germany

Picture of the Week: 03-2204 AT ARNSDORF

Alan Ledger May 18, 2023

Here we are on one of the Plan Dampfs organised in Germany where the state railways allows for four days preseved German steam engines to work normal service trains in different areas. In this case Dresden and east of. Here are two pictures taken, the first one of East German Pacific 4-6-2 03-2204 seen here storming into Arnsdorf station in the usual fashion with a last minute brake application working the 11.55 Dresden to Gorlitz train number N5111. The second

Picture of the week: East Germany 99-1777

Alan Ledger January 5, 2017

The East Germans had some really nice locations for a number of Narrow Gauge railways of which some are still in operation in various parts of the country today. Here we are well south of Karl-Marks-Stadt right by the Czechoslovakian border which runs along side the line for most of the way. It was one hell of a place to get to as we were only allowed to stay overnight in Dresden although there were plenty of hotels at the

Picture of the week: 50-485 Buch West Germany

Alan Ledger December 22, 2016

A class 50 2-10-0 50-485 is crossing a deep valley at Buch with a west bound freight train from Crailsheim to Heilbronn. If you look carefully the engine is attached to a tender with a guards compartment behind the coal space. These were not universal though. The engine also has a covered front valance below the smoke box down to the buffer beam, these were rare on this class in West Germany. We had come here to see the last

Picture of the Week: 001-234 Hof

Alan Ledger November 24, 2016

West German 4-6-2 2 cylinder class 001-234 stands alongside the shed at Hof its home depot in the summer evening sunshine after working the 16.34 from Neuenmarkt Wirzberg. This train was often worked by a 2-10-0 class 50. It will work the 19.12 later to Nurnberg. This was the last strong hold for the remaining few of this large class of engines and this one was the last of the class to be built. They worked all the express trains

Picture of the Week: 012-061 MEPPEN

Alan Ledger May 12, 2016

Another one of those West German 3 cylinder 4-6-2 pacific oil burners, 012-061. One of Rheine’s long standing allocations. It’s looking a bit worse for ware but still in good mechanical condition as the departure testified as always with these engines but not long to go before it will be finished and replace by diesels. lt’s the last time we would see them at work. Here it is standing at Meppen station with the southbound 07.50 Norddeich to Cologne. It

Picture of the Week: 012-101 Lathen

Alan Ledger February 4, 2016

This is what the Germans did with steam engines with some useful life left in them, they kept on running them, not like the British who wasted money and scrapped them long before their life time was up. This is 1972 four years after we had hurriedly done away with all of our engines. Here is a West German 3 cylinder oil burning Pacific 012-101 still at work on crack expresses storming along doing well over 70mph having climbed the

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: 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: German 2-10-2 tank 99-7244

Alan Ledger February 6, 2014

A winter theme. Ex East German metre gauge 2-10-2 tank 99-7244 gets away from Sorge with the 11.02 from Wernigerode to Benneckenstein in the Harz mountains of Germany. This was definitely not a station to get off at when under East German rule as the border with the west was very close by and you were told in no uncertain terms not to do so. The trains ran along side the fence and no mans land for some distance, it

Picture of the Week: West Germany

Alan Ledger December 9, 2013

2 pictures this week, same train. West German 012-055 oil burning 3 cylinder pacific from Rheine taken on a cold winters afternoon with the setting sun silhouetting the train. Here it is not long after passing Lathen, a small rural town in northern Germany, travelling at some speed with the 15.09 Norddeich to Cologne express. It wouldn’t be long before we set off back to our nice warm hotel by Lathen station for the night, having spent a cold winters

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