Germany, Austria & Hungary 16/09 to 22/09 1998 "Would you like some Snuff?"
Myself and Betty (David Icke - no not THAT David Icke - the other one!) on a trip with three main aims - sample some more M61's in Hungary, meet up with the UK's German beer-drinking team, then take in the monster festival that is the Oktoberfest in Munich.
As I was now A) living near and B) working in Crewe (A= Nantwich the promised land & B= Rail House Crewe) some train gen on our way to Europe for a change.(# = winner locos)
Wednesday 16/09/98
87017 Crewe - Euston 0745 Liverpool Lime St - Euston 158m
A pleasant start, just a quick check-in for the Eurostar - or NOT! Some plonker has left his Priv Eurostar tickets in the drawer at home.....ME! I can tell you it was mickey-take central in the travel centre "a member of staff forgetting his ticket!" but she was right - still I'd booked on a Credit Card so she had no problem re-issuing the piece amidst all the laughter.
373203) Waterloo International - Bruxelles Midi 1227 Waterloo Int. - Bruxelles Midi 376km
373204)
1605 Bruxelles Midi - Koln Hbf 1544 Oostende - Koln 229km
215 133# Koln Hbf - Erfstadt 2010 Koln Deutz - Erfstadt 22km
215 017# Erfstadt - Koln West 2006 Kall - Koln Deutz 19km
215 111 Koln West - Koln Sud 2110 Koln Deutz - Euskirchen 2km
215 137 Koln Sud - Koln Hbf 1946 Gerolstein - Koln Hbf 5km
It looks very likely we flagged the beer to cover the four 215 diagrams, quite successfully, with plenty of beer to come later in the week.To carry on our quest to get to Hungary we headed for Austria. Getting a compo was obviously more important than getting the loco.
101 xxx Koln Hbf - Nurnberg 1806 Oostende - Wien West 467km
Thursday 17/09/98
1044 126# Nurnberg - Linz 1806 Oostende - Wien Hbf 326km
4010 016 Linz - Selzthal 0757 Linz - Selzthal 181km
4010 008 Selzthal - Leoben 0718 Salzburg - Graz 75km
1044 289# Leoben - Bruck a.d. Mur 0812 Villach - Wien Sud 16km
4010 008 Bruck a.d.Mur - Graz 0718 Salzburg - Graz 54km
We had worked our way to Graz to do the border crossing via Szentgotthard for the first time, all the unit mileage made us wish we hadn't! But we are here now.
2143 045 Graz - Szentgotthard 1240 Graz - Szentgotthard 82km
Bzmot 301 Szentgotthard - Szombathely 1442 Szentgotthard - Szombathely 64km
Yet another unit!
M41 2129# Szombathely - Celldolmolk 1625 Szombathely - Veszprem 45km
M41 2114# Celldolmolk - Badacsony 1741 Celldolmolk - Budapest Deli 70km
We must of had food and drink in Badacsony as it would have been too late to eat by the time we then finished at Tapolca - then we got an M41 on the expected M61 turn, which is probably why we did the M61 back out, even after two very long days.
M41 2148# Badacsony - Tapolca 1830 Budapest Deli - Tapolca 14km
M61 019 Tapolca - Revulop 2032 Tapolca - Szeskehfervahr 27km
M41 2150# Revulop - Tapolca 1830 Budapest Deli - Tapolca 27km
Friday 18/09/98
We again stayed in the Hotel Gabriela with it's fantastic setting by it's own mill pond - even my Wife has stayed here once (off a supposed 0BB 2050 tour which got a 2143!) and had a lunchtime meal here once (off M61 019 on a Railtour). As for when a large group of cranks stayed in 1996 - well that's another story!
Our main aim today was of course M61's, looking for a run up to Szeskehfervahr (M61's had stopped running through to Budapest) then returning to Austria the quick way via Gyor to Vienna.
M61 004 Tapolca - Kezsthely 0625 Szombathely - Pecs 25km
A great start, M61 004 with its special livery and looking very smart.
Bzmot 334 Kezthely - Tapolca 0815 Balatonszentgyorgy - Tapolca 25km
M61 019 Tapolca - Badasconytordemic Szigliget 1037 Tapolca - Budapest Deli 9km
M61 006 Badasconytordemic Sz. - Tapolca 0725 Budapest Deli - Tapolca 9km
Oh dear I think we've ballsed that up! We saw 006 coming the other way and Betty asked if we needed it, we suddenly realised neither of us had any idea of which (if any) M61's we still needed after his previous trip with me in 1996. I said we'd better bail onto it then. We thought we had the back up of M61 001 on something local - but that had gone - and the next booked diagram was the 1437!! Rather than kicking the Depot Cat for the next 4 hours we decided to head back the way we came yesterday!
