European Railroad Discussion > German Steam in regular service

Greg Scholl and Steinzeit2 (mesolithicum??) started the ball rolling with an excellent series of German steam posts. I had he fortune to experience the last of steam in West Germany, at least on weekends and over Easter and Christmas, as I was living in neighboring Switzerland. I always preferred steam picture in the cold, so fall to early spring was my steam season. On a trip to Austria, my younger brother re-introduced me to steam (steam was all than disappeared in Switzerland by that time, and I was hooked! On of destinations the Schiefe Ebene, a stiff 1:40 grade in northern Bavaria, where the heavy pacific class 01 was still operating with their 2 meter (6'6") drivers.

Picture 1: Two of the BR engines are departing Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg (now site of a great steam museum) with their express train for Bamberg, having just descended the Schiefe Ebene. Christmas holidays called for a second engine, not for this trip, but for the return trip up the Schiefe Ebene.

Picture2: A more bucolic scene past Münchberg, a BR 01 Pacific with a train bound from Hof to Bamberg near Müncherg (Schoeflas) on a more gentle grade.

Picture 3: Ride up the Schiefe Ebene on Easter Sunday, on a BR01 with another BR01 as helper up front. The end of the steep grade is in sight, and the fireman takes a short brake after heavy shoveling up the grade.

Thomas Eckhardt
Hurricane UT

More at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/136031402@N06/albums/72157657222539954

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Interesting as I was also there, on my first trip in 1972.  We only went there because info told us there were a lot of engines allocated to Hof.  We stayed at the Hotel in Neunmarkt-Wirsburg, and shot trains on the grade, walking down from the top. I am currently working on a vidoe with some of this material and have been researching and so forth.  Anyway the summit where you see the bridge from the train is Marktschorgast.  I have a couple of film clips shot there.  We also rode behind a single 01 to Hof one afternoon with the idea of having dinner at the Hof station dinning room.  My brother and I got a cab ride in an 01 back to Nm-Wbrg in the dark.  Only film I got was my brother shoveling in some coal with light from the fire.  When we got off a fan from the UK saw us(A train spotter), and said "How did you manage a cab ride, they are really hard to get?".  We actually almost didn't get the cab ride, as a big shouting match took place between the DB station police and the engineer(Driver).  He was a big guy, about to retire soon.  Reminded me of BULL in the TRAIN.  Anyway the fireman spoke a little english so he translated for us.  Seems the driver told them where to go, and that he was retiring with the end of steam and didn't care!  So that was an interesting situation.  A couple days earlier we toured the roundhouse at Hof and shot a pic of the front of an engine with flowers stuck inside the front number plate of one engine.  This signified the last run I believe. Nice photos, thanks for more memories.
Greg Scholl

I found the road crews to be generally very friendly, and once they got to know you it was easy to get a ride, because they let your know their schedule. Only once an engineer refused, because he had a troublesome engine, and lo and behold he ran out of steam at the block (Streitmühle) in the middle of the grade! It took while to get the pressure up and then he pick up speed very slowly, those tall drivers were no help. I also took lots of movies, including one from this trip up the Schiefe Ebene. They all can be found on my youtube channel (not to be linked here) under my name.

Thomas Eckhardt
Hurricane UT

The second photo is fabulous!   Very nice work.

My first one year "visit" to Germany courtesy of the US Army was too late to see any operating steam. There was a Kriegslok in the scrap yard in Grafenwoer, which sat there until my last tour in 1978-90. It was there in 87, cut up or moved away by 90. My second tour was in Mannheim, where I learned basic spoken German. Nearly every time we moved our tanks by rail, I'd talk to the crew and worm my way into a cab ride. By the last tour 87-90, I was a Platoon Sergeant and had little chance to ride the head end. The last time the Company Commander was also the train commander and conducted a head count enroute home from Hohenfels. He asked my Platoon Leader if he knew where I was and got the response, "He's in the engine." That took some explinations. Everyone in my family worked for the B&O except me. So I had a good knowledge of railroad proceedures and there wasn't much difference. The engineer was kinda suprised when I called signals for him and got the majority correct. Fun times. I expect it's like here now, grab the ladder and get arrested.