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Great Railway Journeys – Cologne to
Frankfurt
There are 2 routes between
these 2 cities, either side of the River Rhine. The east bank traffic is
slower, local trains and freight, whilst the west bank is mainly express
traffic. Rail passengers along either bank get excellent views of the
villages and castles on the opposite bank, with west bank travellers also
getting views of the extensive vineyards on the slopes above eastern and
southern bank. Travellers on the Rhine Cruisers have the advantage of seeing
both banks and the frequent trains as well as the castles and vineyards.
 The West Bank route from
Cologne joins the Rhine at Bonn, former capital of West Germany, and then
follows the bank through, Bad Godesberg and Remagen, famous for its bridge
during WW2, though it has long since gone and only the abutments remain.
Brohl is the junction for the metre gauge line to Engelin and after
Andernach the line crosses the Mosel into Koblenz. From Koblenz the line
continues along the banks of the Rhine passing through the river side towns
of Bobbard, which has good views of several castles on the east bank; St
Goar, where there is a ferry service to St Goarhausen; Oberwesel, Bacharach,
Niederheimbach and Bingen, associated with the Abbess Hildergard and where
the river turns to the east; and into Mainz, where the railway crosses the
river, as it turns south again, and heads east to Frankfurt. The picture is
of a local service.
The East Bank route crosses
the Rhine as it leaves Cologne and loops round to reach the riverbank at
Bonn-Oberkassel it then follow the river passing through the resorts of
Königswinter and Bad Honnef. The track rises near Linz, junction for the
rack railway to Kalenborn, but soon returns to river level. At Bad
Hönningen there is a good view of the Rheineck castle above Brohl on the
west bank Shortly after Niederlahnstein the line to Giessen turns off to the
east and our route crosses the Lahn as it flows into the Rhine.
 The line
then goes through the towns of St Goarhausen, Kaub and Lorch to Rüdesheim,
and then on into Wiesbaden, The train reverses out of the terminus at
Wiesbaden for the final part of the journey to Frankfurt.
Local freight on the
east bank.
These photographs are rather dated, they
were taken from a cruise boat on the river in September 1989 GB
Stations for Rhine Castles
| Castle |
Station |
Castle |
Station |
| Ehrenfels, (East Bank) |
Aßmannshausen |
Pfalz, (East Bank) |
Kaub |
| Fürstenberg, (West
Bank) |
Niederheimbach |
Reichenstein, (West
Bank) |
Trechtinghausen |
| Godesburg, (West Bank) |
Bad Godesberg |
Rheineck, (West
Bank) |
Brohl |
| Gutenfels, (East Bank) |
Kaub |
Rheinfels, (West
Bank) |
St Goar |
| Katz, (East Bank) |
St Goarhausen |
Rheinstein, (West
Bank) |
Trechtinghausen |
| Lahneck, (East Bank) |
Oberlahnstein |
Schönburg, (West
Bank) |
Oberwesel |
| Liebenstein, (East
Bank) |
Kestert |
Sooneck, (West
Bank) |
Niederheimbach |
| Marksburg, (East Bank) |
Braubach |
Stahleck, (West Bank) |
Bacharach |
| Maus, (East Bank) |
St Goarhausen |
Sterrenberg, (East
Bank) |
Kestert |
| Nollich, (East
Bank) |
Lorch |
Stolzenfels, (West
Bank) |
Koblenz |
| Oberwesel, (West
Bank) |
Oberwesel |
|
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Taken from Great Railway Journeys
Great Railway Journeys 0f Europe- Verona to Innsbruck
This is a breathtaking journey with glorious views of alpine peaks, many of
which remain snow covered throughout the year. Fast flowing rivers run
alongside of the tracks and the landscape is lush with conifers, or-chards
and vineyards.
On leaving Verona the track runs north west along the left bank of the river
Adige passing the Valpolicella vine-yards. From Rivoli to Rovereto it runs
close to the A22 motorway, which is also heading for Innsbruck, The
motor-way criss-crosses the river, while the railway keeps on the left bank.
On the western side is mount Baldo, beyond which is Lake Garda.
The line carries on, on the left bank of the Adige, to Trento, where it is
joined by the line from Venice and Bassano del Grappa, famous for its “eau
de vie”. 
