In Győr, on 2011 july 31st.

0469 105-8 (ex DB290 513) with a short freight train near Győrszabadhegy on 2nd november, 2012.

On 15th january, 2012; Hegyeshalom

On it's Intercity towards Graz, this loco passes the peaceful village Aich/Ennstal. The background is dominated by the Dachstein Massiv, pretty famous and impressive mountains!

Ennstal, Styria, Austria.

Funny, but 2 yeatrs ago I visited the same spot around the same time. Both on january 1st. Just like the shot from 2011 this was my first railpic of 2013! (Somehow funny, isn't it?)

[link]



Thanks in advance for +favs!

(c)Tigrar(Stefan W.)! All rights reserved!

411-1177 at Unterpurkersdorf station, lower austria.

(c)Tigrar!

4020-300 poses in front of the 'Gesäuse' for this nice shot A very scenic route with way too less rail traffic to enjoy......

I already took a pic of a 4020 here back in july 2011. Since then a few things changed .... [link]


Thanks in advance for +favs!

(c)Tigrar! All rights reserved!

PZH-011 - Hidraulic Snowplow at 950 horse-power
Near Bucuresti Nord Station, Romania, 26.01.2012
Video here: [link]

At Prahova rail stop, Prahova County, Romania, 28.01.2012.
Trainspotting video from that day available here - [link]

WPZ-015 at Gara de Nord, Bucuresti, Romania, 16.02.2012.
Video available here - [link]

This is the Hamburg-Köln-Express or HKX for short, a new non-DB train that first ran on the 23rd of July this year. As the name suggests, it travels between Cologne and Hamburg every day, for five cents per Kilometer, which comes down to 20€ per trip. If you book a return ticket, you get 10% off that, so it's 36€ for an 800 kilometer round trip. Quite cheap! The trains are operated by Veolia, with HKX providing the rest of the staff.

As you can see, the rolling stock is also quite interesting, with this train consisting of married-pair carriages that belong to the Nord-Ostsee-Bahn. Since those are usually found near the coast, it's quite an interesting sight in my part of the country. The name married-pair stems from the fact that two cars are permanently coupled, with the technical features dictating a minium train lenght of four cars. The locomotive is of course the well known Taurus, with the ones used by HKX having been leased from MRCE Dispolok. There is another train consisting of four refurbished 1960s Rheingold cars, sandwiched between two Tauri! Talk about overpowered trains...

This then is HKX 1802, heading from Hamburg to Cologne, less than ten minutes from its final destination. Photo taken today in Langenfeld.


My thoughts: Apart from offering a properly cheap way of getting to Hamburg for people like me who don't own a BahnCard, this train also provides a speck of colour in the red-white world of DB trains. Especially now, with the 103s out of commission and 110s getting rare, trains like these are what keep me from giving up on railfanning.

UPDATED: Different crop, slightly rotated and different signature.

Class 140 freight engines sit in Bender's yard, patiently waiting for their desctruction after being some of the most reliable engines throughout decades. Pics like this always make railfans ask "Are they really in such a bad shape?" upon not seeing anything that would make this engine worse off than her sisters still in service. Truth is, some engines that ended up here were still in operating condition... But when the next inspection is due, which costs money of course, the DB apparently rather scraps them instead of giving them a checkup, as there is no demand for these workhorses. At least that's what they say.

Needless to say, I liked the reflections in that puddle very much.

Taken at the exact same spot as this one yesterday



to illustrate the sudden snowfall we have here. What more can I say, apart from snow making everything look epic and fast, even more so if it is in fact doing 125mph.

For more pics from today, 17 of them to be precise, see my DSO post, as usual. Managed to catch a pair of class 218.8 diesels, or Thunderbird locos, as you blokes call them, en route to tow a train that didn't take kindly to the weather I guess. In general, I was pleasantly surprised that the train I took here was on time to the minute, as was the one I rode back home.

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IR 1824

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A east german BR228 (ex DR V180) diesel locomotive in Putlitz. It still has the original east german colors. The lettering on the side were also still saying "Deutsche Reichsbahn".

*Update* It's planned to restore this locomotive and put it on display in front of the Eisenbahnromantik-Hotel in Ganzlin.

A Vossloh G1700BB with autoracks in Rotenburg.

A Uerdinger Schienenbus (railbus) near the Rotenburg train station. The EVB still uses them for regular service.

Wuppertal is not a particularly wide city, caused by them trying to cram down actually a number of cities in the valley created by the Wupper. A result of that is that the railroad main line has to lie in a rather narrow corridor with lots of bridges over it. That, in turn, allows for rather interesting pictures, such as this class 143 with an S-Bahn (commuter) train, passing the bridge Erichstraße in Wuppertal-Barmen.

