JAMIE'S RANDOM EUROPEAN AND REST OF THE WORLD RAILWAY PHOTOS.

[jamie92208]

Good evening all from a dark and cool Charente.  Over the past year and a half I've uploaded my UK, French and American railway photos.  It's now time to start on the rest f the world.   I've only got a few photos of several of the countries mentioned so it's not worth having a thread all to themselves.  What I'll do is to add them in chronological order rather than one country at a time.   I hope that you enjoy them.   We start off in Late July 1991 when we were on a family holiday at Bezier in Southern France.  One day we went down into Spain but the only chance that I got to see any Spanish Railways was this shot of  the Spanish station at the border on the Mediterranean  coast. Thanks to Northmoor I now know that this is Port Bou. It is connected to the French station of Cerberre  by a tunnel and there are tracks of both gauges through the tunnel plus a gauge changer for the Talgos.

By magic we now move on to 1992.  We were on a caravan holiday that had started in the south of France then come north to Thionville before heading in Germany and Oberlahnstein just south of Koblenz on the Rhine.  This is at Koblenz station.

And another.

Then one of the lovely class 103's.

And another at Koblenz.

And a train ready to head south along the Rhine valley.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll get myself organised and bring my notebooks over from the shed so that I can give a bit more detail.

 

Jamie

Edited April 4, 2022 by jamie92208

[PhilJ W]

Looking forward to more pics.

[jamie92208]

Good morning from a slightly frosty Charente.  The tardis is in the Rhine Valley, in Germany and it's mid August 1992.  I've found some notes from that holiday but not my Platform 5 German railways book so can't give full details yet.  From OberLahnstein we had a road trip up the lahn valley and stopped at a spa town and took a ride on this funicular.

 

For details of this part of the holiday I'm having to rely on my 30 yr old forgettery but we had a trip into Koblenz and went to the huge fortress on the east bank that overlooks the city, the Festung Ehrunbreitsing or something like that.  The western ramparts gave a good view of the valley.  The mainly freight lines on the east bank are below and the passenger lines are on the city side.

From here we set off home with a stop in Ghent.  I know that this was the 14th August as I've got my Benelux book.  This is a class 63 in a rather down at heel platform. I think that most of these have been withdrawn now.

Then a class 12 electric loco appeared.

And an EMU.

There was another class 12 lurking around.

Jamie

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by jamie92208

[Allegheny1600]

I’m really enjoying this photo essay, thanks Jamie.

[eastwestdivide]

55 minutes ago, jamie92208 said:

Koblenz and went to the huge fortress on the east bank that overlooks the city, the Festung Ehrunbreitsing

Ehrenbreitstein - you were close enough for asking directions! There's now a cable car to take you from the city side over the Rhine to the fortress side: https://www.seilbahn-koblenz.de/homepage.html

[brushman47544]

7 hours ago, jamie92208 said:

From her we set off home with a stop in Ghent.  I know that this was the 14th August as I've got my Benelux book.  This is a class 63 in a rather down at heel platform. I think that most of these have been withdrawn now.

Then a class 12 electric loco appeared.

 

Jamie

 

 

The 1200 series locos are/were dual voltage and at that time worked cross-border passenger services to Lille in France, where they needed 25kv. The service is now operated by EMUs

6300 locos worked two local branch services from Ghent to Eeklo (line 58) and Renaix (line 86). Again now worked by DMUs.

[Northroader]

It’s Port Bou, on the Spanish side, in your first post.

 

In the panoramic view of Koblenz, you’ll see the white boats at the landing stage on the opposite bank. These are part of the Koln Dusseldorfer fleet, who run a scheduled service up the Rhine, calling at all the towns along the bank, would recommend this strongly. We managed the Koblenz to Bacharach leg, then back on the train.

https://www.k-d.com/en/cruises/scheduled-cruises-on-the-rhine

Edited January 21, 2022 by Northroader

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, Northroader said:

It’s Port Bou, on the Spanish side, in your first post.

 

In the panoramic view of Koblenz, you’ll see the white boats at the landing stage on the opposite bank. These are part of the Koln Dusseldorfer fleet, who run a scheduled service up the Rhine, calling at all the towns along the bank, would recommend this strongly. We managed the Koblenz to Bacharach leg, then back on the train.

https://www.k-d.com/en/cruises/scheduled-cruises-on-the-rhine

Thanks for that. We did a cruise up past the Lorelei and back. We enjoyed it.  I spent a lot of time on the upper deck getting loco numbers from trains on both sides of the river.