The Adige turns away north west before Bolzano, while the railway follows
its tributary, the Isarco, heading north east through the Dolomites towards
the Alps. From here to Innsbruck all signs are in both Italian and German,
the area having been part of Austria prior to WW1. The line then makes a
sweeping arc of 60km passing through Ponte Gardena/Waidbruck, from where the
Castle Trobug can be seen on top of a cliff. Then through the picturesque
Chiusa/Klausen and Bressanone/Brixen, a popular resort with a baroque
cathedral, after which large gun bunkers can be seen, reminders of a not so
peaceful era.
Vipiteno/Sterzing is the last stop in Italy, where I remember lunch-time
coach stops in and out of Italy, delicious plates of pasta washed down with
trebbiano white wine.
From here the line heads north to the Brenner Pass, the lowest route through
the Alps and the only one crossed in the open by a main railway line. The
line then carries on due north and downhill through the Sill Valley, which
is crossed by the motorway on the Europa Bridge, into Innsbruck.
Thomas Cook Timetable 595
Distance: 275km
7 direct trains a day plus 3 night trains
Across France
‘Great Railway Journeys’ has
articles on the Paris to Marseilles TGV route and on the Marseilles - Nice -
Monaco route. These can be combined and expanded to cover the Brussels to
Nice journey, one of the longest regular passenger runs, which uses the
Interconnexion route to avoid Paris. The are 3 trains a day out of Brussels
to the south of France, but only the 09.25 departure goes as far as Nice,
the others going to Marseille & Perpignan (11.25) and Toulon (15.17). All
the services call at Lille, where the trains reverse and travellers from
London using Eurostar can join the train. The Nice journey requires a
departure from London on the 06.53 train out of Waterloo. (At 06.48 on a
Saturday and no connecting service on a Sunday.) The Nice service stops at
TGV Haute-Picardie, an isolated station just south of the Amiens to St
Quentin road, continues through Picardie and takes the Interconnexion line,
stopping at Aéroport CDG TGV and Marne la Vallée - Chessy (for Euro Disney),
before joining the TGV sud-est line from Paris. It is then non-stop for 2
hours through the Burgundy countryside and passing Lyon to Valence TGV. It
then crosses the Rhone 4 times on its way to Avignon TGV after which it runs
through Aix en Provence TGV to reach Marseille. At Marseille the train
reverses again and heads for the Riviera running quite close to the coast on
its way to Toulon and passes through the stations for Cassis and Bandol.
 After Toulon the line turns inland going north of the Massif des Maures and
stops at Les Arcs - Draguignan before returning to the coast at St Raphael
after which it hugs the coast giving excellent views of the Corniche de
l’Esterel on the southern side and of the Massif de l’Esterel to the north
before reaching Cannes. It continues along the coast through Golfe-Juan and
Juan-les-Pins then crosses north of the Cap d’Antibes on its way to Antibes
station and then continues long the coast to Nice-Ville.
The Belgian Railways web site at www.b-rail.be gives
proper timetables for these services, and others, unlike the SNCF web site,
which only provides departure and arrival times.
French Train Adventure
With Truemans Travel
"That looks interesting," said Jenny, passing me the
Brochure. My wife interested in a railway holiday! So we went.
Petit train Jaune waiting to depart from Villefranch le Conflent
We were up early on Monday morning for the coach to take
us to Villefranche la Conflent, where we boarded the Petit Train Jaune
(Little Yellow Train) for our journey along the Pyrenees to Font-Romeu,
where the coach was waiting to take us up into the town, some 4km away,
passing the solar furnace on the way. After half an hour in the town we
reboarded the coach and, after a lunch stop at Mont-Louis, had a couple of
hours to investigate Villfranche, before returning to Canet. Tuesday we had
a free morning to look round Canet-Plage, though half the shops and Cafés
were closed, and in the afternoon we had a short excursion to the pretty
port of Collioure, only 16Km from the Spanish border.
 Wednesday saw us back on the coach for a transfer to
Nîmes. The lunch stop was at Montpellier, where we left the coach on the
outskirts of the town and went to and from the centre on their new tramway
and had a couple of hours for lunch and a wander round. We then drove
through the Camargue to Arles, where we had another couple of hours for
sight-seeing (Roman amphitheatre and theatre, and the Rhone). And then on to
Nîmes.
