Prototypes | Vorbilder:
Amsterdam Central
NS Class 1700 with DD-AR push-pulltrain.
NS Class 2900 "Sprinter" | DB ICE 3M (multi-system)in distance waiting
for next run
Front of DB ICE 3M (multi-system) | View out of rear control cab on
ICE 3M (multi-system)
Crossing the Ruhr from Oberhausen to Duisburg
BR110 with Regionalexpress in picture is coming from Essen towards Duisburg
Koblenz Hauptbahnhof
BR146 with Regionalexpress | BR110
BR110 | BR143 still in original DR color scheme
BR185 (multi-system)
E41 and E44 (background)
ET430 - This EMU is in desolate condition and will most likely be scrapped
as restoration will be too costly.
Industry
Zeche Nordstern in Gelsenkirchen. The site of this now
defunct mine now serves as a park and is als home to the Deutschland
Express show layout, billed as one of the largest Märklin layouts.
Minehead 1/2/8 of the Zeche
Zollverein in Essen. The site of this mine and coking plant are
now part of UNESCO's World
Heritage List and Minehead XII (in distance in lower picture) was
honored with a model by Trix..
Memories | Erinnerungen:
When I was a kid visiting my grandparents in Duisburg, we
used to run down the street to the big park in the center of town and
play on the locomotive which was set up there just for that purpose. The
engine had been retired from the Mannesmann Steelworks in the early/mid
sixties and was given a second life on a playground. Many, many hours
were spent climbing all over and playing engineer, ignoring the scrapes,
bumps, bruises and cuts we got on the rusting steel. I took the pictures
below in February of 2001. Graffiti was always a great part of the charm,
as was the dirt, cigarette butts, stench, and worse. We still loved her.
A photo of the engine in April of 2004 can be see at Werkbahnen
in Deutschland.
A few years ago, actually December of '04 my daughter
Sofia (then 6) and I noticed it was no longer there and had been replaced
this -
Certainly "safer" but an improvement? I think not. I was saddened
to see another fixture of my childhood disappear, and Sofia was bereft,
almost not wanting to play on it. Some kids got her to change her mind...
My thoughts went to wondering where she had been cut up for scrap...
While surfing with Google Earth looking at railyards from
above, a great exercise in industrial/urban archeology I decided to
look for the Bw Gelsenkirchen Bismarck, last home to many of the BR44s
and BR221 engines. On their homepage,
I found to my amazement a report on the move and RESTORATION
of a Henschel-Lokomotive C 400, our engine, which is now being restored
by the Arbeitskreis Freunde des Bahnbetriebswerks Bismarck - Förderverein
e. V. Gelsenkirchen to a non-functioning condition and will be on display
at the Bw Gelsenkirchen Bismarck (near where I had lived for several
years). One of the images shows the smoke chamber filled to about 1/3
with sand from the playground. I wonder how many handfuls of that are
from my siblings and me. I'm glad this story has a happy end and that
the engine will continue to live. One thing that came out of the report
and pictures was that even having stood out in the acrid rain of Duisburg
for over 30 years that the engine was still in remarkably good shape.
I guess we didn't treat it too badly.
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