The BeerTrain

Over 5 years since my last visit to Bavaria, with a little bit of Franconia thrown in (last visited over 17 years ago!), it was going to be a pub outing (from Heaven & Ale, Barnsley) but striking Railway workers (both here & in Germany), added to a Lufthansa ground-crew dispute put paid to that. Single manned then! Tuesday 16th April 2024 To avoid the above disputes I would have to travel down to Stansted Airport to get a (Ryanair) flight to Nuremberg, this added an additional overnight stay in Cambridge so involved an extra hotel, luckily my Priv railway passes meant this was the only additional cost involved. Unit  Barnsley - Wakefield Kirkgate 1717 Nottingham - Leeds 11miles Unit   Wakefield Kirkgate -  Wakefield Westgate 1840 Knottingley - Leeds 1mile I'd spotted that the 1945 ex Leeds was consisted with the booked class 91 so headed to Wakefield. I killed the 50 minute wait with a pint in the excellent Harrys Bar, followed by another in the quirkily...

A single manned trip to Germany with the main aims of new track for diesel to Soltau & Uelzen, then a tilt at the 217 diagrams on the Furth Im Wald line as I'd only had ONE so far! Oh, and I would be meeting other members of the roadshow for beers in Bamberg, beer Capital of the world. (New locos again denoted by #) Saturday 29/08/1992 1802        Ostend - Koln Hbf  0634 Ostend - Koln Hbf 350km 103 172# Koln Hbf - Hannover Hbf 1103 Koln - Bad Harzburg 326km Well, that was a long way to leap - a bit of time to kill before the track bash. 141 322# Hannover Hbf - H.Leinhausen 1354 Celle - Minden 6km 141 071# H.Leinhausen - Hannover Hbf 1408 Minden - Celle 6km 218 249# Hannover Hbf - Soltau 1336 Bad Harzburg - Soltau 88km 218 242# Soltau - Uelzen 1718 Soltau - Uelzen 52km Both winning locos for the above new track for Diesel, done in daylight thanks to the time of year. 120 111# Uelzen - Luneburg 0948 Oberstdorf - Hamburg Altona 36km 218 338# Luneburg - Lubeck 1...

A two person trip to Germany with a day-trip to Prague thrown in, Me (Poodle) & Betty (David Icke - no not THAT David Icke - the other one!) We would be joining up with Neath (Steve Thomas) and Bonty (Clive Muspratt) for most of the trip. # again denotes New Loco. Saturday 20/09/1997 87 033   Crewe - Euston  0945 Liverpool - London Euston 158miles 3102)     Waterloo International - Brussels Midi 1227 Waterloo I - Brussels 377km 3103) 2721       Brussels Midi - Aachen 1654 Brussels Midi - Köln 159km 110 454  Aachen - Köln  1654 Brussels Midi - Köln 70km Rather than the usual scratch moves around Cologne prior to the overnight we met up with Neath & Bonty then headed to the Früh brewery tap where we had arranged to meet Chris Fudge and a group of his fellow 47 Bashers who were embarking on a German beer trip. We certainly kept the Kobes busy as the beer comes in 0.2litre "Test Tubes" & we are more used to drinkin...