Yet more random foreign photos.....

[Johann Marsbar]

Having completed (to date anyway) my North American photo thread I've decided to open this one for photos taken elsewhere abroad on my trips from 1976 onwards.  They are more or less going to be in date order and cover mainly Europe, though a few more far flung places will appear from time to time (Australia, NZ & Argentina).  Will mostly be rail or tramway subjects both "current" (or as they were at the time...) or preserved operations, though some other transport modes may appear occasionally.

To start with, my first trip abroad was in May 1976 to the Netherlands - a nice easy trip from Harwich - with a 5 day railrover whilst we were there. The photos at that time were all taken on a Kodak Pocket Instamatic so lack the 35mm/Digital quality that came later!

 

Hoek van Holland

 

 

 

Arnhem

 

 

 

Nijmegen

 

 

 

 

Amsterdam

 

 

Utrecht rail museum

 

 

 

 

[Johann Marsbar]

At the time of the trip to the Netherlands I had very little knowledge of what most rail operations were like outside of the UK, other than a few "Trains of the World" type childrens books.

I was in the Railway Society at school (BR spotter centric..) and by that time was getting Railway Magazine on a regular basis, plus the likes of Railway World and Modern Railways as well on occasion, but the information was still fairly limited - not like tapping on a keyboard nowadays and getting information on anything you are ever likely to want to know about a place.

It would be another 2 years before I joined the main local Transport Society, so wasn't really in contact with anyone who knew anything about "foreign stuff", so that first trip abroad was certainly a voyage of discovery.  The only thing I knew beforehand was that NS had bought the Woodhead EM2's and were using them, though, in the event, I only recall seeing one of them on that trip and the photo came out blurred anyway!

My Father had a passing interest in railways but more so in trams and particularly trolleybuses, hence the visit to Arnhem, and we were able to ride them out to Osterbeek to visit the WW2 cemetery there, somewhere my Father wanted to visit, having seen them all flying over Ipswich in 1944 on their way to the drop points.  I know we had found out the tram/trolleybus operations beforehand, but I still don't know how we found out about the Tram Museum at Weert which was literally in someones back garden and was opened up specially for us after knocking on their front door one afternoon!

 

My Father had joined the M&GNJRS about that time as we used to travel on several of their UK railtours and they came up with a trip into Europe by coach for May 1977, the main destination being Rheine in Germany to see the last West German steam in operation, plus a variety of preserved lines.

This seemed too good to miss, so we booked on it, being picked up by the coach at Ipswich Station and travelling on the overnight boat out of Harwich to the Hook and then driving to Rheine where we arrived late morning.  There was a visit to the shed, though, as it was a Saturday, there was very little active steam to be seen - just a couple of locos coming on shed from earlier workings........

 

 

 

 

 

 

A pair of locos were supposedly booked out on a freight early afternoon, but we missed those as we were getting something to eat in Town at that time.

We did see these at the station though.....

 

 

 

There was a "day" (i.e. out and back overnight) trip to Berlin "for more steam" as part of the trip, so we duly caught a train from Minden in the early hours of the Sunday to head off there.....

 

Little did I know at the time that Germany (along with Poland) would actually end up as my most visited European countries over the next 45 years, though most of those trips would be from 2000 onwards.

[Johann Marsbar]

We certainly saw "more steam" en route to/from Berlin from the train, but it was noticeably absent in Berlin itself, the only loco we saw being a DR 03 Pacific that had brought a train into Zoo station......

 

 

...though that turned out to be the only 03 I ever saw in regular service.

We did cross into East Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie - an experience in itself - and had a few hours there, though there was not a lot going on rail wise and all the shops were shut!

 

I did manage a few photos at Ostbahnhof though....

 

 

 

We returned west on a late afternoon train back to Minden, the remaining days of the tour being taken up by visits to the Bruchhausen Vilsen line....

 

 

The Museum Buurtspoorweg at Boekelo......

 

 

 

...and the Hoorn-Medemblik line.......

 

 

......and I've never actually been back to any of those three lines since that trip.

 

Between the visit to Rheine shed and catching the Berlin train from Minden we did visit some narrow gauge operation that consisted of a collection of diverse equipment with a line literally running round a pub cum restaurant premises. To this day I've never worked where it was as it wasn't listed on the trip itinerary!

