Bernhards Random Ramblings BACKUP

For a couple years now, I'm a member with the European Train Enthusiasts (ETE) . A friend brought an ETE flyer to today's ops session at Silicon Valley Lines. It's nicely done, looks good, and comes with some neat photos. Huh! ... Wait a second. The friend points to the photo at the bottom. Unbelievable! That's me. With Tatjana apparently, so that must have been at a Eurowest Show in about 2004.

Ich hatte schon immer einen umwerfenden Geschmack und stilsichere Auswahl meiner Kleidung.

Ueber die Jahre ist die Anlage gewachsen. Es kamen Rampen dazu. Zwei Kehrschleifen. Bis zu drei Zuege unabhaengig voneinander gleichzeitig unterwegs. Mit etwas Uebung war auf der grossen Runde genug Platz fuer zwei Zuege, und viel Fahrbetrieb. Im Alter von 8 Jahren hatte ich in zeitgemaesser Kleidung alles im Griff.

Weihnachten 1974 wurde der Esszimmertisch fuer ein paar Wochen mit einer Eisenbahnanlage ersetzt. Ich kann mich noch daran erinnern. Manche Erlebnisse sind einschneidend und wegweisend ...

Given the white fluffy stuff outside today, it seems appropriate to post some of the photos I took 30+ years ago. On a rather cold Saturday morning in February 1987 I asked my dad to take me to  the station in Ludwigsburg to see what the winter weather was doing to train traffic. It had snowed over night and the white fluffy stuff was all over the place. The photos shown here are scans off color prints. The quality varies a bit. I hope my readers enjoy them nonetheless. Let's start with snow and ice on a couple cars in what I believe is  train 53911 bound for Kornwestheim. I was taking pictures of passenger trains from the platform on track 2, when my favorite locomotive class 151 pulled with train 53911 into track 5 and to my delight slowed to a stop. The engineer has pulled forward as far as it can go on track 5 without fouling the exit signal. The diversity of cars on this train is very interesting and quite typical for mixed freights in the mid-eighties. We can see b...

In December of 1996 my Dad invited me to join him on a steam special steam train from Stuttgart Hbf to Vaihingen and back. The train was led by 01 1066 owned by Ulmer Eisenbahnfreunde (UEF). I think this was my first trip with a fast passenger train, full-size steam locomotive. Can you tell I'm excited? Even though I mostly remember 01 1066, I think this train was actually double-headed with 01 1100. There are photos of this event with the train on the reverse trip , and I do remember the fantastic sound of the locomotives climbing the Gaeubahn ramp from Stuttgart-Nordbahnhof to Vaihingen. Historic cars made up the train Different trips were offered that day, including a large loop from Stuttgart Hbf to Untertuerkheim via the Neckarviaduct to Kornwestheim and back to Stuttgart. Maybe I remember 01 1066 so vividly because only a few days later I learned that it had a major accident at the turntable in Kornwestheim. 01 1066 was out of commission for a couple years afterwards.