 

Jamie

[Adam88]

There's an outpost of the German railway museum in Koblenz which was worth visiting.  One of my railway "bucket list" items is to visit the main one in Nuremberg when the travel situation eases.

[jamie92208]

Good morning from a frosty but bright Charente.  We got back safely from Ghent via Felixstowe.  The tardis then moved on to a quick booze trip to Belgium via the tunnel from a short break in the caravan on Romney marsh. I think that this was at Easter 1994. Whilst in Belgium we saw this tram on the coastal tramway.

I think that we had gone to Nieuport. This ws our only trip abroad that year. Our main holiday was in really foreign climes in Cornwall.  Anyway in 1995 I got the chance of a 3 day railpass for Belgium and went across from Manchester to Brussels, where I stayed for 2 nights.

This was at Brussels Midi on the 23rd May 1995. A dual voltage, 1500 and 3000v DC, class 11 used on the Brussels to Amsterdam service. Then a class 21 single voltage version of the class 11 and 12's with 1202 lurking in the background.

From Brussels I first headed down to Tournai where these TGV's on the service to Brussels were crossing.

Then an SNCF railcar crept in from across the border.

Then it was off to Ostend where the trams were passing the front of the station.

Jamie

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon from a bright and sunny but cool Charente.   The tardis is still in Oostende and it's the 23rd May 1995. There was a ot of activity on the tramway, known I think as De Ligne.

Another tram came past.

And one in an EU inspired livery.

Then back onto the station and one of their class 82 shunters, 8241 was in the station.

Then to Brugge where I saw another class 21, 2147 on a nice short freight.

And an AM75 unit also I think at Brugge.

Time to move on.

 

Jamie

 

Edited April 4, 2022 by jamie92208

[Ian Morgan]

On 21/01/2022 at 22:59, Adam88 said:

There's an outpost of the German railway museum in Koblenz which was worth visiting.  One of my railway "bucket list" items is to visit the main one in Nuremberg when the travel situation eases.

I visited there just before the big fire. I have to say, I preferred Nördlingen, especially when they are running trains on the nearby freight-only? line.

[eastwestdivide]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

the tramway, known I think as De Ligne

De Lijn is the pan-Flemish bus and tram authority/company thing (corresponding companies TEC in Wallonia and MIVB-STIB in Brussels).

The tramway is also known as the Kusttram = Coastal Tram. Great fun to ride on.

More in this thread: https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/38438-belgian-coastal-tramway/

 

[PhilJ W]

Bruges and Ostend are great places to visit. The first time I visited Belgium was about 1973 but I was only passing through on my way to Germany. The next time was about ten years later when my parents booked a Christmas in Ostend and asked me if I would like to go with them. The hotel was rather sparse but clean and with excellent food. Biggest surprise to me though was when we entered the bar sitting there was a couple of friends of mine from the club in Romford where we were members. They told us we should try the Trappist beer, (just as well we weren't driving). The hotel catered for the Brits, they even had the TV's tuned into Anglia and BBC east of England. They don't have Boxing day in Belgium so on that day we took a coach trip to Bruges, a fantastic city to visit. I have been back several times since, a fantastic country to visit.

Edited January 23, 2022 by PhilJ W

[Adam88]

11 hours ago, Ian Morgan said:

I visited there just before the big fire. I have to say, I preferred Nördlingen, especially when they are running trains on the nearby freight-only? line.

 

I was taking advantage of the fact that my work took me to Koblenz so I tacked a bit of leave.  I also crossed the Rhine to the big castle in Jamie's picture and took a train/boat trip up the Moselle valley.  Nowadays many of these trips have been replaced by on-line meet-ups which are nowhere near such fun.

[Ian Morgan]

7 hours ago, Adam88 said:

 

I was taking advantage of the fact that my work took me to Koblenz so I tacked a bit of leave.  I also crossed the Rhine to the big castle in Jamie's picture and took a train/boat trip up the Moselle valley.  Nowadays many of these trips have been replaced by on-line meet-ups which are nowhere near such fun.

 

I was meaning I preferred Nördlingen to Nürnberg.

 

[jamie92208]

Good morning from a bright and sunny but cool Charente.   Sadly I've only been to Germany once so have never had the chance to go to any of their museums.  However the tardis is still in Belgium on the 23rd May 1995. I had caught  train from Ghent back to brussels Midi and 2203 was in the station.