[jonhall]

23 minutes ago, Johann Marsbar said:

Between the visit to Rheine shed and catching the Berlin train from Minden we did visit some narrow gauge operation that consisted of a collection of diverse equipment with a line literally running round a pub cum restaurant premises. To this day I've never worked where it was as it wasn't listed on the trip itinerary!

 

 

Could that be Dampf-Kleinbahn Mühlenstroth e.V., Postdamm, Gütersloh, Germany https://www.dkbm.de/

 

Jon

 

 

[Johann Marsbar]

16 minutes ago, jonhall said:

 

 

Could that be Dampf-Kleinbahn Mühlenstroth e.V., Postdamm, Gütersloh, Germany https://www.dkbm.de/

 

Jon

 

 

Many thanks for that link...

It's certainly in the right general area and a quick google translate of the text about the history of the place would fit in with the sort of operation we visited.   From memory there was something running for us though the light wasn't very good by the time we got there so I never took any photos. I think everybody was more interested in getting a decent meal in the pub before the rail trip to Berlin in the early hours!

[Johann Marsbar]

Another year and another Country - this time 1978 and Denmark with a DSB Rover ticket.   Rather memorable for the outward crossing from Parkeston Quay to Esbjerg which started out fairly calm and then became very rough later in the crossing which wasn't pleasant at all, particularly after having a substantial meal after the ship left Harwich.  It did cure me from suffering seasickness ever again though, and I've experienced worse weather since then on some sea trips!

DSB at that time, as for NS two years earlier, were changing their liveries to a more modern style so we saw both versions in use during our trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of those photos I can't even remember where they were taken as minor things like dates and where taken weren't noted at the time, something that had changed within a couple of years.

 

In 1979 another holiday in Europe was taken this time to Belgium with an SNCB rover ticket but, as I found when the photographs were developed, the camera had aquired a fault in that the lens must have moved as the photos were coming out slightly out of focus.  I've never bothered scanning in any of those photos because of that, but with the problems with the Pocket Instamatic it was obvious a new camera was needed, so for Christmas 1979 I received a nice shiny (Moscow Olympics 1980 branded..) Zenith EM 35mm camera and it was goodbye to the fuzzy photos for good!   Only problem was the number of pictures taken then started to increase dramatically - though not as bad as when I went over to Digital from 2004 onwards......

[Johann Marsbar]

The first opportunity to use the new camera abroad was in March 1980 when I went on a day trip organised by the Lea Valley Railway Club - L'Entente Cordial - which used BR(S) EMU stock on this side of the Channel and a specially chartered train over in France.  It all looked good on paper but in the event it all turned out to be a bit of a farce for a significant number of the tour participants....

At this stage I was still using print film, though my first try of Kodachrome 64 slide film would follow a few months later.

 

I've still got the tour itinerary somewhere, but the trip started off from Calais Maritime behind a diesel which took us initially to Roubaix and I think this is our special at Calais.....

 

 

I didn't make any notes of foreign loco haulage at that time, but I believe it was worked by something "unusual" so that seems to fit the bill.  If anyone else happens to have gone on that trip and has the loco details, I'd be interested to know.

 

This was also pottering about Calais, so could have been our train loco if not the other one....

 

 

Whichever loco it was, the train left Calais and proceeded to lose time all the way to Roubaix, getting there something like an hour or more late. 

The next part of the trip - albeit optional - consisted of a charter working on the Mongy Interurban tramway to Lille using at least 2 (possibly 3) of their then current 1950's built cars and a preserved car

 

 

It didn't help that it was a fair hike to the tramway from the station, though it was obvious a significant number of the tour participants had decided to take the tram option instead of remaining on the train to head to Lille.

After arrival at Lille, a few hurried photos were taken before we headed off to the station to rejoin our special train........

 

 

 

 

My Father and I were amongst the first to get to the Station and after a quick study of trains in the platforms, the nearest SNCF person was "nobbled" and the words "Ou est le train especial?" were uttered, to which he replied "Il a depart a l'heure!" - or words to that effect!

