Hamburg (DE) – May
– the S-Bahn operated on the long distance tracks between Harburg Fernbahn and Neugraben for a time (and thus they could be seen above ground at Harburg)
– the first 7 photos were taken at Harburg Fernbahnhof and last 6 were taken at Neugraben station where the trains also served the long distance platform which have just been rebuilt higher (the separate S-Bahn tracks were used for services heading away from Hamburg only)
Bremen (DE) – April
– our visit includes a charter on the Bremen-Thedinghauser Eisenbahn (BTE) freight railway (part of which will be converted to tram soon)
Mannheim/Ludwigshafen/Heidelberg (DE) – April
– we visited 4 of the old systems that now form the “rnv” company operating in these cities (plus ex OEG and RHB lines)
– the one we missed riding is the old Rhein-Haardtbahn (RHB)
– we had charters in Mannheim and Ludwigshafen, stayed in MA-Seckenheim on the old OEG and finished the visit with half a day in Heidelberg
– it looks like that most of the tram fleet now operate anywhere on the network (though there are a few lines with no turning loops that restrict the use of single ended cars)
Mainz (DE) – April
Darmstadt (DE) – April
Alexandria (EG) – March
– more photos and details (in German) can be found here: vdva.de
Sand Trams = the Ramleh interurban
– by the time we visited the two lines operated only as far as the depot as the rest beyond was already closed for complete rebuilding (all the 3-car train sets are being scrapped now and all tracks and stations plus depot are in the process of being completely demolished)
– no replacement bus service was offered for the closed portion of the line
– we luckily cought some of the Kinki twin-cars that operated on the interurban away from the interurban tracks (i.e. they were going into service or pulling out of service from/to Moharam Bey depot which is on the city network and a very long way away from the interurban)
– only three of the double deck cars were in service during our visit (one was only seen for one single day), the historic car 601 was not in service unfortunately
City Trams
– we visited Egypt during Ramadan and this mant that the service was much reduced and some lines did not operate at all
– only one Ganz twin-set was in service during our visit (the only tram running – and not very often and thus with very very few passengers – on line 15) and the K1 trams from Ukraine (until very recently exclusively used on the interurban) had replaced more ex Copenhagen Duewag trams but they could only be found on lines 4 and 6 – it now seems to be run by the Kinki twin-cars that have survived the closure of the interurban
– there was no service on line 10 and the service from El Metras to El Max seems to have been abanonded for good (also nothing ran east of Moharam Bey with no visible obstructions along the tracks there)
– trams to and from Karmouz depot can only be seen during pullouts and pullins (no regular service in between)
– Karmouz depot has only Duewg trams (most of them out of service – officially all are “runners” but that is certainly not the case) – 49 survive plus 4 on display in a park (those are completely emtpy inside)
– all other trams (K1, Ganz and Kinki twin-sets) are at Moharam Bey depot (some Duewags can be found there between runs during the day)
– none of the city Kinki twin-sets were running (the interurban sets were also city cars originally but received a pantograph for service on the Sand lines) – a lack of spare parts seems to affect the twin-set fleet (Ganz and Kinki)
Istanbul (TR) – March
– our Alexandria flights were via Istanbul and we thus added 2 days there (so only a short visit this time)
– the only thing new was seeing the short southern extension of T5 and one of the new retro battery trams on T2 (but we did see the regular historic tram driving all the way to outside the Tünel station … something we had not seen for many years and indeed this only happened once and not with the battery tram – service usually stops around the corner still on Istiklal Cd. – in the old days with trailer operation everything came to the Tünel station but we missed that period)
– we did briefly ride the new M11 metro airport line that is owned/operated by the state railway (but only for one stop downtown): impossible to take photos because of the platform doors and the trains are rather short and all were extremely overcrowded (a very unpleasant ride – that is why we only did one stop)
– we tried to get a photo of the ex Maramaray trains running on U3 but the headways are terrible and we did not want to wait for 45 minutes for the next train to arrive at Sirkeci (the line was supposed to recive light rail cars at some stage but will this ever happen?) – the line is sometimes still shown as T6 but U3 seems to be the new proper name for it
more photos (of the other systems we visited) will be uploaded shortly
