One of our club's (Liphook & District MRC) occasional activities in the past has been to visit a show in Germany. Previously it was the Modellbau Koln; however that was one of a number of casualties post-Covid, so we looked around for an alternative. The obvious candidate was the big show at Dortmund, itself only about an hour away from Cologne on a local train. Cologne made a logical base of operations as we were familiar with the city and its hotels, as well as the convenience of its station (direct trains to Brussels etc.).
Our usual MO for these trips to to take the Eurostar from London to Brussels, with a two-hour gap, before continuing on to Cologne using the ICE. The journey is normally pretty smooth (it also includes the connection to London, which in my case was a combination of Southern and Thameslink), and fortunately that was the case this time.
We arrived at St Pancras at about 7:30 and waited around outside the Betjeman Arms until 8:00 for breakfast - a good way to start the journey proper. Then to our steed, for this leg of the journey 374007/008. Note one of the remaining 373s in the background.
The layover at Brussels is enough time for lunch (at one of the cafe/bars opposite the Eurostar entrance) and a dash into Carrefour to get some Belgium beer for home. I also managed to get a few snaps at Midi station.
And thence to Cologne, using the Brussels - Frankfurt ICE service.
For these trips we now tend to use the Kommerzhotel Köln, fairly basic but right next to the station, convenient for the city and very clean. Once luggage was deposited we went into the city on the hunt for beer and Currywurst.
Cologne station has always been an interesting place, with plenty of activity and interest. Sadly, and inevitably, there is less variety there now to even 12 years ago when we made our first club visit; but it is still a worthwhile place to wile away a couple of hours. There is also a bookshop at the station with a decent railway section. It is still a photogenetic place, especially with the cathedral next door...
Our first full day in Germany was our trip to the show at Dortmund. I have heard much about it over the years, but this was our first visit. The journey to the show was very straight-forwards, helped by a day pass for up to 5 people which cost €52.00. Pretty good value as it included the Dortmund trams, plus other local trains in the area.
At Dortmund station itself was my first sight of one of the BR147s used on the more middle-distance ICE services.
The Dortmund show was certainly large, and not just limited to railways, with model cars, boats, planes and other things on display. There was also a large Lego display. The show had a sizable trade showing, although perhaps unsurprisingly Marklin featured heavily...most stalls had half of their space devoted to Marklin. Those that didn't were Marklin specialists and therefore had all of their space devoted to Marklin! A fair few manufacturers were also present.
There were less layouts than I expected, although there were some excellent examples. For me the best layouts were French, I will admit to being a little disappointed with the German offerings. A few of the layouts are below...
In my humble opinion, the layout featured in the first three pictures was the best in show. Quite exquisite.
I met the editor of Continental Modeller photographing this pretty French layout! The show was certainly worth the visit, but by all accounts not as good as previous years. I did not indulge much with the trade stands, although I am very taken with the PCX range of H0 road vehicles - some of the best quality H0 cars I have seen.
Our journey to and from Dortmund was on one of the semi double-decker BR462 EMUs. An extremely pleasant environment to travel in - it was also noted that Modellbahn Union are producing a version of this unit in H0; there was a pre-production sample on display at the show. Once back in Cologne, we were off out for schnitzel (with a fantastic paprika sauce) and more beer.
Day three involved a day-trip out to near by Wuppertal, to have a play on the Wuppertaler Schwebebahn. This is a 40 minute train ride from Cologne on one of the National Express 9442 'Talent 2' units - seen here on the left with one of its DB cousins.
The town of Wuppertal has attractive parts, however its main draw is the suspended railway, which is not only a popular visitor attraction but also acts as a key part of the local transport infrastructure. The vehicles themselves are quite modern, although the infrastructure still has the air of fin de siècle design. Those units also have a pretty rapid acceleration!
The suspended railway was a real treat and well recommended if anyone is in the neck of the weeks.
The following day was our return home, with our train due to leave Cologne at just before midday, so we had morning to wander around the city and see what was passing through the station. Despite the reduced number of loco hauled services, there was still plenty of interest in and around the station. The next few pictures show the variety of what we saw.
Once on the train, our journey back - again via Brussels - was equally uneventful; which is what you want from a return journey. The homebound highlight? One of the original class 373s as our steed home!