Johann Marsbar Posted March 29, 2023 Author Share Posted March 29, 2023 The following morning provided an opportunity to get some photos of the local tramway operation in Katowice as there was a delay to our departure while some "paperwork" was sourced from a building, more or less where the Rondo road interchange/roundabout is located nowadays, to the north of Katowice Rynek. At that stage I was totally unaware of the size and nature of the tram network there, but it's a system I've come to know well over the past 20 years from a number of visits. An LRTA published book on the subject (in English) came out within the past 6 months, but a few years back I bought the substantial 2 volume comprehensive history of the network published by Eurosprinter in Poland. Those books are all in Polish but the sheer quantity of historical material and photos (particularly the colour ones) contained within make the language problem a very minor issue - and they were something silly like £19 a volume! Back to 1985, with a Konstal 102N............. ...a version of the same type with a reversed rake windscreen...... ....and a pair of Konstal 105N cars, some of which, in a refurbished state, are still hanging on in service there today, but not for much longer....... Looking at photos from subsequent visits I haven't attempted to take photos from a similar location on any of them, but this photo at the Rynek taken 30 years after the ones above does show a couple of relevant buildings........ The building with the black advert hoarding above the front section of this ex-Frankfurt (Main) car is the former Orbis Hotel we stayed in on the 1985 trip which is not even a hotel anymore. The tower block visible directly above the rear end of the tram is the block located above the front of the trams in the three 1985 photos. Once the paperwork was obtained we headed off west in our Orbis coach towards Bytom, a quick photo out the window being taken as we passed this N class car en route..... First port of call was the narrow gauge shed in Bytom for the regional Industrial system which was then still in full operation. This was, annoyingly, a "No Photos" place, the laugh being that it is now a preserved railway with no such restrictions! Dieselisation had just been completed but there were still three Tw 53 steam locos present on the shed. From there we moved on to the PKP shed at Pyskowice and the adjacent one on the Kotlarnia "Sandbahn" sand railway network. The PKP shed contained 10 Ty45's - 8 of which were in stored condition, plus this solitary ET21........ The shed at Pyskowice later became a preservation site, but I'm not sure if that is still the case. There was a lot more to be seen on the Kotlarnia system shed, including this stored Tp4 (Prussian G8) 148 which had been used for special trains up to a couple of years previously...... ...plus this fairly early EN57 electric unit (from the first batch built in 1962 judging by the fleet number) used for workers trains...... 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordonwis Posted March 29, 2023 Share Posted March 29, 2023 On 28/03/2023 at 08:44, Johann Marsbar said: Transport that day until early afternoon was provided by this Autosan built coach from PKS...... ... The irony is that on our trip to Zagorz and the far south East, we had to stay in Sanok, home of the Autosan bus works Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted March 30, 2023 Author Share Posted March 30, 2023 Whilst the PKP shed at Pyskowice was rather quiet, the same could not be said of the adjacent Kotlarnia sand system shed, with several loco movements on and off shed for working trains over the network. My notes indicate that we saw 13 different active locos there ( 7 x Ty 51's and 6 x Ty 45's ) plus there was another former Prussian G8 (Tp4 217) stored there as well........ Unlike other tours that I'd read reports of, nobody attempted to sell us any numberplates (or anything else for that matter) during the course of the WRS trip, so 36 years would elapse before I managed to acquire a genuine PKP eagle crest! By the time I next went back to the place - in 2003 - Tp4 217 had been plinthed near to the entrance to the former PKP shed which, by then, was a rather low-key preservation base...... Back to 1985, after the shed visit there, we continued on to the railways works at Przezchlebie where there was actually at lot less to see - 3 x Ty 51's, 1 x Ty 45, 4 x Tkp tank locos and a solitary Ty 2...... The Ty 2 was interesting as it showed signs of its previous owners...... Not sure whether any of the Tkp's were still in use at that stage as one of them was obviously being scrapped but the others were complete..... Our motive power for most of the day - until we reached Nysa later in the afternoon - was a bit more upmarket than the previous PKS Autosan, being a proper Orbis Ikarus touring coach...... 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium ColinK Posted March 30, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 30, 2023 Many thanks for this thread, very enjoyable. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted March 31, 2023 Author Share Posted March 31, 2023 The tour itinerary for the day mentioned some "linesiding" on the Kotlarnia sysrem, but that didn't happen as we seem to have headed straight off to Nysa in the coach, though we did stop somewhere near that town to observe a passing Pt47 hauled service...... In the fading light of the day, before catching a train from Nysa, we did make a visit to the shed and station area where I noted 15 x Ty2's, a solitary Tkt48 and an Ok22 (a post WW1 derivative of the Prussian P8) which must have been in store there as it's one of the two preserved examples of the class remaining (Ok22 23). The light was fairly abysmal by that time - paricularly for taking photos of filthy black steam locos - so the ST43's were a better bet..... From there, we caught a Ty2 hauled servce to Kamieniec Zabkowicki and then another one behind a Ty2 from there to Klodzko Glowny. Klodzko was to be our base for the next two nights, though our gem of a hotel was adjacent to Klodzko Miasto (Town) station, a short ride away behind a Tkt48 . Klodzko looks a rather nice place now, having studied views on Google Earth, but in 1985 the place had a general feeling of neglect from May 1945 onwards, nothing more serving as an example of this than the hotel we stayed in - by far the worst of the trip. It was fairly close to the rail line and the room I was in had a panoramic view of the tracks and its regular steam hauled services passing by, but that was all that could be said in its favour! From memory, the "furnishings" were two rather ancient single beds, a wardrobe and a dressing table. There was certainly an antique sink, which I think was in the room as well, with a seperate w/c which was equally as ancient. My guess is the Red Army soldiers nicked the good stuff and sent it home when they arrived in '45 and it had never been replaced! The food was dire, the evening meal taken there consisting of some form of meat (by general consensus, rabbit) and red cabbage - that was it! Thankfully we only ate there the one night.... Looking at Google Earth, It may have been the place across the road from the station entrance on the west side of the line by the road bridge (it's still lettered as a hotel but doesn't look as if it functions as such now) though we may have been a bit further into the centre but still in view of the rail line as I seem to remember walking up a narrow cobbled street to get to it. Whilst the hotel was at the bottom of the pile, the steam activity there was right at the top and the freedom to photograph was unlike anywhere we had been to on the trip before. You could even wander away from the group without running into problems. At that time, there was no electrification in the area at all so main line runs were in the hands of the superb Pt47 2-8-2's and most other passenger runs were behind Tkt48 tank engines. The odd Ty2 was about, mainly on freight, though ST43 diesels were around as well......... The only real problem was the weather as the general gloom we'd had for most of the trip was even worse in that area so 64 ASA slide film struggled at times. Double headed Tkt48's on a southbound passenger......... ...the crew obviously "playing to the gallery" on departure..... We also visited the shed - located at the north end of the station - both days we were there......... A local coach was available on the first day for some linesiding, starting at Bardo Slaskie...... ....and then on to the Polanica Zdroj area.......... I'm sure I was the only person on the trip who actually bothered to take a few photos of diesels, the rest of the group being pure steam diehards. Since putting some of those (and some of the steam ones & trams) on my Flickr site, I've been contacted by by several individuals wanting to use them in books or use them on websites due to the general lack of colour material from that era in Poland. I do know that one of the Rail Museums has put them in their archives and presumably used them for some displays as well. We did do another bit of tain riding at the end of the first day - when it was almost dark - travelling from Klodzko to Scinawka Srednia behind a Tkt48 and then riding to Radkow and back behind another Tkt48 - that line being closed and lifted now. The coach then returned us to Klodzko for our memorable evening meal..... 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted April 1, 2023 Author Share Posted April 1, 2023 The morning of the following day was spent at Klodzko again, around the station and loco shed area. This photo of a departing Pt47 should actually have been amongst yesterdays selection....... It wasn't until when I was looking at that picture yesterday that I noticed the rather obvious gricer leaning out of one of the upstairs windows in the front coach! My guess it was one of our party who had "escaped" from the group to log some extra steam haulage. Klodzko shed..... ...and around the station...... That was it for Klodzko in 1985, but out of a sense of curiosity, I did pay a brief visit there in 2006 whilst using a Polish railrover ticket and found the place to be a shadow of the activity we had witnessed in 1985. The loco shed was completely derelict with electrification of most lines in the area being carried out in the early 1990's. The sidings opposite the station used to fill the whole area to where the white van is parked...... The platform canopy still looked as if it hadn't seen any paint since before WW2 though....... Back to 1985 and we left Klodzko late morning behind a Tkt48 and travelled to Walbrzych Glowny. Something seems to have happened after that point though as we were supposed to travel by rail from there to Karpacz according to my original printed itinerary, but we seem to have travelled by road instead. My notebook lists three Tkt48's seen at Walbrzych and then nothing until Karpacz, and I know we spent a long time waiting at the lineside outside Karpacz for the arrival of the train we should have been on. The train in question was supposed to be hauled by another Tkt48, so queue the mass swearing when this turned up........... We did then board that train behind SU46 052 and travelled back down the branch on it and on to Jelenia Gora where we caught a service to Wroclaw behind EU07 114 for our last night of the trip in Poland. 