Richard's Trip Reports

[Kite159]

I’m doing a Thames Branches rover next Saturday to try and get some HSTs, and maybe an 800 if I come across one, so the GWR bit was an interesting read.

Next Saturday as in the 30th December?

Just remember it appears to be a reduced timetable from Paddington due to the stoppers running on the main lines

 

[Andy Pacer]

Next Saturday as in the 30th December?

Just remember it appears to be a reduced timetable from Paddington due to the stoppers running on the main lines

Yes, 30th. Just an excuse to get on the rails with cheap Virgin tickets from Rugby.

Thanks for the heads up - if it doesn’t look that great I may do some Oyster trips on National Rail instead.

 

[Cowley]

Blimey rg that is some bad attitude from the VTEC ticket inspectors. You can just imagine those two spending all day moaning to each other about the passengers...
Stuff like that puts me off rail travel a bit, although I’ve had good experiences with staff in the West Country over the years.

 

[rg177]

Blimey rg that is some bad attitude from the VTEC ticket inspectors. You can just imagine those two spending all day moaning to each other about the passengers...
Stuff like that puts me off rail travel a bit, although I’ve had good experiences with staff in the West Country over the years.

Trust me, they do- I had one first class crew try to prevent me getting into first class with the comical line of "Standard class is that way, sir" to which I responded "that's nice!" and carried on walking. They refused any weekend upgrades (weird when the carriage was empty), did the bare minimum of service after Doncaster where I boarded than spent the rest of the journey complaining about how much they hated passengers, and how "anybody getting at York can naff off if they think they're getting anything" and how "most passengers take the p!$s" which was wonderful to listen to! Complaint to VTEC didn't actually get much of a response, clearly this was seen as normal behaviour.

On a more positive note, I think Tech may well like my plans for Summer 2018, Interrail from Oslo to Lisbon via Stockholm, Copenhagen, Hamburg, Berlin, Gdansk, Warsaw, Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest, Zagreb, Ljublijana, Munich, Milan, Turin, Monaco, Nice, Marseille, Montpelier, Barcelona, Madrid and Porto, anyone? (Rough routing)

Yes...it's completely nuts and requires me to start saving right now but now that i've dipped my toe in Europe, it's only fair I take the madness of my intense ALRs and shove one onto the continent!

 

[rg177]

^The above plan has contracted into going to Madrid only and not venturing into Portugal but now includes a detour to Toulouse. Flights booked now, all systems go, 24 days of heaven!

So, it's a Happy New Year to you all and two days to go until the Benelux Interrail, plan looking something like this:

-Manchester-Cologne-Utrecht-Gouda-Rotterdam
-Rotterdam-Amsterdam-Den Haag-Utrecht-North Holland bashing in the evening-Amsterdam
-Amsterdam-Antwerp-Ghent-Kortrijk-Ostend-Kusttram to Knokke-Brussels-Leuven/Louvain
-Leuven-Hasselt-Liege-Namur-Charleroi-Brussels-London St Pancras Intl

 

[87electric]

Enjoy your trip.
Hope you get some NS Class 1700 locos on your bash.

 

[Techniquest]

Holy mackeral! Your InterRail plans look awesome and I am insanely jealous!

 

[cactustwirly]

I've got a less adventurous interrail planned for June, mainly London - Munich - Budapest - Sargans - Innsbruck - Schwartzach St Veit - Klagenfurt - Vienna - Prague - Munich.

 

[rg177]

Sooo my actual plans panned out as follows (on the main bashing days)

Rotterdam-Den Haag-Leiden-Amsterdam-Amersfoort-Arnhem-Deventer-Apeldoorn-Utrecht-S'Hertogenbosch-Eindhoven-Maastricht-Liege-Leuven-Mechelen-Antwerp-Breda-Den Haag-Zaandam

Zaandam-Amsterdam-Antwerp-Leuven-Ottignies-Brussels-Ostend-De Pinte-Deinze-Brussels-Leuven

Leuven-Blankenberge-Kusttram to Knokke-Gent-Kortrijk-Oudenaarde-De Pinte-Denderleeuw-Oudenaarde-Ronse-Oudenaarde-Zottegem-Geraardesbergen-Melle-Brussels-London St Pancras

It's been insane. Netherlands is my new favourite country to be honest. Just enjoying Standard Premier on an E300 before part 1 of 2 of my European January adventure concludes.

Tuesday- Berlin.

 

[47403]

Enjoy Richard. Sounds Awesome. I'll look forward to the reports.
As for VTEC, I'm surprised to hear that, shocking attitude that mind but I've never ever had a problem with them, on the occasions I've travelled first class the service was excellent.

 

[rg177]

Feature- Rail in Landkreis Prignitz

I don't have the time at the minute to do a full set of reports for Europe so in the meantime I'm likely going to do a few picture heavy features on some more interesting sections of my adventures.

Landkreis Prignitz is a rather rural and quirky part of the Berlin-Brandenburg region, set towards the north, and home to some rather odd and ramshackle railways, operated by Hanseatische Eisenbahn (HANS) and centered around the town of Pritzwalk, with services to Meyenburg and Neustadt as well as a stub to Pritzwalk West (once part of a longer line to Putlitz which seems to have been recently closed).

The company itself runs a really random selection of stock including a load of ancient railbuses (a photo also exists of a German liveried Class 66 hauling two carriages around on their services) and and a double decker bus converted for rails (Class VT670).

The timetable is incredibly sporadic, with Meyenburg seeing just 5tpd each way on Weekdays and 3tpd on weekends, and the stub to Pritzwalk West seeing just a 07:37 arrival and 13:46 and 15:46 departures on Weekdays only, making actually visiting the station a little difficult.

This is the section on which I started, arriving on the 13:19 ex Berlin-Falkensee after a two hour journey on 648111/648112 (with one unit detaching somewhere en route) through a rural landscape of villages and forests (and a lot of request stops!) and being surprised by how empty everything felt.

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

See, Pritzwalk felt like somewhat of a timewarp. All of the roads were still cobbled. It was like I was back in East Germany, circa 1989. It felt a little weird as I made the walk to Pritzwalk West for the 13:46 departure down a rather forgotten looking dirt track with the line to Wittenberge on my right (where my BR648 continued to) which seemed to also house the Pritzwalk West stub, which was, surpisingly modern, having been opened in 2007 (seemingly as a school halt in order to replace a shack on the closed Putlitz branch).

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

504002, in all of its tiny glory, sauntered in at 13:49 and scooped up the three of us before wildly bouncing down to Pritzwalk once more before turning off, having picked up about 5 schoolkids, and skipping all stations on the branch (Pritzwalk-Hainholz is closed over Winter, and Falkenhagen/Brugge are request stops that look distinctly abandoned). It was a bit of a creepy run up the line too as the fog was set in for the day, making things exceptionally cold as I faced the fact that there was a 30 minute turnaround (where the driver shunts the unit off the platform and sits in it).

