As of 05/07/17, only 75 of the 90 class 112.1 remain in traffic.

Only 31 of the 39 class 114s remain in traffic:-

218 484 at Hüffenhardt, 27/06/15 (JW)

A special event will be held over the weekend of 24th and 25th June 2017 to celebrate the “Grenzüberschreitendes Bahnjubiläum Winden – Wissembourg”; the 20th anniversary of the reopening of the cross-border route between Winden, in the German Land of Rheinland-Pfalz, and Wissembourg, in France.

This route, closed in 1975 and reopened in March 1997, has been “off the radar” for locomotive fans since occasional class 218 diesel-hydraulic haulage ceased on summer Saturday specials in 2013; this was also the last time that we saw booked class 218 operation into France.

A two-train shuttle will be operated between Winden and Wissembourg – one formed of a modern SNCF class X73500 DMU, and the other top and tailed by CFL 2-10-0 steam locomotive 5519 and a 218.  The 218 is presumed to be either 218 483 or 218 484 from DB Regio at Karlsruhe (which have not had any passenger diagrams for a good number of years, and only make sporadic short-notice forays onto passenger work these days).  5519 should lead into Wissembourg, with the 218 leading back out.

218 412 awaits departure from Wissembourg, 05/08/12 (JW)

The diagram for the “hauled” set each day is as follows:-

07:30 Neustadt Hbf – Wissembourg
10:25 Wissembourg – Winden
11:15 Winden – Wissembourg
13:25 Wissembourg – Winden
14:15 Winden – Wissembourg
16:25 Wissembourg – Winden
17:15 Winden – Wissembourg
19:25 Wissembourg – Neustadt Hbf

Service train tickets are valid for travel on all of these.

More information in a German-language online leaflet here and in French here.

Many thanks to Jonas Briest for his help with this article!

Important Note: This tour was cancelled on 13/09/17 due to engineering works on the route.

Sunday 8th October 2017 sees an opportunity to travel behind E77.10, a well-travelled machine that was ceded to the Russians as war reparations.

Following the end of World War 2, or specifically the Potsdam Conference that set out how the “spoils” would be distributed amongst the Allied nations, the orders of the Sowjetische Militäradministration in Deutschland (SMAD) dictated that much of the infrastructure in the Russian zone of occupation of Germany (later East Germany, the DDR) was dismantled by Spring 1946 and taken to the Soviet Union as war reparations.  Included in this was the vast majority of electrified railway – including rolling stock.  Some of these routes have remained unelectrified ever since.

Quite what the intention of this move was – apart from opportunistic cynicism on the part of the Russians – is not entirely clear.  Certainly, huge swathes of mother Russia had been devastated during the conflict – not only its railways, but much of its industrial capacity, housing and even whole towns had simply ceased to exist, and needed to be recreated almost entirely from scratch.  However, a high proportion of this German railway equipment was simply never used.  A major factor in this is that the Russian track gauge is 1520mm (as opposed to the “standard gauge” of 1435mm used in Germany) necessitating complex regauging; these machines were 15kV a.c. as opposed to the then Russian standard of 3kV d.c.; but above that, the locos and catenary simply were not suited to the harsh environment – certainly not where they wished to use it.

It had apparently been intended to use a portion of this “recovered” German equipment to build a freight-only line at Vorkuta, deep into the Arctic Circle, over 1000 miles north-east of Moscow.  The Soviets also wanted to electrify a route from Tobul to Akmolinsk in Kazakhstan with the German system.  However, it soon became apparent that there was no obvious way to generate electricity for a system in this location and/or then get it into the overheads.

In 1953, the USSR largely gave up and gave the Deutsche Reichsbahn of East Germany the opportunity to purchase much of this material back.  This they did, although a lot of it was simply no longer usable; in truth, after its thuggish dismantling in 1946 and conveyance across the continent in questionable conditions, it never would have been.  The first newly-(re)electrified route to open in the DDR was that from Halle (Saale) to Köthen, on 1st September 1955.  However, progress with re-electrification was slow until after the 1972/73 oil crisis; again, this policy had been born of Moscow, who had a vested interest in selling cheap oil to the DDR through the Družba pipeline.

