Afternoon all!

As I mentioned in Early Risers, I am currently in Leipzig once again, for a few days of vacation .

Winter has struck here just as severely as around Frankfurt, resulting in tram services having been completely suspended yesterday, and only partially resumed today. Apparently, there had been several derailments due to the huge masses of snow, with the only trams I could see yesterday having been a Tatra double set on an inspection trip, and a NGT12 car with its pantograph broken in the middle of an intersection. So, even if I had attempted to head out yesterday, there would have been few things to see, and just as few ways of getting to the city centre in the first place, with bus services having been thinned out as well.

Today, then, tram lines 3E, 7, 11E, 15 and 16 were back in limited service, with various detours and at what would seem to be irregular intervals. Meanwhile, lines 1, 4, 9 and 12 remained completely suspended, with partial rail replacement bus service having been provided.

Line 16 was given an alternate routing, running counter-clockwise around the city centre and back to its northern terminus at the Trade Fair Centre, and leaving the southern branch to Lößnig to replacement buses. Here, car 1217 "Travnik" is running along Martin-Luther-Ring on the western rim of the city centre and approaching the New City Hall, which is about 200 metres to the right of where I was standing here. It was signed for the return trip to the Trade Fair Centre already, turning left at the city hall and going back up via Wilhelm-Leuschner-Platz and Augustusplatz.

Highlighting the irregular timetable in effect today, it was soon followed by this Tatra T4D-M double set headed by car 2172, which was signed as an "E" service to the Trade Fair Centre – the "E" being commonly used for extra services on many German tram systems, or for services just entering the route from the depot.

It sure was strange to see so small a number of trams in the city – considering how I really do not know Leipzig without its closely spaced tram services! This here was a Leoliner double set on the 11 line, led by car 1321 "Probstheida" which is wearing full body advertising for DHL.

Car 1213 "Bautzen" came next, working the 15 line and ploughing through the snow on the intersection of Augustusplatz and Grimmaischer Steinweg.

I then checked how things looked on the railway and stopped by at Central Station. Far as I could see, railway services were returning to normal, though delays did, of course, still occur. IC 2208 to Berlin Gesundbrunnen was delayed by about ten minutes and powered by two class 101 locos in a top-and-tail formation. Interestingly, it consisted mostly of SBB coaches, though I unfortunately did not manage to position myself in time to be able to capture at least part of the coaches as well. As you can see from the accumulation of snow and ice on 101 029, the train had a lengthy trip behind it already, having started its journey at Munich Central Station at 7.05 am, roughly six hours before I took this photo.

This double deck driving trailer, which was part of a stopping service to Weißenfels, appears to have had to ram into the snow! I wonder just how good this might be for the frontside skirt if repeated, though.

On my way home, car 1220 "Thessaloniki" was paving its way down Kurt-Schumacher-Straße on the 16 line...

...while these two ducks were cleaning their plumage. I, however, would certainly not put my feet into any water in this kind of weather!