European Railroad Discussion > Reroutes from Germany in France I

Hello everbody,

just recently a major rail corridor in Germany was closed for some track work.

Deutsche Bahn, DB, has been in the process of upgrading the corridor Mannheim - Bale for a number of years now. To the best of my knowledge they have missed the completion date a number of times. The neighbor to the south, Switzerland, which heavily relies on this connection to the ports along the shores of the North Sea is far from happy. France, which could or could not be a competitor in this corridor, does not really seem to be interested to upgrade their infrastructure. So DB is just kind of toiling along.

In the area of Rastatt, just to the south of Karlsruhe, a connection from the old to the new alignment has been worked on for a number of years. I did not really follow this. I was just wondering how they would build the new alignement underneath the current alignement which was also to be used in the future. A tunnel was to be built. Not a bridge or what may pass for that.

For a better understanding one has to know that the Rhine river valley in all this area may best be considered drained wetlands. So a tunnel boring machine was to be employed. The soil above and around the working area was to be frozen solid to keep everything stable. However, in August 2017 heavy rains occured in the region. Eventually the water creeped in and made everything unstable. The whole thing collapsed. All the trains had to be rerouted for an extended period of time. As DB was already understaffed at that point of time, a fair mess ensued. (These days it is even worse. Towers remain unmanned. Trains do not operate because there are not enough engineers. Apparently the issues extend into the workshos ect.)

For three weeks this past summer the line from Rastatt to Baden-Baden was closed to remove the tunnel boring machine, or what was left of it, and related works. Freights were rerouted, passengers put on a bus. The most interesting of the reroutes were the trains running in France from (Karlsruhe-) Wörth am Rhein via Lauterbourg to Strasbourg (-Offenburg - Basel). This route sees almost no freight trains. It is up to anybody's imagination whether or not the French railways welcomed this. Supposedly it took three years to prepare. Anyway, railfans were out and about...

Picture 1:
On weekends frequent passenger service is operated from Wörth to Strasbourg. It was standing room only when boarding in Wörth.

Picture 2:
A class 628 DMU passes a gravel pit in the village of Hagenbach. Buses substituted for passenger trains. However, a few services were still operating.

Picture 3:
After about three hours of waiting the first freight eventually showed up near Berg/Pfalz. A French 75000 class.is seen leading German electric 186 class operated by a leasing company. It is maybe two more miles to the actual border line.

More to follow.







 

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Hello,

Picture 4:
Two reouted freights meet in Lauterbourg on the first day of the reroutes on August 10, 2024. 475119 has a so called Vectron operated by leasing company Beacon in tow. Waiting to go north 475124 has Swiss 482 014 and her train coupled up.

Picture 5:
The big draw of the station of Lauterbourg are the semaphores. They date back to the time when the province of Alsace was part of Germany. Except for the station of Lauterbourg they are all gone now. After a short stop eventhough the signal displays a clear SNCF 475125, and RTB(Rurtalbahn) 186 300 are on the move again with the of Strasbourg. Well, the yard resembles a little weed infested botanical garden.

Picture 6:
In late afternoon 475124 arrives in Lauterbourg from Strasbourg. The electric is on the opposite end of the train. Depending on the traffic pattern of the day, and eventual destination electrics may have been coupled to the opposite end.

Some more to follow.
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/24 04:49 by kbs651.

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Hello,

picture 7, and 8:
SNCF 475 131 has swiss motor BLS(Bern Lötschberg Simplon) 475 413 in tow. The train passes outside the village of Beinheim. I would have preferred a better angle of the second loco, the unit operated by BLS. But you take what you get...

Picture 9:
It was hot all along when the trains were rerouted. But relief was not too far away. The village of Beinheim had a small supermarket which sold ice cold "Fischer Blonde" in Chinese size bottles of 660ml. Disclaimer, there was no harm done when taking this picture, There was not a train in sight. The bottle was empty.

More to follow

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Thanks for all the photos.  Brought back memories of a trip in 1960 from Heidelberg (where Uncle Sam had recently assigned me) to Rastatt (via Karlsruhe, of course) where I took a local train to Freudenstadt to meet family friends.  Spent a delightful weekend in that Black Forest town.
jb

Interesting shots!  LIke the semaphores. 

Hello,

picture 10:
During a day around four to five rerouted freights could be seen on average. Some were operated by engineers who were employed by the subsidiary of DB Cargo in France. These engineers are required to pass language skill tests regularly. Other engineers were acompanied by a pilot. There has also been word of employ of translators. SNCF 475124 is seen at a grade crossing near the village of Beinheim.

Picture 11, and 12:
Close to the grade crossing near Beinheim a reminder of times long past also could be found. A waycross in remembrance in German of a person who passed on long ago.

More to come

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Hello everybody,

sorry, I have no clue how I managed to post the earlier entries all in a post. But here we go.

Picture 13, and 14:
A little bit south of the location of the previous shot near Beinheim I just sat down, and waited. An elderly person approached me. He was talking about a resident who lived close to the railroad and who was rattled out of his bed in the night. Well, the northern stretch of the railway still sports jointed rail, but the trains were in no hurry. 475131 has Swiss Railways 193 519 togther with her train in tow. The going away shot affords a reasonable view of the motor, and of the super elevation, too.

Picture 15:
Roeschwoog more or less is the halfway point for passenger trains operating Strasbourg to Lauterbourg. A good number of locals end their respective run here and return to Strasbourg. Roeschwoog may not really be considered a real station. There is one crossover, and one switch that leads into a seperate small yard. The yard connects to a mill near Beinheim. At the time of the visit the mill received regular trains. Many years ago this line also connected to Rastatt across the Rhine river.

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Hello everybody,

now to the last part.

Picture 16:
The dam of the long abandoned railway from Roeschwoog to Hagenau affords one of the highest vantage points along the line. 475125 and her train are about to pass underneath the bridge that carries the long abandoned line to the west.

Picture 17:
DB 193 325 carries the markers of train from Offenburg to Wörth. Apparently the markers are flashing lights used on construction sites. Some major glare off the left cab window had to be eliminated in this picture.

Cheers

kbs651
 

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Thank you for documenting these detours.

If you want to gang them all up in one post you just post the first message with 3 photos, then go to that post and hit "Reply to this Message".  Then you can post 3 more, and then repeat until you run out of photos!