Spoorslag '70's semi-random Trips

2018-11-17
This was a day of a model railway trade show in Köln and @Fireless and my father wanted to visit it. As I could take my father along on my ticket and it would save some money, I was very glad that the unusal "Südbrücke" (a bridge to over the Rhein in the southern suburbs of Köln) had a regular regional service over the weekend (but only in one direction). Thus the three of us walked to the usual "delightful" Buchholz, for the 0800 as far as Derendorf, formed of 422037+422045, changing for 4222023+422034 on the next Köln stopper as far as Deutz. From there, I had a nice day to spent "down south" and joined the Dostos behind 111095 to Troisdorf, 423045+423191 to Köln/Bonn Flughafen as a time wasting move before 425106 to Ehrenfeld, via Köln-Süd. Instead of hanging around on the slightly grotty light rail, I figured out that I could travel to Solingen by bus, and boarded 423038+423043 to Köln Hbf for a rather nice Lion's City (Wiedenhoff 328) all the way to Solingen, Graf-Willhelm-Platz. It would be rude not to travel on a trolley bus in Solingen and the honor fell to 252 for the journey to Solingen Hbf (or -Ohligs in old money). After a short wait, 1442362 arrived as the next Köln stopper, and after leaving it at Deutz and waiting for the other two, we joined duds for the day (!) 423045+423191 back to Köln's Hbf for 146270 to Duisburg and 422049+422031 down to Buchholz.

It's again been a couple of rather busy months school (I did get my Abitur) and life (I applied for University and will be moving down to München at the very start of October) wise and somehow I did not come around to writing up loads of trips.

Anyways, let's finish of the last year, where the timetable change on 2018-12-09 saw the introduction of the 462 (Desiro HC) EMUs on RE11 workings (since June they also work RE5s) and I could not resist travelling on a set on the first day and took 422081+422061 to Düsseldorf, 462001+462006 to Essen Hbf and 422013 back to Duisburg.

Next thing was a trip to Belgium, scoring loads of lines in the Flemish part.
2018-12-29 saw me taking 6026 from Breedene Campings to Oostende and after a short stroll round the town a triple set of Desiros 08133+08137+08120 to Gent-Sint-Pieters waiting for 463 on a semi-fast Brussels which I took as far as Denderleeuw (which seems to has not seen much attention since the 1970s or 80s, in line with many Belgian stations) and 1826 on an IC back to Oostende via Kortrijk. The trains consisted of 9 M6s which did not fit any platform between Kortrijk and Brugge (excl) and where rather sparesly populated. After some waiting around at Oostende, a driver turned up and just took the spare tram standing on the middle road instead of the one arriving, so 6001 was the ride back.
2018-12-30 was spent with Fireless and started on 6016 to Oostende, 1861+1823 to Brussel-Zuid and 08019+08186 on the Antwerpen stopper, dropping us off at Mortsel-Deurnesteenweg, which is served on sundays only! After spending some time (the platform took me about 4minutes to walk - it's rather long) at what is Belgiums least used stations (during the week at least), we boarded 110442 on a number 52 service to Berchem, 7127 to Sint-Katelijne, walked over to Keizerstraat and took 7140+7067 to MAS, and 7102 to Kinepolis for a nice Burger King lunch, heading back on 7054 the same set on the 7 as before to Meirbrug, an extremly busy 7232 to Astrid, 7241 to Schijnpoort and 7263 to Centraal. 490+485 to Gent and 1879 in front of a set of I11s and some I10s to Oostende, where after waiting 25 minutes (on an every 15 minutes service) without any information, we decided to take the bus back, which brought us on a far more comfortable (legroom wise) VDL Citea (5989) back to Breedene.