Dutch Tour 20th. to 28th. May 2007
KOPLOPING ACROSS THE UNIVERSE
Star date 07-139 – the mission of the intrepid chaps on Eurostar 9116 (and other means of transport) “to boldly complete travelling over all the passenger routes in Holland”. Some surprises were to come our way almost before the holiday had even started. Firstly the new link line for Eurostar arriving in Brussels, which avoids a tangle with domestic traffic, has opened since we were there last year. This brings Eurostar round the other side of Forest Depot on dedicated lines right into the international platforms. Then, having arrived at Brussels Midi, we made our way across the station to board the Benelux service to Amsterdam. We discovered some of the traditional ICR coaches in a rather startling new livery of various shades of pink, red and white applied darker colours to white in angles down the sides of each coach. The SNCB Cl.11s and NS ICR stock on the Benelux services are due to be replaced fairly soon, so presumably the different colours on the old stock is just to get people used to the idea that something new is about to happen. Third surprise was en route to Holland. We arrived at Antwerpen Berchem for a scheduled stop, and expected to leave vaguely staying to the right side of the running lines towards Centraal, but instead we veered across to the left and started to dive downhill. Thus we arrived into Antwerpen Centraal on level -2 (level minus two putting it into words). The lower levels of the station have been under construction for several years. Level minus 1 has two terminating platforms, level minus 2 has two further terminating platforms outside two through platforms, and we were alongside one of these. Even seeing the work in progress while we were in Belgium last year didn’t give too many clues that it was close to opening. We learned that we were on one of the very first passenger trains to use that level, it having been opened earlier that very morning. Making our way then through to Roosendaal and onto Rotterdam for a train change to get us to Utrecht, that was enough surprises for one day. As members of the tour party arrived we gathered on the platforms at Utrecht to observe operations and say ‘hello’ to each other.
First day of travelling on Sunday 20th was to visit the Rhenen branch out of Utrecht. A new station at Rhenen seemed to suggest the line had gone on further at an earlier time. Back to Utrecht and time to visit the National Railway Museum. This involved a train ride out which uses a flat crossing over the main lines south of the city. The museum is an amazing facility and very well worth a visit. Look out for the Sharp Stewart built 4-4-2 perched on a platform high above the floor. Walk around the corner and you bump into a very familiar looking locomotive – a WD 2-8-0 No. 73755 named “Longmore” which served its time in Holland. A historical themed area invited viewers to wander around the origins of railway operation in Holland – did you know that the first person to drive a train in Holland was an Englishman? Oh and there’s a quite spooky ghost train ride there too! Off for some more travelling we travelled to Arnhem for a look round the stabling area (about the only time we got slightly wet all week) and then to Nijmegen, where we revisited a Chinese restaurant there for a pleasant meal before we made our way back to our hotel in Utrecht.
Monday’s travels were meant to start with the Houten tramway, but this plan got off to a flying stop, as the only usable tram for the line was kaput and away for repairs, we didn’t fancy the road bus replacement. Anyway off to Geldermalsen where we boarded Plan V3 EMU 865 (on loan to Arriva, whilst they await delivery of new units for the service) for a run to Dordrecht. From there to Rotterdam Centraal gave us a run with a Cl.18 and some ex DB stock. From Rotterdam we travelled out to Hoek van Holland Strand. Quite a few of us had previously used Hoek van Holland Haven station when travelling in and out of the country by boat, but the short run down to Strand was new track. Opportunity there for a chat with the train crew and compare notes on the differences between NS operations and the way it is done here. Back to Rotterdam and a trip out to the docks area at Waalhaven and then to Feijenoord for a look at the depot – the depot manager was waiting for us and
welcomed us to have a look round the site. A new maintenance business has started up recently called Shunters BV. They seem to do contract maintenance on smaller diesel locomotives for a variety of operators including NS Railion. They have one base in the old Shortlines shed at Feijenoord and another at Waalhaven. The evening rush hour was spent at Rotterdam Centraal before we made our way to Tilburg, where we ate in the station restaurant before taking a stroll round the perimeter of the works. Some familiar colours were noted there – Freightliner livery on the tranch of Cl.66s which are heading for Poland. The slight differences between the UK pattern of the FPL locomotives and the European pattern Cl.66s ordered by mainland European operators were noticeable whilst locomotives of the two types were parked side by side. One FPL locomotive was carrying 66.001 on its cab side (note the point between class and individual numbers).
