Evening all!

 

While ships certainly were ranking high on my photo list, I but also paid a visit to the railway facilities in Cuxhaven during my recent stay there. With the city being located on the non-electrified Lower Elbe Railway, 103.6 kilometres (64 mi) distant from Harburg Station, it is served by "metronom" semi-fast regionals to Hamburg, as well as stopping services to Bremerhaven. The latter are operated by Eisenbahnen und Verkehrsbetriebe Elbe-Weser (EVB) under a subsidiary contract with DB Regio. Both lines are served every hour on weekdays and every two hours on Sundays and holidays.

 

Cuxhaven's station is quite small, having only three platforms and a bus node on the station plaza, though there also is a more extensive network of harbour railways which I also had a look at later on.

 

 

 

 

First of all, two Alstom LINT 41 type DMUs owned by EVB captured my interest, standing by to work the RB 14417 service to Bremerhaven and scheduled for departure at 12.37.

 

 

 

 

 

Many private German TOCs assign their own running numbers to their motive power, even if this should be of the same types also used by DB AG. As such, the two LINT 41s I encountered were designated as VT 110 and 111 internally, and 648 194 and 195 in the common German numbering system. According to the remainder of the lettering, the 648 has a seating capacity of 122 passengers in 2nd class and eight in 1st class, and weighs in at 75 tonnes when fully loaded. The outer bogies are both powered by 315 kW diesel engines and mechanical transmission. The LINT 41 type is 41.81 metres (137.2 ft) long.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking at one of the powered bogies. The LINT has a top speed of 120 kph (75 mph). There also is a shorter, non-articulated single-body version, called LINT 27 or class 640, measuring 27.26 metres (89.4 ft) in length and having only one powered bogie.

 

 

 

 

 

The fuel filler caps are located near the Jacobs bogie. As you can see, the unit had its last revision completed on 9 March this year at the Bremervörde works.

 

 

 

 

 

And then came this metronom rake consisting of five double deck coaches and 246 002 and working an ECS service, while the 1.10 pm ME 81520 service to Hamburg was waiting on Platform 1. Like all metronom rolling stock, these are owned by the state public transport authority of Lower Saxony, abbreviated as LNVG for "Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft." metronom themselves are a public-owned consortium of NiedersachsenBahn (itself formed from Osthannoversche Eisenbahn and EVB), BeNEX and Bremer Straßenbahn.

While having earned a very good reputation among private TOCs since its founding, metronom but are currently suffering from a change in ownership structure, which notably soured what was previously reported to have been an excellent working environment. This conflict is still going on at the time I am writing this and has led into a spate of strikes over nationwide employment standards for railway staff in recent weeks, which part of the current owners are vehemently opposed to.

 

 

 

 

 

The 246 is a diesel-electric 3rd generation Bombardier TRAXX type known as TRAXX P160 DE, and thus based on the same platform as the fully electric class 186 quad system loco or the Italian class E.483 DC only loco. Note how one of the side panels on both sides of the loco's body has been removed in order to allow an engine air intake to be installed, and how the roof outline has been altered accordingly.

 

The slogan on the cab side actually is a pun in German and can be translated as something like "It's Lower Saxony's turn" and "Lower Saxony is on the train."

 

 

 

 

 

Looking at Bogie 1, you can see the brake disks, PZB transceiver and a host of inscriptions, including the braking weights – R+E₁₆₀ 163 tonnes, R+E 138 tonnes, P+E 101 tonnes, R 125 tonnes, P 87 tonnes and G 71 tonnes – and loco weight (82 tonnes), braking gear type, and revision date (22 August 2007 at the Bremervörde works). The 246 has a 160 kph (100 mph) top speed. There but also is a dedicated freight version of the diesel-electric TRAXX, known as TRAXX F140 DE or class 285.

 

 

 

 

 

Most metronom locos have been named in the meantime, with 246 002 carrying the name of the city of Buxtehude. The other loco previously seen in the background was 246 007, named "Himmelpforten."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alcoholic beverages are now banned on metronom services in an attempt to further improve cleanliness and to prevent passengers from being molested by intoxicated persons.

 

 

 

 

 

A look at the inscriptions on one of the coaches. The double deck coaches used on the Lower Elbe Railway are the low entry variety, with the doors being located in the lower deck between the bogies rather than in the middle between the decks above the bogies.

 

 

 

 

In order to accommodate visitors and cyclists, the coaches used on the Hamburg-Cuxhaven line feature expanded multipurpose and bicycle spaces, as reflected by the lowercase "d" in the type designation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ECS rake eventually shunted out from the platform after having been given a "proceed shunting" signal in the shape of two diagonal white lights on the "W" plate halfway up the starting signal. As you can see, Cuxhaven Station still has semaphores.

 

 

 

 

 

Am I supposed to crawl into the cable ducts? It is not uncommon at all for internal system status messages to find their way onto destination displays on contemporary German stock!

 

 

 

 

As metronom offer seat reservations for regular passengers, the coaches obviously have to be numbered, as seen here.

 

 

 

Heading over to the harbour railway branching off from the Lower Elbe Railway east of Cuxhaven Station, I noticed how much of the traffic there appears to be car shipments, though containers and steel are also present.

 

 

 

Here, MRCE diesel ER 20-013, currently hired to PCT, was shunting a single covered car carrier into one of the sidings.

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, DB Schenker shunter 363 178 was removing a long rake of wagons.

 

 

 

 

 

Eventually, ER 20-013 had coupled up to a long string of empty car carriers and throttled up to leave the stabling sidings after a driver change.

 

 

 

Thanks for looking, hope you liked these images!