Torn Apart

110 463










11.09.1967 - 07.03.2012


RIP


I took my first photo of this locomotive back in November 2008, still with my shitty compact camera, and just after Obama had won the election. Even though it increased my travel time, I took the train that 110 463 was hauling to Düsseldorf, in order to take some more photos, with one of those being shown in the bottom thumbnail above. The quality may be 100% lousy, but you can clearly identify the locomotive. I gave it the title "Another Survivor", as even back then, 110s were being scrapped left and right. If you watched my farewell video on YouTube, you may have spotted 463 two times, at 2:17 and 9:00.

As time passed, I saw her on several occasions, mostly in Duisburg, hauling the rush hour booster train towards Wesel. I think my favourite pic is the third one from above, depicting another photographer admiring the mighty machine. That guy identified himself yesterday, by commenting on my DSO thread. And now that I've already mentioned it:


Click here for the full documentary of 110 463's scrapping.


It's a forum thread with 36 pics inside, so have a little patience while it loads. As usual, it was rather popular, with almost 2000 hits and more comments than any other thread on the first page. Thankfully though, the comments were rather mature this time, no drama at all, just sadness, mixed with interest, as you can rarely ever see what's inside a locomotive. For most people, especially the older generation, seeing this is a bit like loosing a friend. They grew up with these locomotives, having seen all the different trains they pulled, from the high class TEE to the lowly RegionalBahn, and all the different liveries they wore, from dark blue, ruby & cream, blue & beige all the way to today's traffic red. These locomotives were the backbone of German railways for half a century, longer than anyone would have given them, and even today, some are still in service. Most are gone though... And 110 463 here has now also left us, with the unpleasant shriek of breaking metal, as the powerful claw tore her apart like tinfoil.