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

I ended up walking to the world's emptiest Netto (Seriously, I was the only customer) and back through the completely deserted Meyenburg to the part derelict station which was full of sad looking stock:

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

A puzzled looking traveller turned up and looked at the foggy, ramshackle assortment of stock in the sidings, a lack of passengers, and turned to me, asking 'Pritzwalk?', met with 'Gleis 2, ich denke' in the hope that the same unit was gonna shove itself back.

It eventually did, and this time the driver actually did tickets before just the two of us went non-stop to Pritzwalk where I noted my next train, already ready for boarding on the RB73 service to Neustadt (Dosse). Again, just 2tpd each way on the section between Kyritz and Pritzwalk, but the short section from Kyritz to Neustadt has a healthy commuter base for connections to/from Berlin seemingly, so it sees 1tph weekdays and 1tp4h weekends (3 of those continuing to Pritzwalk, the first and last each way just doing the short run).

I boarded VT43, a single carriage BR626 unit, greeting the driver and sitting down before he pursued me down the train and when I thought 'Oh he wants to see my ticket' he gestured for me not to bother and reeled off a load of spiel I couldn't quite understand before he then yelled 'TICKET!' at me. Incredibly confusing. All stations to Kyritz were on request and we departed with about 4 on board, and only stopped at Blumenthal (Mark) en route out of the request stops where a schoolkid jumped off.

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

We came to a halt in the middle of nowhere, cue the driver on his phone (he'd basically been on his phone the whole way while driving, ouch) running up and down the train clearly looking for something in the foggy, creepy landscape and the light started to fade (again, this was an hour's run through essentially nothing but forest) as we got going again. We'd only been at a stand for about 90 seconds but I noticed that we were 6L which had me wondering how the hell we'd managed that when we'd skipped all of the request stops bar one.

At Kyritz, about 30 people joined plus a conductor and we had a little more life before arrival at Neustadt Dosse, and I was craving some actual rail action again as I joined a unit back into Berlin (well, Nauen).

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

It had been quite a weird experience.

 

[Techniquest]

A very odd sounding day, how on Earth did you discover such a weird one?!

Hope the adventure has been awesome, I look forward to more!

 

[rg177]

A very odd sounding day, how on Earth did you discover such a weird one?!

Hope the adventure has been awesome, I look forward to more!

This was just a small snippet of a single day (I did Berlin-Potsdam-Michenberg-Wannsee-Brandenburg-Rathenow in the morning, then Neustadt-Nauen-Falkensee-Berlin and an absolute megaton of U-Bahn and S-Bahn moves)

As for how I found it...I was just sat looking at the map of the region and ended up banging in station names at the end of branch lines into the Interrail app (which is basically RTT but just with the European Rail Timetable loaded into it, so you can easily do a plan just by selecting a service, picking a station on its route, selecting another from it, etc.) and I noticed how bad the frequency was on this one so I looked it up and noticed the complete ramshackle mess of stock that gets used. At Meyenburg there were a load of abandoned electric locos just to the south of the station. Considering it's a diesel worked line, i'd say that they're doomed!

 

[Kite159]

Sounded like an interesting day

 

[rg177]

Interrail- Part 1

So, it was time for the Interrail to begin.


January 2nd, I set off down to Manchester to set myself up for my Interrail, via the combination of a full and standing VTEC to York and a surprisingly quiet TPE to Manchester where I checked in just as darkness was falling, purchasing a GM Rail Ranger and letting the red pen do its thing, with 350408 and 175011 falling before I had gen on 142053, my last Northern 142, working the CLC stopper so that was roped in on a hop to Deansgate before I was left pondering what to do next. A Stockport leap ended up being employed too, roping in 175010 with seconds to spare, almost careering into the side of the train as I jumped aboard! Over to Victoria I went and ended up doing a Victoria-Mossley-Ashton-Greenfield-Piccadilly move to rope in the three shacks before tactically timing myself to get into Piccadilly before the 2217 to Chester which allowed a connection from the seldom used Platform 3A at Stockport to clear Northern’s DMU fleet with 150141 falling on a move back into Manchester. Kept that brief as there wasn't a lot of exciting action

150141, Stockport by Richard Green, on Flickr

03/01

A dreadful night’s sleep followed at the EasyHotel Manchester (fire alarm activation and noisy neighbours) before I started on the 04:49 to Manchester Airport with 156460 at the helm where I realised I had an insane amount of time spare (and my flight ended up an hour late due to a fault with the Aircraft) so it was a relief to be on the plane and away on the 08:05 Ryanair to Cologne-Bonn Airport, it being a somewhat bumpy flight due to poor weather, and indeed on approach to Cologne, the Aircraft was shaking so violently that it came as no surprise that we aborted landing and went around to try again. Although, the apparent reason for this was that a Germanwings plane hadn’t bothered to get out of the way. We arrived at about 11:55 (vice 10:40) but I wasn’t awfully bothered as i’d done Cologne twice already and was mainly doing this to have a decent run on an ICE service.

I shoved 8,60EUR in the machine (this time not screaming at the long queue of clueless tourists in front, it was much quieter than last time!) and was shocked to see that the entire departure screen for the S-Bahn just said “Zug fällt aus!” for every service. That being, “Train was cancelled”. The only communication was the automated women coming over every 5 minutes saying “Platform 3, 12:05 service to Sindorf. Train cancelled.” It seemed absolutely nuts that there were zero staff on the station and a lot of tourists just didn’t know what was going on. Eventually, winner 403053, an ICE3 on a service to Essen, rolled in and the guard saw the absolute mess of the departure screen and ushered everybody on, commenting that while our tickets weren’t valid, he couldn’t just leave us there. It was a swift sprint (man, these things speed up quickly!) to Cologne Messe/Deutz Low Level station, where I was hoping to get back on track and joined winner 620033, a LINT DMU, on the run over the bridge to Hauptbahnhof.

403053, Cologne Messe/Deutz by Richard Green, on Flickr

620033, Cologne Hbf by Richard Green, on Flickr

Down to the trams I went where I was greeted with...complete carnage. The whole network seemingly wasn’t in the mood and in the end I went back upstairs and out of the corner of my eye I saw a pair of BR420 EMUs on the S-Bahn side roll in. For those unaware, these units have technically left service and been withdrawn (being scarce back in May 2016 when I snagged two of them) so I belted my way under the bridge to dive on board. We were supposedly an S11 service which meant I could go to Muelheim and try again with the trams (or get a bus) and I did tell passengers who asked that this was the S11 to Bergisch Gladbach. I noted the units as winners 420486/420487 and we eventually set off after a long pause. Imagine my embarrassment when it turned out that we were now an S12 to Hennef, meaning that I bailed at Trimbornstr. (as continuing on would put me back at the Airport again) and walked the 15 minutes to the first new shack of the day, Deutzer Technischer Hochschule, and took winners 4535/4547 along to shack 2, Kalk Post. I opted to head in the direction of the city just to save stranding myself and dived onto winners 4068/4095 to shack 3, Deutzer Freiheit. For those not in the know, the units numbered 4001 to 41xx are the German cousins of the Croydon Trams, albeit much less luxurious with plastic seats and graffiti all over the place

420486, Cologne Trimbornstr by Richard Green, on Flickr

Winners 4030/4120 were taken along to Heumarkt, followed by winner 4511 and dud 4516 to Neumarkt where I decided that the best thing to do was just take a tram all the way to the end of a line as the service was now recovering but still a complete mess. Winners 4528/4552 were taken all the way to Weiden West at the edge of the validity area for the ticket, and also the end of Line 1. I noted the presence of an S-Bahn station here, and decided to have a laugh and see if anything turned up.

