Claude_Dreyfus

Part 2 - Cologne The Thursday saw a visit to the exhibition, followed by a wander back to Cologne (across the bridge) and a couple of hours at the station - which always provides lots of variety. This was helped by plenty of engineering activity. Bombardier Talent - 358 - pulls off of the Hohenzollern Bridge On the approaches to Cologne, at Messe Deutz That'll be 4 class 101s on this train - one at the front, and three at the back! 101 109-7 pulls out of Cologne Hbf 146 260 on a local push-pull 143 925 heads out of Cologne - last time we visited Cologne there were lots of these knocking around, this time their numbers were more limited. Portrait of 101 046-1 - I like the roof patterns in this picture. 111 158 departs RailAdventure class 111 There was engineering work taking place at the north end of the station - which provided some crane action, as well as this class 2018 Yet another IC Express arrives at Cologne, behind 101 041-2 IC Pushpull driving trailer and ICE3 Alstom LINT81 (DB Class 620) pulls out of Cologne with a Trier service, passing a distant 363 ICE4 Talent 359 in National Express livery Track machine passes through the main station IC White liveried 146 576-4 with matching stock ICE1 Not a great picture, but included as it includes the regular visits of Swiss stock - hauled by the usual class 101.

A couple of weeks ago, a small group of us from our club made our biennial trip to the exhibition at Cologne. This involved Eurostar to Brussels, with a 2 hour stop-over, and thence 90 minutes or so on the ICE to Cologne. A thoroughly civilised way to make the journey. Naturally, plenty of photos were taken, some of which are below. Part 1 - Belgium Our steed from London to Brussels; 4031 (left) and 4013 at Brussels Midi Thalys and TGV at Midi SNCB Class 21 2140 Class 27 2743 approaches Midi Siemens 'EuroSprinter' Class 18 1834 arrives at Midi AM08 08036 Another Thalys arriving at Midi Doubling up on the approaches to Brussels

Not absolutely convinced about the position of the box containing the author's name. Pity it cuts across the buffer beam of the 47. It is not helped by being in that black text box.

Such a smart livery, really pleased to see this make a reappearance.

I was planning to catch this at Pulborough this afternoon. (missed this morning as I was only made aware by this thread)...it was scheduled a couple of minutes pause. Sadly, Southern did what they do best, and the preceding train was 10 minutes late, meaning the 395s passed through without stopping (too dark to photo a moving train). Not helped also by a Bognor train calling just as they approached, so I didn't get a clear view in any event! Looked to be a good trip though for those involved.

To be blunt, if a show is scheduled to open at 10:00, then 10:00 is when it should open. I have been at shows where punters have been allowed to get in a wander around a good 20 minutes or so before opening time; this is bad. As a few have mentioned, stalls and layouts are still being set up before the show opens, so items such as stock, can be left vulnerable as the exhibitors and traders are finalising their set up. Note, if something does get pinched by a member of the public before the show is due to open, the organisers may have trouble with their insurers. 10:00 is a good time to open as it gives those layouts who do arrive that morning a chance to set up. Also, anything earlier, can make for a long day. As an aside, I hope you are not tempted to let the punters in before the scheduled opening time at any of the shows you organise.

Out of interest, have any of the new SR liveried arrivals come from Hattons? I have one on order, but not heard anything from them as yet.

Hymeks were quite often used on the Cardiff - Portsmouth services. I am sure they made occasional forays to Brighton (based on at least one photo I recall in a book a few years ago). 56s were common - used on the Ardingly branch for example. There was a batch allocated to Stewarts Lane, along with a number of 60s. 37s were quite common - particularly around Eastleigh, but weren't allocated to the region until the early 90s - 37198, 37274 and 37377 immediately spring to mind, but there were about 6. 45s also ventured to Eastleigh on freight - I read somewhere they were often used on the Severn Tunnel Jc services. 20s, of course, were used on the week killing trains, so the Hunslet liveried examples were seen all over the region (I distinctly remember a pair of them passing my school whilst treating the Lavant Branch in about 1990). They worked out of Horsham. 58s appeared in the mid 1990s and again were common around Eastleigh

Red, with yellow flowers. 4555732 at Clapham Junction - April 2017. Perhaps things with motifs/adornments of this nature to follow?

Curious - have they done this because of a shortage of 387/2s, or is there an increase in traffic? It seems too soon for any planned overhauls, and I am not aware of any incidents which have befallen them.

Nice. A couple of us are going out there in about 3 weeks time. I know a lot goes on there around the main station (a couple of those photos were taken from my favoured vantage point between the bridge and the station), but this time I am hunting freight this time. You have got a good selection there. Would love to see a 103, but am not expecting it. I saw one at a distance in Stuttgart a few years back.

