Steam in Saxony & beer on ICE

[PaulRhB]

 

Early morning Rounder to Southampton Airport,

 

 

Change of colour to blue,

 

 

twas a tad wet in Schipol

 

 

Ah some red stuff, getting warmer . .

 

 

and ours is red too,

 

 

Bit of blood & custard was nice though. 
 

 

Cracking along, on a white train next,

 

I do like the series 1 version,

 

 

and yes there was beer on ICE 
 

 

Quite nice to get proper glasses served at the bar and you’re welcome to take them back to the coach too. 

[PaulRhB]

I forgot our first tram,

 

[PaulRhB]

The next morning we saw a lot more trams as we had a leisurely start time. 
 

 

St Petersburger Straße

 

 

 

We walked down to the junction at the Hauptbahnhof

We were staying where the blue dot is,

 

 

The rather impressive Hauptbahnhof 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[31A]

17 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

 

Quite nice to get proper glasses served at the bar and you’re welcome to take them back to the coach too. 

 

German Inter City restaurant cars are very civilised things.  A few years ago I was on a train about 2130 from Berlin to Dresden; didn't intend to be that late, but flight from Manchester delayed and no opportunity to eat.  Got into Restaurant Car at Berlin Hbf, half expecting it to be closed for the day by that time of night but no, a most agreeable dish of sausages and potato salad was produced together with a beer like that one, which was followed by a second beer like that one.  Running through the suburbs of Dresden (where the train terminated), the lady attendant asked us whether we'd like anything else!

 

[PaulRhB]

So we watched a few trains n trams from the platforms 

 

 

Plenty of Czech traction

 

 

 

Plenty of adverts on the trams 

 

 

Love the multiple junctions and they are everywhere 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

80ft container wagons!

 

ICE ICE baby . . .

 

[PaulRhB]

 

Then we headed to the Großer Garten

What used to be a Palace and its grounds is a huge park with one of the many Pioneer Railways still surviving and run by youngsters in all jobs except the drivers. There were a lot of young staff. 
 

 

 

This battery electric was a monster!

 

 

 

3.5miles in total. 
 

 

Several stations, level crossings etc

 

 

 

 

 

as we swung past the sheds this was being fired up :)

 

 

 

The other one, in green, lurking in the darkness. 
 

 

Crew was chatting to the kids riding the trains and letting them toot the horn. Yet all very professional too. 
 

 

You can just make out the line and it’s only three stops from the main station so you could easily walk it too. 
 

 

Then the pacific was out and sounding lovely. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 30, 2023 by PaulRhB

[PaulRhB]

So next we hopped back on a tram and headed to the Synagogue and then walked over the river and along to the next bridge at the Cathedral. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Note the paddle steamer

 

 

 

 

The Cathedral 

 

 

and surrounding buildings, much of this was devastated in WW2 and when I last went in 1998 they were just starting the restoration and rebuilding. Dresden is magnificent once more. 
 

 

 

 

Hopped on a tram again to see one of the large railway yards as the sun set. 
 

 

Several trains and light locos moving around. 
 

 

 

 

Dresden is full of railways! 

[Claude_Dreyfus]

36 minutes ago, PaulRhB said:

So we watched a few trains n trams from the platforms 

 

 

Nice to see that after all of these years Dresden is still playing host to Ludmillas!

 

That is a great selection of pictures, Dresden looks a most agreeable place to spend a few days...

[PaulRhB]

Monday morning and we took the short 12 min trip to Freital Hainsberg. 
 

After a bit of train watching,

 

 

 

 

 

Arriving next to the Weißeritztalbahn station. 
 

[PaulRhB]

 

The Weißeritztalbahn is 750mm gauge and part of the huge Saxon narrow gauge network that is now reduced to a handful of different examples from a few km to the quite long Weißeritztalbahn. 
 

 

We’d arrived early to catch the incoming early train. 

 

 

 

Quickly off the train they put the loco back on shed for coal and water. 
 

 

 

 
Out of service 1790, 

[roundhouse]

11 hours ago, PaulRhB said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Theres the hotel that we use when in Dresden. The Pullman has interesting rooms with good views from inside the showers (if you dont use the curtains around the glass shower walls) and can be got for reasonable prices, but breakfast is very expensive so we used the supermarket in the left hand corner of your photo when we stayed last year.

 

Dresden is a great city for trains, trams etc.

[PaulRhB]

 

One of the L45 diesels now providing backup to the standard 2-10-2 fleet on several lines. 
 

 

Heading into the river gorge, the line was damaged repeatedly by floods several times over recent years, including my last visit in 1998, but the 2003 flood saw it take 14 years to fully reopen the whole line. 
 

 

These stoves make the coaches nice and toasty in the winter but not required this week.

 

 

 

 

 

I stayed here in 98 but no trains ran! I did walk the gorge though. 
 

 

 

[PaulRhB]

3 minutes ago, roundhouse said:

but breakfast is very expensive so we used the supermarket in the left hand corner of your photo when we stayed last year.

We stayed a bit further up Präger Straße in the Central hotel. That’s being converted to a holiday Inn so the rooms were done, and very nice, in our wing but the corridors kept changing with new stud walls, two extra lifts appeared after two days and reception started as a broom cupboard and transformed into a huge room over the week. The front door moved twice too! Fortunately staff were great although deliveries to some adjoining buildings did start at 04:30 on two mornings!!

[PaulRhB]

 

Another stored loco,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flip down upper halves to the windows and the balconies make watching trains easy.