Did it? Hahahahahahahahahahahaha I can quite frankly say shame on DB for the disgraceful handling of the storm disruption which was essentially blank off the departure boards to just say 'listen to announcements', have all the staff run away, and put really vague information online. After 30 minutes I realised i’d miss my train if I hung around any longer and as soon as winners 4091/4107 rolled in, I jumped on board and having noted another service arrive ready to depart, I bailed at shack 5, Weiden Zentrum, and watched a few bus related comings and goings before winners 4544/4545 took me to Neumarkt where I visited an Aldi and stocked up on supplies. Winners 2204/2218 then plonked me at Hauptbahnhof where I stuck my phone on charge and killed 45 minutes. Eventually, I decided to shift to the chilly platform and a double ICE formation arrived in, with my own, winner 406083, detaching and reversing direction, so I was facing forwards for the run to Arnhem. Legroom was amazing and puts UK trains to shame, with the train not getting too busy (although a bloke was sat next to me from Duisburg onwards).

4030, Weiden West by Richard Green, on Flickr

185391, Weiden West by Richard Green, on Flickr

On arrival at Arnhem Centraal at around 19:30 I was in awe at the sheer coordination of staff and how well everything...worked. I watched a service pull in, detach a unit, staff instantly jumped into the detached unit, saw the front portion away on time, then saw the rear portion away, followed by my own train, winner 9417 plus another that was detached on arrival, coming in a mere minute later. First Class fun started here as I had the carriage upstairs to myself for the journey to Utrecht on this, the 19:46 service. Indeed, I have all of the departure times noted down for this trip as I had to note them down in my travel diary, something that the Dutch didn’t seemed very fussed about. The conductor came around, inspected the ticket, noted the very empty travel diary and said ‘have fun!’ before wandering off again.

406083, Arnhem Centraal by Richard Green, on Flickr

9417, Utrecht Centraal by Richard Green, on Flickr

I easily made the +5 at Utrecht Centraal as I joined a Koploper unit, winner 4226, to Gouda, working the 20:30 to Den Haag Centraal. I had the carriage to myself, and it was a smooth journey where I swapped onto winner 9430 to Rotterdam Centraal, arriving in at about 21:15. I sauntered over to the ticket gates, scanned my pass and...oh it didn’t work. I freaked out a bit, noting that some idiot had stapled through the barcode, and flagged down a passing driver who was more than happy to help and recommended I go to the ticket office and ask for advice. Turns out there was another barcode on the back that i’d missed and it was swiftly pointed out, allowing me to go purchase my OV-Chipkaart, stick 3EUR on it, and wander down to the very impressive Metro. Winner 5620 was in charge for the hop to Beurs, where 5406/5407/5410 took over for the longer run to Kralingse Zoom, the nearest station to my hotel, Novotel Rotterdam Brainpark. It was about a 10 minute stroll through a business park and I was soon in my very nice room for the night, alarm being set for 04:50.

First Class, 9430 by Richard Green, on Flickr

9430, Rotterdam Centraal by Richard Green, on Flickr

5620, Rotterdam Centraal by Richard Green, on Flickr

04/01

I was up bright and early the next morning, making myself a coffee before I left and walking down for the 05:21 to Beurs, worked today by winners 5714/5732. I then had a slight change for the run to Centraal, with winners 5507/5517 taking me there, being branded Randstad Rail as they operated the line to Den Haag. I was however focused on heavy rail and after a visit to Albert Heijn for some breakfast, I joined the 05:57 as far as shack 1 for the day, Schiedam-Zentrum, with winner 9571 working today. I then cleared off all the stations from Rotterdam to Den Haag, with moves as follows, all aboard some refurbished Sprinter units.

Rotterdam Metro, Line E by Richard Green, on Flickr

06:10 Schiedam-Delft 2111/2959
06:24 Delft-Delft Zuid 2133/2956
06:32 Delft Zuid-Moerwijk 2954/2973
06:46 Moerwijk-Rijswijk 2939/2966
06:55 Rijswijk-Den Haag HS 2120/2981

2959, Delft by Richard Green, on Flickr

I then decided to join a terminating Den Haag Centraal service, being pleasantly surprised that it was worked by winner 186149 hauling a rake of NS stock. Excellent, some locos to play with later! I noted that this was the half hourly Eindhoven-Den Haag service, with 186s also being allocated to the Amsterdam-Breda and Amsterdam-Brussels runs. I had a swift sprint after this over to winner 9596 on the 07:18 to Amsterdam, bailing at Leiden Centraal to take a different route. This was sustained by an insane booked +2 cross platform connection onto winners 8657/9591 to Schiphol Airport, where I joined winner 2417, a newer Sprinter train, along to Amsterdam-Zuid. Things then fell apart, but only slightly. I continued on winner 8646 to Bijlmer Arena, but noticed that my connection and the next were cancelled. Or, more accurately, were being turned there and not going to Centraal. No problem, as I headed for the Metro and decided to have a play around with the frequent service to tick off a few stations, moves as follows:

153/4 Arena-Spaklerweg
111/2 Spaklerweg-Amstelstation
57/69 Amstelstation-Waterlooplein
107/8 Waterlooplein-Nieuwmarkt
127/8 Nieuwmarkt-Centraal

186034/186149, Den Haag Centraal by Richard Green, on Flickr

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

57, Waterlooplein by Richard Green, on Flickr

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

All except 57 and 69 were newer units, with 57/69 being older ones resembling the Trams running around, and speaking of which, wow I was amazed by the number of Trams in Amsterdam! Three were sat side by side when I emerged into daylight at around 08:45, but I decided to walk around a little, heading for the canals and doing somewhat of a loop around the city centre before being unable to resist the urge of sampling a Tram any longer, jumping on 904 back to the station where I was unsure what to do next. The 10:00 to Deventer was due out and was sat for a nice fast run, so I hopped aboard winner 4069 to Amersfoort. I was also pleased to discover that the Koplopers have two first class compartments meaning that I had one of those to myself in complete silence for the fast run, stopping only at Hilversum en route. Of note was the graveyard of NS 1700 locomotives in the yards outside Amsterdam as we picked up speed and I planned my onward route, bailing at Amersfoort for winner 5035, a 2 car Protos EMU operated by Vallelijn on the line to Ede-Wageningen.

