Jon WorthWelcome to #CrossBorderRail Day 12
Heading home to Berlin today, but there are a few things to see first!
PeerTube
And I’m on a double track mainline *that’s not electrified* AGAIN. This time Lichtenfels - Kulmbach - Hof
When @schienenallianz says Germany needs to electrify main lines, they could just basically put “Bavaria” instead. Because apart from 1 line in each of Schleswig Holstein and Thüringen, the rest of the priority projects are ALL here!
Mechanical points at Stammbach. Yep, someone in a signal box still has to shift levers by hand here.
Sod #CrossBorderRail
I need to start #CrossBayernRail
There’s so much you could do *comparatively easily* to improve regional rail here. All these non electrified main lines are absurd
Ok, the re-planning meant I have only now calculated everything for the train assessments!
#CrossBorderRail Train 46
RE 10 (58226)
17:05 Nürnberg Hbf - Fürth (Bay) Hbf 17:11
DB Regio AG Bayern
Distance: 8 km
Average speed: 76 km/h
Train type: Alstom Coradia, older version, 2x4 carriages
⚡️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (but badly designed narrow entry, although step free if platform allows)
🛜: ⛔️
🧳: 🤔 (I really dislike the design of these trains - everything is cramped)
🧽: 🤔 (a bit grimy)
#CrossBorderRail Train 47
RE 42 (4994)
17:46 Fürth (Bay) Hbf - Bamberg 18:20
DB Regio AG Bayern
Distance: 55 km
Average speed: 96 km/h
Train type: Bombardier Talent 2 EMU, 2x4 carriages
⚡️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (step free if platform allows)
🛜: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂 (decent multi use spaces, overhead racks)
🧽: 🤔 (bit grimy)
#CrossBorderRail Train 48
RE 42 (4916)
21:36 Bamberg - Lichtenfels 22:00
DB Regio AG Bayern
Distance: 32 km
Average speed: 80 km/h
Train type: Bombardier Talent 2 EMU, 4 carriages
⚡️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (step free if platform allows - but Lichtenfels station has a major problem with the main platform lift!)
🛜: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂
🧽: 🙂 (cleaner than the earlier one)
#CrossBorderRail Train 49
RE39 (59303)
08:01 Lichtenfels - Hof Hbf 09:21
DB Regio AG Bayern
Distance: 95 km
Average speed: 71 km/h
Train type: 🐳 Class 641 railbus, 1 carriage
⛽️
🚲: ✅ (lots of space)
🦽: ✅ (but some stations not accessible!)
🛜: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂 (surprisingly good)
🧽: 🙂
These railbuses also have smooth acceleration and a smooth ride - good
#CrossBorderRail Train 50
RE3 (74013)
09:28 Hof Hbf - Dresden Hbf 12:06
Mitteldeutsche Regiobahn
Distance: 224 km
Average speed: 85 km/h
Train type: Alstom Coradia, more modern version, 5 carriages
⚡️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (step free if platform allows)
🛜: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂 (decent overhead racks, and some extra space for large luggage at carriage ends)
🧽: 🙂
(Good seats fitted in this train - welcome given it’s a long journey! But Coradia trains have small and badly aligned windows)
And look what I stumbled across this morning!
Trans-Europ-Express
DB-Baureihe VT 11.5, parked up at Lichtenfels
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB-Baureihe_VT_11.5
It doesn't look in the best condition though, so this can't be the DB Museum's one
Wondering how to best cover the DE-PL #CrossBorderLines that I'd planned to partially examine tomorrow, but re-planned due to the strike...
I could do 2 day trips from Berlin - to Guben, 🚲 to Zary, back via Forst (Lausitz)
And then Berlin - Weißwasser, bike along the Polish side and round to Horka, and back to Berlin from there
The Hof-Dresden part of the Sachsen-Franken Magistrale is a really interesting route
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sachsen-Franken-Magistrale?wprov=sfti1
It’s electrified, and if you get a seat in a high floor section of the Alstom Coradia train you have both a good view and comfortable seat
Quick meeting with @wrzlbrnft in Dresden - coordinated last minute via Mastodon. Super to see him - one of the most helpful and friendly rail nerds here. Although his choice of drink was a little… bright! 🙂
Jiříkov 🇨🇿
The station isn’t needed any more as passengers could use Ebersbach (Sachs) 🇩🇪 less than 1km away. But there aren’t any trains Ebersbach - Rumburk currently…
#CrossBorderRail research. Really! Ebersbach - Löbau steam train. Only running this weekend.
The track quality between Ebersbach and Löbau is notably worse than between Rumburk 🇨🇿 and Ebersbach. Running regular trains to Löbau is going to need some work
A #CrossBorderRail train to Zgorzelec 🇵🇱 departs Löbau (Sachs). I’m not going there today, but instead heading to Berlin via Dresden-Neustadt.
And as @moritzkraehe and I have had to stand all the way to Dresden (the train is full of bikes and people!) I’ve not downloaded any photos yet. Maybe once I’m on the ICE to Berlin I’ll see how the drone shots turned out!
At Dresden-Neustadt
On a sweltering August evening in 2022 I took the last train of #CrossBorderRail here
Now on a slightly chillier May evening I’m doing the same today. Homewards to Berlin!