On Tuesday our evening observation session was planned for our home station at Utrecht, but not before we’d had a run up to Zwolle where we found the works closed, although the yard had several items of rolling stock within, including some carriages of a unit repatriated from Canada. Also at Zwolle we noticed some units bearing route branding, a DM90 (very similar to our Cl.158s) carrying markings for the Zwolle to Kampen route. Off to Marienberg and a train ride to Almelo. The last time we tried to ride this route the train was not running and we had a bus instead. This time we fared better and DHI 3101 provided the traction for the rail journey. At Almelo we witnessed some magic in the stabling 
sidings. A male driver got into Plan V3 EMU 811 and out from it emerged 3 young ladies! We guess that they didn’t realise the train was terminating at Almelo and no one went through the train to check it was empty before moving it over to the holding sidings. We then moved on to Enschede to witness the arrival and departure of one of the cross border services to Germany, formed of a pair of DB Cl.643-0 diesel units. At Hengelo we found a Syntus unit, and a locomotive hauled international service heading into Germany. Returning to Utrecht for the evening rush period, we’ve mentioned before that writing IRM numbers down is tricky because the individual vehicles number are quite small and often missing from the exterior due to being rubbed off when graffiti is removed. We got it fairly well sussed this time, by parking ourselves at the inbound end of the platforms so if an IRM did arrive minus some exterior numbers we had chance to chase it along the platform and get the numbers from the inside. Although even that trick nearly failed with one coach, which was minus both exterior numbers and one of the interior numbers. Luckily it was still showing the other end inside. The IRMs seem to be getting into some sort of more stable formations although changes, particularly of the driving coaches, are not uncommon.
Wednesday saw us heading for Maastricht to view the works and depot areas. We found three stored cl.16s in residence and noted some coaches which had just been fully refurbished and were looking sparklingly clean. Off to Heerlen where we found some DB Cl.643-2 units working cross border services, and then to Roermond where we boarded DHII 3210 for the run to Venlo.
The Roermond/Venlo/Nijmegen services have also been privatised and are now operated by Veolia, who like Arriva are awaiting new units to operate the service. Meanwhile they have quite a few of the DHI and DHII units on loan from NS. These are similar to our Cl.153 and Cl.155 units but with a few less seats better spaced out. We spent a while at Venlo observing freight movements and found 13 or 14 DB Cargo and DB Railion locomotives (Cls. 140, 151, 155 and 185) parked up awaiting their next turn of duty. A fairly gentle afternoon suddenly exploded into life with several freight trains hauled by German and Dutch electric locomotives, and diesels from NS Railion, ERS and DLC (cl.66s in both the last cases). We watched one ERS driver, anxiously wondering where his train was, trying quite hard to persuade his colleague to swap duties. Said colleague was having none of it. Guess one duty involved an early finish whereas the other didn’t! Moving on from Venlo we made our way to Eindhoven for a meal at the station restaurant before finding our way back to Utrecht.
Thursday was Amsterdam day, and started off with a trip taking in Duivendrecht and Amsterdam Zuid which includes a rare peak hours only bit of track. On then to Zaandam, Uitgeest, Hoorn and Enkhuizen we picked off a good chunk of new lines. Arriving in Amsterdam Centraal earlier in the day we were greeted by one of the most enormous ocean going cruise liners imaginable. The “Jewel of the Seas” was loading at the Amsterdam Ocean terminal ready for a cruise. We saw (and heard) the ship leaving later in the day. It is hard to imagine the dock in Amsterdam is deep enough to take the seriously big cruise liners – but obviously it is! Evening observations at Amsterdam brought IRM, Koploper, DD-AR, DDM1, Sprinter, ICE and Benelux trains past us – even a couple of freights slipped through. We had seen a Koploper in a special livery earlier in the week, but there had been some debate as to how many had been painted. At Amsterdam the question was answered, 3 Koplopers and 2 IRMs came past us, all looking quite striking in Olympic colours. A very filling dinner was taken in the station restaurant, starting with a very tasty combination of asparagus soup with salmon, before we staggered along the platform for a train back to Utrecht.
Den Haag was the destination for train watching on Friday, but not before we had picked off some more new track, in the outer suburbs of Amsterdam. So we set off to Amersfoort, then to Hilversum, Almere, Weesp, and into the undercroft of Schipol Airport. Straight back out of there though to Amsterdam Sloterdijk and then by DD-AR on to Zaandfoort am See. This took us past Haarlem works where a number of carriages were awaiting entry into works for repairs. Some quite seriously damaged IRM cars were parked outside, we we’re not sure if these will be repaired or scrapped. From Zaandfoort we made out way back via Haarlem to Den Haag HS (where trams can be spotted on several routes), and eventually down into Den Haag Centraal. This seemed a lot quieter than on our previous visit, and it wasn’t too difficult to keep up with recording vehicle numbers on the arriving IRM units. We noted Randstadtrail test running on services they’ve just taken over from NS. Back to Utrecht for dinner tonight, and time to relax over a beer – or two – and compare notes with other travellers who had been elsewhere during the day.
