Rail Photos, Part 2

I first got to see Frankfurt's impressive Hauptbahnhof in 1998, and it still looks more or less the same. It naturally hosts a lot of ICE's and other express trains, so it's fun to watch trains here. The trainshed is also spectacular.

Incredible as it may seem now, the original Class 401 are already over 20 years old and counting, and showing little of their age. I got to meet up with some old American friends on this trip, including one old hot rodder who was suitably impressed, not to mention surprised at our train's age. "It works," he said.

Here's one of the newer Classes of ICE introduced around the time of my first visit to Germany in 1998. At the time, the Class were still in testing, but now they have been in service for many years. Although there isn't a high-speed line in Germany yet that can accommodate their full 330Km/h (205 m.p.h.) cruising speed, they still get to run quite fast, up to at least 250Km/h on most high-speed lines.

Introduced in 1952, and originally designated the E10 Class, these electrics represent one of the oldest surviving locomotive classes in Germany, and for that matter the world. Equally impressive is that these units have managed to stay in passenger service in the country of the ICE. Power output is 3,700Kw, or 5,000 horsepower, which is also impressive for its era, tractive effort is 62,000 lbs., which is also good, and this is distributed through a Bo-Bo (or B-B) wheel configuration, with 85 metric tonnes overall weight (so figure 21.25 tonnes per axle, a heavy axle loading for Europe). The cruising speed for the best-maintained units is 140Km/h, although the maximum design speed is 150Km/h.

The steam-era beauty of Frankfurt Hbf is to be seen everywhere, even in little details like this clock. More impressive is that this station survived World War II, although I'm sure it had to have been rebuilt (I don't know all the history of that).

I took this just outside of Franfkurt Hbf. I don't know much about the Frankfurt tram system, but because I had a layover I chose to shoot some photos anyway.

This was the tram in the background in Picture 1. This appears to be a TUI advertising livery, as most of the trams I saw had one advertising livery or another.

Here's the exterior of Frankfurt Hbf, as monumental as the interior.

I originally meant this to be a generic shot of some of Frankfurt's modern buildings, but in fact this is also rail-related. That skyscraper is actually an office building used by Deutsche Bahn, and the red DB loco is visible close to the roof on the left.

Here's yet another tram shot. Notice Frankfurt Hbf in the background behind the trees.

Here's a lucky shot that I got of my ICE (the one my friend was impressed by) pulling in.

Here's a shot that I like better than Picture 5, although I chose to upload both anyway.

This is on the train out of Grindelwald, which is run by the Berner Oberland Bahn narrow-gauge railway, which connects to the BLS and the SBB in Spiez and Interlaken.

This is another of the shots I took along the way. I don't know the name of the river.

This is Interlaken, where we ended up changing for the SBB to Spiez.

Spiez bahnhof hosts trains from SBB, BLS, and DB (Deutsche Bahn, of Germany). BLS run a considerable number of freight trains through the passenger station. I didn't get the number of the trailing unit, but these both appear to be Re465 Class electric locomotives.

This appears to have been a historic charter for railfans. I don't know if the BLS have their own heritage fleet, or if this train was owned by a historical society, and allowed to run on BLS.

This shot may be composed better than Picture 1, but I've included both because I think Picture 1 has more detail.