It’s fair to say that there is not much detail out there on this whole story, as throughout the “DDR times” it remained something of a taboo subject; not wishing to rock the boat with the Soviets or indeed point out any flaws in their reasoning.  As such, a lot of this history has simply been lost.

What is known is that locomotives of classes E04, E44, E77 and E94 were taken to Russia, along with some class 52 “Kriegslok” steam locos and some rolling stock from the Berlin S-Bahn system.

The above is a link to a YouTube video uploaded by user SuperJanH1 of E77.10 at work in 2011.

Although attempts are thought to have been made to operate the other classes in the Soviet Union, it is thought that the class E77s were simply housed in a facility at Babushkin in the Moscow area and were never used.  42 complete E77s, plus parts of 8 others, had survived the war and were taken away; 38 returned, although only 10 were returned to DR capital stock.  These were all scrapped by 1966, with the sole exception of E77.10, which survived in use as a train heating unit at Halle (Saale).  This machine – dating from 1924 – still makes occasional forays onto the mainline at the head of railtours.

The next of these is on Sunday 8th October 2017, when E77.10 hauls a short railtour from Leipzig-Plagwitz to Altenburg and return.  Operated by the Eisenbahnmuseum Leipzig, it departs from Leipzig-Plagwitz at 09:57 for an approximately 75-minute journey to Altenburg.  During the 3 hours there, participants are encouraged to visit the Altenburger Brauerei (brewery) where a beer tasting session and food are included in the tour ticket price of €62 second class/€78 first class.  The E77 departs back at 14:00, arriving back at Leipzig-Plagwitz at 15:15.

What can you combine it with?

There are not currently any other railtours of particular haulage interest in Germany advertised to run on that weekend, but do keep an eye on the Haulage Calendar section of this website for any new additions.  (Edit 25/06/17: a tour has now been advertised with 2,500hp diesel 118 770 (ex-DB 228 770) and 4-6-2 steam loco 01.0509 fairly nearby, the previous day).

Leipzig – or “Hypezig” as it is now known in some quarters – has recently rapidly gained a reputation as Germany’s creative capital.  Indeed, Plagwitz (the suburb from which this tour runs) has been transformed from run-down industrial wilderness to arty hotspot.  The city retains plenty of history, from 16th century Renaissance architecture to the sites widely recognised as the cradle of the 1989 revolution, and it definitely works as a destination for a “normals” holiday – as does the short, destination-focused nature of this tour.

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218 330 and 218 474 at Berlin Ostbahnhof, 19/06/17 (JW)

An intriguing service operated in northern Germany on selected days through Summer 2017, in some ways winding the clock back 20 years.

In mid-May, in a move that seemed out of the blue to many, IRE18447, the 06:55 Hamburg Hbf to Berlin Ostbahnhof, usually hauled by a class 182 electric, became a diesel diagram on Mondays only.  This is because for those days only, it was booked to run over the non-electrified classic “slow” lines between Stendal and Rathenow.  There was a recurring Sunday night possession on the Neubaustrecke which was not given up in one direction until mid-morning on Monday, meaning that single line working needed to be implemented; this train being diverted onto the non-electrified section to keep it out of the way of the ICEs.

This was a one-way diagram retaining the booked electric dead in the consist, the diesel(s) returning from Berlin to Hamburg light engine.

The traction

The two “celebrity” class 218 “rabbit” diesel-hydraulics – altrot liveried 218 387 of the Brohltalbahn (currently on hire to the Kurhessenbahn), and ozeanblau-beige liveried 218 460 “Conny” of the Westfrankenbahn – were moved north to Hamburg to act as motive power for these trains.

This provided a welcome return to the north for 218 460, which is “northerner” through and through, having been allocated to Lübeck depot from new in 1978 until 2007, before migrating south to Kempten.  Indeed, in 1996/97, it was numbered 210 460, denoting that it was one of the twelve Lübeck 218s renumbered into the 210.4 subclass.  The need for these came about as part of the development of the post-reunification cross-country network; DB wanted to create a Hamburg – Berlin – München InterCity axis, but the former cross-border section from Hamburg to Berlin via Ludwigslust had not yet been electrified.  Lübeck depot selected the 12 of its “rabbits” in the best condition and re-plated them from 140km/h (87mph) to 160km/h (99mph) to work this section in pairs at high speed.

