Johann Marsbar

The early 1920's Ransomes built former Eastern Counties Road Car open-top double deck bus body that we own has now been temporarily reunited (sort of...) with the appropriate chassis we now have for it..... At least the chassis appears to be the correct length to take the body without any modification to the frames - though the dynamo will need to be moved about a foot forward of its current location. The large screw jacks holding the body up at the moment are actually tram jacks from Ipswich Corporation Tramways and date from the early 1900's.

2006 was a bit OTT as regards trips into Europe as I had 9 holidays (2 or more days away) there that year, plus 3 day trips as well !! I'd decided to see some more of Europe at that time and my trips to the USA were having what turned out to be a 5-year break at that time (2004-2009), though a Canadian one did sneak in during 2007.

This single unit railcar was in the platform when I got back to Trencianska Tepla..... With an early evening flight home the next day I limited myself to the Bratislava area again and the following is a selection taken on my travels before heading out to the Airport....... That will conclude the postings on here for about a couple of weeks, but I'll return with images on the July 2006 Polish trip, based in Wroclaw, after that short break.

I know two Metros still surviving around here which are in regular use, though one is in a bit of a state - putting it politely......!

On the final day of the Eurodomino ticket I did a circular tour through the centre of the Country via Banska Bystrica. Bratislava that morning........ Next place of interest was Zvolen, where this immaculately turned out 754 was working my train on to Banska Bystrica...... It seemed to be the "Depot pet" judging by the fact it was named and had an image of the local castle above the bodyside numberplate...... After getting on the train, I took this loco, still in its original CSD green/cream out of the window....... A general shot at Banska Bystrica...... ...a location I'd chosen to go to due to the local trolleybus system, only to be confronted by this outside the station....... Apparently the towns bus operation had been taken over by another Municipality and they had replaced the trolleybuses with motorbuses! This had happened a month or so before my visit and the inhabitants of Banska Bystrica were not happy with this change, so much so that the transport operation was eventually returned to local management and the trolleybuses were eventually reinstated. At least I had a 750 for haulage from there to join the electrified main line at Vrutky............. ....from where I caught a service back towards Bratislava as far as Trencianska Tepla, this 131 double unit being photographed from my train at Zilina..... The reason for heading to Trencianska Tepla was the 760mm gauge electrified line to Trencianska Teplice, worked by these bogie railcars....... The 5.4 km long line was opened in 1909 and the three railcars used date from 1951/2, although they were "modernised" in the 1980's. It was part of the ZSK network at the time of my visit though it's now apparently run by a Municipal non-profit company.

The next day I took a rest from the rail ticket and spent the day travelling around Bratislava. The guest-house I stayed at was quite high up above the main city and was reached by this trolleybus route..... At a much lower level, off to the left, was the main loco depot and roundhouse, but there didn't appear to be any access points in to there when I went exploring early that morning, but I did take up position by the main lines in that area for a few photos..... ...before heading off to the main station for a while..... Much of the day was spent riding around on the tram/trolleybus network........ ...and I did manage to locate a few of the depots in my travels. This withdrawn Skoda Sanok articulated trolleybus was at one of the depots..... As it was parked with a couple of preserved Skoda T 9r vehicles immediately behind it, the vehicle may have been destined for preservation. One of the tram depots had this works car present...... ...while this driver trainer was seen late in the day at another depot......

From Trencin I caught a railcar and trailer set along a (very) secondary route to Chynorany where there is a junction with another secondary cross-country line that runs from Horna Stubna to Leopoldov. The railcar set is seen at Chynorany, just before the motor car ran round the trailer....... There appeared to be a loco shunting an industry a bit further down the line, so a short walk produced this LTE MaK....... Whilst the line was of a secondary nature, most of the trains appeared to be loco-hauled and this 3-coach one came in from the Horna Stubna direction........ THat wasn't the train I was waiting for though, and after a while another 750 came in from the Leopoldov direction with another service and waited for my Loeopldov bound train to arrive..... Semaphore signalling was still in use on some sections of the route...... I think the train I was on actually ran through to Bratislava (without trying to find my notes), so these photos were taken out of the window en-route...... Interestingly the shunter retains its CSD running number and also a small red star above the front radiator grille ! Back in Bratislava, major works to the city centre tram tracks were underway at that time, with the streets being repaved as well........

