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Back from a pleasant long weekend in Berlin.  We did less tourism than usual, but 34C temperatures does rather discourage trudging the streets, and encourage ice cream and beer and polite conversation.  But here are a few railway (and other) shots…..

An ideal hotel room overlooking the U-1 line.  The trains are remarkably quiet, even at night.  More than can be said for the emergency services, with full sirens at all hours.

Having climbed up to the top of the Berliner Dom (too many stairs) it was worth the view.

Next day, we did another boat trip – the ideal way to relax and see the city – and a few trains if you are lucky.

I saw some new liveries on trains crossing the bridges, but none close enough to get a picture.  This picture of the new Flixtrain cut-price service comes from their website, but is taken from a boat on the Spree.

A visit to my daughter’s partner’s craft brewery (good product) and the old and disused Witenau station building on the S-bahn.

Queuing for Sicilian ice-cream – and U-bahn spotting…

One topical (if not political) one on a taxi.

And the compulsory sunset to ride off into…..

Back to the U-bahn.  Looks like we’ll carry on visiting Berlin, as Ruth went for an interview at the immigration department in Berlin and to her great surprise came out with a permanent resident’s visa.  So she’s B**x** proof for a while, and doesn’t have to apply for German citizenship.

The area around the Warschauer Str. terminus is of both railway and historic interest.  Behind the station itself is this small maintenance shed, and a large carriage shed.  I don’t think Lidl are now operating trains!  Although I didn’t see any trains enter the shed, I suspect the trains are on the elevated level and there is a Lidl store underneath.  At least, I hope so…..

Leaving the terminus, the train crosses the River Spree by the Oberbaum bridge.  This was a Cold War crossing point from east to west, and trains were unable to cross the river to the Warschauer Str. terminus.  Old aerial photographs show all the tracks lifted.  But with reunification, the terminus came back into use.  The 3 photos below are taken from where the Berlin Wall and crossing point would have been. The longest remaining section of wall, decorated with murals lies behind me as I took the photos.

After crossing the bridge the line curves away to the right.  This location is very model-like, and would make a fine scene for a model railway.  The second shot comes from Wikipedia, I’m afraid, as we didn’t manage a boat trip on the Spree (Ruth was worried that they would be full of Barcelona and Juventus supporters – not a nice thought in a confined space), and this is such a good shot of the attractive bridge structure.

The next station along the line, Schlesisches Tor, is a fine piece of railway architecture (as is the next station along).  Many of the other stations along the line are simple train sheds, perhaps indicating war-time bomb damage.

To close out our Berlin adventures here’s a video of the U-Bahn, an alternative form of transport of the Spree (I love float planes, but you wouldn’t catch me on anything smaller than a Sunderland), and the family at the amazingly OTT Russian war memorial at Trepnow Park.

Larger trains today……

Just next to the Warstrauer Str. U-Bahn station was the S-Bahn station and the DB main lines.  I suppose in UK London terms, the U-Bahn is like London Underground, whilst the S-Bahn is more like London commuter trains – the stations are further apart and the lines are generally above ground.  The S-Bahn trains we travelled on looked to have more wear and tear than the U-Bahn – perhaps new units are due.  Both systems use a raised 3rd rail, as shown below.  I guess this system is easier to keep going in the winter snow, and not prone to complete failure, like the low-level UK system.

Next to the station were carriage sidings, mainly holding sleeping car trains.  I was pleased to see that DB also have a problem with graffiti.  And even more delighted to see a real-life Talgo train parked in a siding.  These lightweight carriage sets, with a single pair of wheels on each carriage, fascinate me.  I’ve always admired models of them, but the real thing was even better.  Not sure I want to travel on one though – I’d rather have 8 wheels under me.

On the other side were the DB main line tracks, coming in from what would have been East Germany in the past.  There was an interesting mixture of ICE high speed trains, inter-city locomotive hauled stock, and local multiple units.  And what to me seemed a rather antique diesel helping shut the yard.  No goods trains, though, so close into the centre of the city.  The civil engineering work being carried out appears to be adding more main line running tracks.  It was good to see a system that is actively adding capacity to its lines.

My next, and last, post of Berlin will return to the U-Bahn.

We’re off to Berlin again this weekend, so I thought I’d repost pictures from our first visit five years ago – and lots of trams and trains.

Maxine and I recently spent a long weekend in Berlin, visiting our eldest daughter.  We thoroughly enjoyed Berlin, despite having chosen to visit the same weekend as the Champion’s League (football) final.  It’s an interesting city, the greenest in Europe, with all those Cold War connotations, and endless quality museums (no we didn’t visit the currywurst museum).

And there was considerable railway interest as well.  Although it was coincidental, as Ruth works in the hotel, I was delighted to be able to sit at breakfast and watch yellow U-Bahn trains enter the Warschauer Str. terminus, elevated on an attractive brick viaduct, with yellow bendy-trams in the adjacent road.  Here’s the view leaving the hotel….

That’s what I call a location!  The final photograph is looking down to the River Spree and the location of a long remaining section of the Berlin Wall.  We didn’t need to take a tram ride, but I was very impressed by the compact articulated units, that could turn on a radius better suited to a small 4-wheeled car.

We used the U-Bahn extensively, especially as we were just 3 stations from Ruth’s apartment.  This final shot today is the little 2-car train that shuttles from the central Berlin station, Hauptbahnhof, two short stops to the Brandenburg Gate (unfortunately taken over by EUFA for a football exhibition, but still a sight to see).  It’s some time, I think, since I went on a 2-car train, and this was an older unit with metal handles that opened the (powered) sliding doors.  The central station is just a few years old, and it is quite something – a brand new steel and glass station that looks more like Bluewater or an airport with the shopping malls on several levels.  Even the trains are on three levels, and two levels cross at 90 degrees.

Friday was a full day’s tourism, to allow Ruth to get a little work done.  Packed into the day were the Brandenburg Gate, the Holocaust Memorial and the underground Holocaust Museum (moving, gruelling, but an impeccable presentation).  Then on to the parking lot site of Hitler’s bunker, to Checkpoint Charlie (nothing to see, a tourist trap, but for those of a certain age, walking through Checkpoint Charlie just has to be done), and finally to the Jewish Museum (an interesting museum in a fine building).  Well, they were all in the same part of the city and more or less on a straight line.  After that we slowed down a bit!!

Next time, the S-Bahn and main line DB trains.