The BeerTrain

A single manned trip to DB land with the emphasis firmly on new track for Diesel, especially now that 218's had spread their wings a lot further into areas of the former East Germany. # denotes any winner locos gleaned during the trip. 12/11/01 3106           Waterloo International – Brussels   1227 Waterloo Int – Brussels   377km        1601           Brussels – Köln   1544 Ostende – Köln    229km A couple of hours here for food and drink before continuing the leap. 120 131#   Köln – Nürnberg   1910 Brussels Midi - Wien   461km Daily Total   = 1067 KM 13/11/01 101 133#   Nürnberg – Schwäbish Hall Hesenthal    2125 Dresden – Stuttgart   113km 218 360     Schwäbish Hall Hesenthal – Heilbronn    0600 Schwabish H..H. -  Heilbronn  61km I'm sure I'd done Schwabisch H.H. to Heilbronn a few times before but nice to get a bit of diesel hauled on the way for my first bit of new track from Eberbach (I don't think I'd done the line south of Erbach previously) 110

I got a call from Stewart Medhurst, out of the blue, that although the narrow gauge line from St.Pölten to Mariazell was currently closed north of Laubenbachmuhle due to a programme of track replacement & complete renewal of the overhead electric equipment (including masts), the Styrian Alpine town of Mariazell was aghast at the prospect of no visitors on their most Sacred of days, Easter Sunday.  Mariazell Basilica, also known as Basilica Maria Geburt (Basilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary) is the most important pilgrimage destination in Austria and one of the most visited shrines in Europe with about a million visitors each year. It is the only church named as a national shrine of all German-speaking countries. It is also the first destination (accordingly to a plaque I read inside the Basilica) that each newly ordained Pope heads to on a pilgrimage of his own. OBB, who were doing the line up in preparation to offloading it (Novog took it off them) tried to tell the town nothi

To set the scene for this day trip, myself & my fellow Crompton bashers were having a bit of a lean time of it. Our beloved Pompey's had finished in May 1988 and even the booked 33/1 turns on the Waterloo - Salisbury's had finished on 14th May 1989. All we had to look forward too each week was one booked turn, a 33/1 diagram Saturday Only doing two return trips between Weymouth & Bristol - meagre fare and not easy to get to as I still lived in Kent at the time! I was looking for something a bit different when I came across a leaflet from the Bournemouth Rail Travel Association (BRTA), run by Anthony Stone. Their bread and butter was running trips from the South Coast up to London for things like Christmas shopping, theatre breaks & days out in the Capital.  Mr Stone did, however, like to venture further afield and arranged some cracking trips. Here is the brochure / booking form I picked up. The 1st July just happened to be my Birthday! I needed to do a bit of diggi