ZCochrane on DeviantArthttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/https://www.deviantart.com/zcochrane/art/Living-History-374194613ZCochrane

Deviation Actions

ZCochrane's avatar

Living History

By
Published:
361 Views

Description

On saturday, I spotted something unusual moving past my house: 18 201, the fastest active steam engine in the world. A quick look at DSO revealed that it was on a tour from Leipzig to Vienenburg, a route that does not actually lead past my house (along the Vienenburg-Oker-Goslar line). That led to a simple conclusion: It was doing an elaborate turn through the stations of Vienenburg, Oker and Bad Harzburg, which together form a triangle.

Based on a hunch, I went to Bad Harzburg, where I expected the locomotive to arrive in reverse, and depart for Vienenburg the right way around. As it turns out, I was 100% correct, but since it had to fit in between the normal traffic, it took a while to get there.

In that time, other railfans arrived (seen here on the left), and I had time to look at a unit gondola train hauled by a Voith Maxima (on the right). Plus, some signal workers were doing maintenance work on Bad Harzburg's almost-famous semaphore bridge, which holds all outgoing signals for this terminus station.

18 201 had left the train in Goslar, so it ran here alone. That meant it had no reason to drive to the end of the platform, or run around a train (which is possible in Bad Harzburg, but only on tracks 4/5, not track 3, where it is right now). As a result, I couldn't take a good picture from the front, so when it left, I headed to Vienenburg.
Image size
3873x2582px 2.21 MB
Make
Canon
Model
Canon EOS 1000D
Shutter Speed
1/256 second
Aperture
F/11.0
Focal Length
37 mm
ISO Speed
200
Date Taken
May 25, 2013, 12:19:23 PM
Sensor Size
22mm
Comments3
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
TomRedlion's avatar
You will never convince me that those signal maintainers aren't doing a little railfanning while still on the job.