Catch them before they're gone

[ajrm]

Evening working is the 1701 to Saint-Dié-des-Vosges TER 831830 (6 car) and the other diagram is 1620 Strasbourg - Lauterbourg TER 830726, which returns as the 1740 from Lauterbourg and then does a further return trip (3 coaches).

Annoyingly dud locos for me, as when I did these trains in November 2024, they were locos I'd both had some 10+ years earlier on the (now long gone) 1705/1805 Transilien P workings from Paris Est to La Ferté-Milon.

Brilliant! Thank you.

 

[peteb]

The Marseille to Nice TER still have some loco hauled corail sets, eg: today's (17/03/2025) train TER 17489, 1657 Marseille to Nice, load 7 corail. I understand these may cease in June........

Also in France, fans of rural routes may be interested to learn that the demolition gangs finally seem to have turned their attentions to the many station yards which have survived more or less intact into the 21st century. In particular there's a gang out this week between Moulins and Paray-le-Monial on the Lyon to Tours TER route. Points being straight-railed, sidings dug up, piles of timber sleepers everywhere. Some rural routes still retain jointed track, telegraph poles, water towers, yard cranes etc. So do visit central France this year before more if it goes.

Felletin, terminus of a route from Limoges via Guéret is due to close in August and several lines limp on with one through train a day. Worth a visit is the Tours to La Roche sur Yon route, over 100 miles of single track via Bressuire. Again some intact infrastructure, jointed rails, semaphore signals etc.

Update: did Felletin this week. Interestingly the line seemed perfectly ok, few speed restrictions. Mind you there were only 3 on the afternoon train that went to Felletin, and 2 on the return. Train obviously gets much busier from Gueret. It didn't help that SNCF had no timetable posted at Felletin, but there was a detailed bus timetable! Also a bus leaves Felletin at 1630 to Limoges which is faster than the 1642 train.so renders that surplus to requirements for most folks. But Felletin is well worth a visit, not on a Monday, but other days there's little artisanal shops, a church and medieval streets. The 1.5 hrs is enough for a wander. I'd suggest an afternoon trip from Limoges though I continued to Montluçon (very interesting old town) on the evening service from Gueret.

 

[NCT]

A video from the excellent Bahnwelten on the remaining years of Tatra operation on those East Germany tram networks.

I didn't know T4s were still running in Leipzig. Hopefully I can still catch some this August.

 

[alex397]

I didn't know T4s were still running in Leipzig. Hopefully I can still catch some this August.

Be aware that they may not operate during school holidays.
I made a trip around eastern Germany during the Easter holidays in 2024, with the main aim being the Leipzig Tatras. Unfortunately none of them operated in Leipzig during my 3 days there which was frustrating - I put this down to the timetables being less frequent during school holidays and so the Tatras were just not needed. Soon after my visit when the school holidays ended, they were photographed running again!

 

[The exile]

Be aware that they may not operate during school holidays.
I made a trip around eastern Germany during the Easter holidays in 2024, with the main aim being the Leipzig Tatras. Unfortunately none of them operated in Leipzig during my 3 days there which was frustrating - I put this down to the timetables being less frequent during school holidays and so the Tatras were just not needed. Soon after my visit when the school holidays ended, they were photographed running again!

The Saxon summer holidays this year run from 28th June to 9th August.

 

[NCT]

I was last in Leipzig in October 2022 and didn't see any T4s. This time I'll be using Leipzig as a base with the main focus being Zwickau and Gera, then onto Plauen. Some Tatra action in Leipzig will be icing on the cake of course.