for spotting around Central Station.

These here were 218 137 and 151, stabled to the northern end of the station with a breakdown assistance van behind them.

Next, IC 335 arrived from Luxembourg with 181 214. The engine stayed behind, though, and was replaced by a 101 for the remainder of the trip to Norddeich. Here, she was shunting out from platform 8 and was then stabled behind the breakdown assistance van. 181 214 has been named "Mosel" and is one of four of her class to carry a name - the others being 181 211 "Lorraine", 181 212 "Luxembourg" and 181 213 "Saar".

After that 145 059 caught me just a little bit by surprise .

Later, IC 336 came in from Emden and changed direction for the remainder of the trip to Luxembourg. Having been hauled by a 101 up till this point, it was taken over by 181 222 at Koblenz as this class is fitted for the French and Luxembourgian 25 kV overhead system.

The last photo I took at Koblenz Central Station was this one of transregio EMU 460 010, moving in for the MRB 84141 service to Mainz Central Station. The stopping services from Cologne to Koblenz and Koblenz to Mainz on the West Rhine Railway have been taken over by this operator in December 2008. The 460 is a Siemens Desiro Mainline type unit consisting of two powered end cars and an unpowered trailer in the middle, and having a top speed of 160 kph. Similar units have since been ordered by the Belgian and Russian state railways.

Before the big birthday dinner on Sunday night, then, I briefly went out for another round of photos . Weather was very much April-like with intermittent showers, wind and only a few patches of sunlight.

152 045 was heading south during a shower...

...after which I changed position and captured 143 923 on the RE 15431 regional to Frankfurt Central Station...

...followed by 155 084 on a tanker service.

Well - and that is it for this time!