Johann Marsbar

May 20

Another one that just popped up which seems to have only started streaming a week ago.......

Rather strange because the rest of their streams seem to be from a number of locations in Greece!!

May 20

A fairly easy one to sort the photos for today, a day trip on a Saturday in September 2006 to Berlin to tie in with an Open Day at Potsdam tram depot. The availability of information about such things in advance via the Internet or local contacts being a distinct advantage, plus the Ryanair flights to Berlin at that time were fairly easy to get seats on cheaply, even close to the departure date.

A couple of views at Potsdam Hbf of then current and preserved stock......

A preserved Gotha built tram/trailer set was on display at the depot.....

...along with the driver training car......

...and this Combino in an odd livery, which may have been a demonstrator on loan......

Problems were still being experienced at that time with metal fatigue on this type of car across several operators so that may have been the reason it was at Potsdam, though I don't think they were as badly affected as some places.

There was also an interesting display of maintenance equipment as well.....

I was actually off to Berlin a week later than this trip as well, though for a full holiday covering a lot of rail interest in the area, so that will be the next posting in a couple of weeks time, but this can act as a taster in the meantime....

May 19

"Iris" working on the branch shuttles yesterday.....

May 19

Just now, Chris Turnbull said:

J3098 You've even got Alan Bloom driving!

Chris Turnbull

To be fair, he was a fairly regular feature on the footplate there in those days.

We used to go there a lot from the late 60's through to the mid-1970's but It's one of those places that was dropped as a place to visit after that and I've only been there a couple of times since then.

Martello looks a bit better nowadays though.....(2016 photo)

May 19

I actually found "The Assemblage" - the floor of the Museum which is laid out like a storage facility - to be the most absorbing part of the place as there was an awful lot to discover in there which you had to spend time seeking out. It also solves the problem of having large stocks of small exhibits which you never put on Public display!

Speaking to one of the Staff there, they are now aiming to focus on more Derby related exhibits in the collection - certainly for any new accessions - so it will be interesting to see how some of the more "peripheral" Midland items in the place, such as a London Tilbury & Southend handbell, fare in the long term.

May 19

A few images of the layout from a visit there on Friday......

The lighting isn't exaxtly brilliant, as previously mentioned, and there is still an awful lot to do on the layout but progress is being made.

Layout is run twice a day (1100 & 1400) and I managed to get there about 5 mins before the first session.

May 18

Leicester Bristol RE 122 making its debut at todays Quorn Bus Event after full restoration to original LCT condition, 30+ years after it was last on the road.......

After use in Leicester, it was puchased by Ipswich Borough Transport in 1980 and ran there until 1987, being sold for presrvation in 1989.

May 15

Back in March, prior to some building alterations at the Ipswich Buses Constantine Road Depot - the former electric car sheds from 1903 to 1926 - a couple of sets of enamel advertising panels were discovered in the loft area which had originally been fixed to ICT trams in the early 1920's.

These are in remarkable condition considering they have been up there for almost 100 years and one set (they are both for the same firm of opticians) has recently been affixed to our 1904 built ICT tram......

Up until this time we did have half of another advert panel from another company which had survived elsewhere, but to find something like this nowadays is quite remarkable!

May 15

12 hours ago, melmerby said:

I assume this is UP trackage as the building opposite on the West cam LH side is the UP Yard Office.

Yes, the building that the camera appears to be mounted on is the Builders Merchants in the background of this shot, though the name of the firm has changed since I took this photo in 2011...

I think, from memory, the "Yard Office" is also the former passenger station.

May 14

42 minutes ago, DaveF said:

I don't know when the line in the photo became disused but I believe the last trains on the dock's railway system were to Cliff Quay tank farm and the grain terminal. Final closure was in 1992.

Source: https://suffolkmuseums.org/the-ipswich-dock-railway-1848-1992/

David

The last train ran on 20th March 1992, this being a grain service from Cliff Quay behind an 08 which used the direct route via the lock gates swing bridge and New Cut West to get to Ipswich Lower Yard and on to the Uppper Yard. Someone who worked at Pauls Maltings at the time did take a photo of the last train from the top of their silo which we have in our Museum Archives.

The other lines in the dock were all disused by that time and the Cliff Quay route was then "mothballed" with the likelyhood of traffic resuming at some time in the future - which it never did.

As an aside to this, the tracks remained there and linked to the Lower Yard through Bridge Street crossing until April 2010 when the road crossing was lifted. At (presumably) great expense, a set of manual gates - albeit rather short ones - had been installed on the road crossing by the Borough Council on 10th November 2003, citing "road safety issues", despite there not being any rail use of the line for over 11 years!