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

904, Amsterdam Centraal by Richard Green, on Flickr

4069, Amersfoort by Richard Green, on Flickr

It wasn’t until departure that I realised this wasn’t necessarily a private company that accepted Interrail (I knew Arriva did) but no problems actually materialised and I had solitude in the first class area behind the cab for the sedate run through mainly countryside and smaller villages, being slightly worried at the time being lost as I was set to miss my connection (I don’t know why, but private companies were pretty messy on Dutch Railways) but the driver clawed back a minute so winners 9550/9553 were easily made on the 11:18 to Arnhem Centraal, giving me a chance to have a look at the station in daylight, and the many Stadler DMUs working local Arriva services along with a German unit ticking over next to them. For me, it was winner 4206 on the 11:41 to Zwolle as far as Deventer. I did ponder heading all the way north to Groningen, but formulated a new plan to head south instead, having a few minutes to wait for the Sprinter service to Apeldoorn.

5035, Amersfoort by Richard Green, on Flickr

I was thinking to myself “I might hang back and get an Arriva DMU instead to change things up a little” but when I saw a battered looking winner 1749 hauling a rake of double deck stock working the service, there was no question what I was doing! I hopped on board for the short run, all stations to Apeldoorn, and on arrival at Twello, I thought “oh yeah, I have an ex that lives here!”. Guess who I saw stroll off the train and out of the station I had a reasonably tight connection here, but winner 4249 was made easily enough and I was thankful for my first class ticket as the single unit was reasonably full. The conductor here booted someone off the train which was nice to see (as the staff all seemed overly nice!) as they gave her a load of lip for having no ticket. No arguing, off he went at the next station. Simple.

1749, Apeldoorn by Richard Green, on Flickr

This was taken to Utrecht where I got myself some lunch at none other than Albert Heijn (these are really damn useful stores!) and joined winner 9520 on the 13:33 to the unusually named ‘S-Hertogenbosch, where there was a swift cross platform onto my first Stadler EMU worked service, winners 2211/2512 being in charge for the sprint to Tilburg. First Class was very nice on these, not much better than Standard but it had a door blocking it off with USB sockets under the seats. That’s the thing, Dutch railways are a heck of a lot of units but all of those units are a pleasure to travel on. I dropped back at Tilburg, and joined winner 2513 to Tilburg Universiteit, its final destination. The rain was starting to fall again as I had a look around on the platform before nipping to the loo on the train and returning to Tilburg, where I had another change of plan due to the Breda train getting later and later.

2512, Tilburg by Richard Green, on Flickr

Winners 186013/186029 were topping and tailing the 14:54 to Eindhoven, so I stayed aboard all the way to get myself some decent loco mileage. Heck, why not go all the way, I asked myself, and swapped onto winner 8664 to Maastricht. This was a nice lengthy run complete with a catering service of a woman dancing down the carriage with a basket of drinks around her neck and a tank of hot water on her back Here, things absolutely fell apart. My plan was to tick off a couple of shacks south of Maastricht (and nip into Belgium very briefly) but all of the local Arriva services were cancelled. They’d cancelled everything, wrecking my plan to return via Venlo. The only service was the hourly BE service to Liege, and the half hourly train i’d caught. Fine, I thought, let’s do some Belgian railways again as I hopped aboard a completely unrefurbished (and somewhat bashed in) winner 302 on the 16:49 to Liege-Guillemins.

1st Class, Loco Hauled NS Rake by Richard Green, on Flickr

186013, Eindhoven by Richard Green, on Flickr

I was taken aback by how swiftly everything changed as we crossed into Belgium. The well-lit, info filled stations were replaced with dimly lit, uninviting shacks, and the conductor was absolutely vile, moaning at me about my pass being too full (the journey was damn well written in there so you can stamp it and sod off!). Arrival at Liege was a relief and indeed, this was quite a nice station! I had 45 minutes before a connecting service to Leuven, so I did a filler move back to Angleur, with winner 1891 hauling me for the short hop to a platform that was barely off the ground, barely lit, and with no way of telling where the train back was coming from (there were 4 platforms). Winner 8537 showed its unwelcome face eventually (These AM1000 units are complete vermin, they get everywhere but it’s hard to use Belgian Railways without encountering them) back to Liege, where I joined winner 1816 hauling the 18:02 service north as far as Leuven, having relative peace and quiet on the half hour journey.

302, Maastricht by Richard Green, on Flickr

At least I was familiar now with where i’d be staying later in the week, and I screamed at the sight of winner 8586 working the Intercity service to Gent as I fully expected something better than a naff suburban unit (imagine a small 700 doing Birmingham to Leeds essentially) and the First Class on these is completely pointless, with the bays of 4 being misaligned with the windows. The conductor yet again went nuts at me for daring to have an Interrail, snapping at me with “There are no dates on this!!!” as I pointed to the dates clearly marked on the pass. He went silent and shoved the pass back in my hands. I bailed at Mechelen and decided that was enough of Belgium, even contemplating staying in the Netherlands as late as possible the next day (in the end I didn’t, and actually quite enjoyed my time in Belgium as you’ll read later).

I was going to do Mechelen-Roosendaal all at once on a 186 hauled service but on seeing winner 2742 powering the 19:18 to Antwerp I decided that I couldn’t say no to that (Tech would have probably screamed if I had ) and bailed at Antwerp Centraal, noting the impressive layout of the station and the piles of ancient looking red EMUs that I absolutely had to snag tomorrow! Having advised a lost passenger where the Amsterdam service was leaving from, after an unhelpful staff member pointed to the ECS of my ex-Mechelen and said ‘oh look, its that one there leaving!’ followed by pointing to me and saying ‘ask him’, I joined the 19:45 to Roosendaal, with winner 186196 at the helm. Wow, what a breath of fresh air. I felt at home again as I sat myself down in the compartment and had the conductor ask what I was up to, noting my completely filled pass that had overflowed onto a photocopied sheet, wishing me well as two Dutch enthusiasts pulled him aside for a chat (I couldn’t tell you what specifically about but the huge cameras and the mentions of rail related vocab i’d picked up were a giveaway).

2742, Antwerpen-Centraal by Richard Green, on Flickr

Roosendaal came all too soon as I crossed the platform and waited for the doors to be released on the 20:27 to Zwolle which was taken up to Breda, worked by winner 4077. It was a peaceful sprint up there, where I joined a service hauled by winner 186040 all the way to Den Haag. The conductor sat down again and asked what I was up to, saying that they don’t train staff on these passes very well but it was always good to see people take an interest in the system. He said that the only things they’re trained on are Belgian passes in addition to their own, and that honestly it’s down to the conductor to take some initiative and use some common sense. The journey passed all too quickly and I was making the same sprint I had 14 hours ago onto the Amsterdam, before reaching into my coat pocket and realising my pass wasn’t there. Balls.

4077, Breda by Richard Green, on Flickr

186029/186040, Den Haag Centraal by Richard Green, on Flickr

I went back to the ex-Eindhoven i’d come off, and the two conductors instantly sprung into action, pulling the compartment apart and quizzing the cleaners before pointing me towards the surprisingly open ticket office. I wasn’t too bothered as I knew I was insured so I pulled up the document and saw that the insurance was, well, a bit of a con. See, it wasn’t really insurance in the way that it rescues you if you’re stranded without enough money for tickets- It was merely ‘claim back on new tickets if you send us a police report’. The ticket office were genuinely concerned and gave me directions to a police station which promptly told me to come back in three days which was unhelpful, commenting that they won’t even do anything if i’m merely lost the pass. What good is the insurance then?!?! I resigned myself to having to sort myself out in the morning and just as I was walking back to the station...I felt the pass in some random pocket that I never ever use. I couldn’t believe that i’d ended up not checking it!

