Grantham - the Streamliner years

[St Enodoc]

15 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

You certainly won't starve on a trip to the Fatherland 🤪

If you're still hungry, try Hungary.

Edited May 11, 2023 by St Enodoc
changed word

[jwealleans]

15 hours ago, The Stationmaster said:

If you're heading in this direction for the two branches you might find some traces of DR

 

There were a couple of restored wagons at Wernigerode Westerntor, both standard gauge on transporter wagons:

 

 

 

 

[31A]

23 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

Very evident here is the additional shrubbery the driver has adorned his loco with. May 1st, perhaps? Or the morning after Walpurgisnacht?(!) 

 

A puny effort compared with his colleagues the day before!

 

 

 

Don't try this at home, folks!

 

[LMS29]

RL,

Good to see that all is going well .

 

Tom

[LNER4479]

That would be all WENT well, Tom. We've been back in Blighty the best part of a week - I don't like to advertise the fact on a public forum that I'm away on holiday. And, as you'll see in a couple of day's time, it didn't ALL go according to plan (!)

[LNER4479]

On 10/05/2023 at 14:20, The Stationmaster said:

If you're heading in this direction for the two branches you might find some traces of DR 

 

Nice suggestion, Mike - and I have been to Zittau once before, but quite a hike over to that corner of Germany from the Harz ... not to mention the journey back (by train).

 

No - having retraced our steps to Hannover ...

 

... where this interesting hybrid loco entertained us for a few minutes, it was only a mere 75 minutes further to ...

 

The fair city of Hamburg. Now, why would a group of model railway folk head for Hamburg?(!)

 

To take in the interesting dockland area, perhaps?

 

Of course - we were headed for Miniatur Wunderland, the world's largest model railway (and so much more)

 

Here is the station of 'Brichur', at the foot of the Swiss Alps - note the derailed train. See, it's not just us.

 

The Italian Riviera

 

Scandanavia - specifically the Kiruna Iron Ore mine, with passing train.

 

Vegas, by night (linked by the trans-Atlantic tunnel!)

 

The ever impressive airport.

 

By night (Jonathan's picture)

 

And the newest scene that I hadn't seen before - Venice. Not a train to be seen on this section.

 

One more full day ahead. Where shall we go?

 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2023 by LNER4479

[jwealleans]

Miniatur Wunderland was fabulous.   We went in at 9 and I dragged myself away towards 4, not having seen everything.   What really made an impression, apart from the sheer heroic scale of it, were the tiny details everywhere and the humour which clearly pervaded throughout.    My camera struggled with it, but hopefully these will give an impression of what I mean:

 

 

A familiar sight early on in the visit.

 

 

Awaiting takeoff (and it did).

 

 

Gepetto trying to control nasal growth (this is also animated).

 

 

While il Papa waves to the faithful from his balcony....

 

 

Down the side a group of brothers is blinging up the Papamobile.   Sadly impossible to photograph here was Michaelangelo painting the Sistine ceiling with the aid of a trampoline.

 

 

Finally, despite not speaking German, I was able to translate the name of what I'm guessing is an LPG tanker.   It was much harder work trying to explain what it was and why it was funny to a bemused French spouse who has never been exposed to Douglas Adams.

[Erichill16]

Did you see on the Venice section the building with the wall collapsing due to ‘bedroom Olympics’ being practiced in an upstairs bedroom? 

[jwealleans]

I saw the building and the collapse, but was never able to get close enough to see why.

[Barry O]

Pangalacticgargle blaster.. who says the Germans have no sense of humour??

 

Baz

[St Enodoc]

17 minutes ago, Barry O said:

Pangalacticgargle blaster.. who says the Germans have no sense of humour??

 

Baz

Anyone who could invent currywurst must have had a sense of humour.

[lezz01]

7 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Anyone who could invent currywurst must have had a sense of humour.

Sadly that's not the case currywurst came about because all they could get on the black market was ketchup and curry powder...and of course bratwurst.....Mmmm bratwurst........it works just as well with Jager sauce too....Mmmm.......Jagerwurst.....

