Another poor day but at least it was cloudy most of the time, not just when the trains passed. The day started with a brief spell on the Stuttgart - Singen line. I live in hope that a 101 will fail and something exotic will appear in its place, the sun will come out and a squadron of pigs will perform a flypast. Unfortunately for me, if not for the passengers, the 101s just seem too reliable and the ICs in both directions turned up with the booked power. The oil train that followed was looped at Grünholz for the REs in both directions.

With no prospect of the weather improving, I gave up on the Gäubahn headed east to Hersbruck, east of Nürnberg, to see a large Russian lady, well, actually several large Russian ladies, all called Ludmilla. No sooner had I arrived at Hersbruck Ost than 232.426 came past on 45365, running well ahead of its expected time, although not far off when it was booked to pass last year. There wasn’t anything else expected on the line to the north so I headed out along the Schwandorf line where two westbound freights were expected but no fewer than four actually turned up. There was also an RTS 203 running light, the ALEX to Praha and a class 719 ultrasonic test train, converted from a class 614 DMU and painted in a fetching all-over yellow livery. All that was missing was some good light.

Grünholz, N of Oberndorf

Loco	Train No.	Train Details	Notes
101.083	IC181	05:56 Frankfurt(Main) Hbf - Zürich HB	09:00
101.021	IC284	07:10 Zürich HB - Stuttgart Hbf	09:09
185.195 185.189		NB oil tanks	09:17

Hersbruck Ost

Loco	Train No.	Train Details	Notes
232.426	45365	13:29 Nürnberg Rbf - Cheb Freight	12:43

Penzenhof, W of Etzelwang

Loco	Train No.	Train Details	Notes
203.501 (RTS)		EB light engine	14:29
232.527		WB PKP coal hoppers	14:31
223.072	ALX353	14:05 Nürnberg Hbf - Praha hl.n.	14:33
719.001		EB ultrasonic test train	14:38 (3-car DMU)
232.571	56908	14:49 Amberg - Nürnberg Rbf Freight	15:09
232.618		WB freight	15:20
232.238	45330	03:30 Plzen - Nürnberg Rbf Freight	16:03