I returned to the ticket office who seemed more overjoyed than me, and I couldn’t help myself saying how wonderful the system was in the Netherlands and how the staff really do themselves proud in keeping everyone moving, before getting myself a drink and joining winner 7519, a new class for me at least, on the 23:03 as far as Schiphol Airport. It was still remarkably busy here, and I had around 10 minutes to wait until dud 2417 rolled in on the 23:41 which was taken to Amsterdam-Lelylaan, followed by winner 2642 on the 23:52 to Zaandam where my hotel was. This was the true icing on the cake as I joined the first class compartment which was full of staff, and they all greeted me, asked how my evening was going, and we all had a nice chat as they took it in turns to dispatch the train at each station, even trusting me with their bags as they wandered off for a smoke at an extended stop at Sloterdijk. I bid them a good night as I bailed at Zaandam at 00:08, and headed for my easyHotel, exhausted after one heck of a day with a minor drama towards the end My next day was meant to start at 06:47, which will be posted later on, but due to me being so tired, I held off until the 10:05 to make sure I wasn’t going to nod off all day

2642, Zaandam by Richard Green, on Flickr

 

[Kite159]

y before the 2217 to Chester which allowed a connection from the seldom used Platform 3A at Stockport to clear Northern’s DMU fleet with 150141 falling on a move back into Manchester.

Congrats on clearing the Northern DMUs [for the time being, unless you don't need any of the GWR 150/1s coming up north or the Scottish 158s heading south], and good news on scoring platform 3A at Stockport, something which is on my "to do" list [abit more annoying than anything as those services are Monday - Thursday only], when I get the chance to look up prices of hotels in either Manchester or Stockport.

I gather the Easyhotel in Manchester isn't the best then

Anyhow *carries on reading*

Apart from the slight issues with the trains on the 1st day due to the storm, sounds like an excellent time in Europe, some of those trains look funky and odd.

 

[rg177]

Congrats on clearing the Northern DMUs [for the time being, unless you don't need any of the GWR 150/1s coming up north or the Scottish 158s heading south], and good news on scoring platform 3A at Stockport, something which is on my "to do" list [abit more annoying than anything as those services are Monday - Thursday only], when I get the chance to look up prices of hotels in either Manchester or Stockport.

I gather the Easyhotel in Manchester isn't the best then

Anyhow *carries on reading*

Apart from the slight issues with the trains on the 1st day due to the storm, sounds like an excellent time in Europe, some of those trains look funky and odd.

I don't need 150122 which is currently here (and ironically passed me outside Ardwick both on my way to the Airport last Tuesday and back from the Airport on Saturday) and I think I need 1 Scotrail 158 that's headed for here (possibly 158868).

Easyhotel Manchester is a nice building but very badly designed with thin partitions between rooms rather than actual walls.

Indeed the Koplopers with the cab on the roof are most bizarre.

 

[Kite159]

Same with other hotels, maybe one to only look at if it is cheaper than other hotels.

 

[rg177]

Same with other hotels, maybe one to only look at if it is cheaper than other hotels.

It were £9.99 in their sale, hence my choosing

 

[Kite159]

It were £9.99 in their sale, hence my choosing

And looks to be in an ideal place for easy access to Piccadilly station

 

[Techniquest]

Wow that was an action packed few days! Yes I would have screamed at you for not taking that 27! Didn't know NS had 186s on their services, they're fine machines too but obviously not as good as a 21 or 27 in Belgium. Or indeed a CFL 3000, they're rather decent beasts!

Nice work on clearing Northern's DMUs, and I have moves envy right now!

 

[Cowley]

Really enjoying reading this rg. Keep it coming.

 

[rg177]

Really enjoying reading this rg. Keep it coming.

Glad you're enjoying.

Wow that was an action packed few days! Yes I would have screamed at you for not taking that 27! Didn't know NS had 186s on their services, they're fine machines too but obviously not as good as a 21 or 27 in Belgium. Or indeed a CFL 3000, they're rather decent beasts!

Nice work on clearing Northern's DMUs, and I have moves envy right now!

Indeed all NS hauled services (bar the random 1700 class appearances) are 186 hauled, those being the Amsterdam-Brussels, Rotterdam/Breda-Schiphol "Intercity Direct" and Eindhoven-Den Haag services.

The 21s and 27s seem to be thinning out a lot now, as I only noted five 27s (and no 21s) on my trip. In fact I was due to catch a 27+rake+27+rake formation the next day but the sod failed before it even started!

I've only had one CFL3000 equivalent through the Brussels tunnel. I really need to get to Luxembourg...

Next adventure is to Nuremberg in a week and a half, seeing as their S-Bahn line 2 is temporarily 143 hauled...

 

[rg177]

A beautiful Weekend- 03/02/18

Well, Uni exams had concluded themselves without much event, and I was ready for my next European adventure. £19.98 return flights to Frankfurt plus £108 for two nights in the Mercure Frankfurt Kaiserdamm (90 seconds walk from the main station!) had long been paid for, with the astounding value 44EUR “Beautiful Weekend” ticket being printed out on my way to the station on Friday. Insane value as it’s valid on all IRE, RE, RB, S-Bahn, U-Bahn, Tram and Bus services in the whole country. Integration at its finest. Essentially, not valid on ICE or IC which is quite a small number of services in the grand scheme of things. Not a lot occurred on Friday- EI-FZA was working the 15:15 to Frankfurt Intl, an absolutely insane sized Airport, and I scooped up a couple of units, a tram, two locos and a fistful of U-Bahn stock in my couple of hours bash around the city before I decided to call it a night. The main event was to be Saturday.

My route was originally to be just a journey to Nuremberg- maybe extending part way down to Munich or even Munich itself if I was feeling ambitious. Then it extended wildly. As you’ll find out.

The alarm went off at 04:20, an ungodly hour but I was most excited! I made myself a coffee (this room had a Nespresso machine but all it seemed to do was leak- so it was a traditional good old instant coffee) before making the short walk to Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof, finding the platform for the 04:53 to Aschaffenburg Hbf. I was expecting a loco for some reason (mainly because every other itinerary has you get the xx:34 express loco hauled service straight to Wuerzberg, but the first one wasn’t until 06:34), so winner 425035 was a bit of a disappointing sight, though I wasn’t fussed with it being the first move of many so I sat in one of the raised bays of 4 and settled in for the hour’s journey, accompanied by the last stragglers from nights out. The ticket was checked promptly after departure by a jolly old conductor, and I even had a security guard patrolling the train so I was able to shut my eyes for a bit without fear of the drunks getting too rowdy.