Saturday we bade farewell to some of the party. Meanwhile the rest of us travelled ‘oop north’ to the diesel lines radiating from Groningen. The single 4 coach Koploper on the Groningen part of the train to Leeuwarden / Groningen got quite cosy on the way (normally two units). Arriva have taken over the northern diesel services, and up here many of the new units have arrived. Inevitably very modern looking and quite comfortable to ride in, the unit make up is quite unusual. In 2 or 3 car form, the passenger saloons are unpowered, but a power module (for want of a better term) is slotted between 
the saloons. It has a through walkway allowing passengers and staff to transfer from one vehicle to another. The other odd thing is that whilst the outer ends of the passenger vehicles have bogies under them, the inner ends, next to the power module are not wheeled, thus the weight of the inner end is borne by the wheels under the power units! Very strange set up! – but the units are light on their feet and accelerate very quickly. These units were built in Germany to a Swiss design (GTW). There are still 14 of these units to be delivered, but we saw most of those that had, and had a ride out to Roodeschool and back on one. Onwards to Leeuwarden, from where we were to ride our last bit of new track, to Stavoren. DH11 3215 provided traction for this ride. A plinthed Sik at Sneek had its photograph taken after our driver said we would be waiting time for the next unit on the single line to arrive, and some young people who were clambering over it at the time had been invited to step to one side for a few minutes!
And so the holiday was almost over, but there was just time to visit a preserved railway. Sunday morning dawned grey, but we made our way from Utrecht to Amersfoort, where our hosts from NS decided it was time for us Brits to be made to feel at home – Sunday engineering work had closed the line to Apeldoorn, and a replacement bus service was running. The journey to Apeldoorn was made during a heavy rain storm – the only serious rain all week, and when we arrived it had eased to a drizzle, and indeed by the time we reached the Veluwsche Stoomtrein Maatschappij (VSM) base at Beekbergen it had stopped altogether. 
What we were to witness next was the point where Dutch and British public transport operations veer off in completely opposite directions. Making connections between rail services is a lottery in the UK, let alone connecting buses with rail services, but it is all so different in Holland. In Apeldoorn, a medium sized town, the bus station is located alongside the railway station and buses on several routes from outside the town converge on the bus station at the same time as each other. Trains (or rail replacement road services) arrive from further afield, passengers swap between trains and buses, which all depart for their next destinations, and the whole place goes quiet for 25 minutes when it starts all over again! How many medium or even large towns in the UK can boast that level of public transport on a Sunday? Even the steam trains on the preserved line which runs into Apeldoorn from Beekbergen connect with NS services – and it is all done apparently so effortlessly. Before we could ride the steam train though, we needed to get to Beekbergen. We discovered that the strip card we bought in Utrecht, was valid for use on the bus from Apeldoorn to Beekbergen. When we arrived in the centre of Beekbergen, our bus driver hopped off and spoke to the driver of a minibus which was waiting for him. It transpired the bus was also diverted from its normal route and the minibus was provided to shuttle around the diversion and take customers to/from a rendezvous point. As we were the only passengers on the minibus the driver very kindly took us straight to the preserved railway site. We arrived before the site had really opened for the day, but we were able to look around and started recording the various items of rolling stock awaiting restoration. There was a lot there, but getting at some of it was a challenge, as the stock was sensibly sheeted over, and the sidings occupied were being rapidly over-grown by some big triffids! The train for the day was to be a rake of 4 wheel coaches, but these were not immediately adjacent to the running platform so some shunting was required, so out from the shed, emerged DB 2-10-0 No. 52.3879, which was train locomotive for the day.
The shunting exercise was quite involved, but as it was being completed, it was becoming apparent that the rake of 4 wheel coaches might well not cope with the passenger numbers as more and more people arrived for a ride on the train. No problem, they just hooked some additional coaches to the formation. Throughout the journey the buffet car was doing a very brisk trade in drinks and snacks, so much so that they had to restock it on one pass through Beekbergen. After visiting both ends of the line we jumped off at Apeldoorn and crossed to the NS platforms to board a DM90 unit to Zutphen. From there we travelled with Syntus to Winterswijk and after changing units there, on to Arnhem and thus back to Utrecht.
Bank Holiday Monday found the rest of us making our way back to the UK. As we approached Rotterdam a steam hauled special flashed past us. We discovered that the preservation depot at Rotterdam Noord was having an open day, so we presumed the steam special was related to that event. Making our way back to Brussels via the lower platforms at Antwerpen Centraal again, dinner was served as Eurostar 9149 returned us to Waterloo.
And so at the conclusion of the report, it is most appropriate to express the gratitude of all us travellers to Steve Ollive and Malcolm Riley for preparing the holiday itinerary, and for skillfully working out ways to get us over the remaining passenger routes. Holland is a country of great people, super food and drinks, and is a country which really knows how to do fully integrated public transport right throughout the country, properly. There is so much we in the UK can learn from our Dutch friends in this respect.
Digital images by Richard Morris and Steve Ollive.