Thursday was another railway highlight when we drove up
to St Jean du Gard to catch the steam train to la Bambouseraie on the Train
ŕ Vapeur des Cévennes.  The Bambouseraie is a bamboo plantation established
about 150 years ago and has over 150 varieties of bamboo and examples of how
it can be used, complete with a Laotian village. The coach then took us to
Alčs, where we stopped for lunch, and then to Avignon, where we spent the
afternoon, before returning to Nîmes for dinner. Friday was spent at leisure
in the ancient city of Nîmes. We were taken in by the coach, on its way to
Paris with the bulk of our luggage. There is a Roman amphitheatre, which
like that at Arles, is used as a Bull-Ring, as well as for more cultural
events. The town centre is quite compact and it was easy to see most of the
sights in a day.
St Jean du Gard depot of the Train a Vapeur taken from
the train
On the Saturday morning we were collected by a local coach and taken to
Nîmes railway station (gare SNCF), where we caught the TGV to Paris,
arriving 3 hours later, only a couple of minutes late. The coach was waiting
for us at the Gare du Lyon, and took us back to Calais, Dover and home.
Taxis were waiting for us at the station to take us to
our homes.
Jenny was right. It was an interesting holiday and we really enjoyed it.
The bad news for you is that it is not in Truemans 2004 brochure.
TGV Duplex service to Paris arriving at Nimes
Geoff Bryan
Milan – Brussels on the Vauban
Another of the Great Railway Journeys of Europe
This remarkable train runs through 5 countries going from
southern Europe to northern Europe in just less than 12 daylight hours (a
little longer for the south bound journey). It runs through 5 countries and
crosses 2 mountain ranges on it way. The southern terminus is Milan’s
Stazione Centrale where the train, EC90, leaves at 0810 and makes its ways
across the north Italian plain, stopping at Gallerate (08:39) on its way
towards lake Maggiore. There are stops at Arona (08:58) and Stresa
(09:11),and there are views of the lake on the right hand side in between
tunnels. After stopping at Verbania (09:19), the line leaves the lake and
heads northwest, through Domodossola (09:39), after Domodossola there are
numerous tunnels including a spiral tunnel between Varso and Iselle, the
train enters the 20Km Simplon Tunnel and emerges in the Swiss Alps and stops
at Brig (10:24). From here the line runs high above the floor of the Rhone
valley and then passes through the 9Km Lötschberg tunnel under the Bernese
Alps to reach the resort of Kandersteg (currently no scheduled stop). The
train then descends out of the Alps towards lake Thun, where there are stops
at Spiez (11:23) and Thun (11:34), and then on to Bern (11:56). After Bern
the line passes through Burgdorf and its 12thC castle before arriving at
Olten (12:44). From there the line enters another tunnel, this time under
the Jura mountains on its way to Basel (13:10). Basel is on the Rhine, where
the borders of Switzerland, France and Germany meet. The train crosses the
border into France where it stops at Mulhouse (13:53) and then travels
through the vineyards of Alsace, with the Vosges mountains rising on the
left, on its way to Strasbourg (14:45). For the last section of the journey
the train serves the three main centre of the European Union, Strasbourg,
Luxembourg and Brussels, stopping at Metz (16:03) and Thionville (16:22) on
its way to Luxembourg (16:50). In Belgium the train stops at Arlon (17:22)
and Namur (18:47) before the 3 Brussels stations, Bruxelles-Luxembourg
(19:26), Bruxelles-Nord (19:37) and arrives at Bruxelles-Midi at 19:45, just
to late to join the 19:57 Eurostar to London, the last of the day.
On the south bound journey the train leaves Bruxelles-Midi
at 07:01 and arrives in Milano-Centrale at 19:25.
The text is based on the description of the route in Great Railway
Journeys of Europe and the time-table was found on the SNCB website at
www.b-rail.be
RAIL TRANSPORT IN HONG KONG
This article has recently come to
light. It was prepared by Tony Hocking 10 years ago for use in an STN, but
never used. As STNs were designed for longer articles this will have to be
serialised over a couple of issues.