They were using a couple of flat cars as reach cars to retrieve gondolas from the unwired part of that scrapyard when I was last there in 2011...... The train I "chased" along the roadside running section towards Mason City had 6 gondolas with scrap, but to get up the grade from where their HQ is, the locos could only handle 3 cars at a time. The train loco took 3, with a pusher loco propelling the other 3, the train being recoupled at the top of the grade........ The train loco could then continue into Mason City on its own...... .

Kuty was quite a busy place and I think the "platforms" and their width /location would give ORR heart failure in this country, but no problem in Slovakia! For my onward journey to Trnava I had this EMU as the traction....... and at Trnava, this tank engine was plinthed by the station...... ...and I then travelled back to Bratislava via Galanta to cross off another couple of rail lines on the Quail Map for the day. The following morning, I boarded an express to Zilina to have a look at and take a few rides on the local trolleybus network....... ...with a fair bit of action seen at the station as well whilst I was there waiting for my train back as far as Trencin........

SS United States threatened, again........ That vessel is never going to be restored given the state it has ended up in today.

Williams & Griffin in Colchester had this preserved example which they used for special events back in the early 1980's.... What happened to it after that isn't clear, but I've never seen it anywhere since that time.

Having been tempted by what I had seen on the previous Novembers day trip to Bratislava, I decided to have a short break in June 2006 in Slovakia, based in Bratislava but with a Eurodomino 3 day rail ticket for ZSSK. I don't know if those tickets are still sold, but they seemed to be the best way of getting a railrover for the Country then, though there might have been a cheaper locally purchased alternative. There certainly was for the Czech Republic when I was there later in 2006. The first day - after the early morning flight from Stansted - was spent travelling around Bratislava itself and I bought a 7-day local transport ticket at the transport office outside the main station, as only singles and day tickets were obtainable from the rather basic airport ticket machine at that stage. Bratislava Hl.s.... Some general tram and trolleybus photos from the day..... Back at Hl.s with some OBB stock in evidence on services from Vienna..... The hotel I was staying at (more of a large guest house) was some distance out of the centre, though it was on a trolleybus route that at least passed close to the station. Services started early as well, so I was able to get off on my travels with the rail ticket early each day. I'd worked out a number of different routeings around the western part of the Country - the east was a bit out of reach with a base in Bratislava - starting on the first day with a run on a railcar to Komarno, near the Hungarian border, where this 240 is seen at the nead of the train I was about to board for the run to Kuty, via Bratislava....

Seems a good price - actually about the same as I paid for this at a US railwayana show back in 2014........ ......though thats of a Conrail one!

That "Great Northern Suburban Electrification" sign seems to feature in a few photos - My pocket instamatic version from 1976, taken on a Sunday from a passing DMU......

Japanese 1/32 scale bus kit - finally got round to building it after the thing had sat, unmade, in a cupboard for over 13 years! Instructions totally in Japanese, but seems to represent an Osaka city bus, one of quite a range of that scale bus kits that Aoshima produce.

Last selection from Berlin today..... Next port of call was the Berliner Parkeisenbahn at Wulheide which originally opened in 1956 as a DDR Pioneer Railway. Gauge is 600mm and there seem to be lots of route variations that can be used by the trains - the layout is mainly a series of joined loops - as I've been on it twice and taken different routes each time! I didn't take a ride on this occasion as I needed to be elsewhere fairly quicklyy to travel on something else which I'd found out about online - namely a vintage tram tour. There was no pre-booking on the tour and the start point was the tram stop adjacent to Köpenick S-Bahn station, so I headed off to that location and discovered that most of Berlin had decided that a vintage tram trip might be a good thing to do that afternoon! Thankfully there were two tram & trailer sets in use on the tour and I managed to squeeze onto the more "modern" of the trailer cars and we set off for Alt-Schmockwitz where there was a short break to visit the adjacent depot where some vintage trams were being restored. The tour cars were this Cöpenick tramways tram (1903) & trailer (1906) set....... ...and a 1929 Berlin tram & trailer........ The last day in Berlin saw another ABC Zone day ticket, whilst I mainly concentrated on riding/photographing the Berlin tram routes..... I would return to Berlin again later in the year for a slightly longer break.

