German Steam Trains

Picture of the Week: (EAST) GERMANY

Alan Ledger December 3, 2015

An East German light Pacific 003-2001 Runs along side the river Saal at Dornburg. This was running with a large number of other preserved engines during a German enthusiasts 4 day plan Damph (steam festival) that a group of us went over to see. They were allowed to work normal timetabled trains in place of German State Railway Diesels, could you imagine that happening in Britain? So here is the 11.49 Camberg to Saalfeld. Up above on the escarpment some

Picture of the Week: 01 1010

Alan Ledger November 19, 2015

3 cylinder East German Pacific 03-1010 with a full brake application taking place, the smoke off the brake blocks was tremendous on this hot summers evening (which drivers amongst you remembers them from old? happy days, can’t be done now though! TPWS won’t let you) as she storms into Naumberg for the booked stop working the 18.01 Halle to Saalfeld D express. Thick smoke trails behind the engine giving the neds hanging out the windows something to remember. No cinders

Picture of the Week: 003 131

Alan Ledger September 25, 2015

On one of our first trips to West Germany we managed to sneak round the steam workshops at Linen, closed for the weekend, on the Rhine Emden line in the north of the country and were surprised to see this engine undergoing overhaul and a long way from it’s home depot. We believed at the time they had all finished working in the west, 298 were built in the 1930s. This is a 2 cylinder light Pacific 003-131 which we

Picture of the week: 043-574 Lathen, West Germany

Alan Ledger July 23, 2015

A West German class 43 2-10-0 3 cylinder oil burner 043-574 with that deep distinctive 3 cylinder beat they had heads north for Emden docks with a train of loaded coal hoppers, these were big heavy trains and this one is seen between Haren and Lathen on the busy Munster, Rheine, Emden, Norddiech main line. Double heading was quite frequent on these trains. It was relatively flat in this area with very sandy soil, fir trees along with Oak and

Picture of the Week: 01-2137 Bautzen

Alan Ledger May 21, 2015

East German 2 cylinder 4-6-2 pacific 01 2137 gets underway from Bautzen east of Dresden on this glorious sunny morning with train D451, the overnight express from Frankfurt Main to Warsaw. You really had to be there to appreciate the noise it made departing with this heavy train made up of 12 coaches plus a dead class 132 diesel on the back climbing up the rising gradient towards Gorlitz and the Polish border, it was unbelievable and completely unexpected as

Picture of the Week: 99-1789 East Germany

Alan Ledger April 20, 2015

Way down in the southern part East Germany narrow gauge 2-10-2T 99-1789 has just left Neudorf station working to 14.52 to Cranzal. Neudorf is a small hamlet on the line to the ski resort of Kurort Oberwiesental on what was then the Czechoslovakian border at the time. Fortunately the sun has just come out. I stood there anxiously watching the sunlight pass over the landscape towards the railway hoping for it to reach and light up the subject in time,

Picture of the Week: 052-399

Alan Ledger March 19, 2015

Thought you might like another winter shot as this years season is drawing to a close although we could still yet have snow! Here is West German 2-10-0 052-399 working the 11.34 local train from Hof to Lichtenfels, west of Munchberg, high up in the eastern hills near to East Germany. This was taken on our cold weeks expedition to West Germany in 1973 mentioned before. Here we are plodding around in the deep snow getting more and more colder.

038-711 Picture of the week

Alan Ledger January 22, 2015

Ex Prussian P8 4-6-0 038-711 one of the last remaining three engines still in service at the time this photo was taken, February 1973. These three would be finished for good three months later in May. They were the last of a once 4000 strong class. The German railways gave them a great send off in the May I believe. Here it is seen leaving Freudenstadt with the 14.11 to Hausach which is near to the French border during an

Picture of the week: 038-039

Alan Ledger December 25, 2014

Merry Christmas! One of my favourite foreign steam engines, not big by any means but they were really photogenic. What lovely proportioned engines they were. Over 4000 were built from 1906. Here is an ex Prussian P8 4-6-0. West German class 038 number 039 (038-039) at rest on it’s over night stay inside the shed safely under cover at Freudenstadt, Wurttemberg deep in the Black Forest region of Germany. It’s fitted with an electric generator behind the chimney, then a

Picture of the Week: Saalfeld

Alan Ledger October 29, 2014

Another visit to East Germany and an early start from our hotel before returning for breakfast. This time oil burning Pacific 01-0517 is setting out from Saalfeld on a real grim and gloomy morning working the 06.58 to Leipzig via Gera. There was also a steam hauled service via Jena to Leipzig worked from Saalfeld. The steam shed is on the left with engines standing in the yard ready for work. The class of engines working these two services kept

Picture of the week: East German 2-10-0 Class 44

Alan Ledger July 31, 2014

A night time picture of an East German 3 cylinder oil fired 2-10-0 class 44. Here is 44-0233 standing at Saalfeld late at night with its burners roaring away getting steam up ready for the long climb out to the steel works at Unterwellanbourn on the line to Gera with a heavy freight of casting sand. There will be a banker at the rear for the long haul ahead. Tuesday 21st April 1981.

Picture of the week: West German 2-10-0, 052-817

Alan Ledger February 23, 2014

A West German 2-10-0, 052-817 is silhouetted against the late afternoon sunset on a bitter cold winters day, working the 16.43 Neunmarkt Wirsberg to Hof local passenger train. Heavy snow fell later overnight which made it extremely hard going on foot the next day getting out into the country side to take photographs. This is the Schife Ebene the German equivalent to the Lickey incline only with bends and situated in glorious rolling countryside, a walkers paradise. All the heavy

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