Hong Kong is divided into three main
regions, Hong Kong Island, which includes the city of Hong Kong, the
mainland which includes the other major city of Kowloon and the New
Territories and finally the "Outlying Districts" which is a euphemism for
all the many other islands. Hong Kong city is a very crowded place, it
covers the narrow strip of land between Victoria Harbour and the steep hills
in the centre of Hong Kong Island. This restricted site is densely packed
with skyscrapers, for business, shops, hotels and blocks of flats, the only
direction left for building expansion is up!
This leads to a great concentration
of people who need transport. There are insufficient roads for many private
cars, and no space for garages, so public transport reigns supreme. There
are large fleets of taxis, and the bus service is frequent, goes almost
everywhere, and is cheap. With so many people there is still however a need
for other means of transport and rail is there in three guises.
There is a modern underground Mass
Transit Railway (MTR) which has a line running East-West under most of Hong
Kong city, with two lines under Victoria Harbour to Kowloon and beyond,
serving the main centres of settlement in the South of the New Territories.
The trains are 8-car electric units with overhead collection. They resemble
London Underground cars, possibly because they are made by Metro-Cammell,
but are built to a larger loading gauge which means they are more spacious.
The interiors are very different, almost everything except the floors and
roof linings is made of stainless steel, a good precaution against vandalism
and corrosion. There is longitudinal seating along each side (again
stainless steel, and everyone slides along if the train accelerates or
decelerates sharply!). The joins between cars have no constrictions, with
flexible walls and sliding floors so that standing passengers can fill every
possible part of the train and move freely from one end to the other.
Train services are precisely timed;
trains stop for exactly 25 seconds at each stop with a warning tone 5
seconds before the doors close. If anything prevents a train leaving there
is an immediate effect on all following trains; so to prevent excessive
congestion the station entrance turnstiles are then progressively shut and
eventually a complete station may close until the problem has been resolved.
The trains run much more smoothly and quietly than on the London Tube, the
track being good and with few sharp bends. All stations are announced (in
English and Cantonese) as they are approached and, to combat the hot sticky
weather there is air-conditioning. This is a really nice railway to ride on
(apart from rush-hour peaks when all the space is solid with people!). Fares
are low, 90p is the maximum fare, for which you can go for at about 8 miles,
e.g. from Central (Hong Kong) to Tsuen Wan in the New Territories. Hong Kong
city also has a surface line, a conventional street tramway running the
entire length of the city from Kennedy Town in the west to Shau Kei Wan in
the east.
The cars are double-decked, with single 4-wheel
trucks using overhead trolley pick-up. They are narrow, compared with
English cars, and somewhat austere. I could see no makers
name or identification on them, they look old
and are very well worn; they come in all colours, gaudily painted all over,
even on the roof, with advertisements. At busy times they are packed solid,
with standing upstairs as well as down, and even in slack times they are
well patronised © the fares are ridiculously cheap (several miles for about
15p!), hence their popularity. There is only one branch off the main line, a
loop to Happy Valley. Many trams run the full length of the line, others ply
the busiest sections only, using intermediate reversing loops. The ride is a
bit harsh, but most of the track is good and there is little lurching.
Air-conditioning is definitely not fitted, but with all windows open the
heat is easily bearable. The line is good for sight-seeing.
For really good sightseeing the best thing to do is to
catch the "Peak Tram", which is in fact a funicular railway, which runs from
Central District to the top of the second highest peak on the island, from
here the views over Victoria Harbour are superb. Unlike most funiculars
there is no attempt to keep an even gradient, it varies from near horizontal
to almost 45°, at times you think you are lying on your back!
Hong Kong Island is too hilly for other large settlements
and other lines, and the islands are too sparsely populated, so the
remaining rail services are in the New Territories.
The premier line is the Kowloon-Canton Railway (KCR),
running from a large station in Kowloon/Tsim-Sha-Tsui north east through
Shatin, then north west to the border with the Peoples Republic of China and
on to Guangchou (formerly Canton).
Within the New Territories KCR services are run with
electric multiple units, 10 to 12 cars in length, with overhead collection.