On my homepage

During my stay in Switzerland I tried and tried to get a good picture of a Re 6/6 or possibly even it's ancestor, the Ae 6/6. I failed. How about another Re 4/4, this time in Lucerne, instead?

On my homepage

Why won't DA allow umlauts in titles? Title restrictions have gotten less and less even since this picture was posted (the title lacked the slash originally, for example), which is great, but it also leaves the question: Why are there any remaining?

My father and I were left for one hour in Göschenen. Göschenen itself is a rather boring village, but it is sitting right on the north portal of the Gotthard tunnel. The Gotthard line, of course, is one of Europe's most important North-South railroad connections, so there are worse places for spending time than here.

In this case, a north-bound intermodal is just passing through. It is headed by a swiss Re 4/4 III (largely identical to the better known Re 4/4 II, but with different gearing for a lower top speed and more pulling power) together with a Re 6/6, a combination internally known as Re 10/10, which is very common on the Gotthard line. Both locomotive types were essentially bought just for this very steep high-traffic line with it's tight corners. The Re 6/6 is the more interesting one: For better curves, it has the rather uncommon Bo’Bo’Bo’ axle configuration. The one here is one of the two prototypes with a split body, something that proved unnecessary for the main delivery, making it a real rarity.

On my homepage

Re 485

Data Photographed Locomotive
Road number: 011-1
Fabrication-No.:33646
Name: Weil am Rhein

Operation
Years of construction: 1999-2005
Road numbers (UIC): BLS Re 485 001-020
Quantity built: 377
Quantity (BLS): 20
Application: mainly freight traffic

Technical data
Vehicle type: Bombardier TRAXX 140AC
Manufacturer: Bombardier Transportation
Wheel arrangement: Bo'Bo'
Top speed: 140 kph
Continuous power: 4'200 kW
Hourly rating: 5'600 kW
Starting Tractive effort: 300 kN
Power system: 15 kV 16,7 Hz AC / 25 kV 50 Hz AC
Gauge: 1435 mm
Brakes: Knorr brake (Disc brake), elctric brakes
Drive system: cannon box

Mass and weight
Length over buffer: 18'900 mm
Width: 2'980 mm
Weight: 84 t

Other
Special Features: The most used locomotive type in central Europe
Owner: BLS Cargo AG (Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon Bahn)
Operator: BLS Cargo AG (Bern-Lötschberg-Simplon Bahn)
Precursor: Re 465

Location: Roggwil-Wynau, Switzerland

Note: Bombardier TRAXX is a modular product platform of electric and Diesel-electric mainline locomotives built by Bombardier Transportation, built in both freight and passenger variants. The first version was a dual voltage AC locomotive built from 2000 for German railways; later versions include DC versions, as well as quadruple voltage machines, able to operate on most European electrification schemes: 1.5/3.0 kV DC and 15/25 kV AC. The family was expanded to include diesel powered versions in 2006. Elements common to all variants include the steel bodyshells, the two bogies with two powered axles each, the three-phase asynchronous induction motors, the cooling exhausts on the roof edges, and the wheel disc brakes.

The TRAXX brand name itself was introduced in 2003. The acronym stands for Transnational Railway Applications with eXtreme fleXibility. Locomotives were primarily made for the railways of Germany, with orders coming from other European countries including France, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland, Spain and Hungary.

__.__.2004 delivered to BLS Cargo AG, Bern [CH] "485 011-1 [Name: "Weil am Rhein"] [NVR-Number: 91 85 4485 011-1 CH-BLSC]
08.06.2004 in service [sub type CH/D]
23.04.2008 Taufe "Weil am Rhein"
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Ae 6/8, Ae 015

Type: First rod-engine free locomotive
Producer: Breda, SAAS (1st serie) SLM, SAAS (2nd serie)
Build date: 1926-1931 (1st serie) 1939 (2nd serie)
Quantity: 3 (8 built)
Number Photographed Train: Ae 015 205
Number after UIC: Ae 015 201-208
Number Classic: Ae 6/8 201-204 (1st serie) Ae 6/8 205-208 (2nd serie)
Weight: 140 tons
Swiss Axis Formula: (1’Co)(Co’1)
Length over buffers: 20.26 meters
Power: 4'415 kW
Top Speed: 100 kph
Home: Switzerland
Owner: BLS
Operator: BLS

Location: Canton Bern, Switzerland

Note: The first BLS Ae 6/8 where built between 1926-1931, the reason was that they had to replace the 13 years old Be 5/7 which weren’t capable of dealing with the growing traffic. The BLS decided to make a new development, cause they wanted to get ride of the rod engine. The Ae 6/8 were at their time the most powerful locomotives in the world. The second serie was very modern for it’s time, she had a top speed of 90 kph, had a seat and the first security system integra-signum. From the 8 built Ae 6/8 only 3 are still existing, No. 205 is operated by the BLS historic division, in 2008 she came back after full restoration, she is often used for nostalgic voyages, she was one of the many highlights at the 100th anniversary of the Ramsei-Sumiswald-Huttwil Bahn. No.206 and 208 are property of the classic rail.
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Re 4/4^II, Re 420, Re 421