425035, Aschaffenburg Hbf by Richard Green, on Flickr

Arrival into Aschaffenburg was at 05:48, and on noting a reasonable sized station building I was pleased to see a shop open, so I bought myself a Croissant (fresh and quite large, only 0,70EUR, not bad) and a drink before noting my next service, the 06:13 to Bamberg, simmering away on Platform 2. Excellent, winner 146207 with a rake of Bombardier stock. I took a seat on board, being impressed at the full sized tables and sockets (DB provision of these is awfully random, and for example, the IRE from Lindau to Stuttgart, a three hour journey, has neither of these things) and plugging my phone in for the hour’s journey east to Wuerzberg. It remained very nice and quiet throughout, with there not being much more to say due to the lack of action and the darkness Arrival was spot on time at 07:21, and I noted winner 440039, the German take on the Alstom Coradia, just being started up to work the 07:41 RE to Nuremberg (irritatingly, the Bayern and Baden-Wuerttemberg regions both fail to actually number their routes, making it difficult to look up the usual stock that makes up a service). This was a quiet run to start with, but us being 4L on arrival at Fuerth, and the massive football crowd (Fuerth were playing Ingolstadt) ramming on board meant that my +7 at Nuremberg Hbf was falling into question.

440039, Wuerzberg Hbf by Richard Green, on Flickr

I belted my way off the train on arrival at 08:58, meaning that I had 3 minutes to run to the S-Bahn platforms. Why was I piddling about with the S-Bahn when I had such a huge ticket? Well, I smiled and nodded at the sight of a rake of X-Wagen stock as I noted winner 143855 in charge up front. Yes, the Nuremberg S2 is currently (with the exception of one diagram that I don’t think exists on Saturdays) worked by BR143s instead of the TALENT things that have spread onto half the lines in Germany. We were right away at 09:01 and my aim was rack up a few locos as quickly as possible, so I stayed on to the first possible place to connect back over (made weird by the 20-20-40-20-20-40 frequency on weekends) and bailed at the single platform station of Katzwang just as the snow was starting to gently fall. 5 minutes here passed quite quickly, and it was the turn of winner 143914 to take me back down to Nuremberg-Steinbuehl. This was another single platform affair, this time on a flyover where I noted the usage of BR111 locos with Dostos and Silberling stock whacked together on the RB to Munich.

143855, Nuremberg Hbf by Richard Green, on Flickr

S2, Katzwang by Richard Green, on Flickr

Winner 143628 was next up to Nuremberg-Sandreuth, where I had one last loco move on the S-Bahn before I decided to make a quick move on scoop one of every type of stock on the U-Bahn. It was down to a slightly late running winner 143632 which saw me get 4/7 of the diagrams booked that day (had I changed at Steinbuehl again I’d have had a fifth) before I bailed at the Hbf at 10:01 (4 locos for an hour’s work, not bad) and headed down to the U-Bahn, Line U1. The U1 still has the usual stock, but the U2 and U3 have driverless stock, employed in a different way to most systems. The stock and platforms use infrared beams rather than platform screen doors so there’s a completely unobstructed view of the trains. The U1 uses a great deal of older DT1 stock, which have original wood effect panelling and blue leather seating along with a weird door opening system (both door leaves operate independently so you have to pull both handles to open in the usual way) and that’s what I ended up with first. Winners 433/434/515/516 were taken to Lorenzkirche, with 479/480/524/525 following on to Plaerrer. Here, I switched to the driverless lines U2 and U3.

DT1, Nuremberg U Bahn by Richard Green, on Flickr

Winners 711/712 were first up to Opernhaus, followed by quieter 721/722 to Woehrder Weise, where I noticed the folly of a lack of any protection whatsoever in that the doors are timed, not controlled by anyone so runners inevitably had doors smacked into them (and those slow to board often had close calls too). I decided to head in search of some food now, so joined 737/738 back to the Hauptbahnhof for the quirkier DT1s 453/454/487/488 to Aufsessplatz, where I eventually caught myself a more illusive DT2 set in the form of 529/530/535/536. These are quite nice units and a lot brighter than the older ones but the doors are rather vicious as a woman got caught in one as it slammed shut so I had to catch her and prise them open again and once she was aboard, quickly move my hands away as they bounced shut twice as hard

DT3, Nuremberg U Bahn by Richard Green, on Flickr

DT2, Nuremberg U Bahn by Richard Green, on Flickr

I took these to Lorenzkirche where I found an Aldi and had a wander around with ample time before I headed for the Nuremberg-Munich Express, a most interesting service in that it has all of the qualities of an InterCity run. The service actually uses the High Speed line for much of its length, being looped at Ingolstadt to let the ICE past as it can only do 125mph which is still the fastest that you can get on a Regional ticket. The service is hauled by BR101 locomotives too, which is again the only booked non-IC service to have them work, and it was winner 101036 doing the honours today. The stock is also greatly reminiscent of Intercity, with sockets and reclining seats making the 1hr 46min run most comfortable as we sped our way through the countryside after somewhat of a false start being plagued by an 8 minute delay at the first station. Thankfully there was a booked 15 minute dwell to let the ICE past at Ingolstadt so we managed to stay punctual with a 12:54 arrival into Munich Hauptbahnhof where I had a few options.

101036, Nuremberg Hbf by Richard Green, on Flickr

I could get the 13:32 to Garmisch-Partenkirchen followed by a connection to Reutte-am-Tirol (Austria) which would connect into a Kempten service, onwards to Ulm, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Mannheim and Frankfurt. However the caveat of this was that it was a 00:48 arrival which wasn’t the worst, but should ANY connection go bang (such as the +7 in Reutte) then I’d be forced onto the 03:48 arrival. Which while not the worst as being able to get a 02:23 from Mannheim was mightly useful and i’d not have any long connections overnight, it still wasn’t ideal. I instead opted for the 13:52 to Fuessen as far as Buchloe with connections to the beautiful Lindau, which gave me an hour to get supplies.

ICE4, Munich Hbf by Richard Green, on Flickr

I decided to sample the U-Bahn which threw up winners 7136/7150 for a hop from the Hauptbahnhof to Karlsplatz, where I embarked on a walk back to Marienplatz and took in some of the architecture en-route. I’m returning to Munich in July, so this affirmed it to be as a worthwhile destination! Winner 423076 took me back along to the Hauptbahnhof as i’d failed to find any supermarkets and there was a large Lidl in the station which stocked me up nicely before I figured I still had enough time to go onwards to Pasing and join the Fuessen there. Two S-Bahn services were headed that way in quick succession so winners 423089/423227 were taken along to Laim, where there was a large freight yard adjacent and I was treated to the funky sound of a BR193 taking off before winners 423071/423175 filed in behind for Pasing. Here, I noted that an ex-Fuessen was due in first so it’d be the moment of truth for what I was to have working next!

