The Flickr Pociä…G Image Generatr

The iconic 194 158 has had a remarkable history so far. At this moment the loco is active with the Museumseisenbahn Hamm. On the 27th of november 2021 the ‘crocodile’ made a trip to Aachen and back for Hamm’ heritage railway club. So from The Netherlands we drove all the way to Hamm. The morning started with bad weather, giving us all kinds of weather conditions from snow in the early morning ‘till a bright sunny sky in the afternoon. There was still a lot of overcast when we arrived in Hamm. We had decided on a spot to make a picture just outside Hamm when the train departed there. Sadly we had problems getting there and we eventually gave up on that spot. So we quickly diverted to another spot further on the line near Nordbögge. We arrived there less than 3 minutes before the train arrived. Sadly this wasn’t enough time to get my pole out of the car and get my camera a bit highr. Nevertheless I can’t complain. Yet another photo of this classic locomotive.

When I woke up at the VSC near Marble Arch my plan was to drop off my mum near the embankment or otherwise at Victory station, where my photo target would be headed for. But during the short trip from Marble Arch to Victoria DBC had already brought the Pullman train towards Victoria. So no photo from Ebury Bridge. Luckily the train would return in the late afternoon. So hours later I stood ready in poor light conditions in order to get a picture of the 67024 arriving with the Belmond Pullman train.

The 194 158 was build in 1944 and entered service on the 2nd day of 1945. For over 40 years in was in service with the german railways. In 1988 it retired and ended up at a scrapyard in northern Germany, just near the border with The Netherlands. Almost 10 years after it’s retirement it was bought by Barbara Pirch (a wonderful lady who has done a lot for this loco series and other people, go google her to read more), who brought to loco back to life. After that to loco was a remarkable sight on the german tracks as she kept the loco in working order and used it as freight locomotive for her own little company Rail4U. Although she is retired now, this over 75 year old locomotive is still active. It runs now as a museum locomotive, in which capacity it hauled a train with visitors and railway enthousiasts towards the city of Aachen for the yearly christmas market.

I was planning to go to this spot since I heard this train would run. However during the week before this day I got my doubts whether I should go by public transport like usually. I have to use the train for my daily commute to work and especially during the day and evening I see less and less people keeping themself to the measures against covid. Most people in the train no longer use facemasks, even though it’s still mandatory. So I decided to go by car. During the evening before I’d go I made plans to go with someone I trust and drive together. And while making plans we found out we could actually make more than one photo. So early in the morning we drove through snowy conditions towards the city of Hamm, which we arrived just in time between Hamm and Bönen. Leaving straight after the photo, leaving 3 unfortunate kids who wanted a lift, but couldn’t fit on our fully loaded rear seat, we went to Süggerath. We arrived slightly better for time there, getting some freight traffic on photo and eventually the 194 158 on a spot that’s seldomly visited by other photographers.

*although I did use my pole here, I only put it up for like 3 or 4 meters. So with a ladder you get the same perspective. You're near some power lines up here, so I didn't want to put my pole up more than needed.

After the TSP’s ‘photo safari’ had ended, TUC-rails balast train that had been used was brought back towards Braibant. Even though the photo safari had ended there was a large number of people who went to the viaduct just outside Gemenne. One big guy even managed to get right in front of everyone in a desperate, but failing, attempt to get the driver to stop right here. Nevertheless there were a few more quick stops on the last couple of 100 yards before the train would get to the mainline.

I was in London for Remembrance Sunday, escorting my mum and drink some beers with some old friends. After leaving the parade kinda early I hurried to Wimbledon to make a picture of a Belmond Pullman train, which would run from London Victoria to Shalford. Sadly I shouldn’t think of a better spot, especially since I wanted to get to our familiar pub asap. However since the train passed at less than 25 mph here it was great in combination with the dark weather this day.

It has just been winter time for a couple of days when I was in the area of Hamont. I had gotten a nice train on photo near Mol earlier that day, quite unexpected until a few hours before, and was on my way home. Since I had to wait for an hour I decided to try out some photo’s at the station on Hamont. Around 6pm just before the sun had fully set I was able to get this 2145 with a rake of M5 carriages on photo.

After standing still during the corona crisis, the train is accepting guests once again and touring the country. Now it’s the 102001, the former 1835, in front of the train. During this day the 1824 was also on this train, in order to haul it from the other side when it had to turn around during this day’s route. The train is here ready to depart from Haarlem for a dinner that would bring its guests past Leiden, The Hague, Gouda, Woerden and Alphen aan de Rijn.

