|
|
| Photos 2: Deutsche Bahn (10 pix) (653521) | |||
 |
|||
| Home > SubChat | |||
|
[ Read Responses | Post a New Response | Return to the Index ] |
|
||
|
Photos 2: Deutsche Bahn (10 pix) |
|
|
Posted by Deaks on Mon Jul 21 15:44:29 2008 Here's some more photos from my trip over the past fortnight. This time, Deutsche Bahn and similar. It is quite saddening, to see German railways and then compare to what we call our railways in Britain. But nevermind, here we go.... I started off in Dusseldorf. Here's a Bombardier TRAXX-type loco on a double-deck regional express train at one of the city's suburban stations. Even on a Sunday these run frequently, and are standing-rrom only by later on. These TRAXX things are very popular in Europe at the moment, and Today's Railways (Europe) magazine reckons that Bombardier are turning a new one out every single day, such is demand....  What a stroke of good fortune this was. This is a preserved DB 103-class loco, at the head of some special train of exceptionally well restored matching stock. It's at Dusseldorf Hbf. Wikipedia says that these have a one-hour rating of just under 14,000 hp. I knew they were absolute monsters, but I didn't realise to quite what extent.  Gotta put this one in to keep Monorail happy. They do have a graffiti problem in Germany but this was the worst I saw. It's a standard-issue S-Bahn unit, in Neuss Hbf.  I found a good spot at Koln West for watching the passing freight. Some of these antiquated 140 class locos are 50 years old, yet Railion is still overhauling them, such is demand for railfreight in Germany. Compare that with Britain, where we have less-than 10 years old electric locos having spent the past seven and a half years rotting in a yard somewhere.  From the Rhein-Ruhr area I then went on to Hamburg. Some of the interest here is provided by a couple of private operators, who have taken the tenders for operating local services from DB. Metronom operate several routes out of Hamburg, all with new locomotives and stock. This is a TRAXX diesel loco, shoving its train out of Hamburg Harburg towards Cuxhaven. Even on full power these diesels are very quiet....  ....which is a stark contrast to these. On full power they produce an almighty screaming noise. It's a Russian-built loco, one of hundreds built in Voroshilovgrad for East German railways. Some of these have been re-engined with 4000hp units now, I think.  This was originally a Norwegian Railways locomotive. I read a piece about these a while ago, they are kind of nomadic and have operated for several companies in three or four countries and are far from successful. Although hauling a few cars on local push-pull work would seem a little wasteful, these being very powerful. This and a few others work for Nord-Ostsee-Bahn, this one being at Hamburg-Altona.  Altona in Hamburg is departure point for a number of 'Autozug' trains. These consist of some sleeping cars and a load of car-carrying wagons at the back, and operate to Switzerland, Denmark, Italy and such. Upon arrival at Hamburg this little shunter detaches the car-carriers and pushes them into an adjacent platform. The method of loading and unloading is to just drive the cars straight across the station's waiting area....  Plenty of these can be seen in Hamburg, 1970s diesel-hydraulics. You can ride from Hamburg Hbf to Ahrensburg behind one (about 20 minutes) on a local authority transport day ticket of five euros, which is worth it for the hammering they get given by the engineer/driver. Seen recuperating for a few minutes at Ahrensburg.  Finally a Hamburg S-Bahn shot. I took this from the open-deck area at the City Hall. This type is recent, but it shares the S-Bahn with a late-70s design. Curiously enough none of the S-Bahn kit has corridor connections between the cars. |
|
|
|