Munich U-Bahn, Karlsplatz by Richard Green, on Flickr

Munich by Richard Green, on Flickr

423227, Laim by Richard Green, on Flickr

Laim by Richard Green, on Flickr

A sigh of relief ensued as the cab car of a loco hauled set wandered in, so at least i’d be spared a unit. An incredible grin appeared as a BR218 was sat on the back grumbling away! These famous locos date from 1968 onwards and have quite the grunt but see limited, if any regular use these days. The exception is the Munich-Fuessen route clearly as I jumped for joy with winner 218425 growling its way into the platform, with me sitting upstairs at the front of the carriage so as to be able to hear the loco take off at every station. Remarkably loud for a sealed one! It was a nice hour long run to Buchloe through mainly flat countryside where there was ample time for a photo op before it powered away into the distance, leaving me to join the slightly less exciting winners 612075/612119, with 075 being the one that stuck with me all the way to Lindau. These units are quite decent- being a 158+390 combination as they tilt quite sharply to navigate the sweeping curves on the route.

218425, Buchloe by Richard Green, on Flickr

612119, Buchloe by Richard Green, on Flickr

After Kempten, the snow set in, and my god, I was blown away. This is an absolutely wonderful route. We dumped the rear unit at Immenstadt before stopping at the increasingly mountainous shacks and winding our way around past the mountain ranges, indicating that Austria and Switzerland were just a stone’s throw away before we ambled over the bridge onto the island of Lindau where we terminated at 16:34.

View from Augsburg-Lindau service by Richard Green, on Flickr

View from Augsburg-Lindau service by Richard Green, on Flickr

View from 1634 arr. at Lindau by Richard Green, on Flickr

It was absolutely gorgeous. I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

Lindau by Richard Green, on Flickr

Lindau by Richard Green, on Flickr

Lindau by Richard Green, on Flickr

Lindau by Richard Green, on Flickr

Lindau by Richard Green, on Flickr

BR650s, Lindau by Richard Green, on Flickr

I did however have to be sharp as the 17:02 to Stuttgart Hbf which had winner 245018 at the helm- with me locating a small private-ish compartment area at the very front of the train (the rear from Friedrichsafen) which seemed like an old guard’s compartment. I was at this point very tired so I had a sleep up to Ulm Hbf where I noted the 11 minute booked dwell and the sight of a bloke in high vis on the track. Of course, something you don’t get anymore here! Off came the 245 and on came winner 146224. It was attached promptly and we were away as far as Esslingen Hbf where I decided to be stupid and dive off, sprinting for the S-Bahn for the last leg to Stuttgart just to kill some time. This nearly went badly wrong as I almost collided with people on my way under the subway and nearly missed the service which would have pushed back my arrival in Frankfurt to 01:48. Still, I noted winners 430039/430041 as working, and swapped units at the next stop to get myself a seat.

245035, Lindau Hbf by Richard Green, on Flickr

Loco detached- Ulm Hbf by Richard Green, on Flickr

146224, Ulm Hbf by Richard Green, on Flickr

We ended up 4L into Stuttgart which wasn’t very helpful as I had to absolutely belt it for the Heilbronn train, smiling at the sight of winner 111189 providing some heritage looking haulage (well they’re as old as the HSTs, being from 1974-1984) for the run to Ludwigsburg as means of another time killer, though a minimal one as winner 147016 came in straight behind forming the Heidelberg Hbf service. These 147s are brand new TRAXX locomotives that make quite a funky sound as they take off (though not as good as the musical ensemble that the 182s emit) and it was a sprightly run north, basically empty after the first 20 minutes as I felt myself largely nodding off by this point Indeed it was somewhat of a rude awakening when we arrived at Heidelberg and I crossed over for the fast Mannheim service.

430041, Stuttgart Hbf by Richard Green, on Flickr

111189, Stuttgart Hbf by Richard Green, on Flickr

147016, Heidelburg Hbf by Richard Green, on Flickr

It was annoyingly worked by winner 425307 but it was nonetheless a storming run to Mannheim Hbf non-stop in just 12 minutes, and I should have had my Frankfurt 22:40 service waiting for me there, but alas not, it was late. So I went to McDonald’s for a late snack before a woman asked me what was up with the Frankfurt. I’d just about managed to explain that the train from Frankfurt was delayed hence delaying it back, but she realised I was English which made explaining a little easier Winner 146007 eventually hobbled in at 22:38 and left with me back at 22:45, and I pondered a last option of changing at Biblis for the DMU to Worms and the last service to Mainz, but abandoned that after I realised that while the +3 at Biblis would be held, the Worms connection was an unlikely to hold +1, so I sleepily stayed put all the way to Frankfurt Hbf, arriving at 23:49. I noted the 23:53 Wiesbaden as being a FLIRT so I decided against a leap on that to Hoecsht and just walked back to my hotel.

425307, Heidelburg Hbf by Richard Green, on Flickr

I did have 600 miles and 12 locomotives under my belt at this point, anyway.

 

[cactustwirly]

Wow that was an insane trip!
I wish I had the time & money to do so many international trips!

 

[87electric]

Another great entertaining read and nice photos.

 

[D841 Roebuck]

Enjoyed reading this, and echo the comments of others regarding the excellent photos!

 

[Calthrop]

Feature- Rail in Landkreis Prignitz

I don't have the time at the minute to do a full set of reports for Europe so in the meantime I'm likely going to do a few picture heavy features on some more interesting sections of my adventures.

Landkreis Prignitz is a rather rural and quirky part of the Berlin-Brandenburg region, set towards the north, and home to some rather odd and ramshackle railways, operated by Hanseatische Eisenbahn (HANS) and centered around the town of Pritzwalk, with services to Meyenburg and Neustadt as well as a stub to Pritzwalk West (once part of a longer line to Putlitz which seems to have been recently closed).

The company itself runs a really random selection of stock including a load of ancient railbuses (a photo also exists of a German liveried Class 66 hauling two carriages around on their services) and and a double decker bus converted for rails (Class VT670).

The timetable is incredibly sporadic, with Meyenburg seeing just 5tpd each way on Weekdays and 3tpd on weekends, and the stub to Pritzwalk West seeing just a 07:37 arrival and 13:46 and 15:46 departures on Weekdays only, making actually visiting the station a little difficult.

This is the section on which I started, arriving on the 13:19 ex Berlin-Falkensee after a two hour journey on 648111/648112 (with one unit detaching somewhere en route) through a rural landscape of villages and forests (and a lot of request stops!) and being surprised by how empty everything felt.

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

See, Pritzwalk felt like somewhat of a timewarp. All of the roads were still cobbled. It was like I was back in East Germany, circa 1989. It felt a little weird as I made the walk to Pritzwalk West for the 13:46 departure down a rather forgotten looking dirt track with the line to Wittenberge on my right (where my BR648 continued to) which seemed to also house the Pritzwalk West stub, which was, surpisingly modern, having been opened in 2007 (seemingly as a school halt in order to replace a shack on the closed Putlitz branch).

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

504002, in all of its tiny glory, sauntered in at 13:49 and scooped up the three of us before wildly bouncing down to Pritzwalk once more before turning off, having picked up about 5 schoolkids, and skipping all stations on the branch (Pritzwalk-Hainholz is closed over Winter, and Falkenhagen/Brugge are request stops that look distinctly abandoned). It was a bit of a creepy run up the line too as the fog was set in for the day, making things exceptionally cold as I faced the fact that there was a 30 minute turnaround (where the driver shunts the unit off the platform and sits in it).

