Johann Marsbar Posted January 12 Author Share Posted January 12 2 hours ago, ColinK said: That’s a strange looking diesel. If you mean the orange/black one, it was numbered Ty6A-0555. Seems to have been a standard Soviet model produced from 1972 onwards judging by the listing on this Russian photo site... https://trainfoto.ru/model/188/?lang=en 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
seraphim Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 I visited this line some years ago; mid-way through the journey, we stopped for a military re-enactment (1914-18 period stuff). Not 100% sure what side was which, and given the complex history of the area, felt best not to enquire too much. Once the battle was over, the loosing side was taken prisoner. And then lined up and shot (not for real, I hasten to add...). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 13 Author Share Posted January 13 (edited) The next day we were to leave Lithuania and head back into Latvia so we started off being taken by coach to Radviliškis where we were to board a train for the 2.5 hour run to Vilnius. Whilst waiting to catch our train there was considerable freight activity passing through the station, mainly hauled by 2M62 double units..... On arival in Vilnius, we firstly had a tour of the loco depot and works........ There was at least one Lithuanian TEP60 still in operational condition stabled at the depot..... ...along with one from Belarus..... ..and a Belarus TEP70....... We had some free time in the City, as well as a short walking tour, prior to catching a train heading off to St Petersburg, which we would be travelling on as far as Daugavpils in Latvia. I was surprised to find some Skoda 9Tr trolleybuses still in use in Vilnius.... ..though the rest of the fleet was slightly more modern..... Whilst waiting for the Daugavpils train, this EMU was stabled in the station..... ..the destination blinds over the cab side windows being rather an unusual place to put the things! . Edited January 13 by Johann Marsbar 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 13 Author Share Posted January 13 12 hours ago, seraphim said: I visited this line some years ago; mid-way through the journey, we stopped for a military re-enactment (1914-18 period stuff). Not 100% sure what side was which, and given the complex history of the area, felt best not to enquire too much. Once the battle was over, the loosing side was taken prisoner. And then lined up and shot (not for real, I hasten to add...). Our "entertainment" was having the train ambushed by bandits and taken to their camp. At least it did involve the consumption of alcohol and food though! I think I'd have found the military re-enactment to be more of interest TBH.... 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mol_PMB Posted January 13 Share Posted January 13 A couple of more recent pics of the narrow gauge line, from my visit in 2018: The Kp-4 steam loco that you saw plinthed was being overhauled in the workshop at Panevėžys. Mol 15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 14 Author Share Posted January 14 We stayed overnight in Daugavpils and the following morning we headed off in a coach to the station to pick up our guide for a visit to the loco depot. Whilst waiting for him to appear, we saw some activity on the adjacent tram route, consisting of regauged ex-Schwerin Tatra T3D cars...... Over at the loco depot, the usual selection of motive power was on display..... ...though there were a few different things, such as this crane fitted PW "loco"...... ...and there was a TEM15 - possibly from an industrial or private operator present in the works building...... Anyone got a screwdriver? After the depot visit, we then headed off to the Tram Depot for a fairly brief visit, before joining a chartered tram for a tour round the 25km long network. I took these two photos on my "normal" camera...... ..and then put a new slide film in. Fuji in their wisdom managed to lose that one, so I lost 2 days worth of images from the trip - though that was the last film that ever got lost, courtesy of digital cameras. My digital camera at that point was a Sony "point & click" one, and I only had one memory stick for it - the one it came with - so the storage capacity was limited, hence still using predominantly slide film on this trip. Thankfully, I did get some digital tram photos whilst we were on the tour, and I believe this is a KTM-8...... Most cars at that time were the Riga built RVR-6M2 type, and we had a pair of those for our tour. Some normal service operations are shown below.... Interestingly, we were offered a chance to have a go at driving our trams, and I ended up doing the last stint, which was totally on the public highway on a run back to the Depot, with traffic and pedestrians everywhere! Whilst I've driven Museum cars before now, driving in traffic was a whole new experience, particularly when the others who "had a go" were mainly driving on reserved trackage. The chap from the tramway company had obviously worked out that I knew what I was doing though, so just watched me.... Back at the Depot there was a chance for a few more photos, including a car advertising a load of Bolix...... ...before heading to the station and catching a DMU to Riga, where we would spend the last few nights of the trip. 18 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 15 Author Share Posted January 15 With the vanishing film, there aren't as many