My trip to Poland was organized in order to shoot some pictures of the former dutch rail units DH1 and DH2, best known as ‘Wadloper’ in The Netherlands. In the end I spend only slightly less than 2 days trying to get them on photo. But my trip wasn’t only about getting them on photo, it was also to make one more trip with them before they would be phased out in Poland. Because their service might also come to an end in Poland. The depot in Chojnice already got quite a few modern units and even though they might be in service for a while it might be my last chance to get them on photo on at least this line while having some time to travel with one. After travelling to Chojnice with the SN83-004, the former NS 3219, I made some photo’s there. Among which the SN83-004 leaving for Tczew.

Since late 2018 the DM’90 units have retired with the NS. After spending quite a few month on Nijmegen’s yard, they were finally transported to the Amsterdam harbor to await their fate. Back then it was still uncertain whether they would be scrapped or find a second life abroad. This photo was made in Teuge just before the Teuge curve as one of the first few transports of units went to the Amsterdam harbor. Eventually some of them got a second life on The Netherlands or Poland as SD85 long distance units (to be used for TLK light intercity trains).

Every year I’m at least twice in the UK. In 2019 I was a couple of times in the UK, mostly near London and Oxford. My first visit of the year was in London. The weather wasn’t great: so I spend a lot of time in the Underground and at the club (VSC), where I also spend the night. Like usually when I’m in London I spend most my time south of the Thames. Somehow I like the 3rd railed lines more than the ugly electrified tracks in the north. One of the short trips brought me to Clapham, where I got this 66613 on photo. I got no idea any more what train it hauled back then, but I’m sure I can find the working in one of my old notes one day.

While at work in the morning I was considering what to do in the afternoon. The weather was quite nice and I had a few hours until I was expected home, as I only had to work for a few hours due to some overtime earlier this week. Eventually it became the diverted freight trains between Blerick and the western part of the country. As Eindhoven was shut down for maintenance, there were a few freight trains diverted over the normally quiet ‘Maaslijn’. Or I should say: freight train. As there was quite a few delays, causing only one to turn up. Sadly tho an earlier service with the 203 101 got some problems and was heavily delayed. Luckily it eventually passed during the last hour of daylight with a train loaded with containers for Blerick’s terminal.

Since 2018 the Bentheimer Eisenbahn runs passenger trains again. The RB56 currently runs between Bad Bentheim and Neuenhaus, which will eventually be extended to Emlichheim and probably Coevorden. The railway line is already there, but is currently only used for freight traffic. In order to run passenger trains the northern part of the line still has to be modernized.
Since I was already in the neighbourhood I also photographed one of their passenger trains, a Corada LINT unit numbered VT113, while waiting for my train to my next location.

Every year during the first weekend of september the VSM heritage railway organizes an big event called “Terug naar Toen” (english: back to the past), during which they try to get all their trains running on their line. In 2018 it was the 2459 that hauled their freight train from Apeldoorn VAM to Loenen.

My original plan was spending the night in my hotel and get up early in the morning to head to my flight home. Yes, after going all this way here by train I decided on taking the short route home. No Intercity Premium or even Sparpreis tickets, but taking a plane home. I planned on being home within 3 hours after boarding, rather than spending 18 hours in trains. However I was informed that the security line at Gdańsk Airport could be quite long in the morning. So I decided on getting to Gdańsk late in the evening and spending some time in the city before heading to the airport during the night. So after I got in Gdańsk by TLK from Starogard Gdański I made use of my time there to get a few trains on photo. On of those was this modernized EU07 locomotive. It had just arrived late from an unknown destination and was heading for Gdynia. Less than 20 secondes after stopping it went on again, giving me just enough time to make this picture.

Almost every years there are a couple of heritage organisations visiting with their trains or loco’s. In 2018 it was Rail Experts with their back then recently painted 6703. Build for the NMBS in 1961 and originally numbered 212 001 (renumbereed to 6391 in 1971), it found its way to the former dutch operator ACTS in 1999. Almost 20 years later it was acquired by Rail Experts, whom repainted the loco back to its 1999 ACTS livery. Soon after the loco found its way to the ZLSM heritage railway as a guest there, where it among other trains hauled this short freight train between Simpelveld and Wijlre.

On the 15th october the first Green City Trip sleeper train departed from The Netherlands. Sold as a 5-day trip, the traveller gets a trip of less than 96 hours during which he/she stays less than 60 hours in a european city. Travellers can depart from Breda, Dordrecht, Rotterdam, The Hague, Amsterdam, Utrecht and Arnhem. Therefor the train departs empty from Eindhoven late in the afternoon in order make its stops. On its way from Eindhoven to Breda I was able to make to make this photo in the middle of the city of Tilburg. A little bit of luck, as I got the schedule of the train only minutes before I arrived in Tilburg after work.

