Cross-border Service Coming Soon (5)

 Foot In Mouth fbb!

In practice fbb is far too f to get his foot in his mouth even if it were theoretically possible. Babies seem to manage it!

Why does fbb admit to labial podiatry?

He had assumed that through trains no longer ran from Coevorden to Neuenhaus; the latter being the end of the passenger line from Bad Bentheim. The main reason was this:-

Here is the branch to Neuenhaus and ultimately Bad Bentheim veering off the main line (still only single track but electrified!) south from Coevorden station.

Turn through 180 degrees and this is what greets you:-

You would have to be a very energetic train to leap the canal as there is no bridge!

BUT ... follow the track a short way further south and you will find ...

... a huge container terminal very much in use. This is Coevorden Euroterminal ...

... and that logo looks very familiar. Indeedy doody, that is the same logo as the Bad Bentheim railway company logo.

Surely the trains don't run all the way on the primitive single track line?

No, generally they don't, but some do. The majority run through from the Coevorden line thisaway ...

... via one of these.

Here it is described in a news bulletin.

So that's sorted that out. 

Here it is being built.

When the new passenger service starts (scheduled for 2025, NOT 2026 as fbb previously wrote) it will, we are told, involve rebuilding the missing canal bridge.

The new swing bridge points in the wrong direction for egress from Coevorden station.

With that crisis resolved we can explore the existing freight line south of Coevorden.

First stop is Laarvald with a picture of the original passenger station ...

... and, can we glimpse the same building from the level crossing today?

Yes we can!

Next comes Emlichheim as it once was ...

 ... but of which there is now no obvious sign, just a junction with a branch leading to some industrial premises.

Hoogstede has a large goods shed now disconnected ...

... yet it was the site of a celebratory launch for the soon to be revived passenger service.

The last stop before Neuenhaus is Veldhausen. The station building is seen below in its early days ...

... and soon after closure to passengers in 1974.

All Streetview allows us to do (restricted by the German government) is to peer pointlessly along Station Road!

The aerial view shows much industrial development around the line ...

... but fbb reckons, upon careful comparison with the photos above, that the block just in shot lower left ...

... is the station building of old.

Agreed?

Subject to God's timescale and fbb's successful avoidance of the harvesting angels (Matthew Chapter 13 verses 41 to 43) ...

... fbb will report on the opening of this bit of the line to passenger services due next year.

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The Classy Chassis

It scans only if you pronounce "classy" in the correct, i.e. "northern" way with the short "a".

Useless/Useful Brake Shoes ...

Old Hornby - not in line with the wheel treads.

Bachmann and New Hornby - brakes where they should be.

Solebar Structure

Old Hornby : very basic but OK at a distance.

Bachmann : better with separately fitted brake lever etc.

New Hornby - better still.

Boring or Beautiful Bottom

Old Hornby and Bachmann - Boring! Not much to choose between them.

New Hornby - Beautiful BUT ...

... you can't see any of it when the wagon is on the track!

As part of our weekend variety blogs, fbb will look at tank decoration and, most importantly, price.

 Next Variety blog : Saturday 3rd February 

Cross-border Service Coming Soon (4)

Landkreis Grafschaft Bentheim

Bad Bentheim is at the very southernmost tip of the map. Nordhorn (centre left, by the bend) is the largest town.

In 13 German states, the primary administrative subdivision higher than a Gemeinde (municipality) is the Landkreis or Kreis. Most major cities in Germany are not part of any Kreis, but instead combine the functions of a municipality and a Kreis; such a city is referred to as a kreisfreie Stadt[e] or Stadtkreis.

(Land-)Kreise stand at an intermediate level of administration between each state (Länder) and the municipalities (Gemeinden) within it.

So now we know.

For Lankreis, think "County", for Kreisfrie Stadt think "Unitary Authority". Between these and the national government are the "Lander" (umlaut missing!) which are "States" with substantial amounts of devolved government - think "Wales", sort of.

Unusually, the County of Bad Bentheim runs a railway company. It is called Bentheimer Eisenbahn - i.e. iron way. i.e. rail way. The County has been tunning trains for about 129 years!

Imagine Devon County owning and running the line between Exeter and Barnstaple; but you would have to add in a busy freight terminal about half way along the route!

So, here follows a summary timeline of the Bentheim County railway company.

1895 - line opened between Bad Bentheim north to Nordhorn

1908 - Line opened from Bad Bentheim south to Gronau (bottom left)

There was much celebration!

