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Why I love German Railways!


Allegheny1600

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Hi All,

Last November (23-26th) a good friend and I went on a quick trip to the Cologne model railway show and also went on a couple of railway adventures too. The Saturday was spent mostly in the exhibition or in the town and we elected to do some 'railfanning' on the Sunday.

 

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Anyone know where this or what this is?
That's right - it's the 'Dom' or Cologne cathedral taken from next to the railway bridge! Note the view through the mesh fence is now almost completely obliterated due to all the tourists(?) attaching thousands & thousands of padlocks of every variety onto the mesh!
You can still get some decent shots though!

 

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A class 101 leaving Köln with an InterCity service!
At this time, quite early on a Sunday morning, there was still plenty of traffic about. Unfortunately we were on our way to our second day at the exhibition so didn't hang about!
I guess I'll put some exhibition pic's on later - if there's interest?
Later, we went to the smaller Köln station o/s the Messe itself.

 

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Aah! An ICE-3 approaching - this was a double unit so very impressive indeed, I love 'em!

 

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As you can see by the red tail lights, this is the rear of the above train.
Spotting feature of an ICE-3 is the line of the windows that comes to more of a squared off point on the driving unit, as well as different bogies and different bodywork at the bottom of the bodyshell (from an ICE-T!). Obviously, an ICE-1 or ICE-2 are quite different indeed

 

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Here comes our train, double deck driving coach leading.

 

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We shortly arrived at Linz (am Rhine) and this is what was powering our train!

 

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I quickly had to snatch a shot of this lovely little railbus before it disappeared from view!

 

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Now back for a detailed shot of 'my' little 143 - lovely! As 'Forestpines' rightly says (below), these are a DR design of which some 800+ have been built and they are now widespread across the whole unified country - it's great when you get a train with one at each end!

 

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Rather quickly, a class (152, I think!) tore past on a steel train composed of bogie flats, opens and sliding roof vans.

 

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Only a few minutes later, this class 185 shot through with a tank train, chasing after our double deck coaches.

 

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Right at the limit of my camera's zoom capability was this little collection of 'classic' stock, all apparently in working order.

 

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A short wait followed so I got some detail shots like this one!

 

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On the day of our visit, half of the passenger trains were double deckers, the other half seemed to be these rather smart electric units. I don't think we got to ride these though.

 

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Rather hard to photograph, this black MCRE class 189! I set my camera to 'rapid fire' and in the shot after this, the loco has already gone past me!

 

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How German is that?!
Mid afternoon and my friend and I felt peckish so walked the short distance into Linz village and found a pleasant cafe (not this one!) and sat down to coffee and cakes, extremely nice!!!

 

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Back at the station, the day is losing it's light and this was moving fast so sorry about the blurring but this is the kind of action that really gets me going about German trains, corr!!

 

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Not just German trains either - here is a Swiss one!!!

 

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The little railbus came back, hoorah!
Turns out, it was on a shuttle service to Kalenborn - up a very steep branch. It was only about €7 return so we thought, let's give it a go!

 

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The drivers control desk, normally when not in use, the driver will remove all hand controls and close the (roller shutter type) desk, he hadn't done this when I got this shot!

 

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Last one, I'm afraid! (hurrah!) I just couldn't resist trying to catch this barge on the river as we started to ascend the gradient.


Before I go, I simply must add a bit of video, not mine (I wish!) but I feel it captures yet more of what German railways are all about! And, it was filmed shortly before my visit too!

 

Pröst!

John E.

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Ooh, is that Linz am Rhein there too? I've visited the town but didn't manage to time it right to get a trip on the little heritage line.

 

I always think it's slightly ironic that the Class 143 locos are so heavily used so far west in the country, considering they are a DR design.

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  • 3 weeks later...

remember going into koln station in the late 70's when i went to visit my brother in minden the concourse used to have a terrific model railway in a case on the concourse,,,, the railway bridge is iconic even more so if you have seen pictures of it after the raf had been playing in the early to mid 40's

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Hello,

Linz is realy a place to go especially when the steam trains come.

But driving with this little red rascal is also a very pleasant trip.

From now on til Xmas it runs every saturday,sunday or bank holiday from 10 til 18.

It´s called Kasbachtalbahn.dscili6pdkop.jpg

 

For further information use this link http://www.zugtouren.de/

Kind regards Soeren

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Soeren, that second one is a beauty! Fabulous shot of a classic loco. Many thanks for sharing and do you...um...have any more...?

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I'm going to Germany tomorrow and will be attending the Spur Null convention in Buseck (near Gießen) on Saturday.  Piccies if (a) I work out how to use my new digital camera, (b) I'm sober enough to use it and © I can work out how to upload the images.

 

Bill

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I'm going to Germany tomorrow and will be attending the Spur Null convention in Buseck (near Gießen) on Saturday.  Piccies if (a) I work out how to use my new digital camera, ( B) I'm sober enough to use it and © I can work out how to upload the images.

 

Bill

And d) how to turn off unwanted smilies !

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And d) how to turn off unwanted smilies !

Look, I've just about learned enough technology to post on this forum, without incorporating those yellow thingumybobs.  I'm an advocate of KISS (keep it simple, stupid)

 

Bill

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Hi, We visit Germany fairly regularly as our daughter lives and works near Stuttgart. I try and get a few shots of the trains whenever I can, only on a pocket camera, nothing fancy.

 

Here's few from Vaihingen, her local station, it's about 20 mins SW of Stuttgart by train. We're off there again soon so i'll try and get a few more.

 

Rob

 

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and one from 4/5/2008 old-timer rail tour, I think it was from Korntal to Weissach on the Strohgaubahn.

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I found this video on Youtube, which I think is of the trip. 

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My daughter has now moved near to Lake Constance. a few pics from a recent visit. These were take on the line from Friedrichshafen to Lindau, nice spotting by the allotments.

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One of her friends husbands is one of the drivers of the FDH-Lindau shuttle units. The line is to be dualled soon and electrified, he's worried he may lose his job, as he's not qualified on any electrics.

 

Rob

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Soeren,

 

Sorry, I didn't take any photos at Buseck. Typically, I take the camera to exhibitions, then never use it. Both Tetsudofan and I were taking photos during our trip, whether the Image Editor will allow me to post is another matter. By the by, Tetsudofan acquired the three Uerdingen railbus units which will get a run on Höchstädt on 10 May.

 

Bill

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