Wed 05 Jun 2013
Wed 05 Jun 2013
05/06/13 18:53
After struggling with the weather in the Allgäu in late April and early May, it only seemed reasonable to struggle with it in June as well. So it was off to München on this morning’s first easyJet flight from Gatwick. Everything went smoothly on the journey and I was driving out of the airport bound for Schwabhausen, the first spot beyond the end of electrification on the München - Buchloe line, by 09:30.
There were plenty of loco hauled trains with Kempten 218s on REs to Buchloe, Füssen and Kempten, pairs of Mühldorf 218s on the Zürich ECs and VBG 223s on the ALEX services to Oberstdorf and Lindau. Of the 18 trains seen in just over three and a half hours, 16 were loco hauled (or propelled) and only two were DMUs. The usual Memmingen trains were only going as far as Buchloe due to engineering work but were still 218 worked. The clouds soon realised what I was trying to do and organised their own regular interval timetable and took out every single loco hauled train from 11:30 to 14:30 despite the sky being mainly blue.
By then I was getting fed up and decided to continue south to see what was working the ALEX trains on the Oberstdorf branch. The answer was a DB 218, but not a red one. Yellow 218.391, carrying “Bahnbau Gruppe” markings was the machine in question. I did wonder whether it was still a DB loco, as it didn’t have any DB logos visible, but the EVN confirmed that it was. The two southbound ICs were also worked by DB 218s but they were the usual Ulm based locos. One of them even passed in sun!
There were plenty of loco hauled trains with Kempten 218s on REs to Buchloe, Füssen and Kempten, pairs of Mühldorf 218s on the Zürich ECs and VBG 223s on the ALEX services to Oberstdorf and Lindau. Of the 18 trains seen in just over three and a half hours, 16 were loco hauled (or propelled) and only two were DMUs. The usual Memmingen trains were only going as far as Buchloe due to engineering work but were still 218 worked. The clouds soon realised what I was trying to do and organised their own regular interval timetable and took out every single loco hauled train from 11:30 to 14:30 despite the sky being mainly blue.
By then I was getting fed up and decided to continue south to see what was working the ALEX trains on the Oberstdorf branch. The answer was a DB 218, but not a red one. Yellow 218.391, carrying “Bahnbau Gruppe” markings was the machine in question. I did wonder whether it was still a DB loco, as it didn’t have any DB logos visible, but the EVN confirmed that it was. The two southbound ICs were also worked by DB 218s but they were the usual Ulm based locos. One of them even passed in sun!
Schwabhausen, W of Geltendorf
| Loco | Train No. |
Train Details | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 218.472 | RE57408 | 10:20 München Hbf - Buchloe | 10:51 |
| 218.488 propelling |
RE57407 | 10:53 Buchloe - München Hbf | 11:07 |
| 218.xxx 218.xxx |
EC191 | 07:16 Zürich HB - München Hbf | 11:13 |
| 218.469 | RE57586 | 10:52 München Hbf - Kempten Hbf | 11:25 |
| 223.072 [VBG] | ALX84146 | 11:19 München Hbf - Lindau Hbf | 11:52 |
| 223.xxx [VBG] | ALX84147 | 09:58 Lindau Hbf - München Hbf | 12:10 |
| 218.486 | RE57508 | 11:52 München Hbf - Füssen | 12:25 |
| 218.459 propelling |
RE57587 | 11:38 Kempten Hbf - München Hbf | 12:37 |
| 218.445 218.444 |
EC194 | 12:12 München Hbf - Zürich HB | 12:44 |
| 218.485 | RE57410 | 12:20 München Hbf - Buchloe | 12:56 |
| 218.472 propelling |
RE57409 | 12:53 Buchloe - München Hbf | 13:08 |
| 218.xxx 218.xxx |
EC193 | 09:16 Zürich HB - München Hbf | 13:15 |
| 218.457 propelling |
RE57509 | 12:06 Füssen - München Hbf | 13:35 |
| 223.063 [VBG] | ALX84148 | 13:19 München Hbf - Lindau Hbf | 13:51 |
| 628.416 628.415 |
WB Empty Stock | 13:56 | |
| 223.xxx [VBG] | ALX84149 | 11:58 Lindau Hbf - München Hbf | 14:10 |
| 218.493 | RE57510 | 13:52 München Hbf - Füssen | 14:24 |
Altstädten
| Loco | Train No. |
Train Details | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 218.487 | IC2085 | 13:56 Augsburg Hbf - Oberstdorf | 16:14 |
| 218.391 | ALX84173 | 16:12 Oberstdorf - München Hbf | 16:31 |
| 218.391 | ALX84170 | 15:19 München Hbf - Oberstdorf | 17:27 |
| 218.434 | IC2013 | 06:01 Magdeburg Hbf - Oberstdorf | 18:00 |
| 218.391 | ALX84175 | 18:13 Oberstdorf - München Hbf | 18:35 |