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

I ended up walking to the world's emptiest Netto (Seriously, I was the only customer) and back through the completely deserted Meyenburg to the part derelict station which was full of sad looking stock:

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

A puzzled looking traveller turned up and looked at the foggy, ramshackle assortment of stock in the sidings, a lack of passengers, and turned to me, asking 'Pritzwalk?', met with 'Gleis 2, ich denke' in the hope that the same unit was gonna shove itself back.

It eventually did, and this time the driver actually did tickets before just the two of us went non-stop to Pritzwalk where I noted my next train, already ready for boarding on the RB73 service to Neustadt (Dosse). Again, just 2tpd each way on the section between Kyritz and Pritzwalk, but the short section from Kyritz to Neustadt has a healthy commuter base for connections to/from Berlin seemingly, so it sees 1tph weekdays and 1tp4h weekends (3 of those continuing to Pritzwalk, the first and last each way just doing the short run).

I boarded VT43, a single carriage BR626 unit, greeting the driver and sitting down before he pursued me down the train and when I thought 'Oh he wants to see my ticket' he gestured for me not to bother and reeled off a load of spiel I couldn't quite understand before he then yelled 'TICKET!' at me. Incredibly confusing. All stations to Kyritz were on request and we departed with about 4 on board, and only stopped at Blumenthal (Mark) en route out of the request stops where a schoolkid jumped off.

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

We came to a halt in the middle of nowhere, cue the driver on his phone (he'd basically been on his phone the whole way while driving, ouch) running up and down the train clearly looking for something in the foggy, creepy landscape and the light started to fade (again, this was an hour's run through essentially nothing but forest) as we got going again. We'd only been at a stand for about 90 seconds but I noticed that we were 6L which had me wondering how the hell we'd managed that when we'd skipped all of the request stops bar one.

At Kyritz, about 30 people joined plus a conductor and we had a little more life before arrival at Neustadt Dosse, and I was craving some actual rail action again as I joined a unit back into Berlin (well, Nauen).

Untitled by Richard Green, on Flickr

It had been quite a weird experience.

This report (noticed belatedly), has afforded me considerable interest -- thank you for it. I always found the "as-was" Communist half of Europe fascinating (nothing to do with any political allegiance), including the country which I saw a little of, when it still was East Germany; but to my regret, I've never seen any of same, north of Berlin -- whence interest generated by your post. It would appear that here (and in some other parts of former E.G.) a fair sprinkling of branch / secondary lines have survived up to today, including for passenger -- by no means always the case east of the one-time "Iron Curtain"; where pre-the end of Communism, it tended to be that whole railway systems apparently thrived, in comparison on the whole with Western Europe at the same time.

Pre-the 1990s, secondary lines in the area you visited were a good deal more plentiful; but it's good, re what is still running. My 2011 Thomas Cook "Rail Map Europe" shows the Pritzwalk -- Putlitz branch as still passenger-active; but that was seven years ago. And in former -- "happier??" -- times, there was a further web of branch lines continuing north and west from Putlitz. And again, "way back when", Pritzwalk was the northernmost point of the complex and extensive "West-und-Ost-Prignitz" 750mm gauge system; most of which lasted under East Germany's "DR" state rail administration, until closed in the late 1960s.

With your mentioning Wittenberge, still linked by passenger rail to Pritzwalk: I recall musing along lines of "East Germany is a confusing place"; as well as this Wittenberge, there was / is 150-odd km. southward, Wittenberg, prefixed "Lutherstadt". Pondering prompted, as to why an atheist regime would commemorate a Jesus-freak such as Luther; but the reasoning behind that was explained to me.

 

[47403]

Cracking read Richard, glad you put the pics up, so I can see whats what. Ah the 218s, is them the ones nicknamed the bunnys. They're supposed to be an amazing sounding loco. That run up to Lindau seemed very picturesque indeed.
Nice to see your not wasting your student grants

 

[rg177]

Wow that was an insane trip!
I wish I had the time & money to do so many international trips!

Money- I staggered paying for it out a fair bit. Time- Believe it or not, today is the first day of my Semester 2

Another great entertaining read and nice photos.

Enjoyed reading this, and echo the comments of others regarding the excellent photos!

Glad you've both enjoyed.

This report (noticed belatedly), has afforded me considerable interest -- thank you for it. I always found the "as-was" Communist half of Europe fascinating (nothing to do with any political allegiance), including the country which I saw a little of, when it still was East Germany; but to my regret, I've never seen any of same, north of Berlin -- whence interest generated by your post. It would appear that here (and in some other parts of former E.G.) a fair sprinkling of branch / secondary lines have survived up to today, including for passenger -- by no means always the case east of the one-time "Iron Curtain"; where pre-the end of Communism, it tended to be that whole railway systems apparently thrived, in comparison on the whole with Western Europe at the same time.

Pre-the 1990s, secondary lines in the area you visited were a good deal more plentiful; but it's good, re what is still running. My 2011 Thomas Cook "Rail Map Europe" shows the Pritzwalk -- Putlitz branch as still passenger-active; but that was seven years ago. And in former -- "happier??" -- times, there was a further web of branch lines continuing north and west from Putlitz. And again, "way back when", Pritzwalk was the northernmost point of the complex and extensive "West-und-Ost-Prignitz" 750mm gauge system; most of which lasted under East Germany's "DR" state rail administration, until closed in the late 1960s.

With your mentioning Wittenberge, still linked by passenger rail to Pritzwalk: I recall musing along lines of "East Germany is a confusing place"; as well as this Wittenberge, there was / is 150-odd km. southward, Wittenberg, prefixed "Lutherstadt". Pondering prompted, as to why an atheist regime would commemorate a Jesus-freak such as Luther; but the reasoning behind that was explained to me.

Indeed there's many lines that way that feel like they shouldn't quite exist- Frankfurt (Oder) to Eberswalde is quite quirky, as is the Joachimschal branch. Both operated by 1 car DMUs with varying passenger loads.

It's a very interesting part of the country- but there are more scenic places to go first.

The platforms for Putlitz are still in situ complete with an old sign pointing passengers towards them. Nowadays it's used as a pair of sidings.

I can't help but feel like the operator is making a mess of running the service though- it was a little too casual for my liking and very badly advertised. That said, Pritzwalk itself was a complete ghost town.

Cracking read Richard, glad you put the pics up, so I can see whats what. Ah the 218s, is them the ones nicknamed the bunnys. They're supposed to be an amazing sounding loco. That run up to Lindau seemed very picturesque indeed.
Nice to see your not wasting your student grants

Indeed the 218s are the Bunnies and they sound fantastic- you'll have to get yourself a trip behind one (reckon you could probably have a two nights in Munich with ample bashing time for maybe £100).

Student grants sadly don't exist for us anymore- though I did manage to get myself a Scholarship of £1,200/yr that primarily paid for the Interrail and will pay for the next when I get the next installment