M62 261 Tapolca - Celldolmolk 0700 Pecs - Celldolmolk 56km
M41 2203# Celldolmolk - Szombathely 1005 Budapest Keleti - Szombathely 45km
M41 2109# Szombathely - Szentgotthard 1441 Szombathely - Szentgotthard 64km
2143 059# Szentgotthard - Takern St.Margarethen 1600 Szentgotthard - Graz 47km
2043 039# Takern St.M - Bad Waltersdorf 1625 Graz - Wiener Neustadt 64km
2143 068# Bad Waltersdorf - Fehring 1636 Wiener Neustadt - Fehring 37km
2143 026# Fehring - Graz 1907 Szentgotthard - Graz 62km
So at least the winners flowed, we also got Szombathely to Szentgotthard loco hauled (much better than the unit the day before) and had some decent runs on the Austrian plains behind 2143's.
1142 578#) Graz - Bruck a.d.Mur 2200 Graz - Feldkirch 54km
1044 067#)
1044 007 Bruck a.d.Mur - Feldkirch 2200 Graz - Feldkirch 553km
Saturday 19/09/98
4020 112) Feldkirch - Bregenz 0635 Bludenz - Lochau Horbranz 139km
4020 120)
Looks like we didn't wait the hour in Feldkirch for the hauled train behind, instead took an all-shacks to keep moving.
1044 111# Bregenz - Lindau 0727 Bludenz - Lindau 10km
4020 120)
Looks like we didn't wait the hour in Feldkirch for the hauled train behind, instead took an all-shacks to keep moving.
1044 111# Bregenz - Lindau 0727 Bludenz - Lindau 10km
218 234 Lindau - Immenstadt 0709 Radolfzell - Munchen 68km
Always a pleasure coming up the Lindau to Immenstadt line - then the following moves illustrate just how popular a destination Obertsdorf was back then!
218 455#) Immenstadt - Blaichach/Allgau 0952 Immenstadt - Obertsdorf 4km
218 425)
218 455#) Immenstadt - Blaichach/Allgau 0952 Immenstadt - Obertsdorf 4km
218 425)
218 420) Blaichach - Immenstadt 1014 Obertsdorf - Immenstadt 4km
218 437)
218 437)
218 442) Immenstadt - Buchloe 1009 Obertsdorf - Berlin 84km
218 443)
218 443)
218 444) Buchloe - Kaufbeuren 0512 Chemnitz - Obertsdorf 20km
218 441)
218 441)
218 455) Kaufbeuren - Buchloe 1119 Obertsdorf - Hamburg A. 20km
218 425)
218 425)
218 438 Buchloe - Kaufbeuren 1220 Munchen - Radolfzell 20km
218 341#) Kaufbeuren - Munchen 1209 Obertsdorf - Dresden 88km
218 319)
It was now time to make our way towards Buttenheim, our home for the next two nights.
218 319)
It was now time to make our way towards Buttenheim, our home for the next two nights.
120 109# Munchen - Bamberg 1451 Munchen - Berlin 261km
141 375# Bamberg - Buttenheim 1706 Coburg - Nurnberg 13km
It turns out the station is actually in the hamlet of Altendorf and Buttenheim is about a kilometre away on foot.
It turns out the station is actually in the hamlet of Altendorf and Buttenheim is about a kilometre away on foot.
The assorted Cranks and Beer drinkers (to the best of my knowledge) were Me, Betty, Steve Thomas (Neath - future Author of the Camra Good Beer Guide Germany), Dave Jackson (Trog), Howard Jolley (Howey), Rick Zaple and the 3 Brazel Brothers Simon, Sean & David!
There are two breweries in Buttenheim so after dropping our bags in our rooms & a quick pint downstairs it was off to the Lowenbrau Keller for an evening of Beer and food.
At one point a cry of "Funfzehn Jahre (fifteen years)" started echoing around the room as it was noticed one of the Lads bringing the beer to the table was a dead-spit of someone I'd had a run in with, on one of our 33111 Railtours that I'd run, who didn't want to pay and kept quoting that he's "been a Basher for 15 years and have never been accused of effing it before"!
Then a stagger back to "our" brewery for a couple more before they chucked us out and into our digs.
Sunday 20/09/98
141 375 Buttenheim - Forcheim 0737 Sonneburg - Nurnberg 10km
212 089 Forcheim - Ebermannstadt 0935 Forcheim - Ebermannstadt 15km
We visited the Schwanenbrau, where I really struggled with my beer, I don't recall if anyone noticed.....
