European Railroad Discussion > Düsseldorf to Solingen and Wuppertal 25 April 2016

From the Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof I rode the S-Bahn to Solingen. Surprisingly our day in the Düsseldorf Solingen Wuppertal North Rhine-Westphalia area was the rainiest of the trip. Temps were only slightly above freezing but these things do not stop a dedicated O-Bus (trolleybus) enthusiast.
1) The Düsseldorf Hauptbahnhof from the street and tram side. The station dates from the mid-1930's.
2) Like all German Railway stations it is a busy place.
3) The S-Bahn to Solingen takes off from Gleis (Platform) 11 which is in the middle of everything.

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I took more pictures than these but they aren't that great due to the dreary weather.
4) An older Class 420 S-Bahn comes in.
5) Behind it on Track 16 is a Thalys to Paris Gare du Nord.
6) My S-1 shows up with 422-001-8. Is this the class unit for a very common German EMU?

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Away to Soingen to ride trolleybuses, also get some cash out of the hole in the wall. A hard core trolleybus fan does things like that, to show trolleybus cities on their bank statement. With the overcast sky I had no sense of direction once on the trolleybus but ended up in the main transfer area.
7) Yellow over Green with a '6' on the light up above the signal head meaning Slow Speed of 60 kph for my S-Bahn train.
8) Trolleybus 176 a 2001 Berkhof Premier AT18 as I found on a Russian trolleybus website at the Solingen Hauptbahnhof trolleybus station.
9) With limited Deutsch and a driver with limited English I ended up at the Graf-Wilhelm Platz to transfer to the Rt 683 to Wuppertal Vohwinkle.

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The Trolleybus from the Graf-Wilhelm Platz was a Swiss built Hess trolleybus with off-wire capability. At one time the Rt 683 turned under the Schwebebahn on the north end and used a trolleybus turntable on the south. Now they run off wire at both ends. I would have liked to have rode more but time and daylight were going away.
10) Here is trolleybus 956 under the Schwebebahn. I could remember Vohwinkle which is the west end of the Schwebebahn by remembering Bullwinkle.
11) After buying an HO Schwebebahn it was time to ride the real Schwebebahn. This is an outbound before rounding the return loop at Vohwinkle.
12) Interior. these are still the older carriages from the 1960's but are to be replaced in the next couple years.

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I like that there is not much to keep you from jumping, just that guy with his arms out. 
13) The carriage I rode on to the east end of Oberbamen. I missed the stop for our hotel and figured what the heck may as well ride the whole thing.
14) If it was dry and daylight you could take shots of the passing carriages, as it turned out this was as good as it got.

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15-17) I rode back to our stop and called it a day. I waited and took a few shots of a Schwebebahn passing through the station.

I'll post a few more form the next day later. Thank you for looking!

Jim

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tq-07fan Wrote:
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> 6) My S-1 shows up with 422-001-8. Is this the
> class unit for a very common German EMU?

Yes, it is the first of 84 sets, built 2007-10. According to the Platform 5 "German Railways" trainspotting book, "this class can be regarded as a follow on to Class 423 for which the number series was all but complete."

There are some differences from Class 423, which was built 1998-2004. In total, 462 sets of Class 423 were built, with the cars at one end of a set starting from 001 (up to 462) and at the other end from 501 (up to 962).


 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/16 23:03 by railsmith.

What a great set of pictures, I enjoyed them all. At the end of the series it was obvious that the stations have a floor under where the cars travel,
thank goodness, I thought they were wide open down to the street and not a place to horse around!!  Picture 9, two trackless trolley busses,
are they of two different vintages??  Two different color destination signs, closer bus looked like it has clear windows, while the other has
"tinted windows" or was that just no lights inside, and different  shrouds of the roofs.

Frank30 (Boston)