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A Weekend near Hannover, 11-12 August 1984
In August and September 1984, my Air National Guard unit sent several of us to support a NATO mission in Denmark. We flew into Rhein-Main Airbase, near Frankfurt, Germany and had a few days in Wiesbaden before continuing on to Denmark.
11 and 12 August were a weekend. I had been writing to a railfan, Dieter, who lived near Hannover for a few years and we were looking forward to a chance to meet in person. I called on the morning off 11 March and let him know that I would be arriving in Hannover on whatever train I took. He picked me up from the station, and we spent several hours Saturday and Sunday watching trains.
I rode from Wiesbaden to Frankfurt on whatever was the next train heading that way when I showed up at the station. There were hourly Intercity trains, plus hourly locals and random other trains and I have no memory of what I took. I do know that I took the next hourly Intercity from Frankfurt to Hannover, which ran close enough to the East German border that we could see the barbed wire out the window. That, thankfully, vanished 5 or 6 years later.
Frankfurt provided plenty of trains to be seen from the end of my train's platform while I waited for it to arrive. Frankfurt Hbf is a stub end terminal, so all through trains reverse. ICs would run it behind one class 103, another would couple onto the other end, and the train would pull out going the other way. You can see the 103 that probably took my train to Hannoover parked in some of the Frankfurt photos.
Along the way to Hannover, at Fulda, a rail bus was waiting to connect with our train to take passengers up a branchline.
After arriving in Hannover, Dieter took me to the station of Sarstedt, south of Hannover on the line I'd ridden, to watch trains and a lot came through including a preserved VT11 TEE diesel train.
After an evening with Dieter's wife and model railroad, on Sunday morning we went up to a hill near Ludersen and we watched trains on a line that goes to Hamelin in the morning sunlight with the plain and Hannover stretching away to the north.
Our day of trainwatching ended at Nordstemmen, again on the mainline to Frankfurt, after which Dieter got me back to Hannover for the ride back to Frankfurt and the connection to Wiesbaden. On the train to Frankfurt, I shared a compartment with a couple of German women and an Egyptian college student. I remember the Egyptian guy remarking on how relatively new everything seemed in Germany to him and comparing his view with my own of Germany having far more history in view than California.
A great weekend. When Anne met me in September, we visited Dieter and his family again as we traveled around Europe.
image019-Sarstedt-111-auto-train-84-8-11-
A Weekend near Hannover, 11-12 August 1984
In August and September 1984, my Air National Guard unit sent several of us to support a NATO mission in Denmark. We flew into Rhein-Main Airbase, near Frankfurt, Germany and had a few days in Wiesbaden before continuing on to Denmark.
11 and 12 August were a weekend. I had been writing to a railfan, Dieter, who lived near Hannover for a few years and we were looking forward to a chance to meet in person. I called on the morning off 11 March and let him know that I would be arriving in Hannover on whatever train I took. He picked me up from the station, and we spent several hours Saturday and Sunday watching trains.
I rode from Wiesbaden to Frankfurt on whatever was the next train heading that way when I showed up at the station. There were hourly Intercity trains, plus hourly locals and random other trains and I have no memory of what I took. I do know that I took the next hourly Intercity from Frankfurt to Hannover, which ran close enough to the East German border that we could see the barbed wire out the window. That, thankfully, vanished 5 or 6 years later.
Frankfurt provided plenty of trains to be seen from the end of my train's platform while I waited for it to arrive. Frankfurt Hbf is a stub end terminal, so all through trains reverse. ICs would run it behind one class 103, another would couple onto the other end, and the train would pull out going the other way. You can see the 103 that probably took my train to Hannoover parked in some of the Frankfurt photos.
Along the way to Hannover, at Fulda, a rail bus was waiting to connect with our train to take passengers up a branchline.
After arriving in Hannover, Dieter took me to the station of Sarstedt, south of Hannover on the line I'd ridden, to watch trains and a lot came through including a preserved VT11 TEE diesel train.
After an evening with Dieter's wife and model railroad, on Sunday morning we went up to a hill near Ludersen and we watched trains on a line that goes to Hamelin in the morning sunlight with the plain and Hannover stretching away to the north.
Our day of trainwatching ended at Nordstemmen, again on the mainline to Frankfurt, after which Dieter got me back to Hannover for the ride back to Frankfurt and the connection to Wiesbaden. On the train to Frankfurt, I shared a compartment with a couple of German women and an Egyptian college student. I remember the Egyptian guy remarking on how relatively new everything seemed in Germany to him and comparing his view with my own of Germany having far more history in view than California.
A great weekend. When Anne met me in September, we visited Dieter and his family again as we traveled around Europe.