Christmas present
Well its Friday, so a good time to post last weekends adventure. Last week a storm dropped massive amounts of snow on Southern Germany. While the main line rail system was paralzyed in Bavaria, a bit further north things were more moderate and even some museum services were running. Late the night before I realized that the forecast for a perfect winter photography was coming together. The next day promised crystal clear skies and two easily accesible steam lines out of Amstetten, Baden Württemberg would be running. So alarm set for 4 AM and hope that the ICE to Stuttgart would actually run. Indeed it did and I was on my way south and arrived in Amstetten shortly before the days activities should start. Unfortunately, things immediately started going wrong. The standard gauge Amstetten to Gerstetten line would not be running as the switches and crossings were iced in and it was decided not to be safe. At the 1000mm Alb-Bähnle line the diesel locomotive sent to patrol the line in the morning was having problems and the passenger train couldnt leave until it returned to Amstetten. After an hour of delay, more bad news, the diesel was stuck in the snow and the steam locomotive would have to be sent to rescue it. This took nearly three hours and by the time the first train left it was 12:40 meaning that at best we would have 2 instead of the planned 5 services in daylight. Thankfully with the perfect weather even two trains were well worth the trip. Here the second and ultimately final trip of the day storms the steeply graded segment on the approach to the end of the line in Oppingen.
This was also my first outing with my Black Friday gift to myself, a new Sony A7 IV. My Canon 6D was on its last legs and it was time for a change. Many new things to get used to but so far quite impressed with the results.
Christmas present
Well its Friday, so a good time to post last weekends adventure. Last week a storm dropped massive amounts of snow on Southern Germany. While the main line rail system was paralzyed in Bavaria, a bit further north things were more moderate and even some museum services were running. Late the night before I realized that the forecast for a perfect winter photography was coming together. The next day promised crystal clear skies and two easily accesible steam lines out of Amstetten, Baden Württemberg would be running. So alarm set for 4 AM and hope that the ICE to Stuttgart would actually run. Indeed it did and I was on my way south and arrived in Amstetten shortly before the days activities should start. Unfortunately, things immediately started going wrong. The standard gauge Amstetten to Gerstetten line would not be running as the switches and crossings were iced in and it was decided not to be safe. At the 1000mm Alb-Bähnle line the diesel locomotive sent to patrol the line in the morning was having problems and the passenger train couldnt leave until it returned to Amstetten. After an hour of delay, more bad news, the diesel was stuck in the snow and the steam locomotive would have to be sent to rescue it. This took nearly three hours and by the time the first train left it was 12:40 meaning that at best we would have 2 instead of the planned 5 services in daylight. Thankfully with the perfect weather even two trains were well worth the trip. Here the second and ultimately final trip of the day storms the steeply graded segment on the approach to the end of the line in Oppingen.
This was also my first outing with my Black Friday gift to myself, a new Sony A7 IV. My Canon 6D was on its last legs and it was time for a change. Many new things to get used to but so far quite impressed with the results.