Although 2017’s temporary diesel services were more sedate – and via the fairly-recently-reopened through route via Uelzen, Salzwedel and Stendal, rather than via Ludwigslust – it was still nice to be able to have ‘460 from Hamburg to Berlin once again.

Heritage-liveried 218 460 “Conny” at Kiel Hbf, 18/06/17 (JW)

However, ‘387 (especially) and ‘460 sadly proved somewhat less than reliable – certainly in the early days.  Ostensibly all 39 trains were meant to be worked by the pair of them, but it only made it to Berlin with the pair of celebrities (powering) four times, for various reasons.

In total, seven different 218s were used on the turn – 218 329 / 330 / 387 / 460 / 473 / 474 / 484.  Arguably the standout there was 218 474 from S-Bahn Hamburg, which – making its first passenger workings in nearly three years – was drafted in to work the train with ‘330 on 19th June 2017, and they put in an absolutely storming run, waiting time at every station along the way until being held at Rathenow to take additional passengers from a failed ICE.  218 474 took charge of the train solo the week after, arriving in Berlin less than 10 minutes late.

17th July 2017 was also lined up to see hit-listed 218 314 from Niebüll partner 218 460, however the failure (again) of the latter prior to departure time meant that by the time the defect had been diagnosed, ‘460 failed and the pair split, the train was sufficiently late to not require diesel haulage at all.  Indeed, 182 021 worked alone under its own power, and we reached Stendal after the possession had been lifted.

There were only two other occasions when the train did not enjoy the booked 218 power – 11th and 12th August 2017 – when the engineering work on the NBS was not being carried out, so there was no need to divert it.  On both dates, the train ran with just the booked 182 on the train, in the booked path and via the Neubaustrecke.

Times & Fares

This one-way 190-mile journey took just over 3 hours and definitely wound the clock back decades.  It required the locos to work at design speed for most of the way, and it was lovely to be able to sit in a compartment with an opening window behind a pair of more than 40-year-old diesels on a long distance service that late in the day.  At the time on this site, I recommended it as the place to experience 218s in 2017, and that is something I certainly stand by!

The train itself ran at an almost unsociably early hour, and short leaps were theoretically not too possible (the first stops being pick-up only and the last set-down only), but the train was best done throughout.  As one of the Berlin-Hamburg Express services, DB offered a €19.90 single fare (£17.54 at the time) – with a limited number of €14.90 fares if booked online very much in advance.  If returning later in the day (necessarily by electric), a return ticket could be purchased for €29.90 (£26.36).

If on a holiday in the Hamburg area, this was an ideal way to have a day trip to the capital, and allowed you over six and a half hours in what I believe to be the world’s most interesting city, before returning on the 16:52 with the class 182.

The route the train took is quite an interesting one.  Heading south from Hamburg, it left the main line at Uelzen and took the cross-country route through Salzwedel to Stendal.  This route – part of the former “Amerikalinie”, the erstwhile trunk route between Berlin and the great sea port of Bremerhaven and its opportunities for trans-continental import and export – was severed, literally, from 1946 as it crossed what was to become known as the Iron Curtain.  It was only reopened as a through route in 1999, and is now a fantastic bit of fast railway, although most of it is still only single track.  Even now, although the exact line of the former “inner-German border” is barely discernible, the atmosphere still feels a little different once you cross into the former DDR.

After a brief stop at Stendal, the train took line 6107, the classic route towards Berlin which is not electrified, running adjacent to the Neubaustrecke high-speed double-track railway.  It regained the electrified stretch after Rathenow, before making its grand entrance into Berlin, running right through the former West Berlin and out the other side before terminating at Berlin Ostbahnhof station, within sight of a remaining section of the Berlin Wall, at 10:11.

Sweeping right through the middle of reunited Berlin, along its elevated “Stadtbahn” (JW) 

Although this service was initially booked for 218 haulage on Mondays only, throughout the month of August this train was booked to be 218-hauled on Mondays to Saturdays.

Traction Log

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