European Railroad Discussion > Strasbourg Surprise: Same Train, Two Years Apart

In TheBlueComet's recent posts of his trip to France in the '80s, he shared some photos of the boxy little B25500 class motors. I kinda like the little things, so it inspired me to go back through my photos from my two trips and see if I had crossed paths with any of the same motors he did. No dice there, but I was surprised to discover that on my two trips to Strasbourg, I had not only photographed the same motor, but pulling the same cars. How typical is this? I know that the TGV sets are somewhat semipermanently coupled, but the consists can flex. But locomotive hauled coaches, I'd almost presume would be mix and match on a regular basis. (Though the odds say that they'll eventually find their way back to the same cars every now and then.) The motor has been turned, as the number 1 end was leading in 2019, while the number 2 end was leading in 2017. Did I just get lucky? Or do they stay together more frequently than I had assumed? 

Photo 1:  motor 25602 and four car set number 305 departing Strasbourg from track 6 headed west in November 2019.

Photo 2: while waiting for our TGV to Paris, I snapped this photo of motor 25602 and set 305 arriving from the west underneath the sheds on track 2 in Strasbourg in September 2017.

Surprise!

Jody



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/10/20 19:31 by F7sForever.

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Amazing ! Great find/catch !
Thank you for sharing !!! :):):)

These RRR sets [ Rames Reversibles Regionales ] are semi-permanently coupled within each set, with buffers / drawgear only on the end control cab and 'locomotive end' vehicles;  they date from the mid- to late-1980's, with most being formed into three car sets, the balance being four car.  They came with two interior arrangements, regional and suburban, the latter with higher density seating.  I would imagine their multiple unit replacements are in the pipeline.

The 25500 class are dual voltage versions of the AC 17000 and the DC 8500 classes, with that unit being part of the BB 25588 -25694 subclass built between 1972-1975.  They now work in single voltage assignments as they are newer than the monovoltage equivalents, and SNCF has a surplus of them thanks to the flood of emu's / amphibians and the collapse of SNCF freight. 

Excellent and enjoyable photographs as usual.

With best regards, SZ

Are these in Romania now? 

Steinzeit2 Wrote:
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> These RRR sets [ Rames Reversibles Regionales ]
> are semi-permanently coupled within each set, with
> buffers / drawgear only on the end control cab and
> 'locomotive end' vehicles;  they date from the
> mid- to late-1980's, with most being formed into
> three car sets, the balance being four car.  They
> came with two interior arrangements, regional and
> suburban, the latter with higher density
> seating.  I would imagine their multiple unit
> replacements are in the pipeline.
>

 Thank you. That's the best info I've gotten on the coaches so far. And I had been wondering. Did a little research based on this, and was surprised to learn that they are a lot newer than I figured they were. When I was in Strasbourg in 2017, there was a long line of them north of the station. They were mostly gone when I was there in November. I wonder what has become of them? I think you're probably right about replacements being something soon to come.

Again, I appreciate the info. 

Jody