European Railroad Discussion > The Big Big Marshalling Yard at Decatur / Maschen April 28 2016

I took over a hundred photos of the big big marshalling yard at Decatur / Maschen. How do you put them all into a thread here? You don't... Here are some that give an idea of how big the place is and also show the variety of freight wagons in use in Germany. We were out there on the overpass for over an hour.
1) Class 204 working the Hamburg end of the yard, taken from the regional train.
2) RE train passing the station at Maschen. Only one train an hour actually stops at Maschen.
3) Looking north, there are around four smaller yards that make this great big one.

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I am going to use limited captioning since I really could not explain what all was going on.
4-6) All are looking north 

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7) Class 155 returning the locomotive area.
8) Class 151 on a mineral train. There were through tracks on both sides of the yard.
9) Shunter with a special coupler attachment.

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10) Class 295 Shunters
11) Another shunter and the locomotive ready area.
12) Bus at the stop lights to the yard offices and shops.

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13-15) Information stands on the brisdge in between the stop lights.

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16-17) Freight wagons of various types on the south side of the bridge.
18) DECATUR BRUCKE spelled out in between the stop lights and where the information stands were.

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19) We could see the clouds rolling in on the north side of the yard and even see the rain in the distance so it was time to leave.
20-21) Only got a little shower in the yard but we made it back to station at Maschen to see an HGK Class 185 pulling a Class 266 which is an EMD Class 66 developed for Great Britain. It was the only Class 66 I was in Germany and totally worth getting rained on a little to put us in the right position at the right time.

Thank you for looking!

Jim

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The yard appears to be very well lighted.  I guess that would be needed at night to help see the couplings that have to be made between cars.

tq-07fan Wrote:
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> 13-15) Information stands on the brisdge in
> between the stop lights.

The German place is simply named Maschen, which is part of Seevetal. It has a "sister city" relationship with Decatur, Illinois, which is what the bridge is named after. That's what the sign in photo 13 is all about. Here's a link to the Decatur sister cities program: http://www.decatursistercities.com/decatur-sister-cities-committee.html

Great set of photos from your trip - many thanks.  I was here 12 months ago, and it is a superb place for watching the action. How good to be able to get here by train and walk onto this bridge. Talk about 'railfan friendly'. Chris uk.

Fascinating!!

Are containers being humped there?

JGFuller Wrote:
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> Fascinating!!
>
> Are containers being humped there?

Yes, containers are being humped. Some containers are sent to destinations without container cranes or Reachstackers so they are unloaded right on the flatcar. These move in carload freights.

I love seeing  the overhead caternary in the classifying yards.
All the more reason to electrify our very large yards here in the states "my" opinion.


 

Thanks for posting, that is one big yard.!

Great pics.  Intersting that they also have a mix of concrete and wood ties/sleepers.