Regards Lez. 

[LNER4479]

During the pandemic, the German government were reportedly stockpiling sausages and cheese, in case it dragged on indefinitely. This was referred to as the wurst kase scenario ...

 

(I'll see myself out)

[St Enodoc]

48 minutes ago, St Enodoc said:

Anyone who could invent currywurst must have had a sense of humour.

 

31 minutes ago, lezz01 said:

Sadly that's not the case currywurst came about because all they could get on the black market was ketchup and curry powder...and of course bratwurst.....Mmmm bratwurst........it works just as well with Jager sauce too....Mmmm.......Jagerwurst.....

Regards Lez. 

QED...

[jwealleans]

I didn't tell anyone before we went, but I have a morbid dread of German sausage.  

 

I fear the wurst....

 

Thank you, I was there all week.

[Barry O]

Bratty mit pom frites und Chipsauce bitte!

[St Enodoc]

I don't know whether your route to and from the Harz takes you through Braunschweig but if it does, and you have time to stop, a) it's a beautiful old city anyway and b) it has a restaurant called Die Tolle Knolle (The Super Tuber) that serves potatoes in every way, shape or form that you can imagine, plus quite a few that you can't.

 

https://tolleknolle-bs.de/

 

E. Ronay

Edited May 12, 2023 by St Enodoc
speling

[LNER4479]

So, where to go on our last full day in Northern Germany?

 

It occurred to me that there was another public steam railway just about within comfortable reach of a day's trip of Hamburg, provided the trains played nice. In the end, seven of us headed out to ...

 

 

Bad Doberan, for the Mecklenburgische Bäderbahn - or the 'Molli', as everyone knows it by - I last visited here in 2017 but, apart from Steve, it was a new experience for everyone else.

Running on the unusual gauge of 900mm, it is otherwise a conventional out-and-back operation, using these functional looking 2-8-2Ts. Direct interchange with the mainline railway (far left), we had a breathless 11 minutes to buy our tickets and board the 'Molli' - not a problem.

 

Did I say 'conventional'? It is of course best known for its prolonged length of street running, taking it right across the town before picking up its own formation in the countryside beyond. The centre stretch is pedestrianised, apart from delivery vehicles, and the train proceeds slowly, with its steam-powered bell clanging continuously. That doesn't stop some motorists chancing their arm trying to cross over right in front - I guess the locals are used to it?

 

This is the view looking the other way (on our return) - this bit is open to road traffic.

 

Rather satisfying to have a stream of cars following you!

 

Once out of the town, it's all fairly flat and level. Pleasant but not particularly spectacular. The track is well laid though with heavy duty rail and the locos put in a healthy turn of speed for much of the way.

 

It's a two train service, so here we are passing t'other one at the half way point. Students of contemporary German steam will recognise this as being the new loco that Meiningen built for the line in 2008/9, to the same design. I missed seeing this loco last time round so it was good to see it in operation.

 

Far end of the line is the coastal resort of Kühlungsborn. We watched our train run round and depart back for Bad Doberan. On the right is one of the 0-8-0Ts, stuffed and mounted for now. Sister loco 331 is (apparently) operational but not normally used on service trains. Despite appearances, the 0-8-0Ts are actually younger than the 2-8-2Ts (apart from No.2324!).

 

Did I say 'coastal'? Germany has a seaside - who knew?(!) Here, Steve is pointing out its delights to Paul. No donkey droppings, no upturned ice-cream cones in the sand, no dilapidated fairground rides ... my kinda 'seaside'!

 

We had the best part of half an hour to change trains at Rostock on the way back, so time for a mid-afternoon cuppa.

 

Trains behaved perfectly all day, despite some potentially tight-looking changes. I was left with this nagging feeling that we'd rather used up our fair share of good luck in that regard ...

 

Meanwhile, a rival splinter group headed out to another part of coast, at Kiel to visit this:

 

 

I'll invite Jonathan to tell us more ...