Basically the stock had departed, fairly lightly loaded, at the booked time, rather ignoring the fact that most of the other passengers hadn't made it due to the tram tour!  What was more annoying was that the Lille to Amiens section was booked for haulage by two SNCF "Monocabines" and involved a few freight only lines.....

Luckilly, the LVRC organisers were also on the tram tour, so after discussions with SNCF Officials, everybody ended up on a fairly packed normal service direct from Lille to Amiens to catch up with our train.   We actually beat it to Amiens, so had time to wander outside the station where this Saviem from the Municipal operator was in the bus stands......

 

 

From Amiens it was straight back to Calais for the boat back to Dover and EMU to London.

 

Whether the events of that trip put me off France I don't know, but it's actually a Country that I've very rarely ended up visiting in the following 43 years !

 

[Fat Controller]

No wonder the train kept loosing time; the BB63000 used from Calais is a type used for local freight and heavy shunting, with a relatively low top speed and no train heating.

[jamie92208]

31 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

No wonder the train kept loosing time; the BB63000 used from Calais is a type used for local freight and heavy shunting, with a relatively low top speed and no train heating.

And there are still quite a few of them in use.  At least one is used to shunt infra wagons at St Pierre des Corps

 

Jamie

[Fat Controller]

26 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

And there are still quite a few of them in use.  At least one is used to shunt infra wagons at St Pierre des Corps

 

Jamie

I believe there were about a thousand or so built. Most don't have VACMA, so are normally used within yards, station limits and engineering possessions. Quite a few were built for export.

[cessna152towser]

I am loving those pictures, keep them coming.   Having travelled in Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and France during my student years in the 1970s, I recognise many of the trains in your pictures, which bring back my own personal happy memories.   In those days I was also using a Kodak Instamatic but sadly was not a prolific photographer so have very few railway photos of that era from the European mainland.

[Johann Marsbar]

If that was the loco used on the tour, I was thinking more of the capabilities for longer distance trips as these similar Portugese locos....

 

 

....though just to confuse things further, the photo above wasn't actually taken in Portugal!

 

Looking at those two photos again, I have a feeling that our train loco may well have been BB 66486 rather than BB 64066 and it hadn't backed down onto the stock at that point.

[Johann Marsbar]

The main holiday destination for 1980 was West Germany using a DB Rover Ticket with stays in Hannover, Frankfurt, Munich, Heidelburg and Cologne. By that date I was at least in a better position to know what to expect/look out for once there as I had joined the LRTA the previous year plus various friends in the local transport society had been to Germany before and in some cases, had copies of current German rail magazines to refer to, particularly ones dealing with the pre-war electric locos that still seemed to be in use. I did see some of those, and even ride behind a few, but knowledge of their workings was still lacking at that stage - a rather different situation to what you can find out online today.

 

We caught the night boat from Harwich to the Hook and then the through section of the train to Berlin which duly dropped us of in Hannover in the early afternoon. Having found and checked into the Hotel, the rest of the day was spent exploring that City.  Whilst the first section of the Stadtbahn had opened a few years previously and the new TW 6000 cars in their bright green livery were to be seen around in increasing numbers, a lot of routes were still worked by traditional looking cars..........

 

 

There was also a lot of variety to be seen at the Hbf as well.....

 

 

The next day was the first day that we used the Rover Ticket and headed off on a day trip to Bremen, where a good variety of traction was on display.....

 

 

 

 

Outside the Hbf their distinctive GT4 trams were much in evidence.....

 

 

.....though some older tram/trailer sets were also still in use.....

 

 

Examples of both of the tram types seen that day are now preserved in the Tram Museum in Bremen.

[Johann Marsbar]

A day trip to Hamburg was in order on the last day we were based in Hannover and one of the impressive 103 electrics is seen at Hannover Hbf on an IC service that morning.....

 

 

....whilst this 111 was receiving a bit of a wash and brush up......

 

 

In Hamburg, one of the 1939 built S Bahn units is seen.......

 

 

...and we came across these railbuses operated by the Privatbahn ANB at Garstedt.....

 

 

From Hannover we moved on to Frankfurt (Main) where some of their pre-Stadtbahn trams were seen on the surface.......