These stayed there - unused - until April 2010, when they were removed, along with the crossing lights and signs, and most ended up at the Ipswich Transport Museum for storage and eventual passing on to somewhere that might use them.

Fast forward to last Thursday, and all that equipment was delivered on a trailer to the Mountsorrel Heritage Centre for use there.......

.

May 14

34 minutes ago, DaveF said:

This we morning we visit the Ipswich area. Back in 1975 Dad used to visit Ipswich from time on business, he must have taken these photos on his trips there.

Ipswich Sproughton crossing Class 31 up cement Apr 75 J4257

Ipswich Sproughton sidings 31177 down May 75 J4277

Ipswich Class 31 Peterborough to Parkeston Quay May 75 J4284

Ipswich Sproughton sidings 37109 down freight May 75 J4300

Ipswich Sproughton sidings 37109 down freight showing rear of train May 75 J4301

Ipswich Sproughton sidings Class 37 shunting May 75 J4302

Ipswich June 75 J4490

David

Sproughton Sidings were mainly used to serve the adjacent British Sugar factory at Sproughton. The area where your Father was standing (amongst the churned up earth) is more or less where the Ipswich Western Bypass (A14) runs now, with the area between there and Sproughton Road itself being occupied by an industrial estate - which was where the bus company I worked for between 2006 and 2012 had their depot!

I did venture to Sproughton sidings on the odd occasion in the early 1980's as there was a Public footpath that crossed the line at that point. Didn't take too many photos though.....

You can just see the signal box on the right with the (then disused) sidings on the other side of the mainline.

.

May 14

12 minutes ago, Mol_PMB said:

Some interesting vans there, including the first vehicle in J4284.

Ipswich docks very evocative too! Presumably the railway was out of use by then?

The lines on the quayside in the last photo remained in use until the early 1980's to serve Cranfields and Pauls mills.....

...though not a lot ventured beyond where that photo was taken from which is the far end of the grey painted, tin clad building, visible beyond the moored barges in my last photo.

Other parts of the docks saw rail traffic up to the mid 1990's.

May 14

Last batch from the Czech trip today.

After the depot visit we headed off to a local un-electrified line and a station that still used semaphore signalling......

...and then on to a Cement works which was served by a short industrial branch line from Blazovice....

Final stop was a suitable overbridge close to the Airport which had a wide variety of passing traffic - diesel and electric.....

This freight had some overhead wire maintenance and p/way stock amongst the vehicles...

The Czech Republic (and Slovakia) will appear occasionally in future installments, but this was the last of the holidays actually spent staying in those places, other visits being carried out whilst staying in adjacent countries.

For the next 7 years worth of trips you will mainly be seeing images of Germany (with the odd trips over the border to adjacent countries) as I decided to concentrate mainly on that location for those years, though there are some notable exceptions to that.

Posts on here will be now be infrequent until the end of this month due to other commitments (plus I've got to sort through a load of image files) resuming as normal in June.....

May 14

Another new one has gone online in the last few days....Boone, Iowa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1ic5lUh8sg

Not as busy a location as it used to be from reading the notes as when I was last there in 2011 there was fairly continuous action.

Their channel link is https://www.youtube.com/@TrainsOnDemand

EDIT - Rather amazingly there have just been 3 trains past the camera in 15 mins - at 00.30 local!

May 13

1 hour ago, EddieB said:

From its livery the penultimate picture (FAUR diesel) looks like an ex-Bulgarian BDZ class 55 sold into Czech industry. Were any numbers visible?

I didn't make any such notes at the time, but if I enlarge the original photo file there are some very small and hardly readable numbers on the bottom of the drivers cab door.

They could read 447 727-6 but it's difficult to say exactly. The small JCE sticker on the door is presumably the owning firm.

I did wonder if it was ex BDZ having seen the real things there a few years later.......and we'll get to those photos......eventually!

May 13

1 hour ago, Covkid said:

If this is "Colin McAndrew" the prototype loco is tiny, IMHO smaller than the Hattons Barclay. Might be wrong though.

Colin McAndrew is cerainly small, as can be seen in relation to the size of the driver in one of these shots!

Would certainly be a nice loco to have a model of.............

May 13

The final day of the trip was spent touring round some of the local area by car, before being dropped at the Airport for the flight home to Stansted.