It was the first time I'd had a 212 on this branch, the service had always been in the hands of 211's previously so I was not impressed (perhaps because it wasn't a winner!)
212 089 Ebermannstadt - Forcheim 1102 Ebermannstadt - Forcheim 15km
The fact that I was mixing with the serious drinkers meant - yes you've guessed it - another brewery to sample in Forcheim. It was one of the 4 breweries in the town, I'm not sure which one, but I do know I drank a Kellerbier (surprise!) and the local way of asking for your next beer was to turn your Stein upside down to get the attention of the Bar Staff!
141 375 Forcheim - Breitengussbach 0925 from ? - Coburg 31km
I had travelled on the Ebern branch many times but never got off to sample any of the local breweries - but today that was the aim.
211 054 Breitengussbach - Reckendorf 1249 Bamberg - Ebern 8km
Brauerei Schroll
We had beers in both the Schroll & Reckendorfer brewery pubs before taking the train back in the Bamberg direction.
211 054 Reckendorf - Baunach 1438 Ebern - Bamberg 4km
Here we visited Brauerei Sippel and I do believe we sat at the "Stammtisch" (locals) table as there wasn't anyone else in the pub!
211 054 Baunach - Bamberg 1538 Ebern - Bamberg 12km
Ooh a required 218 in the platform I will meet you all in the pub in an hour lads!
218 409# Bamberg - Staffelstein 1359 Hanau - Hof 26km
111 178 Staffelstein - Bamberg 1617 Sonneburg - Nurnberg 26km
More brewpubs in Bamberg. I would like to put in more detail but I have visited Bamberg (the brewing capital of the world - there are currently (2020) 9 family run breweries in the town totaling 3000 years of brewing history) many times and the rest of the evening escapes me!
141 375 Bamberg - Buttenheim 2106 Coburg - Nurnberg 13km
Monday 21/09/98
Today the main event would be a visit to the (in)famous Oktoberfest in Munich, but we would be attending late afternoon & evening so a few moves (for me & Betty?) first.
141 051# Buttenheim - Furth 0626 Ludwigstadt - Nurnberg 41km
111 166# Furth - Nurnberg 0823 Bamberg - Nurnberg 8km
103 123# Nurnberg - Munchen Hbf 0528 Halle - Munchen Hbf 199km
For some reason we then did a strange move (dud loco out for dud loco back) to Dachau and return, I can only think we viewed the Altomunster branch but solid 628's on these by this time?
1044 242 Munchen Hbf - Dachau 1238 Munchen - Nurnberg 18km
111 052 Dachau - Munchen Hbf 1048 Nurnberg - Munchen Hbf 18km
218 347) Munchen hbf - Buchloe 0525 Dresden - Obertsdorf 68km
218 314#)
218 466 Buchloe - Geltendorf 1308 Fussen - Munchen Hbf 26km
218 472 Geltendorf - Munchen Pasing 1109 Radolfzell - Munchen Hbf 35km
We must have got an S-Bahn or U-Bahn service to the Beer Festival, probably to avoid the crowds heading to it from the Hbf direction.
The 3rd visit for me & Betty but we had previously been at the two "foreigners tents" mixed in with mainly Aussies, New Zealanders and our friends from the US. This time would be much different as Ian Kapur was attending & he had arranged for his German cousin (who was also attending) to reserve a table in a traditional "German Only" large festival tent. My Lords!
We let his cousin guide us to our reserved table "Don't tell them your English Pike!" (or even Welsh...). Again apologies if I miss anyone out - if memory serves the Drinking party consisted of : Me (Poodle), Betty, Trog, Howey, Neath, Ian Kapur (his nickname would be Big Nose if I had my way) his Cousin and his friend (both from Munich) with a very welcome Guest Appearance from Neath's brother (formerly our designated driver to get us to Beer Festivals!).
We soon got settled in, large wooden tables with long benches either side which is "de rigueur" for any self respecting tent at the Festival. No problems getting served here, the 1 litre steins are brought out by the waiters and waitresses who manage to lug up to 10 of these monsters at a time.
The Oompah band was set up on the bandstand, they thought they'd run through a couple of warm-up numbers to help with people's digestion while everyone was eating. Unfortunately one of the numbers they chose was "Delilah" (luckily Tom Jones wasn't present) - this was enough for Neath's brother to jump up on the bench seat & do a Welsh-accented vocal accompaniment. Later in the evening most of the tent jump up, dance and sing but it was far too early for that. No sooner did the audience realise he was not German than a huge (mans fist sized) potato dumpling flew across the tent in his direction! He picked it up, looking around for the culprit to return fire, luckily Kapur said " there are 10,000 Germans in here & Us! Do Not throw it back!" - luckily his wise words were heeded!