 

 

Edited May 13, 2023 by LNER4479

[jwealleans]

2 hours ago, LNER4479 said:

I'll invite Jonathan to tell us more ...

 

Well, then.   Are you sitting comfortably?    Then I'll begin.

 

I have a cousin in law who's a keen student of the second War and can quote Das Boot almost in its entirety.   A few years ago I took him to Bletchley Park when they visited the UK and ever since then by way of return we've spoken about visiting the last intact Type VIIC U boat in Europe, at Laboe, just outside Kiel.    There was one in Liverpool but it closed down before we got there and has now been sectioned.  It can only be viewed from the outside.

 

When the Harz trip was first mooted (it was supposed to be for our silver wedding in 2021), the idea of adding Miniatur Wunderland and the U boat on the end seemed only sensible.   Once it was all definitely going ahead, we let him know and so he and his brother hired a campervan and drove up from near Colmar to join us, meeting at Miniatur Wunderland and then again at Laboe the next day.

 

So myself and the wife, accompanied by Andrew, departed bravely by train then bus for Kiel on the Thursday morning.  It would be fair to say that someone's day was complete almost before it began:

 

 

Madame does like a Duplex train and she could look down on all she surveyed for the hour it took us to Kiel.

 

Once there it became a bit more haphazard.  We'd obtained combined train and bus tickets and a timetable from the Reisezentrum the night before and as instructed crossed the road to the bus stops and awaited the 102 bus, due in 8 minutes.   After 8 minutes it vanished from the board without ever making an appearance.   Not a complete showstopper as there was a 14 due shortly, but the 14 stops at every big tree and outside toilet on the way and takes twice as long.   We jumped on that anyway and kept an eye out for a 102... not a one did we see.

 

Anyway, arriving at journey's end we strolled along a very clean, well maintained and seemingly exclusive beachside promenade towards the naval memorial.   Just as well we didn't choose to walk on the sand as we spotted signs to the effect that you have to buy a ticket to go on the beach.   That may be why it was both spotlessly clean and almost completely deserted.  My first time on the Baltic coast and it made a very positive impression.

 

Having met up with the other party and now being majority French, what's the most important thing on the agenda?   Lunch, of course.

 

 

This being the seaside there had to be chips and indeed there were.   After this agreeable collation we moved on to the main attraction.

 

 

The vessel is an open visit - you purchase your ticket, enter in the aft torpedo room and make your way through to the exit in the forward torpedo room.    There are some explanatory notices (it helped to have two German speakers with us) but it's largely been left pretty much as it was in service.

 

 

Andrew being about 6'4" would probably not have gone far in the submarine service.

 

 

Passage through the boat is exactly as it was for the crew, so you have to swing through some of these hatchways.   Something to remember if you're planning to visit.

 

 

This I did recognise - one of the two hydroplane controls, the other just out of sight beside it, along with the depth gauge and angle of incline indicator.

 

The thing you have to keep reminding yourself of is that for all it's rammed full of equipment, this is an empty ship - no stores, no spares, no weapons and above all no crew.   45 blokes lived in here, fought, operated and maintained it for weeks out at sea.   You can only respect their courage, whatever navy they served.

 

 

Across the road from the submarine is the German Naval Memorial.   This was originally built after WW 1 but rededicated after WW 2 to be a memorial to sailors and vessels lost in conflict worldwide, although there's obviously a concentration on the Kreigsmarine.   The monument is far too high for me to go up - though you can and there's a lift - but has an interesting display at the bottom.   There's also a museum outlining the history of the modern German Navy, with enough English captions to make it accessible and a very sombre but dignified underground memorial space with contributions from many different navies including our own.

 

 

Tour concluded we said our goodbyes and returned to the bus stop, where a further 102 failed to make an appearance and so we meandered back on a 14 seeing far more of Kiel and its suburbs than we'd really have liked.   The train was on time, though and whisked us back to Hamburg in time to join the main party for an excellent last night dinner.