photos for the remaining days of the trip, so those 3 days can be delt with in this posting. We had a chartered railcar the next day for the trip from Riga to visit the preserved Latvian narrow gauge line that runs between Gulbene and Alūksne, a 33km long remnant of a 750mm gauge line that used to run from Stukmaņi to Valka which opened in 1903. Our railcar from Riga was an unusual single-car unit, which I believe is the only one Latvian Railways own.... Haven't got many photos of the NG line or any at all of the standard gauge depot visit at Gulbene, but motive power on the NG was another of the Soviet Ty2 type..... Next day we had a 2 coach special train, behind a TEP70, which travelled to Ventspils on the Baltic coast, mainly on freight trackage. At Ventspils, this Baltic Express ChME3 diesel was seen in the yard...... ...and we then paid a visit to the local Ethnographical Museum for a ride behind this 0-8-0T....... The last day in Latvia was spent in the Riga area, prior to the late evening Ryanair flight back to Stansted. We travelled by coach to Tram Depot No.5 where we were given a tour around, prior to boarding a 2-unit Tatra set for a charter on part of the City network. General view of the depot sidings...... The Nazi Profesionalism (that's what it says...) all over advert cars........ Note that fleetnumbers are prefixed with the number of the depot the vehicles are allocated to. The depot was also a major trolleybus overhaul base....... We were originally supposed to have this preserved car for our tour, but it had developed some "problems", though they did put it on show for us..... After the tram tour, we visited the Riga Ethnographical Museum before finishing up with free time in the centre, some of which was spent on the station, where this different style EMU was seen... That concluded a visit to a very interesting couple of Countries and I would return to Riga again some 11 years later. 16 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnw1 Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 11194 is a Swiss Railways class Re4/4II electric locomotive and is seen here at Lausanne on the 8th December 1975. The Re4/4II class were built from 1964 onwards as a development of the original Re4/4 class of 1946. They are rated at 4700 kW, 6300 hp and have a top speed of 87 mph. 11194 was built in 1969 by SLM and currently carries the number 420 194. 11194 – https://www.flickr.com/photos/pics-by-john/15264379322/ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 16 Author Share Posted January 16 2005 was the start of the "silly season" for day trips to places of interest in Europe served by the likes of Ryanair, so May and June of that year saw a couple of visits to Berlin, flying into Schönefeld which was the former DDR Airport for Berlin and the base used by the low cost operators. It was something like an 06.25 departure from STN which got you into Schönefeld around 08.40 local time, with the return flight taking off something like 22.00, so you got a decent amount of time there to use your Berlin ABC Zone day ticket! The May trip seemed to have ended up with Potsdam as the main destination, though some time was spent at Schönefeld station viewing the extensive freight traffic first..... Potsdam had the usual refurbished Tatra cars on offer....... ...and the fairly new Combinos..... ...plus this works car also put in an appearance....... Back in Berlin itself, this replica ABOAG open topper was engaged in tourist services by the Brandenburg Gate.... That seemed to be a decent attempt at a replica vehicle on a current chassis, unlike some of the "gems" that have been attempted over the years. I think the "Michelin Bus" that used to visit events in the UK was one of the worst offenders on that front! The day trips normally ended up at Brauhaus Mitte by Alexanderplatz station for food and beer whilst watching passing traffic on the Stadtbahn. Sadly that place ceased to exist under that name around 2015 and now appears to be called Biermeisterei by Lemke. It was certainly shut for refurbishment when I last tried to visit the place in 2015. The June trip was focused on a visit to the Berlin Technical Museum, with a few photos from there shown below.... Obviously the aircraft had managed to escape the fate of several others in the pre-war historical collection which ended up in various rail wagons in Silesia and are now on display at the Krakow Aviation Museum. It may actually be one that the BTM have collaborated with the Krakow Musum and "returned home" to be restored, as there has been a lot of shared input into the survivors in more recent years. On the rail/road transport front, the Technical Museum do have a large reserve collection of exhibis stored elsewhere and visits to the Autumn Open Days there will feature in other posts in this series. Before catching the flight back from Schönefeld, more freight was in evidence there, as seen by this 155 worked train..... 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Chris116 Posted January 16 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 16 25 minutes ago, Johann Marsbar said: Very surprised that the loco above has the swastika still showing, not normally allowed in modern Germany. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 16 Author Share Posted January 16 Just now, Chris116 said: Very surprised that the loco above has the swastika still showing, not normally allowed in modern Germany. In the last 20-25 or so years, they have shifted their stance on Swastikas so, whilst it is still a banned symbol in Germany for current use, items displayed in a historical context, assuming they were artefacts around at the time, are allowed to have them displayed. Certainly on trips to Germany in the 1980's, they were distinctly verboten, but that trip in 2005 was the first time that I had noticed that they were being displayed without problem as there were several on display in the Technical Museum, on trains (like that E19), aircraft and notices/signs of the era. It must have been about that time that the likes of Liliput started producing HO model trains from that era as well (i.e. Görings HQ train), though what the sales were like I don't know, as I picked a number of them up remaindered from Hattons at some rather good prices later on! 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Chris116 Posted January 16 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 16 (edited) 5 minutes ago, Johann Marsbar said: In the last 20-25 or so years, they have shifted their stance on Swastikas so, whilst it is still a banned symbol in Germany for current use, items displayed in a historical context, assuming they were artefacts around at the time, are allowed to have them displayed. Certainly on trips to Germany in the 1980's, they were distinctly verboten, but that trip in 2005 was the first time that I had noticed that they were being displayed without problem as there were several on display in the Technical Museum, on trains (like that E19), aircraft and notices/signs of the era. It must have been about that time that the likes of Liliput started producing HO model trains from that era as well (i.e. Görings HQ train), though what the sales were like I don't know, as I picked a number of them up remaindered from Hattons at some rather good prices later on! Thank you for that information. I saw a very good model railway of a German station in about 1936 at an exhibition around 1990 and the owner told me that he had been approached by the organiser of a German exhibition to see if he would be able to display it in Germany. The organiser had said as a almost throw away comment that he would of course have to remove all the swastikas before it was allowed into Germany which meant it was never taken there. Edited January 16 by Chris116 Missing words 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 16 Author Share Posted January 16 Just now, Chris116 said: Thank you for that information. I saw a very good model railway at an exhibition around 1990 and the owner told me that he had been approached by the organiser of a German exhibition to see if he would be able to display it in Germany. The organiser had said as a almost throw away comment that he would of course have to remove all the swastikas before it was allowed into Germany which meant it was never taken there. I did speak to a chap exhibiting an HO 3rd Reich era layout several years back - I think it was a show near Biggleswade - and he had taken his layout to at least one event in Germany to exhibit. They allowed it - flags/banners and all - because it was modelling an exact date, 20th April of one particular year, hence the profusion of decorations on all the buildings. He'd even got the Police/Gestapo turning up at one house which wasn't displaying a flag! 1 1 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
maico Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 (edited) Post-war the eagle and swastikas were removed but clearly someone saved them. My Grandfather had a similar large metal one 'liberated' from a German government building. Edited January 16 by maico 11 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
maico Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 3 hours ago, Johann Marsbar said: In the last 20-25 or so years, they have shifted their stance on Swastikas so, whilst it is still a banned symbol in Germany for current use, items displayed in a historical context, assuming they were artefacts around at the time, are allowed to have them displayed. Certainly on trips to Germany in the 1980's, they were distinctly verboten, but that trip in 2005 was the first time that I had noticed that they were being displayed without problem as there were several on display in the Technical Museum, on trains (like that E19), aircraft and notices/signs of the era. It must have been about that time that the likes of Liliput started producing HO model trains from that era as well (i.e. Görings HQ train), though what the sales were like I don't know, as I picked a number of them up remaindered from Hattons at some rather good prices later on! Lilliput Hornby still make WW2 camo stuff, for example https://www.themodelcentre.com/l130002 https://www.themodelcentre.com/l131524 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 16 Author Share Posted January 16 18 minutes ago, maico said: Lilliput Hornby still make WW2 camo stuff, for example https://www.themodelcentre.com/l130002 https://www.themodelcentre.com/l131524 The ones I picked up at that time were things like the black streamlined 01 Pacific and the 3-car Svt137 railcar in lilac & cream, both of which had the large cast Reichsadler emblems on the front ends, plus several coaches of various sorts from Hermann Görings Command train. I've got the 01 (and some other German locos) in a display cabinet, but the other stuff is packed away in the loft at the moment after I eventually decided I didn't really want to build yet another layout in a different scale!! (N, OO & G will have to do, as far as I'm concerned now...) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 17 Author Share Posted January 17 One of the Ryanair day trip destinations possible for about 18 months was Salzburg, until they knocked the frequency down from two return flights a day to just one. A week after the Berlin trip in June we took advantage of this and had a day there, mainly to cover the trolleybus system but with a decent amount of time spent at the Hbf and also out at a suburban station adjacent to a freight yard. The bus station outside the Hbf...... A wide variety of the stock observed at Hbf during our time there..... We also has a look at the Lokalbahn depot as well..... ...and this fairly spectacular looking tunnel entrance on a road used by the trolleybuses made for a good photo prop..... Salzburg Hbf has changed rather a lot since 2005, as you will see much later in this thread..... 18 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 19 Author Share Posted January 19 July 2005 saw me go on what turned out to be my last ever ADL Tour, this particular one having Slovakia as its destination and based in Košice. At this point in time, the owner of the ADL operation had indicated his wish to retire and the Company was on the market. Despite some interest from other parties, I seem to recall only parts of the business - like the mailing list and the "goodwill" were sold to one concern, and the tours of the type we used to appreciate so much came to an end not long after this particular trip took place. The trip actually started and finished in Budapest and we flew out from Luton on Wizz Air (an airport and airline I've avoided ever since.....) to Budapest Ferihegy for a coach transfer to Keleti Station. There we eventually boarded an International service heading to Košice, though one which had a couple of vintage coaches attached to it for our exclusive use and which we woluld be using for some of the trips within Slovakia. We did have some free time in Budapest before the train left, so there was some oppoerunity to get some photos...... A V43 seen from the train en route to Košice...... Before heading off to our hotel after arriving in Košice, the wide variety of locos/units and their multiple colour schemes parked around the station kept the cameras busy..... By the time of this trip, I had obtained more memory sticks for the Sony digital camera so most of the photos posted from this trip onwards will be digital ones. The "real" cameras only remained in use generally for telephoto shots for another 18 months or so, finally finishing after buying what is still my current digital camera which has an optical zoom lens in the 28mm-300mm range. 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 20 Author Share Posted January 20 Košice at the time had both an operating tramway and also some trolleybus services, though the latter ceased operating in the past few years, though there seems to be a chance that operations will resume again at some point. Given the profusion of trolleybus operations in both the Czech Republic and Slovakia - including the likes of Prague getting them back again after a 50 year gap - one can hope that is the case. A few views of what was running in 2005...... The day started off as far as our tour was concerned was a run from Košice to Červená Skala with a preserved M62 diesel and our two Hungarian vintage coaches which were owned by MAV Nostalgia. First point of call was at Margecany for a depot visit..... This was the rather nice Austro-Hungarian passenger coach in our train - the other being a slightly more modern Restaurant car.... Our train reversed there and headed off towards Červená Skala, with this being the station building at one of the places passed en route...... Our train is seen at one of the other stations.... On arrival at Červená Skala, we detrained and boarded a fairly uninspiring articulated service bus to continue our onward journey..... 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 21 Author Share Posted January 21 (edited) Thankfully we didn't have to endure the bus for too long and we soon arrived at Poprad Tatry where we were deposited at the dual gauge (standard and metre) Depot there. Poprad Tatry is the eastern end of the metre gauge "High Tatras Railway" which, as it's name suggests, runs north-west into the Tatra mountain areas and is a 1500V DC electrified line. There was a right mixture of stock "on shed", some of which had obviously been retained for preservation as new Stadler built stock had recently taken over on the passenger services. A couple of shunters....... One of the Stadler units built in the early 2000's...... An older single car unit, still in faded CSD livery...... One of the 3-car Class 420 units built by CKD Tatra in the mid 1960's..... Two of those now appear to be preserved on the line. On the standard gauge side there were a few shunters and railcars + trailers...... (Actually, looking at that one again and with the presence of overhead wire above the track, that 702 must be a meter gauge one rather than standard....) We had a charter train to cover the main route from Poprad Tatry to Štrbské Pleso, consisting of "power car" 22 - basically a tram style vehicle built by Ganz in 1913, towing a couple of trailers and this is shown below on our way into the mountains..... . Edited January 21 by Johann Marsbar extra text added 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 22 Author Share Posted January 22 Štrbské Pleso is also the terminus of a rack line that runs down to connect with the main line at Štrba, the rack line being metre gauge and which originally opened in 1896. The rolling stock at the time of our visit dated from when the line was rebuilt in the late 1960's..... ...and we travelled on this line down to Štrba where we conncted into a main line service back to Košice. The next morning there was a bit of free time for some local photography in Košice........ ....before we headed off to the metre gauge "Pioneer Railway" (as was) at Čermeľ, not far out of Košice. This was one of the original Communist established lines, being opened in 1955 and is some 3.8km in length....... The steam loco apparently dates from 1884. From there, we reboarded our coach and returned to Košice for a visit to the loco depot and works there....... 14 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 24 Author Share Posted January 24 Continuing our Depot visit.... We then caught a service train north to Prešov for a visit to the loco depot there....... ...and there was a bit of free time there to get some photos of the local trolleybus operation..... Then it was back to Košice for a bit of free time before catching the express tramway out to the steelworks and back. The trams in Košice no longer run through the historic central area though most of the trackage is still in situ. This vintage car is posed outside a pub in "Golden Pheasant" (a brewery) advertising livery..... ...and elsewhere on the tracks, a horse-tram was in operation...... 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
EddieB Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 (edited) Yes, the shunter 702 951-5 at Poprad is metre gauge, built as such and formerly TU29.1001 (as snapped at Stary Smokovec on my Instamatic in 1973). Under the renumbering scheme narrow gauge locomotives (which previously had 'U' [úzký] prefix) were given numbers in the 9xx series. However classmate 702 950-7 has been converted from an equivalent T212 standard gauge locomotive - I think after your visit (or mine in 2004, come to that). The shunters in your earlier photo are similarly in the 706.9 series, formerly TU46 class (old numbers still in evidence). They are of similar provenance to a diesel (TU6) that elicited comments earlier, these being of the Soviet-era Kambarka TU7 design, supplied widely to industry across the USSR and "friendly countries". Edited January 24 by EddieB 5 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 28 Author Share Posted January 28 Our last full day in Slovakia saw us make an abortive visit to view the rail operations at the (very large) local steelworks, followed by a rail journey on the broad gauge freight line that runs from the works into Ukraine. The steelworks had recently come under the ownership of US Steel and it seems the on/off nature of a visit to the site had eventually defaulted to "Off", so the proposed tour of lines in the steelworks didn't happen, even with a ban on any photography! American paranoia at it's finest, particularly as the cancellation was only received the previous day.... Anyway, we started the day by travelling on this railcar from the main station out to Haniska pri Košiciach where ZSK have a depot for a look there.... This was the unit we were supposed to have toured the standard gauge lines round the works onboard. We then were taken to the Depot, where there was a mixture of standard and broad gauge lines - the broad gauge stock being easily identifiable by the knuckle couplers fitted...... This was one of the Steelworks own locos..... Our chartered railcar for the trip to the Ukraine border was this preserved set....... The railcar is part of the ZSR preserved fleet and is convertible between standard and broad gauge - the process apparently taking 5 hours to achieve. Our trip went to Matovice, where there was standard gauge traffic as well as the broad gauge..... An inbound ore train was expected, though, unfortunately, it turned up behind a pair of ZSR double locos rather than the anticipated UZ ones...... Once back at Haniska pri Košiciach there were some other locos there..... ...thus concluding an interesting day, but not as good as it should have been. 12 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johann Marsbar Posted January 29 Author Share Posted January 29 The final day of the trip saw us return to Budapest by rail for a late afternoon flight back to Luton. We did have a couple of visits in Budapest, one of which was the Railway Park, and a selection of photos from there is shown below...... By the time the ADL Newsletter with the report on the Slovak trip was published in December 2005, any potential sale of the Business to another organisation had fallen through, so it was announced that the owners would be retiting with immediate effect. Nobody has really replaced them in the Enthusiast Tours field in my opinion since then, the nearest being some of the offerings by the likes of the PTG, and I did go on a few of their tours over the next few years, but the demise of ADL encouraged me to start putting my own trips together, either solo or with others, albeit without the charters/shed visits. At least by mid 2005 it was possible to get all the travel arrangements sorted online and this is what I've done ever since. 13 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now