IG 3seenbahn (Germany)

Visited the 3seenbahn (3 Lakes Railway) in the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) recently in temperatures of 30ºC. This is the ideal railway for the chap who used to write in the guestbook at the Gasthaus Grüber in Vordernberg Markt (Austria) every year, stating that his wife was complaining that she couldn't find the beach (is he a NatPres member?). Well, no problem here; the line runs past three huge lakes, with beaches and all the trappings of the tourist trade.

The IG (club) runs trains on the electrified DB line from Titisee to Seebrugg, slotting its 3 trains in between the hourly push-pull DB service, powered by Trabbi's (Class 143) on 3 or 4 Dosto's (Double-deckers). Typically German, they only run at the weekend in summer. After reversing in Titisee, the first train of the day runs on to Löffingen, on a non-electrified stretch, with semaphores. It had been planned to use ex-DR 58 311 (58 1111-2) a 3-cyl 2-10-0, but this had failed and was replaced by the ever-faithful ex-DR 50 2740 (50 2740-8 or 052 740-8 ). Incidentally, the inside cylinder of the 58 (and the 58 3xxx rebuilds) is driven by an outside Walschaerts crank on the left-hand 4th driving wheel. Unfortunately, the hot weather was not conducive to good steam photos, and the chimney-first runs were northbound (out of the sun).

The staff, including the loco crew, were extremely friendly, and after having a few beers with them in the obligatory beer tent, on Saturday evening, I was given copies of 1:50,000 maps suitably annotated with photo spots, and a gradient profile for the line. The climb out of Titisee is 1 in 50, but for a 50 with four coaches and a packwagon this was no problem. The station at Feldberg-Bärenthal (picture 3) is advertised as the highest in Germany (I would have thought that Brocken deserved this title – perhaps this is a hangover from the days of West Germany, when it would have been true).

 

Hallo Dick,

Schöne Bilder! I didn't see anything like that when I was there; however, it was only for a couple of hours whilst passing through the area on the way home from Switzerland. All I saw at Aha (yes, that's right, Aha!) were the usual 143s; there are a few pictures on my Fotopic site if you, or anyone, is interested to see them :

http://ronfisher.fotopic.net/p55562449.html

http://ronfisher.fotopic.net/p55562445.html

http://ronfisher.fotopic.net/p55562451.html

http://ronfisher.fotopic.net/p55562447.html

Tschüß!

Ron.

 

The Sun Always Shines on TV

@Ron,

Took this by accident - sorry it's not very good!

Gruß

Dick