A fine evening then developed, although interspersed with a couple of broken Steins (the culprit both times being Mr Kapur) due to over-exuberant toasting & clanking together of glasses, although the clanking is the norm for which the Steins are designed. During the course of the SIX hour session (the beers strength ranges from 5.8% to 6.3% depending on which Brewers tent your in) Ian's German Cousin asked us all "how do you English drink so many Steins - we drink 3 or 4 in a session - some of you have had about 8!" little do they know.......
As to the title of this piece, a rather finely dressed German with a fantastic Handlebar mustache on the next table was freely handing out snuff to anyone that fancied it. I abstained but some partook, at least at first. I took a trip to the loo at one point and realised these come fully equipped with huge "Chunder" chutes for when all the beer and food take their toll on the crowd! One of our number, who had liberally obliged of the free snuff , suddenly announced he needed an emergency visit to the Chunder facility. On returning he said "It wasn't the beer, honest, it was the snuff cos I'm not used to it!".
No night of such drinking can possibly finish before I get involved with some drink-induced moment of madness. On this occasion a VERY fit young blonde, on the table behind ours, was dancing on the floor behind me when, dancing on our bench, I drunkenly lost my balance & fell backwards, flattening said Fraulein! I was worried by this as she was with TWO very large lads (think Brick Outhouse then add some), she started kicking off (I cannot blame her!), but they just picked her up, laughed and gave me a wave & a nod ok! We did somehow manage to make our way back to the Hauptbahnhof for our overnight train......
111 219 Munchen Hbf - Stuttgart 2317 Munchen Hbf - Dortmund 242km
Tuesday 22/09/98
103 218 stands at Aachen on the 1314 Koln - Ostend
Total KM = 5835 Total Moves = 78
Daily Average = 833km Average per move = 74.8km
A varied trip with multi destinations and a lot more socialising than our normal Crank orientated trips. After travelling all the way (via Belgium, Germany & Austria) to Tapolca for the M61's we didn't make the most of the opportunity because we had forgotten to note which M61's we still needed & jumped off our intended move along Lake Balaton, thus bowling ourselves out!
On returning to Germany there were some very civilised drinking moves, nothing better than trying local breweries in small villages all over Franconia. It was our best experience at the Oktoberfest, in fact it was so good we have never revisited it, as you probably wouldn't be able to have such a good night again.
Today the main event would be a visit to the (in)famous Oktoberfest in Munich, but we would be attending late afternoon & evening so a few moves (for me & Betty?) first.
141 051# Buttenheim - Furth 0626 Ludwigstadt - Nurnberg 41km
111 166# Furth - Nurnberg 0823 Bamberg - Nurnberg 8km
103 123# Nurnberg - Munchen Hbf 0528 Halle - Munchen Hbf 199km
For some reason we then did a strange move (dud loco out for dud loco back) to Dachau and return, I can only think we viewed the Altomunster branch but solid 628's on these by this time?
1044 242 Munchen Hbf - Dachau 1238 Munchen - Nurnberg 18km
111 052 Dachau - Munchen Hbf 1048 Nurnberg - Munchen Hbf 18km
218 347) Munchen hbf - Buchloe 0525 Dresden - Obertsdorf 68km
218 314#)
218 466 Buchloe - Geltendorf 1308 Fussen - Munchen Hbf 26km
218 472 Geltendorf - Munchen Pasing 1109 Radolfzell - Munchen Hbf 35km
We must have got an S-Bahn or U-Bahn service to the Beer Festival, probably to avoid the crowds heading to it from the Hbf direction.
The 3rd visit for me & Betty but we had previously been at the two "foreigners tents" mixed in with mainly Aussies, New Zealanders and our friends from the US. This time would be much different as Ian Kapur was attending & he had arranged for his German cousin (who was also attending) to reserve a table in a traditional "German Only" large festival tent. My Lords!
We let his cousin guide us to our reserved table "Don't tell them your English Pike!" (or even Welsh...). Again apologies if I miss anyone out - if memory serves the Drinking party consisted of : Me (Poodle), Betty, Trog, Howey, Neath, Ian Kapur (his nickname would be Big Nose if I had my way) his Cousin and his friend (both from Munich) with a very welcome Guest Appearance from Neath's brother (formerly our designated driver to get us to Beer Festivals!).
We soon got settled in, large wooden tables with long benches either side which is "de rigueur" for any self respecting tent at the Festival. No problems getting served here, the 1 litre steins are brought out by the waiters and waitresses who manage to lug up to 10 of these monsters at a time.