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eastwestdivide Posted April 1, 2023 Share Posted April 1, 2023 Steam-hauled double decker coaches! Who’d have thought it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted April 1, 2023 Author Share Posted April 1, 2023 5 hours ago, eastwestdivide said: Steam-hauled double decker coaches! Who’d have thought it? That was actually quite common on that trip as far as I can remember, depending on the area of the Country that you were in, though more often than not behind a Tkt48 tank engine rather than a Pt47 2-8-2 express loco. They even ended up in "one coach wonder" operations with a solitary double decker plus loco. I photographed this one at Torun in 2006.... 11 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SM42 Posted April 1, 2023 Share Posted April 1, 2023 Wibble ! Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordonwis Posted April 2, 2023 Share Posted April 2, 2023 17 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said: That was it for Klodzko in 1985, but out of a sense of curiosity, I did pay a brief visit there in 2006 whilst using a Polish railrover ticket and found the place to be a shadow of the activity we had witnessed in 1985. The loco shed was completely derelict with electrification of most lines in the area being carried out in the early 1990's. The sidings opposite the station used to fill the whole area to where the white van is parked...... Just for completeness, and your interest, between 1985 and 2006 I visited Klodzko in 1991 on the same trip as the Zagorz area mentioned earlier. We left Sanok and went via Krakow to Klodzko having heard that it might be one of the areas with remaining steam activity. There was a Pt47 and a TkT48 in steam on shed for all of the two days we were there but all the line work was in the hands of newly delivered SM32. I assume the steam was by then in reserve. I am given to understand that we had missed steam being used over the Easter weekend, ending the day before we arrived...Nevertheless we did the two branches (Kudowa and Polanica) with diesel for the scenic ride. We attempted to get information from the shedmaster but found communication difficult. AS far as we could workout the next day when we planned to leave the area a steam loco was booked on the morning train towards Walbrzych, but we got up early to din this was also SM32, so gave up and travelled north towards Jarocin, when we finally found working Tkt48 and enjoyed a run to Czempin as a way of reaching Wolstztyn 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 5944 Posted April 2, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 2, 2023 18 hours ago, eastwestdivide said: Steam-hauled double decker coaches! Who’d have thought it? It was common until about 2012 at Wolsztyn, after which they started using single deckers. Ol49-7 departing Wilkowice with a service from Leszno to Zbąszynek, 25/10/2011. Even by Polish standards the loco was in appalling condition - I've never seen so much water pouring out of a boiler before! It only lasted in service another two weeks before being withdrawn. 12 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted April 2, 2023 Author Share Posted April 2, 2023 (edited) 6 hours ago, Gordonwis said: Just for completeness, and your interest, between 1985 and 2006 I visited Klodzko in 1991 on the same trip as the Zagorz area mentioned earlier. We left Sanok and went via Krakow to Klodzko having heard that it might be one of the areas with remaining steam activity. There was a Pt47 and a TkT48 in steam on shed for all of the two days we were there but all the line work was in the hands of newly delivered SM32. I assume the steam was by then in reserve. I am given to understand that we had missed steam being used over the Easter weekend, ending the day before we arrived...Nevertheless we did the two branches (Kudowa and Polanica) with diesel for the scenic ride. We attempted to get information from the shedmaster but found communication difficult. AS far as we could workout the next day when we planned to leave the area a steam loco was booked on the morning train towards Walbrzych, but we got up early to din this was also SM32, so gave up and travelled north towards Jarocin, when we finally found working Tkt48 and enjoyed a run to Czempin as a way of reaching Wolstztyn I've never actually seen a definitive date for the "end" of steam in Poland on the standard gauge - not counting the situation at Wolstztyn which I would exclude from that. By the time I next went there - in 1999 - there seemed to be some depots with locos that looked as though they hadn't been out of service for long - eg at Elk - and there still seemed to be an Ol49 still working service trains on occasion out of Gdansk as well. . Edited April 2, 2023 