Railing through the Vosges (II)

A busy breakfast

When travelling around often, you get to know your favorite places. Whenever I travel between home and Switzerland, I try to include a stop at “Boulangerie Bernard” in the center of Mommenheim. Their butter rolls are de-li-cious and more than worth the short detour!
On the morning of january 29th I had no effort convincing my fellow traveller to stop over at Mommenheim. We were planning on making photos on this stretch of the railway line between Basel and Thionville anyway. And so we found ourelves, packed with butter rolls and hot chocolate, in a field just outside of Mommenheim. Enjoying breakfast we photographed the steady parade of trains. This included a lot of TGV services, only a couple of months before the majority if not all would be rerouted over the new TGV-Est to Strasbourg. A selection below.

Sybic 26222 – love the eighties color scheme! – with a freight train to Strasbourg. Mommenheim, 29.1.2016
Vintage diesels 69454 and 69443 with one of the Mauzin measuring coaches. Mommenheim, 29.1.2016
One of many TGV Réseau’s we saw, this one in Carmillon livery. You still get to see them in their Atlantique livery, although much less frequent. Mommenheim, 29.1.2016
Strasbourg is one of the last regions in France were you can still see BB 25500 series locomotives. We got 2 in front of a TER service to Strasbourg, numbers 25615 and 25663. Mommenheim, 29.1.2016

Along the Marne – Rhine canal

The opening of the TGV-Est, planned for december 2016, would meant the end of the Eurocity trains between Brussels and Basel. Following all logic of French railways, passengers from Brussels to Switzerland have to use the TGV and pass through Paris…
We love these classic trains, allowing cheap and relatively fast travel. That’s one of the reasons we were chasing them in the Vosges on this beautiful january day.
As is usually the case, it was very sunny until the moment the train we really wanted to see had to pass.

With a beautiful cloudy sky, in warm winter light, a TGV to Strasbourg rides along the Marne – Rhine Canal. Steinbourg, 29.1.2016
The Eurocity 91 “Vaubaun” from Brussels to Basel. Steinbourg, 29.1.2016

High speed local

The wide plains north of Strasbourg allow straight tracks and fast trains. Here we see a local train that can ride 200 km/h. I’m sure this local doesn’t stop in every small village though.

Sybic 26143 with a fast TER service nort of Strasbourg. Schwindratzheim, 29.1.2016

Brasserie Meteor

I’m always conscious of local culture when we’re out on a trip. A special interest in local beer culture makes a trip all the more interesting. In the background of this photo, you can see the buildings of the Brasserie Meteor. This independant brewery is home to Meteor (pils and lager) and Wendelinus (blonde and roussa), and also creates occasional brewings.
We saw many trains, including freight and a Eurocity to Brussels.

SNCF 26167 with Eurocity 96 “Iris” from Basel to Brussels. Hochfelden, 29.1.2016
Prima 27037 and a northbound mixed freight. Hochfelden, 29.1.2016

Always judge your photos on a decent screen

We didn’t plan for shots in this direction, but with a southbound train approaching I gave it a try. Even though I was not satisfied with the result on the camera scren, I decided to keep this one, keeping in mind the advice of a good friend to always judge your photos on the computer screen. After some post-processing I had to change my mind and think of this photo as one of the better ones I made at Hochfelden that day.

Europorte 4007 in the fields north of Hochfelden. 29.1.2016

Last minute

Thoughts of the last moment are sometimes the better ones, I must admit. While packing our stuff to go home, it appeared to us that we could still make it for the TER Service to Sarreguemines. This service was one of the last ones hauled a BB67400 series diesel. We won the race against the clock; in what were really the last rays of sunshine I got my one and only photo of this loco-hauled service. Shortly hereafter the train was replaced by railcars.

Vintage diesel 67571 enters the station of Obermodern with a TER service to Sarreguemines. 29.1.2016