The BeerTrain

A single manned trip to DB land, main aim of this trip to get to Berlin behind a pair of 218's. As usual # denotes new loco. The overnight ferry, now departing from Ramsgate, was as usual the booked outward move, with probably a couple of beers in the Titanic bar in Ostend before sleeping my way across Belgium. Saturday 03/02/96 2728            Oostende - Aachen 0634  Oostende -  Köln 280km 110 263#  Aachen -  Köln   0634  Oostende -  Köln 70km Only one piece of new track to aim at today, so mainly a case of working my way south towards my overnight, covering as many diesel diagrams on the way as possible. 218 130    Köln - K öln Hansaring 0940 Gummersbach - K.Hansaring 1km 143 258#  K öln Hansaring -  K öln 1050  K öln Hansaring - Au 1km 215 038#  K öln - Euskirchen 1114  K öln Deutz - Trier 40km 215 094# Euskirchen - Bonn 1159  Euskirchen - Bonn 34km Time to drop fur...

Sorry for the heading, just trying to use some of the winner destinations for diesel hauled on this trip together as no pithy title came to mind! Anyway a single-manned trip, I'd been going through the Kursbuch with Graham Belton (Peckham) we had been working out current loco hauled routes that might be finishing with the upcoming Summer timetable so the above 3 were my main objectives (along with Reinheim which I couldn't work into the title!). # = winning loco. Thursday 23/05/91 Flight to Frankfurt to get me in position for the 1517 out of Wiesbaden on what turned out to be the penultimate day that the routes to Westerburg & Au were available. 103 152# Frankfurt Flughafen - Mainz 0729 München - Hannover 29km 218 366# Mainz - Bad Kreuznach 1235 Mainz - St.Wendel 41km 218 362# Bad Kreuznach - Bingerbruck 1312 Bad Kreuznach - Bingerbruck 16km 141 199# Bingerbruck - Mainz Hbf 1323 Oberwesel - Mainz 30km 141 230# Mainz - Wiesbaden Hbf 1438 Mainz - Wiesbaden 10km 216 219# Wiesb...

With 8 Rest Days looming on the horizon and the December 14th Timetable change fast approaching, a trip to the Fatherland to rake in any required track for diesel seemed the only option. As I would be travelling single manned I decided to take it easy & only do overnights every other night and not be as desperate as normal! To this end I obtained as much brewery gen as I could gather for the areas I would be visiting and off I set for the airport. As usual, # indicates a required loco. All moves in KM’s (except in UK indicated m for miles). Thursday 21/11/02 91104   Doncaster – Peterborough 0526 Newcastle – Kings Cross 80m Unit   Peterborough – Ely 0642 Nottingham – Norwich 30m Unit   Ely - Stansted Airport 0636 B’ham New St – Stansted A. 39m EI-xxx  Stansted Airport – Frankfurt Hahn 1125 Stansted  - Frankfurt Hahn Bus   Frankfurt Hahn – Kirn 1430 Frankfurt Hahn - Kirn 218367#   Kirn – Idar Oberstein 1435 Mainz...