 

 

 

Edited May 13, 2023 by jwealleans

[LNER4479]

So, to conclude, with the story of our eventful journey home(!) No pix - until right at the end - but the story is as follows (if of a nervous disposition, just skip down to the images at the end):

 

On paper, and as booked, it was a slick journey home thus:

0845 ICE Hamburg to Cologne. 3 hour journey time, giving us about an hour contingency in Cologne

1342 ICE Cologne to Brussels. 2 hour journey, giving us in excess of two hours in Brussels (minus check-in allowance)

1756 Eurostar to London, local arrival time 7pm

 

What could possibly go wrong?(!) Plenty, as it turned out.

 

First sign of something amiss was when I rechecked the timings of the first train. Now showing arriving in Cologne 25 mins later than when I booked it?! Still potentially OK in Cologne but with little contingency. It left Hamburg OK and ran to time initially. I found the guard and asked him what was going on - engineering works en route, so being diverted! (note - it was a Friday, so it was not like we were travelling on a Sunday or anything?)

When we got to the affected area - oh dear! DB appear as bad at managing such things as Network Rail and whatever the 'plan' was, it wasn't working. Steve got quite excited as our diversionary route took us over a normally freight only route but the single track connections and other traffic in what is a densely packed area of lines (around Dortmund & Essen area) proved too much and our remaining contingency time agonisingly slipped away.

 

We were waiting on the Rhine bridge outside the station as the clock ticked remorsely round to the departure time of our onward train which, according to the DB App, had dutifully arrived in Cologne right on time from Frankfurt (on another day, it would have helpfully been 20-30 mins late). But then, a faint ray of hope - it appeared not to have left and was showing on the list of connecting trains as being late departing Cologne. Even better, we were due in on the platform alongside it! We duly rolled in and - mirabile dictu - there it was! We scampered across and duly leapt on, claiming our reserved seats. Phew!

 

Only it didn't immediately set off and there appeared to be no hurry to hasten its departure? News slowly began to filter through that nothing was departing west out of Cologne on the mainlines at that moment - there had apparently been an incident involving two track worker fatalities😔 Although not on our actual route, it seemed to have caused knock-on delays all over the place.

 

Eventually, our train departed, some 50 minutes late but mercifully didn't seem to lose any more time and made the most of the high speed lines where it could. As we still had plenty of time spare in Brussels, we started to relax once it had left its last stop at Liege. We had just gone past the Brussels airport junction and were starting to run through the outer suburban stations when ... there was a heavy brake application and our ICE came to a shuddering halt, right on a bridge over a busy multi-carriage way road.

 

Now, when that sort of thing happens, you know it's either a quick reset and off we go again - or you're going to be stuck there for a considerable length of time 🤔 It was of course the latter. News gradually filtered through of 'people on or about the tracks' ... then it was a fatality ... then we were the train that had actually struck someone 😲 Inevitably, your first thought is that it was a suicide but, given the length of time the whole thing took (people in hi-vis vests wandering around the tracks), we found a local flash news report that it had been two rival gangs of youths fighting on the preceeding station and two had fallen onto the tracks in front of our train. Good grief.

 

In the end, we were stood standing there for no less than two-and-a-half hours. In that time, our 1756 Eurostar departed Brussels Midi, as did the following 1851, just leaving the last of the day, at 2055 as our remaining hope of making it back to the UK. At approx 1900, came the announcement that was a first for me (cue pictures):

 

We were to be evacuated from the train! If you know where to look, Craig, Paul and Jeanette can be seen in this picture - as can the waiting bus!

 

In nearly 50 years of travelling regularly by train, this is the first time I've ever been evacuated from one😏

 

I suppose it was fortunate that there was a relative ease of access to where exactly we'd stopped. Less fortunately, we'd become a bit split as a group and one half of us had already got on the bus shown, leaving the rest of us to wait for the next bus. We all agreed that, if the front contingent made it to the Eurostar check-in in time then they should attempt to get tickets changed and get boarded - better only some of us have an enforced overnight stay in Brussels than all of us. By now it had gone 2000 and that 2055 last Eurostar is looking decidedly dodgy.