by Johann Marsbar 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted April 2, 2023 Author Share Posted April 2, 2023 (edited) As we arrived in Wroclaw after dark we didn't really see very much of the place whilst we were there. The hotel was a fairly modern building located to the south of of the main station, being reached by a short coach trip. As I discovered on visits in more recent times, the majority of that area had been destroyed in the 1945 Festung Breslau phase so it was all post 1945 construction of the fairly bland variety. Whilst waiting for the coach on the last morning, I did get this shot of a Konstal 102N passing by...... ...and prior to catching our train that morning a few shots were grabbed outside Wroclaw Glowny..... Poland had a long association with French designed/built commercial vehicles, hence the Jelcz built vehicle above being basically a Renault design. Pre WW2, Warsaw even operated Paris style buses with open platforms at the rear. From Wroclaw we headed off to Leszno behind EU07 120, the first steam of the day being passed at Rawicz in the form of a Ty2. At Leszno (3 x Ol49's and a TY2 noted) we joined a train to Wolstzyn, hauled by Ol49 109 and then, on arrival there, we had a shed/station area visit that lasted around 4.5 hours. During that time I noted 19 different steam locos - 7 x Ty2, 2 x Ty42 and 10 x Il49's...... During the time we were there, I do remember the instructions to avoid including the signal box in any of our photos. When I was there in 1999, our group got a tour of said 'box and I took photos inside the place! The last shot shows Ol49 6 sitting on our train to Zbaszynek which was our last steam haulage of the trip as we made our way towards the DDR border crossing point at Kunowice on our homeward journey. The Itinerary shows another couple of trips out/back from Zbaszynek, but as I have no details of haulages, I'm guessing they were dropped in lieu of getting something to eat before we caught our westbound train from there to Cologne. EU07 139 took us from there to Rzepin where SP45 039 came on to haul the train on to Frankfurt (Oder). A pair of Ty51's at Rzepin were the last steam locos noted on the trip as the leg across the DDR was in the dark. I distinctly remember the reaction of the DDR border guards/officials when we got back into East Germany as several of our group were making rather loud comments about being thankful for getting back into "civilization" again after the Polish experiences, and saying they wouldn't be going back there again - the Germans finding it all rather amusing! Whilst things had eased towards the end of the trip, I'd made up my mind that it was a place to be avoided in the future due to all the negative aspects of the trip and it took a regime change and 14 years passing before I saw a trip advertised for part of the Country that I definitely wanted to visit before it made me change my mind...... An unidentified DR 132 took us on to Berlin, 132 464 taking over there and taking our train on to Helmstedt where DB 110 474 took over to Köln. After a couple of hours break we caught a train (D312) behind SNCB 1601 to Oostende and then travelled on the Oostende-Dover jetfoil (my only trip on that route) to get back to the UK. Looking back on it now, I'm rather glad I went on the trip, despite all the problems/inconveniences that we experienced, as the Country I visited then bears no resemblance to the Country that you can visit today. Since 1999 I've had 9 full holidays there, plus a variety of day trips on the likes of Ryanair from Stansted or from locations that I've been staying at in Germany. In recent times, I actually drew up a list of all steam locos seen on the 1985 trip and was surprised to find it totalled 179 different locomotives, though some were in store/preserved at that time. The breakdown, for anyone interested, is:- Pt47 - 15 Ty2 - 76 Ty51 - 15 Ol49 - 15 Tkt48 - 26 Tkw2 - 1 Tw53 - 3 Ok22 - 1 Ty42 - 4 Ty45 - 17 Tp4 - 2 Tkp - 4 Edited April 2, 2023 by Johann Marsbar 18 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SM42 Posted April 2, 2023 Share Posted April 2, 2023 (edited) Thanks for that fascinating tour of Poland. If only I'd met Mrs SM42 sooner. I didn't really get out and about here till about 3 or 4 years ago All other PKP related experiences were getting from A to B so the railways and their goings on were secondary to the main purpose of the trip. The problem with having family out here is that they come first, obviously, the trains etc second and as we were reliant on them or the local trams and buses for transport, if I was lucky I might see a train at a level crossing or bridge. Now I am more mobile and book a day for mooching about before we leave the UK. Andy Edited April 2, 2023 by SM42 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted April 2, 2023 Author Share Posted April 2, 2023 7 minutes ago, SM42 said: Thanks for that fascinating tour of Poland. If only I'd met Mrs SM42 sooner. I didn't really get out and about here till about 3 or 4 years ago All other PKP related experiences were getting from A to B so the railways and their goings on were secondary to the main purpose of the trip. The problem with having family out here is that they come first, obviously, the trains etc second and as we were reliant on them or the local trams and buses for transport, if I was lucky I might see a train at a level crossing