I considered standing a bit higher to get a better view of Tilburg station and of the rear of the train, however because I the shadows I decided to stand lower and have a cable-free sight on the loco.

Although we had some plans to get away by car as a family and on our way get some trains on photo, because of our child we stayed at home. In the afternoon we had to do some groceries and (lucky me) a freight train would pass through town. So before we went to the supermarket we made a stop outside town so I could get a photo. Right on time the train approached. Normally this train wouldn’t come anywhere close to Wijchen. Its normal route goes from Coevorden to Kijfhoek via Zwolle, Amersfoort, Weesp, Breukelen, Gouda and Rotterdam. But due to a track closure between Zwolle and Amersfoort the train turned around at ’t Harde and went via Zwolle (a 2nd time), Deventer, Nijmegen, ’s-Hertogenbosch and Tilburg to Kijfhoek. It might even be the last time it will take that route, as this service will stop at the end of this year. And with that it may even be the last 1700 hauling a regular container train.

After the train left Emmerthal we went in pursuit. Because the loco has to switch end at Hammeln we had some time to catch up. The station of Rinteln would be one of the stations the train would pass and so would ours. In fact, since we had to go past Ibbenburen to get home all stations lay on our route. So we got off at Rinteln and hurried to a good spot. It ought to arrive here less than 5 minutes after we had. But it didn’t. It should have arrived here to await for local passenger service (RB77) for almost 10 minutes so it could pass on thie single-track railway line. But HVLE ran late. So after we took a photo as it entered Rinteln we hurried to the other side of the station before it took off again. We were in luck, the train was still waiting. But as we unpacked our gear the train got cleared to move off again. The train was already further than my young fellow photographer expected, so we had to find a new angle to get it on photo. As the train very slowly creeped forward I quickly passed the level crossing in hope to find a spot to get a photo. My fellow photographer may have been too young or too inexperienced to quickly react and didn’t see this angle, one I thought was quite nice with the level crossing guard’s station. This was the first shot I got off. The train was still in front of the semaphore, though barely. I got a few other shots, but thought the train wasnt that close to the camera I did like this one the most.

The biggest loads on the private tracks of RWE’s Rheinbraun network are hauled by their custom-build electric single-cab locomotives. They are mostly known for hauling lignite on their network between the open mines, power plants and other processing plants. Therefor they even have special pantographs aimed diagonally, so they can run through special loading area’s where the loading shutes and powerlines have to be combined. But besides the coal train they also haul various gravel and sand trains, in order to fill up area’s in the mines.

For this operation RWE has 2 types of electric locomotives in service. The EL1 series is the most common one. 107 of these locomotives were once build between 1954 and 1965. Only 25 of these machines are still in service (in 2020, but strangely enough there were only 21 active in 2012), although another 15 are kept in reserve. The remainder of their electric fleet are EL2000 type locomotives. Build in 1999 in order to make the lignite operation more environment friendly (RWE’s statement, not mine), they did not came in service until 2006. Only 10 of these slightly heavier and more powerful loco’s were build with numbers 501 to 510.

During the peak of autumn I was able to shoot some photo’s at the Neurath powerplant. EL2000 locomotive 506 passed in front of my camera just as the first rays of sunshine managed to get full view on the powerplant. The 506 had just unloaded some coal in at the power plant’s bunker.

Less than a week after I made a photo here of the daily Zinc train towards Antwerp, I drove up here again. The very same train, the only difference was that this time I was prepared to put my photo-pole up to snap a picture from a higher angle. That this time there were 2 locomotives hauling the train was a welcome extra. Both daily zinc trains, one to Balen and one to Budel, depart during the night. Two loco’s haul the train loaded with zinc ore towards Balen and then return to Antwerp to pick up the train for Budel. Once that one arrives in Budel a single locomotive goes back to Balen to pick up the unloaded train for its return journey to Antwerp. The other one stays in Budel for to haul the empty train towards Antwerp. Although when saying empty: since RTX took over the returning train actually gets some of its wagons loaded with zinc oxide. Not a really heavy load.

But during this friday there was no service on Balen. Due to the high energy prices Nyrstarhas lowered it’s zinc production. Therefor there’s less need for zinc ore. Since the requirement of a daily shipment of ore fluctuates already at the Balen plant this results in some services being scrapped, which started a week later with the services to Budel. So since there was no train to Balen the two former-NS 6400 loco’s that were required to haul the train to Budel stayed on the train for its return journey to Antwerp. When I took this photo the train was only a few yards away from it’s final destination for the day. The day and week being almost over anyway, as this was shot during the last moments of daylight. Next monday the whole routine would start over again.