The Oompah band was set up on the bandstand, they thought they'd run through a couple of warm-up numbers to help with people's digestion while everyone was eating. Unfortunately one of the numbers they chose was "Delilah" (luckily Tom Jones wasn't present) - this was enough for Neath's brother to jump up on the bench seat & do a Welsh-accented vocal accompaniment. Later in the evening most of the tent jump up, dance and sing but it was far too early for that. No sooner did the audience realise he was not German than a huge (mans fist sized) potato dumpling flew across the tent in his direction! He picked it up, looking around for the culprit to return fire, luckily Kapur said " there are 10,000 Germans in here & Us! Do Not throw it back!" - luckily his wise words were heeded!
A fine evening then developed, although interspersed with a couple of broken Steins (the culprit both times being Mr Kapur) due to over-exuberant toasting & clanking together of glasses, although the clanking is the norm for which the Steins are designed. During the course of the SIX hour session (the beers strength ranges from 5.8% to 6.3% depending on which Brewers tent your in) Ian's German Cousin asked us all "how do you English drink so many Steins - we drink 3 or 4 in a session - some of you have had about 8!" little do they know.......
As to the title of this piece, a rather finely dressed German with a fantastic Handlebar mustache on the next table was freely handing out snuff to anyone that fancied it. I abstained but some partook, at least at first. I took a trip to the loo at one point and realised these come fully equipped with huge "Chunder" chutes for when all the beer and food take their toll on the crowd! One of our number, who had liberally obliged of the free snuff , suddenly announced he needed an emergency visit to the Chunder facility. On returning he said "It wasn't the beer, honest, it was the snuff cos I'm not used to it!".
No night of such drinking can possibly finish before I get involved with some drink-induced moment of madness. On this occasion a VERY fit young blonde, on the table behind ours, was dancing on the floor behind me when, dancing on our bench, I drunkenly lost my balance & fell backwards, flattening said Fraulein! I was worried by this as she was with TWO very large lads (think Brick Outhouse then add some), she started kicking off (I cannot blame her!), but they just picked her up, laughed and gave me a wave & a nod ok! We did somehow manage to make our way back to the Hauptbahnhof for our overnight train......
111 219 Munchen Hbf - Stuttgart 2317 Munchen Hbf - Dortmund 242km
Tuesday 22/09/98
103 169# Stuttgart - Bonn 2317 Munchen - Dortmund 350km
Last day today we decided to do a Bonn class 215 scratch fest then go through to Gummersbach (new track for Betty) instead of the normal 218 scratch leaps!
215 110 Bonn - Meckenheim 0612 Bonn - Euskirchen 17km
215 118 Meckenheim - Meckenheim Industriepark 0602 Euskirchen - Bonn 2km
215 119# Meckenheim Industripark - Rheinbach 0642 Bonn - Bad Munstereifel 5km
215 014 Rheinbach - Meckenheim 0728 Rheinbach - Bonn 5km
215 094) Meckenheim - Rheinbach 0727 Bonn - Rheinbach 5km
215 055#) (T&Tail)
215 057# Rheinbach - Meckenheim 0758 Rheinbach - Bonn 5km
215 110 Meckenheim - Euskirchen 0742 Bonn - Bad Munstereifel 17km
215 054# Euskirchen - Koln Hbf 0806 Kall - Koln Deutz 40km
218 137 Koln - Gummersbach 0912 Koln Hansaring - Gumersbach 58km
218 137 Gummersbach - Koln Hbf 1048 Gummersbach - Koln H. 58km
215 095# Koln Hbf - Koln Deutz 1106 Kall - Koln Deutz 2km
110 492 Koln Deutz - Koln Hbf 2km
103 218 Koln Hbf - Aachen 1314 Koln Hbf - Oostende 70km
2728 Aachen - Bruxeleles Midi 1314 Koln Hbf - Oostende 159km
373 205) Bruxelles Midi - Waterloo International 1702 BM - W 376km
373 206)
90010 Euston - Crewe 2005 Euston - Liverpool 158m
Total KM = 5835 Total Moves = 78
Daily Average = 833km Average per move = 74.8km
A varied trip with multi destinations and a lot more socialising than our normal Crank orientated trips. After travelling all the way (via Belgium, Germany & Austria) to Tapolca for the M61's we didn't make the most of the opportunity because we had forgotten to note which M61's we still needed & jumped off our intended move along Lake Balaton, thus bowling ourselves out!
On returning to Germany there were some very civilised drinking moves, nothing better than trying local breweries in small villages all over Franconia. It was our best experience at the Oktoberfest, in fact it was so good we have never revisited it, as you probably wouldn't be able to have such a good night again.
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