 

 

....before we headed off for a late afternoon visit to Mannheim, where this early 1950's EMU is seen at the Hbf, which was undergoing major rebuilding works at that time.......

 

 

The place had been rebuilt again by the time I next stayed there in the 2000's  !

 

Outside the Hbf one of the OEG Interurbans on the run from Heidelburg can be seen along with a Mannheim car on the local route to Sandhofen......

 

 

....and viewed from a convenient overbridge, one of the wartime E94 electrics (introduced from 1940) passes underneath light engine.....

 

[EddieB]

On 09/03/2023 at 12:58, Johann Marsbar said:

If that was the loco used on the tour, I was thinking more of the capabilities for longer distance trips as these similar Portugese locos....

 

....though just to confuse things further, the photo above wasn't actually taken in Portugal!

 

I won't cry for you...

[Johann Marsbar]

16 minutes ago, EddieB said:

I won't cry for you...

 

Quite..... but in 2007/2009 it could get quite confusing there at times...

 

 

 

....particularly when they couldn't be bothered to remove the original owners livery/markings!

 

Anyway, that's jumping ahead quite a bit in this thread.........

 

 

[Johann Marsbar]

Moving on from Frankfurt our next base for a few nights was Munich, though we stopped off at Nuremburg on the way to visit the Rail Museum, with a selection of trams seen here outside the Hbf.....

 

 

We were by now in an area where there still seemed to be quite a number of the pre-war electrics still in use and our train from Nuremburg to Munich was hauled by this E18.......

 

 

There were also a number of E44's of two different types in use in this part of West Germany, including on the Berchtesgaden branch, seen when we took a trip to Salzburg the following day.

Salzburg also provided an opportunity to see some OBB motive power....

 

 

The then current tram scene in Munich was also sampled....

 

 

After Munich we headed off for a couple of nights in Heidelburg, the journey being routed via Stuttgart in order to have a look at the Esslingen trolleybus operation. On arrival at Esslingen station, the general state of the overhead wiring made us wonder if they were still running, particularly when all we could see were motorbuses running on the supposed trolleybus route.

After a short while, a 1950's built Henschel trolleybus did appear on Driver Training duties, and this was followed by another actually in service, so we boarded it for the run to Obertürkheim where it met up with a branch of the Stuttgart tram system. The one we caught seemed to be the only vehicle in public service that day.

The training vehicle is seen passing a Stuttgart tram at Obertürkheim loop.......

 

 

From Stuttgart, we did get a ride to Ludwigsburg behind this 144.......

 

 

...and this 212 could well have been on our train onwards to Heidelburg via the unelectrified route......

 

 

Heidelburg seemed to have an interesting variety of trains on view, the former DRG E60 jackshaft drive electric shunter dating from the early 1930's.........

 

 

...and it apparently survived in use until 1983 and is now preserved at the Sinsheim Museum.

[Johann Marsbar]

It's mostly urban transit to finish off the selection of photos from the West German trip - mainly because a lot of the things featured have long since vanished and the heavy rail stuff seen then was still about on future visits.

 

Whilst we were staying in Heidelburg, we took a run down to Basle for the day, where a tram/trailer set is seen outside the SBB station.....

 

 

A pair of the then brand new BLT articulated cars (which are still around as far as I know) is seen in the company of a rather garishly painted vintage 4-wheel car that appeared to be running a shuttle service for a local store....

 

 

.....and on the route 31 trolleybus line an FBW built artic is seen heading out of the City. The trolleybuses finished in 2008, though I did manage to get back there again in 2007 for a last ride.

 

 

From Heidelburg we moved on to Köln and the remaining days of the ticket were spent travelling into the Ruhr for such delights as the Wuppertal Schwebebahn....

 

 

...though at that stage Wuppertal still had a few tram routes in operation......

 

 

The trolleybus operation at Solingen was also sampled........

 

 

...and that operation has since been extended considerably over the ensuing 43 years. The 6-wheelers of the type pictured above are long gone though, most ending up in Mendoza in Argentina, though one has since been returned to Germany for preservation.

 

At that stage, Bonn (the West German Capital back then...) still had some traditional tram/trailer sets in use on some of the routes in the City, the conversion to Stadtbahn standards still being underway.....

