SSN (Stoom Stichting Nederland, Steam Foundation Netherlands) organises mainline steam events on a regular basis. By now the Christmas Express has become a tradition and I decided to join this year's edition buying a second ticket for my son-in-law who didn't know about it.....
1 I booked two tickets way in advance, forcing the family to keep the secret for my son-in-law.
2 The original plan was to stop at Gouda and Amersfoort and taking the yellow and orange routes to Beekbergen, avoiding Utrecht. The shortest route is over Utrecht and then taking the black route. That however required the loco to be turned at Utrecht. As no turntable exists there any longer taking the triangle Utrecht-Breukelen-Harmelen-Utrecht would be necessary but that option is fraught with difficulty. Probably the long orange route is faster and far less complicated.There was a problem however blocking the line between Amersfoort and Apeldoorn. So our outbound train was diverted over the blue route. At the end of the day we returned over the originally planned route (orange+yellow)
3 The day out was a complete surprise for my son-in-law, my daugther barely having been able to keep the secret for so long. I picked him up at Zwijndrecht and there we waited for our local stopper service to take us to Rotterdam.
4 The train from Brussels to Amsterdam passes at speed while our stopper trundles over the Merwede bridge, barely having left Dordrecht. If it where not for the bridge the station of Dordrecht would be in viewing distance being only 2 km away.
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6 We arrived early in Rotterdam and spent our time waiting for the steam train to make its entrance.
7 Even on a Saturday Rotterdam is a busy place, so we didn't get bored. The weather turned bad. It was cold, barely above zero, there was a nasty wind and it started raining seriously.
8 The first indication of the steam train was a light cloud drifting over the yard of the station
9 Locon 9901 (ex NS 1627) slowly pulls the train into the station
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11 The three cylinder 01.10 is sometimes described as the Queen of the Rails. Well, it's kind of funny to see a queen making an entrance butt first....
12 There she is at last. This is my second sighting of a member of the 01.10 class in one week, the 01.1063 being plinthed at Braunschweig.. You can see the streaks of rain lashing the loco. It was very unpleasant weather.
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15 Son-in-law ....
16 .... and me
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18 Now look! After all it is a Christmas Express.
19 The buffet car was too busy to get a decent meal. Fortunately we had sufficient supplies with us.
20 As said, our train was diverted and unexpectedly visited Utrecht.
21 The new route was correctly shown on the displays.
22 Under a dark and dim lead grey sky throwing everything it had on us, the train pulled out of Utrecht Central and passed Utrecht Vaartsche Rijn
23 The steam showed up clearly by ample condensation in the cold and moist air, so billowing clouds accompanied us everywhere we came.
24 After Utrecht the landscape turned white from last night's freshly fallen snow
25 Approaching Arnhem
26 Again a dark sky loomed over us when we passed Arnhem without stopping
27 Son-in-law having a good time
28 Approaching Dieren, the station where the museum railway of the VSM (Veluwe steam train co) branches off from the mainline.
29 Our train was diverted from the mainline ont a siding
30 from where it eased onto the VSM line slowly
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32 After lots of rain earlier that day, it started snowing
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34 Before long the skies started throwing heavy snow at us but still mixed with a cold and very penetrating rain.
35 Station Loenen on the VSM line. We left the train here. It was set back to make a photo entrance into the station.
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37 Victorian enacters joined the crowd.
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41 It was uncomfortable outside.
42 The train eased backwards in preparation of its fake arrival.
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44 Hiding between the trees
45 Well, it is winter and this is what a Christmas Express is about, innit?
46 Fake entrance, the light of day hardly sufficient to make decent photos. I didn't trouble to get really good shots as the SSN-crew left the crowd unorganised resulting in people being as close to the track they possibly could, disabling any chance for everybody to get a free view of the loco. The entire photo session was good for nothing.
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90 The Christmas Market. At promised much, but it was actually a bit disappointing.
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92 In the workshop's shed
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104 A roaring diesel was doing a bit of shunting
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106 Although the day had been dim from the very morning, now dusk started falling. Although it made photographing ever harder it also offered great opportunities.
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127 This absolutely sublime photo happened by accident. I was taking a photo without flash with a long shutter time. Some one else took a flash photo giving the loco some extra details and freezing the falling snow flakes. Next time I will have my camera on a tripod and I will trigger the flash by hand myself ;-)
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129 We took a ride on one of the VSM trains while the light of day was fading fast
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131 A "sailor's choir" singing easy folky songs.
132 Cold, light and steam create a great atmosphere
133 The VSM train at Loenen
134 The 52 class being uncoupled to run round.
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141 A good view in the ash pan lit by the glow of the fire above
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143 Having some time left we spent some more time on the shed.
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149 The 01.1075 in the process of being prepared for the return trip to Rotterdam
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151 As said, the return trip was over the originally planned route, going almost to Amsterdam to avoid turning the loco in Utrecht. It was completely dark by now and all we saw was occasionally passing a station and accompanied by the eerie, howling sound of the low voiced locomotive whistle.