#CrossBorderRail Train 51
S1
14:29 Dresden Hbf - Bad Schandau 15:13
DB Regio AG Südost
Distance: 40 km
Average speed: 54 km/h
Train type: TRAXX locomotive, 4 carriages, but 1 was out of order
⚡️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (slope down inside carriage, but I think it works)
🛜: ⛔️
🧳: 🤔 (Double deck so not great, but these modern ones are ok)
🧽: 🙂
#CrossBorderRail Train 52
U28 (5447)
15:18 Bad Schandau - Rumburk 16:28
DB Regio AG Südost
Distance: 43 km
Average speed: 37 km/h
Train type: Siemens Desiro Classic DMU, renovated version, 2 carriages
⛽️
🚲: ✅
🦽: ✅ (step free if platform allows)
🛜: ✅ (but only in Germany)
🧳: 🙂 (decent multi use spaces, generous overhead racks)
🧽: 🙂
#Deutschlandticket: ✅⛔️ (only on German section, ticket for Czech section bought onboard)
#CrossBorderRail Train 53
17830
18:45 Ebersbach (Sachs) - Löbau 19:17
OSEF Dampfzug
Distance: 15 km
Average speed: 27 km/h
Train type: DR-Baureihe 86 steam locomotive, 3 carriages
🔥
🚲: ✅ (there was a baggage carriage, could be used for bikes)
🦽: ❓ (space for wheelchairs in one carriage, hell knows how you’d get one in)
🛜: ⛔️
🧳: 🙂
🧽: 🙂 (spotless outside)
#CrossBorderRail Train 54
TL RB60 (76530)
19:46 Löbau - Dresden Neustadt 20:52
trilex - Die Länderbahn GmbH DLB
Distance: 78 km
Average speed: 71 km/h
Train type: Siemens Desiro Classic DMU, renovated version, 2 carriages
⛽️
🚲: ✅ (good space, but lots of bikes!)
🦽: ✅ (step free if stations allow it)
🛜: ✅
🧳: 🙂 (very good - the best small DMU for luggage space)
🧽: 🙂
Train was very full - too few carriages. Had to stand
Kaito@jon there's nothing like mainline steam!
Moritz Krähe@jon You like to save the best till last, eh? 😃
Knud JahnkeDrone shots from inside a fill regional train would be dope! ;-)
Thomas LiskeThis is usually the case during peak hours, especially near Dresden. I travel daily to Dresden main station and must stand mostly. 😞
The original line was completed after just four years in 1847. Since 2003 there are plans to extend & electrify the line... 🤷
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahnstrecke_G%C3%B6rlitz%E2%80%93Dresden
@fiasko @moritzkraehe Yep. It was one I looked at last year!
Martin Hoffmann@jon @wrzlbrnft At least it wasn’t green.
@partim @wrzlbrnft Waldmeisterbrause FTW! 😉 (no I’m not that Berliner yet)
heisebahn@jon @partim @wrzlbrnft
I think that this Lomadae (red and green) was sold as "Eisenbahnerbrause" for some years ago.
I think that this Lomadae (red and green) was sold as "Eisenbahnerbrause" for some years ago.
@heisebahn @jon @wrzlbrnft The red stuff was the cheap brause back in the day. I remember 15 pfennige for a small bottle but the Internet claims 20.
Wrzlbrnft@partim @heisebahn @jon I always like to try out drinks and food I don't know yet. So I always go for things like this instead of coffee or a boring Coke. 😁
@jon @partim @heisebahn Waldmeister ist große Liebe. 💚 In östlicheren Gefilden auch Estragon- oder Тархун-Limo, die sehr ähnlich schmeckt.
geeeero@jon Unless you get the seat next to the window that opens, and there's a black bar exactly at an average person's eye level. That's my only issue with these trains, I like them a lot otherwise.
Vigeliensch@jon
Strikes are cancelled...
Strikes are cancelled...
@vigeliensch i know. But I’ve already cancelled my hotel in Görlitz!
Kai Arzheimer
Kraftwerk - Trans Europa Express (original)
Feòrag@jon That Wikipedia article suggests that it’s part of a set the DB Museum wants to get running, currently in various places. The set the DB Museum has for display is, as of last December, in Koblenz.
@feorag it’s not. The DB Museum one is spotless. This was knackered.
@jon The article you linked to, the last couple of paragraphs of the section entitled “Einsatz für die Deutsche Reichsbahn und musealer Erhalt”, explains what this set is. There are parts of it all over the place. The DB Museum set is in the annex in Koblenz.
@feorag i literally saw the DB Museum one last autumn when it was in Berlin at the Technikmuseum. Either the paint has notably worsened (unlikely) or these end locomotives aren’t the same ones. Wikipedia doesn’t explain how many locomotives exist.
@jon I’m not trying to argue that this is *the* DB Museum set. I’m pointing out that the article you linked to mentions this particular set at Lichtenfels, says what it is, and what the plans for it were.
The set that was in Koblenz in December isn’t this one. If VT11 5008 = 601008, then it’s the one from Horb am Neckar that Wikipedia claims was scrapped in 2020!
The DB Museum set wasn’t in Nuremberg in December, that’s why I thought the one in Koblenz was it. Presumably it’s still in Berlin.
Johanonthetrain
RachelPearce@jon What is your 3rd metric (between wheelchair for accessibility and suitcase for luggage space)? It just appears as a box with a cross in it for me.
@RachelPearce Wifi on board. But it seems that emoji is not fully supported yet...