Data Photographed Locomotive
Road number: 11305

Operation
Years of construction: 1964¹, 1967-1968², 1969-1985³
Road numbers (old): 11101-11349, 11371-11397
Road numbers (UIC): Re 420 101-349
Remodeling (Re 421): 2003-2004
Road numbers (UIC): Re 421 371-397
Quantity built: 276
Quantity today: ~250 (2012)
Application: all purpose locomotive
Maintenance work: Yverdon and Bellinzona
Scrapped: 6 due to accidents
Sale to BLS: 2004-2005, 12 units
Road numbers (UIC): BLS Re 420 501-512

Technical data
Vehicle type: electric locomotive
Manufacturer: SLM Winterthur, BBC Baden, MFO Zürich, SAAS Genève
Wheel arrangement: Bo'Bo'
Top speed: 140 kph, 120 kph (Re 421)
Continuous power: 4'700 kW
Tensile hours: 167 kN
Starting tractive effort: 255 kN
Mountain Power: 500-ton train to 26 ‰ slope at 80 kph
Power system: 15 kV 16,7 Hz
Gauge: 1435 mm

Mass and weight
Length over buffer: 14'800 mm ¹, 14'900 mm ², 15'410 mm ³
Width: 2'970 mm
Height: 4'500 mm
Weight: 80 t, 85t (Re 421)

Other
Owner: SBB CFF FFS (Schweizerische Bundesbahnen), SBB Cargo
Operator: SBB CFF FFS (Schweizerische Bundesbahnen), SBB Cargo
Special Features: Biggest SBB locomotive serie
Precursor: Re 4/4 ^I
Successor: Re 6/6, Re 620, Re 460

Location: Muttenz, Switzerland

Note: ¹ Prototypes, ² first series, ³ second series.

Since June/July 2012 the S-Bahn zürich will have double decker waggons which are pushed by two Re 4/4 II "LION".
Re 4/4 11371-11397 were remodeled into Re 421 421 371 - 421 397 for using in Germany by SBB CARGO Germany, she has Indusi an is built for right lane traffic.
SBB Re 4/4 II No. 11103, 11106, 11108, 11109, 11112, 11113, 11133, 11141 are the former Swiss Express locomotives, only 11108 and 11109 still have the orange (white livery.
12 Re 420 where sold to the BLS in 2004, and are used as 420 501-512. No.507 to 512 were already scrapped.

DB Br 151

Data Photographed Locomotive
Road number: 128-6
Livery: DB Railion

Operation
Years of construction: 1972-1978
Road numbers: 151 001-170
Quantity built: 170
Application: heavy freight
Scrapped: some of the older units gehts scrapped as they are replaced

Technical data
Vehicle type: heavy six axle electric freight locomotive
Manufacturer: AEG, BBC, Henschel, Krauss.Maffei, Krupp, Siemens
Wheel arrangement: Co'Co'
Top speed: 120 kph
Continuous power: 5'982 kW
Hourly rating: 6'288 kW
Starting tractive effort: 395 kN
Power system: 15 kV 16,7 Hz AC
Gauge: 1435 mm

Mass and weight
Length over buffer: 19'490 mm
Weight: 118 t

Other
Owner: DB Schenker Rail Deutschland
Operator: DB Schenker Rail Deutschland
Precursor: Br 150/ E 50

Location: Muttenz, Switzerland

Note: The Class 151 is an electric heavy freight locomotive built for German Federal Railways between 1972 and 1978. They were built as a replacement to the aging Class 150, in order to cope with the increased requirements of this type of locomotive, in particular the desire of a 120 km/h (75 mph) top speed.
On 21 November 1972 the first locomotive, 151001, was delivered by AEG and Krupp. It was followed by 11 further pilot locomotives, which were extensively tested before the main order was built. Altogether 170 locomotives were ordered, which were based at first in Hagen and Nuremberg.
Originally the Class 151 was also suitable for passenger service, however it is now not possible due to not having required safety equipment.
Some engines were fitted with automatic coupling (type unicupler AK69e) to haul heavy ore-trains.
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Gotha / Germany

CKD Tatra KT4D No. 306 is preparing in the depot for a long day on tramline 1 in Gotha.
After the driver checked all essential functions, he still has a few more minutes to read in his timetable.

Ludwigshafen / Germany

An icy day in Ludwigshafen. Snow and ice are not best friends with the modern low floor trams.
Luckily, there still is GT6 No. 125, which is always reliable and winter-proof.

The sun came out for only some seconds when this classic tram from Ludwigshafen approaches Mannheim city center.