Hello again .

As I had no obligations today and the weather, after a bit of initial doubt, did turn out to be quite stable I packed my camera and went on a small tour through the countryside northeast of Frankfurt, which is called the Wetterau and has the city of Friedberg (which speakers of English would have to pronounce like "freedberg") with about 28,000 inhabitants as its primary centre. There are three non-electrified railway lines in this area, two of which I eventually rode - these being the Nidder Valley Railway (German Wikipedia) and Lahn-Kinzig Railway (German Wikipedia). In addition, Friedberg is the terminus of the non-electrified Horloff Valley Railway (German Wikipedia), the Friedberg-Friedrichsdorf Railway (German Wikipedia) and the electrified Friedberg-Hanau Railway (German Wikipedia) which could be said to serve as a bypass for the Main-Weser Railway (German Wikipedia) as far as goods traffic is concerned.

Having ridden to Frankfurt on the S-Bahn, I then caught the RE 15024 service to Glauburg-Stockheim at Central Station. Trains to Stockheim first use the Main-Weser Railway up till Bad Vilbel where the Nidder Valley Railway branches off - offering quite a few possible photo spots along the way, which but are mostly best reached by bike or car. However, I didn't trust the weather enough to take my bike with me, else I might have strayed a little further from the line. The full trip from Frankfurt Central Station to Stockheim takes some 66 minutes and covers some 31 kilometres.

Upon reaching Stockheim I first positioned myself to capture the RE 15037 return service to Frankfurt, which is seen here in the shape of engine 218 498 and a rake of four bi-level coaches. The Lahn-Kinzig Railway splits off to the right behind the bushes, and this was where I took the following photo...

The stopping services on the Lahn-Kinzig Railway are provided by private operator Hessische Landesbahn (HLB), using Stadler GTW 2/6 or class 646 DMUs. The HLB in its current shape was created by merging the motive power pools of the Frankfurt-Königsteiner Eisenbahn, Butzbach-Licher Eisenbahn and Kassel-Naumburger Eisenbahn into a fully-owned subsidiary called HLB Hessenbahn, and splitting off the infrastructure and maintenance section into a 85% subsidiary called HLB Basis, with the remaining 15% being in municipal ownership. The company also includes HLB Hessenbus as another fully-owned subsisiary for bus operations.

Seen in this photo is DMU 509 108, registered as 95 80 0946 408-1+95 80 0646 408-4+95 80 0946 908-0 D-HEB in the German NVR and working the HLB83959 service to Gelnhausen. The GTW 2/6 consists of two unpowered passenger/cab modules and a diesel-electric power module with two powered wheelsets inserted in between, and, strictly speaking, only this power module is actually called class 646 - the passenger modules being designated as class 946. However, the entire vehicle is commonly referred to as class 646.

I wonder what this chap on the adjacent meadow may have thought, seeing me there with the camera .

I then returned to the station and took a small set of photos - maybe one of you is thinking about building a contemporary German branch line in the countryside and could use these as references?

This thing looks like it once was a motor draisine for permanent way work.

The blue and grey building is the "Sf" signal box, which is a mechanical Willmann type and was opened in 1906. Note the semaphore signals which are actuated by wire pulleys.

Looking over the other side of the station area where there is a number of stabling sidings which are still in use for holding coaching stock over night.

The station was originally named "Stockheim (Oberhessen)"; however, as Stockheim is now part of the municipality of Glauburg, the station is now called Glauburg-Stockheim and abbreviated "FSTM" in the DB's National Station and Facility Register, or DS100. Interestingly, the station building houses both a small restaurant as well as a rather large model railway layout, called Modellbahnhof Stockheim.

Then, DMU 628 697 caught me a little by surprise as it pulled up to Platform 1 as an empty stock service...

...and then shunted out again and into a siding. There is a fuel station a few hundred metres down the line, so perhaps the 628 came from there.

After that I captured HLB DMU 509 106 (646 406) in front of the semaphores as it pulled into the station, working the HLB83962 service to Gießen. I then boarded this train and rode on to Nidda...

...which is located about ten kilometres north of Stockheim and where there is another HLB hub - the lines from Friedberg to Nidda and Gießen to Gelnhausen meeting there. In the centre, DMU VT 127 (646 427) is waiting to depart for Gelnhausen as service HLB83961. I then proceeded to catch the unit to the left in order to continue to Friedberg on the HLB83817 service. Although it is more or less in the middle of nowhere, Nidda Station (abbreviated as FND in the DS100 register) is in good shape and remarkably tidy.

Having arrived at Friedberg I had a layover of some thirty minutes. While waiting for the RE 4109 service from Kassel to Frankfurt, I was caught by surprise by the following service:

This was engine 203 307 of DB Netzinstandhaltung - the DB's permanent way maintenance branch - heading north with a Plasser & Theurer tamper in tow. In my opinion, Friedberg Station (abbreviated FFG) is only moderately suitable for spotting, however. There was a goods train with a set of car carriers and two 155s at the head (the second being dead in tow, though) coming in from the Friedberg-Hanau Railway (which is the line branching off to the left in the background), followed by a class 294 shunter travelling light, but there were too many OHLE and signal masts between the platforms and the goods sidings for me to take a good photo of either of them.

And to round it all off, 110 434 came in at the head of the RB 15325 stopping service from Gießen, terminating on Platform 1 and returning as RB 15328. The driver was too quick for me in switching off the three whites, though! Those stopping services between Friedberg and Gießen - covering a distance of not even 32 kilometres - do feel somewhat lowly for a 110, to be honest.

Alright, then - this was it for this time! Hope you enjoyed this series, and do feel free to comment or ask questions if you like!