Rural Stop

Last Saturday marked the day of me being in a relationship for exactly one year, which nobody really noticed, since I don't talk too much about it (though I did mention it in picture descriptions every now and then). This called for a little celebration, such as going to Cologne, hanging a love padlock on the Hohenzollern Bridge (like many others before us) and then dining at El Inca, a Latin American restaurant.

Since driving into Cologne is about as much fun as falling down a flight of stairs, and since I now have a valid student ID card (again) that lets me use all public transport, we took the train instead. Seen here is a Bombardier Talent on the Aggertalbahn, pulling into Overath, where I spend almost all of my weekends. This railway line has an interesting history, showing the classic postwar development of branchlines that kept becoming less and less profitable, leading to their closure. In this case though, the former Bundesbahn did the opposite of shutting it down, instead introducing the new concept of the CityBahn, with modernized trains hauled by powerful locomotives running on dense schedules, leading to a surge in passenger numbers and ultimately saving the line from certain death. These days, the line is to be expanded, as well as being in need of upgrades, as the single-track sections limit traffic to one train per 30 minutes per direction.

It's interesting to note that I knew of the CityBahn for quite some time, but didn't realize that it was only here, on this very line, where those specially painted and refurbished trains could be seen. To most railfans in Germany, the CityBahn, along with the Interregio, are some of the most successful innovations of the former Bundesbahn, making rail travel much more attractive and slowing the passenger losses to road and bus transport. Refurbished trains and dense timetables were all it needed to win back passengers.

And even though these CityBahn trains ran only on this one line, many well known model train makers offer entire sets with locomotives and cars in this characteristic livery. What makes it even more interesting is that 218 137, a locomotive I've photographed in Cologne quite a few times, was the last surviving 218 that once wore the CityBahn livery, and better still, it was given to the DB Museum after being withdrawn from service. And instead of just leaving it in the ubiquitous DB traffic red paint scheme, they decided to give it a new old varnish. Oh yeah...