 

 

Likewise, the Köln-Bonn Eisenbahn had not become yet another line on the Köln/Bonn Stadbahn network and still had its own rolling stock.......

 

 

...though the unit does carry a route 18 number in the windscreen.

 

The last morning in the area was spent travelling on the rack line up the Drachenfels.............

 

 

The 1953 built electric stock still appears to be in use on that line, though they were refurbished in the early 2000's.

 

We then made our way back to Köln Hbf for a train to the Hook for the night boat back to Harwich.  At Venlo I did manage to get this poor shot of one of the NS 1000 class electric locos out of the train window......

 

 

I had seen some of those on our 1976 trip, but they had managed to avoid the camera back then.  The last survivors of the original batch of 10 managed to stay in service until 1982.

[Johann Marsbar]

After the holiday in West Germany in 1980 it was decided to have a proper look at the other part of the Country in 1981 - In other words the DDR.

Having seen photos of the remaining steam operations there, we actually ended up booking on an East German Tourist Board "Railway Enthusiasts" tour in October that year that started in Berlin and covered the Harz narrow gauge and steam around Saalfeld before finishing in Dresden.

I remember there was potential strike action by Sealink around that time, so our route to Berlin was a rather roundabout route from Harwich to Bremerhaven with Prinz Ferries and then by rail down to Hannover to pick up the usual overnight service to Berlin.

The tour was due to start from an office in Alexanderplatz around lunchtime the day we got to Berlin, so after the border formalities at Friedrichstrasse station we had a free morning to wander around which included some tram photography......

 

 

 

There were about 20 people booked on the trip including a few from the UK, West Germany, Denmark and Norway - so quite a varied bunch.

First visit of the trip was to Schöneweide Depot, though there was nothing about in steam there, just a selection of stored locos amongst the resident diesel traction....

 

 

From there it was back to Ostbahnhof for a session of train watching........

 

 

 

 

....before catching a service to Magdeburg where we were staying overnight, passing quite a lot of stam workings around the Brandenburg area on the way, though the light wasn't really good enough to get any photos from a moving train.

 

This image taken near Magdeburg Hbf the following morning just about sums up the general gloomy/drab appearance of the DDR at that time!

 

 

I had great difficulty in recognising the place when I went back to Magdeburg about 12 years ago!

 

 

[Johann Marsbar]

The next day was mainly spent on riding the Harz narrow gauge line from Wernigerode down to Nordhausen.  I know we had to get special stamps on our Passports to be able to do this due to it being close to the West German border.

 

First trip of the day was a 118 hauled train from Magdeburg to Halberstadt, with a couple of views out of the train window at Blumenburg....

 

 

 

On arrival at Halberstadt, where we got off to take a train to Wernigerode, they rather annoyingly attached a Class 50 steam loco as a pilot to the train we had just got off!

 

The train to Wernigerode was headed by 110 743-3......

 

 

We did have a visit to the loco depot/works at Wernigerode Westerntor, taking the short ride there on behind this.....

 

 

This elderly railcar was parked up adjacent to the depot....

 

 

I believe that may well have been restored to operation nowadays on the HSB system.

 

After the shed visit we caught a service to Nordhausen behind 99 0243-8..........

 

 

From memory, there was one short section where we were advised not to take photos - which must have been in the Sorge area where the border was fairly close, but other than that there were no restrictions.

At Benneckenstein we were rather surprised to come across this on a passenger train.......

 

 

When I got home, none of the (very) regular DDR visitors who I knew at the time knew anything about the mystery "No. 13", so it must have been a fairly recent repaint/renumbering.

 

Once at Nordhausen we had a bit of time to get some photos of the towns tram operation, using single Gotha cars......

 

 

....before heading off to Erfurt behind 118 390-4 for an overnight stay.

[EddieB]

I'm guessing that you've found subsequently that "13" was 99 5903-2, reverting to its final (1918) Nordhausen-Wernigeroder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (NWE) number.  (From 1898-1918 it was NWE 18).  Quite surprising, as it did run with both DR insignia/number and NWE 13 in 1982

 

The photo of the shunter at Ostbahnhof is intriguing, as it appears to be in private ownership - industrial or perhaps a depot pilot.  It looks like an LKM V18 or V22 (both DR class 101) - do you have a record of its number?