These are fast, comfortable, with conventional open- vestibule seating,
albeit with plastic seats. Metro-Cammel again built these. Through passenger
trains to the PRC appear to use ordinary carriage stock, hauled by PRC BO-BO
electric locomotives.
Freight (cattle and mainly pigs - 500,000 a year are
imported from the PRC according to the papers!) was as far as I could see,
again hauled by the PRC locos, and shunted by BO-BO diesel shunters which
were unidentified, but presumably local to Kowloon.
Away in the extreme west of the New Territories is a very
attractive line, the Light Rail Transit or LRT. This is a very modern
tramway, with bright orange semi-streamlined single-decked cars built by
SETRA running on reserved track alongside or in the centre of the roads.
Overhead collection is used, and air-conditioning is provided.
The layout consists of a comprehensive network of lines
within the new industrial town and port of Tuen Mun, with an interurban main
line running 6 miles up a long valley, through a series of industrial and
residential settlements, to the town of Yuen Lon.
Single and paired cars provide a frequent service, of the
order of one unit per 2 minutes on the busy stretches served by several
routes. New branches are still being opened.
It is not unknown for Hong Kong road junctions to be
converted into flyovers, with pedestrian walkways flying over the road
flyovers, in one place the LRT flies over both roads and pedestrians at a
busy junction, with very steep ramps up and down! The cars take this
effortlessly in their stride, and apparently they have the power to reach 70
kph if need be.
One interesting aspect of all the lines, except the Hong
Kong city trams, is the platform markings. Each carriage or tram door
position is painted on the platform, with queuing lanes marked either side,
so that you know where to stand to get on, without blocking the doors when
people get out. The LRT even marks out parallel, separate queuing lanes for
each route where platforms are shared.
Another feature of the MTR and KCR is the reusable plastic tickets. These
are credit card size and robustness; they are issued from automatic machines
and collected at the destination turnstiles for reuse. This is possible
because they are issued on a monetary value basis rather than for use
between named stations.
The absence of rails in the islands will soon change, the
biggest island, Lantau, is having the new airport built on reclaimed land
just off shore, this airport will eventually receive an extension of the MTR
(if the PRC continue the airport work after 1997). The connection will cross
the eastern end of Lantau and a station on the island is almost inevitable
as there is a 100ft tall statue of the Buddah on a hill top which draws
thousands of visitors each day to the island by ferry, a rail link would be
very popular.
A J F Hocking Apri1 1994
A weekend trip to the Little Trains of Normandy
With Truemans Travel.
The first weekend of September saw us off on another trip with Truemans
Travel. “Taxies about 7” meant a 6.15 pickup on the Friday morning to meet
the coach at Farnborough, which then took us to Dover via Frimley, Bagshot,
Egham and then the Ms 3, 25, 26 & 20, for the 10.00 am ferry to Calais. On
arrival we took the autoroutes down the coast to Abbeville, then across to
Rouen and down to Evreux, where we stayed for 3 nights.
The Saturday morning saw us up early for us to get to Pont Audemer for the
PontAuRail service to Honfleur, which runs for 30Km through mainly wooded
countryside. They advertise that the service is operated by autorail (diesel
railcar) X2426, but in fact they have recently acquired autorail X4555,
which was in service for our trip. On the approach to Honfleur we caught
glimpses of the Pont de Normandie, crossing the Seine and the Canal du Havre
to l’Havre; the train runs into the eastern part of Honfleur and the station
is almost under the bridge.
The coach was waiting for us at Honfleur and took us into the town, where we
had a couple of hours to look round and have lunch. We then went on to
Deauville, where we had an hour to spend before catching a train from
Trouville-Deauville station for the 28 Km journey to Lisieux via Pont
l’Evęque. This was a modern SNCF autorail 73500 series diesel unit running
under wires, but probably also used for the service to Dives sur Mer, which
is not electrified. You will not find “Deauville” on the SNCF web-site, it
is only listed as “Trouville-Deauville”. Again the coach had gone on ahead
and was waiting for us in the station forecourt at Lisieux and took us up
the hill to look round the Basilica St Therese, before our return to the
hotel.