Don't think there's a thread for "Old Fire Engines" on here, but a line up of 3 of our preserved Suffolk Fire Service appliances during another Museum shunt yesterday....... Left to right, Commer Avenger, Volvo and Dennis. The Dennis F12 was produced in "OO" model form in one of those Atlas "partwork" series a few years back, so you might actually have it on your layout somewhere. Yes, the 03 plate Volvo is now preserved as Suffolk Fire & Rescue Service donated it to us in the last 18 months!

A few more from the roundhouse and stabling siding areas...... This one could have been taken a good 25 years earlier than it was....... Note the preserved DR goods stock just visible in the background of this photo of the 155.... As well as the locos, some of the private operators operating a variety of units on passenger services out of Lichtenburg used the stabling sidings there...... As one of the Class 52's was being prepared to work a railtour that day, after leaving the site, I headed back to Lichtenburg station to see it come in to the platforms, before catching an S-Bahn train out to the next station, Friedrichsfelde Ost, where I was able to get a photo of it passing through...... It was a rather interesting consist, with a bogie carriage, four 4 or 6-wheeler passenger coaches and then a long rake of preserved goods wagons behind it. I'm guessing it was heading for somewhere on a lesser used line that the carriages would be detached and some freight stock only photos could be taken as part of a photo-charter. No sooner had the 52 gone though than the 119 on the ILA shuttles appeared........

That October 77 train behind Leander was the third and final attempt for S15 No.841 "Greene King" to actually complete its railtour duties, this time failing miserably at Ipswich after being "helped" from Manningtree by a Class 31, as seen in this awful instamatic shot of it emerging from Ipswich tunnel that morning..... The S15 was removed at Ipswich and the 31 carried on alone. It failed on both its booked trips in 1976 as well, though it did manage Manningtree-March on one of them!

I'd done some online searching beforehand to see if there were any events of interest on in Berlin during the time I was there and discovered that there was an open day at what was then a preservation site adjacent to the stabling point previously pictured. There was in 2006 (and still is, though I'm not sure what use it's in now) a 1/4 roundhouse and turntable - the remnants of a much larger complex - and a steam preservation group were based there, along with it being used as a maintenance base for various private shunting locomotives. The last time I went to anywhere near the shed at least 10 years ago, it then appeared to be in use as an arts centre. The preservation group had 3 class 52's present, one in steam , ready to work a railtour, and one of the others in light steam, plus there were quite a number of diesels that may have been owned by this group, or may have been pending restoration for private use, all of which had DDR origins. There were also some preserved passenger coaches and freight wagons parked around. Some of the mainline private operators stabled their locos there as well........ The preserved steam...... ...and the others....... "Oh Parker, what have they done to my Rolls Royce....." "I don't think that's the registration number m'Lady...!" More of the residents tomorrow.....

The other tram depot I found in Szczecin was a large inter-war (presumably) constructed one out to the west of the City at Pogodno..... They had started to refurbish some of the Konstal cars which included the fitting of new ends....... Though some older stock was also on view (just), as seen in this slide scan....... The N class works car had a cut down rear end section, whilst the red and cream passenger version in the shed is one of their preserved cars used on Tourist services. They also have a 1926 Stettiner Straßen-Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft Bremen built car painted in the pre-1945 cream livery which I've never seen, unfortunately. Back at Glowny, the statutory EU07 photo...... ...along with my train back to Angermunde...... There were still a few remnants of the original platform canopies about then, but the place seens to have been totally rebuilt since I was last there and only one section now remains of the old ones. This 155 on a freight was stabled at Eberswalde on the way back to Berlin..... The Sunday started off rather damp, as seen on this photo of the 119 in use on one of the ILA shuttles...... The Reichsbahn theme was to continue in the Lichtenburg area where I would be spending the morning, with a 232 in one of the platforms there....... ......plus one of the former DR electrics in Scandlines livery which seemed to be fairly permanent residents there........ However, where I was heading for was a short distance to the west of Lichtenburg station, adjacent to Nöldnerplatz S-Bahn station, one of the attractions there being a stabling point that you could access fairly easily at that time.......... ...though in 2006 there was more to the area in the way of rail attractions than that..........