1911 - trains operate beyond Nordhorn to Coeveidon Netherlands.

There was much celebration!

1933 - Company buys its first railbus.

1945 - service to Gronau not restored post WW2

1953 - bigger engines acquired

1974 - passenger services withdrawn. 

Replaced by bus

No idea really; but something like the above.

2019 - passenger service restored Bad Bentheim to Neuenhaus

2026 - passenger service due to be restored to Coevorden.

Snippets

Signalling System Signs Solved

After hours of on-line research (actually fbb happend upon it when looking for something else!) your uncertain blogger can now reveal that this signal is shown before a level crossing and flashing white means that it is clear for the train to cross. You would assume that it only apples to lightly used lines. To help the driver, there is a warning board which is where the track circuit for the crossing is actuated.

German railway signalling is fiendishly complicated and well beyond fbb's pay grade!

Gronau Line Gone, Sadly

The long closed line south from Bad Bentheim has almost completely disappeared. But a short section from Bad Bentheim still appears (Streetview accuracy unknown) to be operational.

The line by-passed the present station, calling at Bentheim Nord (station no longer exists), as per the crude map above ...

... whence it crosses the main line on a very much intact overbridge.

The single track runs alongside a main road ...

... where fbb spied one of those signals, maybe now not working.

There are level crossing where side roads join the main drag ...

... and, as they say, "alles est in ordnung".

There are no boundary fences, of course, except at a bus stop.

Are bus passengers guilty of straying on to railway lines more than other pedestrians?

The possibly working track veers away from the rain road and swings round to cross it and, at the crossing just stops!

One road cossing firther south has track across the road ...

... but none on both sides.

There are some industrial premises away from the eagle eye of Streetview, so maybe a rail link is (or was) preserved to provide for works traffic.

Nothing is traceable at the Gronau end, not helped by the fact that Streetview is incomplete in Germany.

Erstwhile Dutch : Electric? Diesel?

This loco was spotted at Nordhorn on an slightly dated cab video. fbb wondered if it had got lost as it is an 18xx class of Dutch Railways. In fact it was owned by the Bentheim company. 

This presents another problem.

How did it get to Nordhorn as it is an electric loco collecting power from a couple of roof-mounted pantographs. There is is a sad lack of electric string on the Bentheim line!

Here is a similar machine on home territory.

Evidently Extremely Electric!

fbb has no explanation unless the lads at Nordhorn have converted it to diesel. Unlikely!

If anyone knows more pease contact fbb via fbb@xephos.com.

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A Wonderful Walkway

The above is the only on-line picture of a TTA tank from above. But we can see that the gangplank along the tank top is a see-through grid.

The 1973 Hornby old tool has a solid walkway with over-scale representation of said giris.

The Bachmann model is better, but the grid is still solid.

The new Hornby, however, has an etched see-through grid ...

... and you can see though the diamond shaped holes.

An Old Buffer Looks At New Buffers

The 1973 Hornby buffet beam is crudely modelled with a gurt big bar to support the gurt big coupling. It is ugly but, back in 1973, we thought the whole wagon was a great improvement on Hornsby Dublo tinplate.

Bachmann has a moulded hook but no dangly bits, it has metal buffers  and a smaller coupling; but there is not much other detail.

Hornby's new buffer beam reveals that there isn't much detail to be had - BUT ...

The buffers are more detailed and there is a mysterious bit of pipe between buffer and coupling. There is the bracket for the tail lamp and a small hole. 

Do those pipes in the little plastic bag fit in there?

Maybe yes; but if you glue the pin into the hole, the dangling pipes may well foul the coupling. But as fbb's tank wagon collection is not for use on the working layout, he will maybe fit them.

If that is where they fit!

And ir has gor sprung buffers - just like the real thing.

Here is the buffer un sprung ...

And now the buffer pushed back agaunst its little spring by fbb's great podgy thumb!

The shank now looks shorter; but quite why any OO modeller would want shorter shanks and quite how they would help in the running of his railway is a mystery to fbb. But modellers still rave about their sprung buffers.

fbb bought a Peco Wonderful Wagon kit in 1958. It had equally useless sprung buffers. 

The buffer shank springs against a twangy piece of plastic behind the buffer beam. 

And the springs on the wheels worked as well!

Next : The Classy Chassis

 Next Bentheim blog : Friday 2nd February