It was also an early start on the Sunday when we went to visit Monet’s house
and Gardens at Giverny. We spent a couple of hours there and then went to
Vernon for lunch, before going to Pacy sur Eure for a trip down to
Breuilpont on the Chemin de Fer de la Vallée de l’Eure, 6Km each way. This
was in a rake of “mixed” stock, behind a diesel shunter. They have quite a
collection of rolling stock in their yard, including a couple of autorails.
We spent the Monday morning at Rouen and went on a different type of train;
“Le Petit Train de Rouen” is a road train running through the streets of the
town. We find that these are good value and give one an opportunity to see
the highlights of the town, and in Rouen we had an excellent English
commentary. After lunch we rejoined the coach for the return journey to
Calais and the crossing back to Dover and home.
Geoff Bryan
X4555 at Honfleur, one of the X 4300, X 4500, X 4630, X 4750 series
A vast family of autorails, these twin car units were built from 1963 to
1981 in different versions, with various underfloor motors and
transmissions. They can be coupled together (max 3 sets) but not with any
other railcar. With regionalization, new liveries have been applied and some
units have been modernized. Most are still in service.
X 73647 at Trouville-Deauville
The X 73500 second new generation railcar was designed to continue the
replacement of older units. This was a single body railcar with 2 MAN 6
cylinder, 350 HP underfloor motors, air-conditioning, semi-panoramic windows
and open compartments for a total of 81 seats. A top speed of 140kph is
reached. These units can only be coupled among themselves, up to three units
together. They were introduced in 1999 and are now up to unit 73812. Weight:
47 T empty, 55 T full. Length: 28,90 m. Transmission: Hydromécanique Voith 2
bogie motors
Shunter 020DA0301
With its train of mixed carriages and open wagons at Pacy sur Eure
Made by Fauvet & Girel in 1959 it has Diesel - Electric Transmission powered
by a Poyaud 6PDT 300 HP motor. Maximum speed 40 km/h. Weight 36 tonnes
Autorail "ABJj64" X-3601, made by Renault in 1948. In Service on the CFVE
since 1991.
A line-up of stock awaiting restoration.
 One
of two Autorail "U150"s at Pacy. Both made by Renault in 1951.
X-5506 at CVFE since 1996 or X-5509 at CVFE since 1991 (not sure which this
is)
SOME PORTUGUESE RAILWAY ODDITIES
by Tony Hocking
Mary and I had a holiday in northern
Portugal early in 2005 when we toured the Douro Valley region. The valley
runs over 300 kilometres east from Oporto, and the Douro River was the prime
means of transporting the raw port from the vineyards in the upper reaches
down to Oporto for maturing and then shipping to the UK.
River transport became less
important when a railway was built from Oporto to Pocinho in the 1800s,
using the standard Iberian broad gauge of 5ft 6ins. As part of our tour we
travelled on the inland half of the line from Peso Da Regua, the
headquarters town for the port wine growers, to Pocinho. It is a delightful
run along the narrow, often gorge-like valley with wineries in precarious
positions on steep slopes, and small towns along the banks,
1- CORGO Railway, Metre Gauge
Railcar
Although the railway was of
immediate benefit to the wine trade when built, getting the wine and other
produce to it was still difficult in what was, until only the past 20 years,
a very poor and backward area. To help matters some narrow gauge feeder
lines were built in the later 1800s, using metre gauge tracks.
One such line still in use is the
Corgo Railway linking Peso with Villa Real, following the river Corgo. Like
all the metre gauge feeders this line has had a variety of locomotives.
Initially there were small tanks, 0-4-0T, 2-4-0T, 0-6-0T, etc. These
struggled with the gradients and sharp curves. and eventually articulated
locomotives were tried; these proved very successful.
2 - Peso da Regua Station
The standard locomotive on most, if
not all, of the branch lines became a German design, by Henschel & Son of
Kassel. These employed the Mallet principle, where one power unit is fixed
rigidly to the body and the second power unit pivots to give the
articulation.
3 - Peso da Regua, Henschel
2-4-6-0Ts and stock
For some reason, which I have not
found explained, the two power units had different wheel arrangements
resulting in the diagram 2-4-6-0. I can only assume that the locos were
intended for mainly forward travel, and that the pony truck would then
assist in tackling the sharp curves.
These tanks were built between 1901
and 1921 and lasted until diesel power took over around 1980. The Corgo
railway now has some very smart, modern diesel railcars, as shown in picture
1.
