Happenings In Halle - But Which One? (1)

But First - Snow In Sheffield

Fond (?) memories of some spectacular Sheffield Snows in the 70s, including the challenge of getting back home to the top of  Crimicar Lane (1000ft above sea level) by bus or even car. Back then the buses usually ran most of the way, if not all the way up the hill; and fbb never abandoned his motor vehicle. The cavalry always got back safely to the fort!

Watching from the comparatively snow-free Seaton, the challenge is to spot where the press photographer was standing when he snapped the overall whiteness during yesterday's heap of weather.

This one was relatively easy, as fbb used to have digs nearby in his last year at Uni.

It is Abbey Lane, looking towards Beauchief traffic lights.

The clues are the road's flatness (rare in Sheffield), the bungalows on the left (not common either) but the dead giveaway is the service road (with child and added sledge) which used to be reserved tram track! The tram below is a little nearer to Woodseats and the road to Meadowhead.

The "snow picture" is from roughly the car on the left is parked.

The property on the right identifies the stop at Folds Crescent.

Having had a tram every 8 minutes, this part of Abbey Lane is no longer served by bus.

Halle Westfalen - Germany?

We are in the German State of Nordrhein Westfalen close to where the little knobble of Niedersachsen juts down.

Halle is home to a prestigious tennis tournament (on grass) that happens just before Wimbledon and at the same time as the UK competition at Queens Club.

Roger Federer usually wins and even has a road named after him.

Not far from the "centre court" is a railway station ...

Gerry Weber?

Gerhard Weber (3 June 1941 to 24 September 2020) was a German fashion designer and entrepreneur, who founded Gerry Weber, a fashion manufacturer and retailer in Halle, North Rhine-Westphalia. He signed tennis player Steffi Graf for public relations before her international success. He was the founder of the Halle Open tennis tournament.

The stadium stop is just west of the main Halle station. The stops are on a single track branch that runs from Osnabruck to Brackwede ...

... with services terminating just along the line at Bielefeld (map below, centre right).

Trains run hourly calling at all stops, with some time variations on Saturdays and Sundays. In Germany most rail timetables show all seven days of the week on one table, in this case with dots at the top to indicated actual days of operation. 

There are also extra shorts on Mondays to Fridays.

Standard stock is slick looking DMUs operated by NordWestBahn.

The NordWestBahn GmbH is a private railway company providing regional train services on several routes in northern and western Germany. It is a joint venture of Stadtwerke Osnabrück AG, Verkehr und Wasser GmbH in Oldenburg and Transdev Germany, Berlin. 

Since 5 November 2000, NordWestBahn operates, on behalf of the public transport company of Lower Saxony (Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Niedersachsen - LNVG), the Weser-Ems-Network in Lower Saxony. In March 2008, NordWestBahn won the tender for the regional S-Bahn Bremen/Lower Saxony, defeating German National railway operator DB Regio. 

Intriguingly, there are pictures of steam-hauled trains at Halle.

Can Google Translate help?

On Father's Day (May 13th, 2010) there are 52 6106 pedals from Bielefeld Hbf to Halle Westf for the city festival.

Bielefeld Hbf then commuted the set three times on the branch line to Halle (Westphalia).

The weather was very changeable, but for many that did not stop and the shuttle trips were well attended.

After completion, the 52 6106 drives again via Osnabrück to Lengerich, where it had already been made available for the locomotive staff by the local association for the journey on the same day. After completing the work it goes home again with 52 6106.

Not the best translation, but possibly better than fbb's 1959 German O Level?

The line has a less formal name than the Osnabruck Brackwede Railway, viz "Haller Willem". 

Who or what is/was he or it?

The real Willem from Halle was a carter

If a railway line has a nickname, that is proof that people care about it - like the Haller Willem. The route that connects Halle Westfalen with the major cities of Bielefeld and Osnabrück is called the somewhat bulky "RB75" in railway jargon. In Halle Westfalen and the other places along the route, she is the Haller Willem.

But that isn't the Halle that appeared on Twitter and drew your noble author's blogging interest. We are looking for a new bus station!

 Next Halle blog : Thursday 4th February