or bridge. Now I am more mobile and book a day for mooching about before we leave the UK. Andy Once I (eventually...) get up to 1999 you will find 3 organised trips to Poland following in fairly quick succession - 1999, 2001 and 2003 - all of which were nominally "enthusiast" trips, though the first one did also include a lot of the tourist type things in the areas visited as well as it was a Ffestiniog Travel trip as opposed to the ADL (Along Different Lines) organised other two. I then decided to do my own thing over there - despite the language - with with PKP(PR) weekly rover tickets on a couple of occasions in 2006 - the rovers costing about £22 at that time! By that period things were really changing rapidly over there, so I just got in at the right time before modernisation hit the transport infrastructure/rolling stock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SM42 Posted April 2, 2023 Share Posted April 2, 2023 Indeed, the modernisation is still going on with new EMUs replacing loco hauled services and many of the diesel locos being consigned to scrap. Findng an SP45 or SU46 on a train is rare. A lot of lines have closed in quite recent years too. Looking back it's a shame I didn't record some of the more mundane that has now gone. The Jelcz buses are a gem. Even the trucks are rare now. Star trucks are still to be seen occasionally. Looking forward to the later trip to see what I just missed Andy 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted April 3, 2023 Share Posted April 3, 2023 On 01/04/2023 at 07:32, eastwestdivide said: Steam-hauled double decker coaches! Who’d have thought it? Surprisingly common, and quite useful for station photography in the days when things were "iffy". Sitting on the upper deck give an elevated vantage point above people on the platform, but as people seldom look up, tended to shield you from the attention of would-be informants. 11 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Nick C Posted April 3, 2023 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 3, 2023 On 02/04/2023 at 09:10, SM42 said: Indeed, the modernisation is still going on with new EMUs replacing loco hauled services and many of the diesel locos being consigned to scrap. Findng an SP45 or SU46 on a train is rare. A lot of lines have closed in quite recent years too. At least when the lines closed there, they were mostly mothballed rather than being ripped up and sold off - and quite a few have recently reopened, or are in the process of doing so (even a totally new line being built between Krakow and Chabowka). There's a lot of modernisation of lines and stations going on too - though that seems to often lead to buses replacing trains for weeks at a time on some routes! Like you I didn't ever see it before though, my first visit being in 2015. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted April 4, 2023 Author Share Posted April 4, 2023 (edited) Now that Vermin Media seem to have sorted out this mornings internet problems..... It was only a couple of weeks after getting back from Poland that I ventured abroad again - this time a long weekend in the Netherlands. One of our group of people from the local Transport Society was a member of the World Ship Society and used to make regular trips over to Rotterdam for ship spotting, so knew of a rather good hotel in Hoek van Holland, run by a Scotsman who had gone over there in the army in 1944 and didn't bother coming back! Trips to the Netherlands staying there were a regular feature of the mid 1980's for me. We went out on the Friday night boat from Harwich, returning, for a change, on the Monday day boat, so got two full days over there using the NS Rover tickets with Public Transport add on. Most of the rail photos seem to have been taken on the last 2 days, so will appear tomorrow, but first thing on the Saturday we headed off to Arnhem to ride on the trolleybus network, where this fairly new Koploper EMU was seen..... Some Leyland/Verheul trolleybuses were still in use, as seen here at Oosterbeek..... We then continued, via a stop in Amsterdam, to Den Haag, where a couple of there most recent trams were pictured in the dunes at Scheveningen late in the day..... On the Sunday morning we headed into a wet Amsterdam to visit the tram museum at Harlemmermeer, where this Groningen tram is pictured..... Outside on the GVB network, this classic style of Amsterdam tram was still about in large numbers...... .......a number of those ending up in later years in Poznan, Poland...... The former Radio Veronica raidioship Norderney was at that time moored close to Amsterdam Centraal in use as a Nightclub. It was moved around a bit following the Dutch Marine Broadcasting Act coming in from 1st September 1974 but I believe its back in Amsterdam again now, albeit retaining none of its original broadcasting equipment...... From Amsterdam we headed off to Utrecht for the Sneltram line...... ....before finishing up in Rotterdam, the sun finally having broken through by then. This was the newly opened Metro line that utilised overhead power supply, as opposed to the 3rd rail of the earlier line....... .... and the RET tramway was still using a number of the classic Duwag design cars....... . Edited April 4, 2023 by Johann Marsbar added photo 14 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted April 5, 2023 Author Share Posted April 5, 2023 We hung around for a while on Rotterdam Centraal on the Sunday evening observing the fairly busy traffic passing through, which actually included the SSN owned ex DB BR65 tank loco, though that passed through light engine at speed some way from where we were standing, so the photo isn't worth reproducing here. One of the NS "Sprinter" EMU's.... Loco hauled passenger trains were much in evidence on the Dutch system in those days and one of the Baldwin designed 1200 class electrics from the early 1950's is seen entering the station..... ....and these were still very much in evidence at that time as well........ The following morning was spent at Hoek van Holland as we were coming back on the day service to Harwich. One of the elderly small shunters is seen at the station...... ....and this turned up with a connecting service from Germany for the boat...... A couple of shots of long gone shipping lines to finish the trip with. The MV Zeeland was the backup vessel at that time for the Dutch part of the Harwich-Hook service and is seen here at H v H as our vessel was departing...... On the approach to Felixstowe, we were passed by this heading off to Zeebrugge...... 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SM42 Posted April 5, 2023 Share Posted April 5, 2023 On 04/04/2023 at 10:28, Johann Marsbar said: .......a number of those ending up in later years in Poznan, Poland...... That's the Most Teatralny stop, the tram heading towards its next stop at Fredry. It has just crossed over the railway approaching Poznan Glowny Station. The low railings on the bridge above the OLE still amaze me. (Starolenka is not a bad spot for train watching as it is on one of the routes of the freight avoiding line via Franowo. The tram terminus is a couple of minutes walk from the station) There was a signalbox trackside to the left of the bridge the tram has just passed over. It is now a restaurant. There has been quite a lot of refurbishment work in this area of late, which I think is still going on about 1/4 mile or so behind where our intrepid hero took this photo, in the Plac Wolnosci area Andy Currently not too far from this spot. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted April 5, 2023 Author Share Posted April 5, 2023 1 hour ago, SM42 said: (Starolenka is not a bad spot for train watching as it is on one of the routes of the freight avoiding line via Franowo. The tram terminus is a couple of minutes walk from the station) I don't possess the T-shirt, but........ One taken on a day trip to Poznan from Berlin back in 2014! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordonwis Posted April 5, 2023 Share Posted April 5, 2023 16 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said: A couple of shots of long gone shipping lines to finish the trip with. The MV Zeeland was the backup vessel at that time for the Dutch part of the Harwich-Hook service and is seen here at H v H as our vessel was departing...... On the approach to Felixstowe, we were passed by this heading off to Zeebrugge...... Pity - I can't quite tell if it is Venturer or Voyager - I travelled on all the super Vikings from Felixstowe or the south coast Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted April 6, 2023 Author Share Posted April 6, 2023 5 hours ago, Gordonwis said: Pity - I can't quite tell if it is Venturer or Voyager - I travelled on all the super Vikings from Felixstowe or the south coast I checked the original scan of the slide (a larger file) and it's Voyager. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted April 6, 2023 Author Share Posted April 6, 2023 In September 1985 the local branch of the World Ship Society ran a trip over to the Netherlands and a few of us who weren't interested in shipping to their extent helped make up the numbers of the group - though we actually only stayed with the group for the first morning of the trip (other than using the same hotel in the Hoek). The Friday night boat was taen from Harwich and those of us "doing our own thing" purchased NS Rover tickets on arrival at the Hoek and continued to Rotterdam with the rest of the group to partake in one of the Spido harbour tours. There was some sort of steam festival taking place that weekend so occasional sightings were made of things like this...... ...though this was the more normal type of vessel seen on the trip..... After the maritime excursion, we headed off to travel on the original, third rail powered, Rotterdam Metro line..... ...followed by some touring by tram, one of the new RET cars being seen at the terminal of a fairly recent route extension..... Back in the City itself, former BR "Electra" was seen at Centraal Station..... A couple of the EM2's had regained nameplates by this time, 1502 being one of them. The Sunday saw another visit to the museum tram operation in Amsterdam and the sun was shining for this one, rather than the downpour we experienced back in March that year. A Vienna and a couple of Amsterdam cars are seen at Harlemmermeer station.... We then headed out to Sloterdijk...... ...catching a loco hauled service from there to Zandvoort-an-Zee and then another on to Den Haag. The service we eventually caught from Den Haag CS to Rotterdam CS was rather overpowered........ All 3 locos had their pantographs up (2 per loco!) and appeared to be working. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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