 

Here we are on our bus, the minutes again agonisingly ticking away ...

 

... made worse by the luggage hatch flying open and two bags being jettisoned!! We're now definitely into 'you couldn't make it up' territory.

 

The bus took only took us to Brussels Nord so we then had to get a local train from there to Midi! News from Steve in the group ahead was that they'd had their tickets changed no problem and were in the queue to board. But we eventually left Brussels Nord at 2045 - only 10 mins left. Surely no chance, given the need for check-in, bags screening etc? However, incredibly - but very much par for the day - the Eurostar website revealed that the 2055 was delayed until 2117!! More desperate hope ...

I ran ahead at Brussels Midi. Eurostar check-in all roped off and no-one around. I shouted to get someone's attention and they duly appeared, by which time our group had caught me up plus others from our train hoping to make the connection. After a quick 30 sec conflab. between them, the Eurostar staff agreed to open up and let us through (they were aware of the incident affecting our train). We'd made it by the skin of our teeth - phew!

 

Rarely have I been so glad to be welcomed to King's Cross! The last train of the day, 2300 to York is boarding (interestingly, the InterCity liveried IC225 set).

 

An almost unbelievable mixture of bad luck and good luck got us home eventually. Certainly an eventful end to our trip - Team Grantham won't forget Harz n Hamburg 2023 in a hurry. Notwithstanding, I do believe that, overall, it was enjoyed by all.

 

 

Once we've caught breath, we'll return to the modelling. Quite a busy 12 months beckons.

Edited May 14, 2023 by LNER4479

[jwealleans]

It was one of the more exciting days I've spent on a train, it has to be said.  News reports on the gang fight here and here if anyone's interested.   Allegedly one of them turned up with a Samurai sword.   There were about 40 of them and they didn't stop even after we'd taken two of them out, so the police had to sort that out before they came to deal with us.

 

It's a shame Graham's picture can't show the incredible contortions that our bendy bus had to do to turn round.  The turning area was too small and full of emergency vehicles anyway so he jackknifed it in reverse into the car park which is just behind it above.  He was given a round of applause when he finished.   It was also massively overloaded - we went through at least one red light simply through not being able to stop - but he got us to Brussels Nord at close to the speed of light, at which point Steve's encyclopaedic knowledge of Belgian trains took us in the right direction for Midi and then to the check in.    They must have been expecting us as we were whisked through in no time and (mainly) ended up in Business Class for a very comfortable ride home.   The remainder of the group catching us up was a welcome (if by then unexpected) bonus.

 

I'm sure I speak for the rest of the group if I say Graham did an excellent job organising almost all of this trip and we all benefited tremendously from his knowledge of the places we went and his willingness to help us all make the most of the visit rather than just enjoying his own holiday.   This is our second visit to Germany with him as guide - one official, one unofficial - and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Edited May 14, 2023 by jwealleans

[gr.king]

A morbidly interesting variation on the kind of return-journey chaos that I had feared when Mrs King and I decided that KLM's flight cancellation left us with no safe, stress-free alternative but to cancel our travel plans entirely.

[jwealleans]

We had similar shenanigans from DB last year, without the extra layer of tragedy, so I'd booked overnight accommodation rather than a train home with that in mind.   Funnily enough there was nothing going in London on the Friday night (!) so we made the quick trip to Stevenage and the handily placed Holiday Inn Express.  

Edited May 14, 2023 by jwealleans
Tea in Stevenage.

[Bazza]

I have to add my thanks to Graham for his organising this trip, it was most enjoyable and we were all very relieved to scrape onto the last Eurostar of the day. After all we did not want to miss the Coronation! Couple of photos of the train evacuation site (a first for me too) and the view from the bendy bus.

Bazza

[chris p bacon]

I'm guessing the box of 'LU Grany' biscuits is the equivalent of the buffet car.