There are lots of interesting techniques going on here. Loving this...

Paid another visit to Todmorden yesterday. This time there wasn't a lot running - however I managed to catch one of the Drax biomass trains. 66705 heads the 4M37 09:22 Drax Aes to Liverpool Biomass Terminal. Annoyingly, the front of the loco was a little blurred and I didn't get the light quite right - it was running 8 minutes early at this point, so I didn't have any time to set myself up properly.

I seem to recall all of the TTE characters having a varying degree of Liverpudlian accent...

Thanks. Koln West looks promising.

I am going out to Germany next month (Cologne to be exact) and am planning to spend a little time looking for freight trains. The most likely location is on the freight-only avoiding line to the south, although any recommended known hot-spots would be also appreciated. I am curious to know if there is something akin to 'Realtime Trains', or some other site which gives some indication of freight train times, or even an idea of their frequency? Any pointers? If there is anecdotal evidence that these lines are fairly busy during the day (it will be weekday, likely Friday), then I could adopt the old-fashioned approach of sitting by the lineside and wait. What I want to avoid is waiting hours for the one train a day, only to find it's been cancelled... Thanks

There are a couple of peak time trains each way that are 12, plus some of the later trains which can be 12 carriages also; at least one still splits at Barnham. Sunday trains are often 12 carriages. But I take your point, most trains are 4 or 8 carriage length.

Both Billingshurst and Littlehaven have had their platforms extended in recent years (in both cases from 4 to 8 carriage capacity), so the shorter platforms must still be a valid approach. It was a bit of a half measure as in both cases there is space for the full 12 capacity, and a decent enough percentage of trains serving them are 12 carriages (particularly Littlehaven, which is served by the Thameslink 700s).

A couple more pictures of the layout showing the slow progress continuing! This was from our open day last Sunday. Looking away from the main station, across the river. The catenary is now in place, but requires painting.The big COOP silos in the background are part of another layout! At the opposite end, the new street scene is underway across the bridge. The large building immediately above the S-Bahn lines (yes, I know the 3rd rail still has to be added!) is some faded villa which has yet to be completed - they have some cracking views of the railway! The church is not a bombed out relic, or the neglect of political ideology, it just hasn't been finished! Busy approaches to the station

Sorting through old photos, I came across this one of 33002 passing through Clapham in the early 1990s

A couple taken in the dying days of the Waterloo - Exeter loco hauled services; I guess in about late 1992/early 1993. Pushing out a little cloud of exhaust 47712 pulls out of Clapham with a Waterloo-bound train. 47583 heads an ecs into the carriage sidings at Clapham. At the other end was 47704. 47583 had detached from the front and parked up beside 704. Note the brand new Networker stabled beside. Note also the brand new 159 lurking ominously in the background. These were on test at the time. This is the last time I saw locos on these services.

Correct. There were a number in storage in the sidings at that time in preparation for introduction. It was certainly a novelty. By coincidence 73006 was at Clapham (along with the Networkers) during one of my visits; was it really as long ago as 1991? Sadly the photos didn't come out. I did revisit, a little more successfully; although the photo has suffered a little in the intervening 25+ years. Edit: there were some 159s lurking in the background of another shot taken on the same day, so I reckon this was was taken late 92/early 93.

Billingshurst needed to be removed to widen the level crossing - apparently there was some planning constraint on new development until this was done. Pity this particular level crossing seems to be a bit of a challenge for various delivery drivers, it is frequently being hit by drivers who seem to think the red lights don't apply to them... Pulborough is sadly slowly deteriorating. There is a local campaign to restore it, but I am not 100% sure what they want to do with it. I believe it could be listed. Access is likely to be improved as there are plans to convert the area of the old Midhurst lines into another car park (although lack of capacity isn't a real problem a Pulborough...the main issue being the £800 a year to use it) which would allow for access. I hope something can be done with it.

Sorry to see such a disingenuous post on here. It appears to me these comments started from 'it looks wrong' and moved on from there trying to establish what was making it look wrong. The details may be minor, but if the impact is on the overall appearance, then there is an issue. If the bar is being set that level, then so be it; but it seems curious that with so many plans and lots of examples of the real thing knocking around that errors of this nature are being made. Personally, I may get one in the future, but it is a real shame if there are errors obvious enough for the model to look wrong and these are not addressed; and an even greater shame if those who point these out are lambasted with 'lets see your modelling then'. With that attitude nothing changes and nothing improves. Pity.

For a black roofed example, 50047 may be worth pursuing. I have seen a photo of it heading a rake of clay hoods (I think in the 'Life and Times' series) in the mid 80s, and it was withdrawn with a black roof, so that may be worth further investigation.