 

 

Arriving at Kurort Kipsdorf 

[PaulRhB]

 

The huge building in the background is the station but apart from the loos was all locked up so it looked rather grand inside but no attempts to sell souvenirs even though a few were in a case. Nothing on the train either or at the Freital end surprised me. You’d think such a pretty line would sell some photos or books at the very least. 
 

 

The loco took water 

 

 

 

 

 

The coaches are mostly the standard DR modern types with that top half of the window tilting and then by releasing the catch it folds down so you can easily hold the camera out. 
 

 

There's an open too,

 

 

And a lovely older coach but we couldn’t get the windows open so we stayed in the modern coaches for more windows to look out from. 
 

 

 

 

The loco hooked back on for the return trip. It wasn’t crowded but each coach was well patronised and the open was full. 

[PaulRhB]

 

 

 

 

contrast between newly refurbished and faded coaches back at Freital Hainsberg. 

 

 

Superb line, right on the edge of Dresden, but could do with some souvenirs etc. It felt more like part of the metro network so in that respect hardly changed at all since 1998 apart from the fancy Weißeritztalbahn graphics on the coaches. So probably the most authentic feel of the lines we did. 

 

 

Back at the Hauptbahnhof. 
 

 

Edited October 1, 2023 by PaulRhB

[Captain Kernow]

Wonderful, wonderful pictures, Paul, thanks for sharing.

 

[PaulRhB]

 

 

So some confusion as the ticket machines didn’t list the trains to Zittau, well they did but 3.5 to 4 hour trips with 4-5 changes! So as it listed shorter trips on the big departure posters we went to the ticket office. It turns out the various private companies are listed on their separate website under VVO. So within two minutes we had out Sachsen ticket and for a tenner we were off on a 1.5 hour ride. Much more agreeable timings!

 

 

So we caught the Trilex twin railcar sets which split halfway, make sure you’re in the Zittau unit, 

 

 

Arriving in Zittau follow the signs out of the front and turn left into the NG station. 
 

This has the ticket office and a few souvenirs and pretty much the full range of Sachsen historical albums! 
I may have succumbed  ;)

 

 

 

Anyway sat in the platform was 731, restored to original look, ready for our 9 min connection from the mainline. Yes it’s tight!

 

 

[PaulRhB]

 

1757 sat on display alongside the platform with the mainline station behind. 
 

The sheds are on the other side of the station forecourt and we’re all shut up. We did glimpse a Lyd2 diesel and a chassis from a 2-10-2. 
 

 

As we pulled out of the main station we passed Rollwagen stacked up in piles of three,

 

 

and some more,

 

 

Spare boilers,

 

 

Then you’re off through the suburbs of Zittau with three stops. 
 

 

 

 

Under the line into the Czech Republic. 
 

 

[PaulRhB]

More preserved stock at Zittau Vorstadt, standard gauge wagons on 750mm gauge Rollwagen. 

 

 

 

This is where the line was nearly split in two in the early 90’s by the expansion plans for a large ‘brown coal’ strip mine. Fortunately that was cancelled just two months before closure and the line survived. 
 

 

 

 

Arriving at the junction at Bertsdorf, unfortunately the pub restaurant remained closed on all three passes although it was obviously occupied and advertising b&b. 
 

 

[PaulRhB]

Bertsdorf is the junction for two short branches to Oybin & Jonsdorf. A L45 was on the shuttle that runs both branches alternately, it goes up to Jonsdorf while the steam goes to Oybin and then up to Oybin while the steam goes to Zittau. 
 

 

The Signalbox which is also where the diesel crew return to on breaks. 
 

 

Double departure is common but the L45 left a minute before us on this trip so we carried on up to Oybin. 
 

 

 

Lovely station but we were hopping straight back on. 
 

 

 

 

[Oldddudders]

A shame the simultaneous departures from Bertsdorf are no longer both steam. Various vids of this on the Internet, although when we were there in 2018, at a similar time of year, the 'race' seemed a bit half-hearted. Different days, different crews, no doubt. 

[PaulRhB]

35 minutes ago, Oldddudders said:

A shame the simultaneous departures from Bertsdorf are no longer both steam. Various vids of this on the Internet, although when we were there in 2018, at a similar time of year, the 'race' seemed a bit half-hearted. Different days, different crews, no doubt. 

No doubt they do in high season and special weekends as there are several recent videos of it. 
The racing was certainly noticeably less on the Weißeritztalbahn and at Zittau, very much just enough and the linespeed was slower. I guess it extends the tourist ride and reduces wear, we noted the track is in top top condition. 
However Fichtelbergbahn was very much how I remembered it from 25 years ago but the steady gradient and nine coaches probably made it more necessary too. I got some nice sound on the Zittau line but not as much as I’d expected. 
 

I’ve added the Weißeritztalbahn video to the last post on the line above. 
 

[PaulRhB]

 

Dropping back down to Bertsdorf

 

 

The steam departed and the diesel ran round ready to shuttle up to Oybin. 
 

 

 

Rebuilt with CAT engines and new control gear in Germany. 
 

 

 

 

We wandered over to the pub but it was still closed so enjoyed our sandwiches in the peace of a country station. 
 

 

This is the side the steam stops going down to Zittau. 
 

 

Diesel has trundled off to Oybin 

 

 

[PaulRhB]

So we hopped on the diesel train and waited for the connection. 
 

 

Unfortunately the double departure was a bit out of synch with us following the first coach of the steam as it turned left! 
 

 

Steam set disappears behind the box as we take the sharp and steep curve towards Jonsdorf

 

 

This is spectacular behind steam as the first bit climbs steeply, the L45 was working hard too.

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely bit of line,

 

 

Arriving in Jonsdorf.