A TGV set was in the station waiting to head back towards Paris.

Then one of SNCF's famous 40XXX class came through light engine.  These are much longer than the other Casse Nez classes, presumably to give enough space for the 4 voltage equipment and 4 pantographs.  All done before the days of modern power electronics.

An 11 class came in from Amsterdam.

A closer shot of the TGV.

And one of the older series of Belgian Electrics. Enlarging the photo says that it's Class 15, 1502 dating from 1966, but there seem to be 3 pantographs.

Jamie

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by jamie92208

[31A]

SNCB 1502 was also a multi voltage loco, able to run off three systems (1500v & 3000v DC, and 25kV AC), for Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam and Paris-Liege trains.  I didn't realise they had three pantographs though (the Platform 5 Benelux stock book indicates that there were two, one for DC and one for AC).

[jamie92208]

34 minutes ago, 31A said:

SNCB 1502 was also a multi voltage loco, able to run off three systems (1500v & 3000v DC, and 25kV AC), for Paris-Brussels-Amsterdam and Paris-Liege trains.  I didn't realise they had three pantographs though (the Platform 5 Benelux stock book indicates that there were two, one for DC and one for AC).

They may have two 1500v pantographs to reduce current draw when starting.  

 

Jamie

[brushman47544]

1 hour ago, jamie92208 said:

A TGV set was in the station waiting to head back towards Paris.

 

This photo also has a Class 1600 loco in shot. This was another small class of multi-voltage locos (four in fact - as per 1500 plus 15Kv for Germany), which normally worked  the pre-THALYS Ostend - Brussels - Cologne services, for a time alongside the SNCB 1800 casse-nezs (sisters of the SNCF 401xx locos).

 

Edited January 24, 2022 by brushman47544

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon from a very bright and sunny Charente.  The tardis though is still firmly in 1995. I was still at Brussels Midi and it's 23rd May . I caught this class 18, the Belgian equivalent of the French 40000's. I think that this is 1802 heading towards Paris.

the next departure was a Eurostar heading out to London. Another one was in the platform.

meanwhile a string of 2 car EMU's was away to my left in 3 different liveries.

Then a class 25 appeared.  I do like the styling of these and the numerals. Apparently the livery relates to their former duties on Brussels Amsterdam services.

then another appeared being towed by a class 80 shunter.

I had then caught a train ad think that this is at Schaarbeek with a class 26 heading through on a passenger working.

Jamie

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by jamie92208

[jamie92208]

Good evening from a rather grey and cold place.  However the tardis is still in Belgium on 24th  May 1995. That morning I headed down to Charelois and this 0-6-0 no 41 196 was on display. Built in 1910.

Also there Class 51 5149 heading underneath the motorway flyover.

Also there  was this older AM54 EMU dating from only 2 yrs after I was born.

Then I changed and headed via Namur down past Stockem yard to Luxembourg where there was one of their class 3600 flatirons, the same as the French 12000 class.

There was also one of CFL's class 2000 EMU's. These are the same as SNCF Class 11500.

And waiting on the centre road was an SNCF Class 15XXX, 15043.

Jamie

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by jamie92208

[Re6/6]

Lovely stuff Jamie. Many thanks for showing us.

[jamie92208]

Good afternoon from a very chilly Charente.  The tardis though is still set at 24th May 1995 in Luxembourg. One of their shunters was in the station.  I think it's a 900 class that's been renumbered.

One of their overhead line inspection trolleys no 1062.

And a rather poor photo of one of their P Way shunters 1033.

Then a ride back to Namur with a DMU in the platform.

Another shot of the DMU as we passed through Libramont. I think this was on a working from Bastogne.

At Namur I changed into a Liege bound service that follows a river.  The drier was kind enough to invite me into the cab for the ride. As we were in Wollonia I was glad that I could speak enough French to natter to him.

Jamie

Edited April 6, 2022 by jamie92208

[Allegheny1600]

I had a few hours spotting on Luxembourg city station a few years back.

My wife and I had gone to Belgium for her to have some medical treatment and she told me to go and amuse myself trainspotting. However she didn’t expect me to jump on a train to a different country so when she rang me and wanted me to come hold her hand, she wasn’t best pleased!

 I made it back just in time to see her that day but she never lets me forget about it.

But for that few hours, I was blissfully happy and I hardly put my camera down.

Brussels Midi was good but Luxembourg was fantastic.

 

Thanks for the great pictures!