I just had a look and it had only undertaken its first Test Flight in April 2006, making its Public flying debut at the ILA that year.

A few of the more unusual exhibits at ILA 2006, starting with this small Russian eraknoplan............. ...and they also had a jet powered flying boat on display amongst the extensive Russian exhibit area......... No doubt there will be zero Russian presence at the 2024 ILA...... For something older, this pre-war Dornier flying boat, upgraded and fitted with new engines took part in the flying programme...... ...as did this "new build" ME 262 - an aircraft type I never thought I'd ever see flying.......... The DDR era airport terminal buildings can just be seen in the background above the rear fuselage of the 262, as can some of the rather distinctive apron lighting towers. Then it was time to head back into Berlin..... On the Saturday I bought a Berlin-Brandenburg Lander ticket for the day and headed off to Szczecin, where a Konstal 105N is seen outside Glowny...... The Atlas Tramwajow that I had bought the previous month came into its element on this trip as it included a full route map of each system so you knew where the depots were. In addition, the MZK local transport network was now included in the Lander ticket, so first point of call, after covering the long route to Goclaw, was Golecin depot..... The works car was in use as the depot shunter that morning, displaying rather obvious body sag....... ...whilst an all-over advert pair of 105N cars passes the depot..... The depot there gave the impression - or rather the frontage did - that it was a post-war rebuild on a presumably bombed out Stettiner Stadtwerke depot site, though some of the associated trackage gave the impression it hadn't seen much attention since 1945! The road surface there must have been "interesting" for road vehicles with a mixture of original cobbles, concrete slabs and tarmac. Everything was going well on my system tour until there was some sort of traction supply failure when it all ground to a halt......... The headlights are still illuminated, but we sat there for about 15 minutes, well long enough for me to get off the 102Na and take this photo.

I see that they had a 119 out on the shuttle trains that year as well. From memory, it failed on the Sunday in 2006, but with that and various goings on in the Lichtenburg area on the Sunday morning, that day of the trip certainly had a "retro" feel to it.......

May 2006 saw a 5 day break in Berlin, the dates chosen to fit in with the Public open days at that years ILA show, held at Berlin Schönefeld Airport, though I also managed to add a few other attractions into the time I was there. On the first day, I flew from Stansted to Schönefeld Airport on the early morning Ryanair flight and after purchasing a Berlin ABC zone day ticket, headed off to Potsdam around the Outer Ring line, eventually ending up at Saarmund where I spent some time photographing passing trains...... I then headed into the centre of Berlin, where this construction work was underway at Alexanderplatz on a new tram routeing...... .....before heading out to Friedrichshagen which was where I was staying in a small Hotel. The area was served by the BVG tramway which, at that time, was still mainly using their refurbished Tatra cars..... The next day was a Friday and the one I was heading off to the ILA, but I took some early morning shots around Friedrichshagen first of all....... ...which also included the Schöneiche tramway with its ex Heidelburg cars........ ....before heading into Berlin to catch the train out to the ILA. A special service had been put on for the duration of the show to get visitors out to the Airport and this used a special platform on-site that was only used for the ILA shows. The service was free of charge as well, the stop in central Berlin being at Lichtenburg, where one of the 218 worked services is seen........ ...and again out at the ILA Airport platform.......... On the Sunday at least, one of the 218's had been replaced by something else, as you will see. The weather for the show was fairly indifferent and there were some very heavy downpours, which is when some of the exhibitors display tents came in very handy, but the flying side of things went ahead without much in the way of interruption. A reminder of things from the (then) recent past....... ......and a look into the future, with the A380 making one of its first public displays......