When we first arrived at Peso our guide casually
remarked that there were some railway relics in the station. When the
opportunity arose we went hunting. Nothing of interest was immediately
visible from the station platform, but a bit of exploring revealed that lots
of old stock was hiding behind a rake of modern main line coaches. A
suitable high vantage point enabled us to see more. To my joy I found that
many of the big narrow gauge articulated tanks still existed, albeit mostly
as rapidly rotting heaps of rust. I set to and took photographs of the
station, picture 2, and the locos and stock, pictures 3, 4 and 5. Some half
dozen 2-4-6-0Ts were dotted about, and a varied selection of wagons
and carriages, both broad and narrow gauge
were in view. The broad gauge van with guard's lookout is of particular
interest. As you can see there was a dual gauge turntable as well, picture
5. Back on the station platform we discovered that the narrow gauge railcar
had appeared, and that near by was a rake of beautifully restored narrow
gauge wooden carriages, one is shown in picture 6.
4 Peso da Regua,
Henschel metre gauge 2-4-6-0Ts hiding behind broad gauge carriages
Moving to the far end of the platform and gazing across the lines
revealed more; a nicely preserved 0-4-0T on a plinth and, largely hidden in
a shed, a fully preserved Henschel Mallet, presumably to haul the restored
stock. Unfortunately our train arrived before I could investigate further.
During our trip up the main line we saw two more of the
big narrow gauge tanks at other stations, but they were in the same sorry
state as most at Peso. One was at Pochino, with a long rake of assorted
narrow gauge wagons; all were chalked with 'MUSEO', but looked beyond any
real chance of being properly preserved.
5 Peso da Regua,
dual gauge turntable and old stock
6 Peso da Regua,
restored wooden metre gauge coach
One more relic was the Peso to Lamego railway. Lamego is
a pilgrimage town, with a shrine to Nos Senhora De Los Remedios, our Lady of
the Cures, and is a great centre for spiritual healing .
The railway, another metre gauge branch, was a late
starter. Unfortunately, once work was well under way, civil unrest started.
When peace was restored it was realised that motor transport would make the
line uneconomic and it was abandoned long before completion. A mile or two
of track bed was converted to roads, but two monuments remain: one is the
skeletal metalwork of a railway bridge across the Douro on the outskirts of
Peso, the other is a rather fine curved masonry (or concrete?) railway
bridge across a tributary of the Douro near the hydro-electric power station
for Peso.
The main line is still heavilly used, mainly for
passenger traffic, but the wine traffic has declined again as a series of
high dams built in the later 1900s allowed larger boats to use even the
higher reaches without having to negotiate rapids and other dangers. The few
surviving metre gauge branches must now be under threat as the road network
is improved and expanded.
I read later that Oporto had an extensive metre gauge
suburban network, also the preserve of a variety of tank engines. All steam
has long disappeared, and we saw only broad gauge lines and very modern
EMU's in and around the city. However, Oporto is having its metro greatly
expanded, so there may be new railway interest to come.
Finally, one interesting feature of our train journey was the seating.
Our party had a reserved first class carriage in which the pairs of seats
could be swivelled from their conventional for and aft facing arrangement to
face the windows and get the best of the view - an excellent idea!
Le P’tit Train de la Haute Somme
Jenny and I travelled to Northern France at the beginning
of October with the objective of finding the graves of ancestors killed in
the Great War, following the "Circuit of Remembrance" and restocking the
cellar.
One of the attractions on the circuit is the P’tit Train
de la Haute Somme, and from the Internet I knew that it would not be open
while we were there. But that does not stop an enthusiast going to have a
look, especially as it was on the direct route from Albert to the cemetery
at Bouchoir. As expected the station and museum buildings were closed, but I
could hear activity down the lane at the sheds. The picture shows a steam
loco being towed out of the engine shed to allow another diesel to be moved
to the engineering workshop (behind the locos).
It's situated at Froissy, south of Bray sur Somme, between Amiens and
Peronne in the department of Somme, an area remembered for the battle from
July to November 1916. The railway was built to supply the allied front line
with munitions & supplies. This year is the 90th anniversary of the battle
of the Somme.
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