The BeerTrain

An outward trip with Neath (Steve Thomas) to Germany, with the main aims for myself of various new track for diesel, before meeting up with Neath again for a day, partly to cover a new class 217 diagram - a Mondays Only pilot turn from Schwandorf to Regensburg, the first time the class had appeared on booked passenger work since we'd started bashing in the Fatherland. # denotes new Locos. Saturday 20/04/91 We did the overnight cross channel ferry, being the usual means of getting to Europe after a Friday at work in the offices above Waterloo station. You normally got into Ostend about 0315 - time for a couple of beers in the hellfire Titanic bar (open 24 hours) just down the road . I then did my normal move in Belgium - catch up on some sleep whilst collecting more mileage behind a rateable 1600 electric. 1603        Oostende - Düren      0532 Oostende - Köln 311km 212 270 at Duren on the 0919 to Neuss.Photo courtesy of Neath (Steve Thomas). ...

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...

I visited Cuba on a family holiday (also involving my Step-son's wedding) in August 2009, of course we were staying in the resort of Varadero , also referred to as  Playa Azul  (Blue Beach), set up to cater for most of Cuba's beach tourism, it's a bus ride from the town of  Cardenas (in the province of Matanzas, Cuba's 2nd largest city). I had looked into local train workings with the hope that at some point I could get to Matanzas and cover the 17:00 locals to Agramonte and Los Arabos Neuvo, in the hope of travelling behind an MLW loco. Tuesday 18th August 2009 I left the hotel promising to be back by the end of the day, armed with my CUC (convertible peso) currency. There were still two currencies in use at the time, normal pesos for Cubans and these CUC pesos for tourists, the idea being the locals could travel or buy goods for peanuts but any visiting tourists could be charged 10 times as much for the privilege. A straightforward start with the bus to Cardenas picki...

Time to go to Germany & Austria once more in search of new track for Rabbits and the like . Single manned trip / # denotes new loco. Friday 05/09/03 A cheap flight to Friedrichshafen, not the diesel bashing playground of yesteryear but still with plenty of moves to cover, albeit only 218's now available. EI-DAF    Stansted – Freidrichshafen    1120 Stansted – Freidrichshafen Bob Unit   Freidrichshafen Flug – Meckenbeuren  6km 218 214     Meckenbeuren – Ulm    1404 Lindau – Ulm  95km 218 196     Ulm – Neu Ulm   1547 Ehingen – Memmingen 2km 218 194     Neu Ulm – Ulm   1535 Memmingen – Ehingen   2km 218 214)    Ulm – Plochingen   1533 Freidrichshafen Stadt – Stuttgart  72 km 218 168)  A 2 hour break to visit a Brewpub here, very civilised after an early start today. A winner Rabbit forward to boot. 218 389#) Plochingen – Stuttgart   1733 Freidrichshafen Stadt – Stut...