[Johann Marsbar]

25 minutes ago, EddieB said:

I'm guessing that you've found subsequently that "13" was 99 5903-2, reverting to its final (1918) Nordhausen-Wernigeroder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (NWE) number.  (From 1898-1918 it was NWE 18).  Quite surprising, as it did run with both DR insignia/number and NWE 13 in 1982

 

The photo of the shunter at Ostbahnhof is intriguing, as it appears to be in private ownership - industrial or perhaps a depot pilot.  It looks like an LKM V18 or V22 (both DR class 101) - do you have a record of its number?

 

The photo of the shunter at Ostbahnhof was from a print my Father took there, so I didn't make a note of the number at the time.  He had a rather interesting Minolta SLR that took 110 film cartridges that he bought around 1980 and I never saw anyone else using anything like that back then.

 

I think it may well have been from the adjacent Post Office Complex that had their own set of sidings to the east of Ostbahnhof on the south side of the main lines.  The Post Office lines had been electrified (up to the late 1970's?) and they used their own shunter, which I think is this one in the Berlin Technical Museum collection.....

 

 

That blue shunter may well have been the loco used there between the electric finishing and the place losing rail access altogether - which had certainly happened by the late 1990's.

 

 

[Johann Marsbar]

The next day consisted mainly of spending several hours in Saalfeld - mainly around the depot area, though we did go out for a short ride which wasn't in the original plans.

 

The day started from Erfurt where it was rather wet first thing, with one of the local trams seen at Erfurt Hbf........

 

 

As a bit of a contrast, this Is the same location seen 33 years later........

 

 

We then headed off to Saalfeld behind 118 240-1 and spent 4-5 hours there from late morning onwards.

A selection of photos taken on Saalfeld shed by my Father follows and it was the sort of day that the difference between my 64 asa Kodachrome and his 200 asa print film was very noticeable.

Kodachrome 200 asa slide film hadn't made an appearance at that stage.......

 

 

 

 

 

 

There was a reasonable amount of steam hauled freight behind 44's in evidence, plus 01's on a few passenger trains.

 

44 0414-1 leaves with a freight from the yard........

 

 

Then this appeared on an afternoon ECS  working as far as Pößneck......

 

 

The DR Tour Guide (the chap in brown, nearest the loco) then had a few words with the crew and we all piled on to travel out on the ECS and then come back to Saalfeld on its service journey !

I think that it had only just been propelled out of the sidings at the time I took that photo, hence the red "end of train" disc below the front buffer.

 

En route to Pößneck we passed this 120 in the yard at Könitz.......

 

 

The trip behind the 01 was certainly a bonus as it turned out to be the only standard gauge steam haulage we had on the trip. Whilst there were certainly 01 worked trips on long distance mainline services out of Saalfeld at that time, our journey to the overnight stop at Gera was behind 118 403-5.

[Johann Marsbar]

Daylight in Gera the following morning produced the statutory DDR townscape painted in various shades of grey, though at least the trams were brighter.....

 

 

We then headed off to the station to catch a train to Dresden - the end point for the Official Tour the following day, though we were actually going to stay on in the DDR for a few extra days. 

For a change, we had 132 197-5 instead of yet another 118, take us as far as Glauchau where electric 242 167-5 took over for the rest of the run into Dresden.

 

This was seen out of the train at Freital Hainsberg.....

 

 

...and this former E44 converted to a substation was passed on the way into Dresden Hbf......

 

 

After checking into the Hotel (not that far from the station) we had a walking tour of the downtown area, which was still showing signs of war damage.......

 

 

Though, since reunification, that view looks a bit different nowadays......

 

 

 

Then it was off to the Parkeisenbahn for a ride.......

 

 

From memory, the beer (vom fass) was something like 30p a Litre back then!

 

For the evening meal, we headed off to a restaurant in the Loschwitz area, travelling up on the Sandseilbahn, the Schwebebahn covering a similar route being out of use at that time....

 

[EddieB]

3 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said:

 

...and this former E44 converted to a substation was passed on the way into Dresden Hbf......

 

Even better, that looks to be a former E04.