First port of call was a yard which had a conveniently positioned footbridge from which photos could be taken. Some of the freight servies were being worked by locos in somewhat less than pristine condition - unlike my experience with the pasenger services during the previous week......

This "Laminatka" was particularly rough with the fiberglass showing through in places......

We then moved on to a depot - not the CD one - parts of which seemed to be semi-derelict and where there were a rather odd selection of shunting/trip locos, some of which may be preserved.......

May 12

Whilst the chap that I knew who had moved to Brno had told me that a steam special would be operating that day, I wasn't expecting it to be a double -headed operation. The paring of a 4-8-4T and a 4-8-2 made an interesting combination as well.

I assume the steam portion started from Brno and I was able to take several photos before it departed - it seemingly being "open house" as regards wandering over the tracks, as seen by the chap with the tripod in front of the 4-8-2 !

There were a few preserved passenger coaches bringing up the rear as well......

A few others from the station at that time......

Then it was back to exploring the local transport system....

The following day I visited a local model shop and was able to purchase an HO scale plastic kit, made in the Czech Republic, of one of the more recent Skoda trolleybuses on the 30xx batch, as shown in the last photo.

A final look at the station that day.....

May 11

A few more from the Airshow on the Saturday, starting with some Czech AF Soviet era helicopters.....

Hungarian AF.....

Low viz at its finest.......I think it was an Italian AF machine, but you wouldn't know from this photo.......

...and finally a rather OTT paint job on an Austrian aircraft.......

On the Sunday I had another Brno area day ticket to explore the local tram/trolleybus network......

...and found this depot fairly early on in the day which had at least one preserved car (over on the left) parked outside.....

I then called in at the Station and got a peasant surprise........

May 11

5 hours ago, Paul_C said:

Hi Johann,

Do I take it you’re connected with the Ipswich museum then?

Paul.

Yes - That photo was taken during our "Winter Work Programme" that rearranged some of the display areas in the museum and on the fire engine side brought our low height Bedford TK (originally Needham Market based) in from storage for exhibition and made room for the 1912 Shand Mason steamer (also ex Needham) which has since arrived from the "Food Museum" at Stowmarket.

May 10

On 09/05/2024 at 17:31, Les Bird said:

Not the same as yours but a good model. It's from Atlas and lettered Suffolk and Ipswich Fire Brigade. It claims to be 1/72 but is clearly 1/76. Purchased on ebay some years ago.

KRT 920 is over on the left of this photo taken at the end of February.......

Atlas also produced a model of our Dennis, PBJ 338, as I've got one of those on my layout!

May 10

Whilst the railrover ticket had completed its validity, I still had the best part of 3 days to go in Brno with the next day, a Saturday, being the Airshow. I can't remember whether it was a 2 day event or not, but I certainly picked the best day of the weekend weatherwise to go there.

Obviously there wasn't a lot of railed transport on offer that day, though I did have a Brno day ticket - needed to get out on the bus to the airport - so I did some exploring before and after visiting the show......

Service to the show was given by duplicating the normal route 76 from the City Centre to the Airport, this lineup of waiting buses being seen outside the station......

The Airshow had a decent representation from a number of Air Forces - including the RAF who showed types now long gone in 2024. It wasn't all aircraft either as the Czech army had quite a display there......

Polish AF....

Czech AF....

Slovak AF.....(with the ubiqutous Lakenheath based F15 behind...)

RAF.....

French AF.....

Some more from the show in the next post as well.....

May 9

The bridge and the branch actually feature in this months GCR posting on YT as well....

May 9

Having delivered some surplus 12":1 foot scale railway items to them today..........

...this is the current state of the lift bridge project......

The aim is to have it completed by the Autumn with an Official launch after that at some point.

May 9

At Jesenik I caught a connecting onward service to Ostrava (or that was the theory...) formed of an 853 class railcar, the route actually passing through Poland for about 15 km - another one of those lines which have been affected by Country and Border changes over the past Century.

At Mikulovice we passed this 751 on a freight.......

...and after traversing the section through Poland we passed through Tremeszna where there is an active CD 750mm gauge line......

The "through train" of course turned out to be anything but as there was yet another rail replacement bus for the section from Opava to Sitina. The only bonus was that the replacement train for the Sitina to Ostrava section was loco hauled behind a 754.

This private owner 770 was at Ostrava... (the pantograph is on a train behind!)

Unlike the "flying visit" on the first day of the rail ticket I had allowed some time to do a bit of travelling on the local transport (tram & trolleybus) so bought a day ticket and set out to cover a few of their routes....