At 4.00am on Tuesday 13th May five intrepid Northampton Branch members commenced their day by travelling to Stansted to board the 7.25am Ryan Air flight to Weeze (Dusseldorf). After a seventy minute on time flight we took the airport bus to Weeze Station and caught a Krefeld – Kleve DMU shuttle to Dusseldorf Hbf. A cross platform interchange and we boarded a double deck inter-city Koln – Dusseldorf – Wuppertal – Hagen – Dortmund to Wuppertal hauled by a 110/112 type Bo-Bo electric.

The journey took us along a section of line on which Robert Stephenson was asked his advice in 1836-1838 on how to build the incline to climb away from the River Rhine, which resulted in a level section prior to a sharp incline which was followed by another level section. The incline was cable worked until replaced by a steam banker around 1850, subsequently the line was electrified.

We alighted Wuppertal Vohwinkel in order to be at the west end of our objective, to photograph and ride upon the Schwebebahn! This is a suspended double track mono-rail (up and down road) system, the first section of which was commenced 1898 and completed in March 1901 (Kluse – Zoo). By the end of June 1903 the whole line of 13.3km and 20 stations had been completed, the western end running overhead in the streets, but for most of its length it straddles the River Wuper. Some 19,200 tonnes of steel had been used in its construction at an overall cost of 16 million Gold Marks.

Modernisation took place in 1971 with metal bodied cars replacing the original wooden bodied ones but the one used by the ‘Kaiser’ prior to the public opening of the line was retained and in the Spring of 2005 was fully restored and can now be chartered.

Having photographed the above street running in Kaiser Platz, Vohwinkel we rode the whole line to the eastern end at Wuppertal Oberbahn, alighting for a short while, before returning about half way to Doppersberg in the city centre for refreshment.

Prior to commencing our return journey proper we were able to observe the 1846 neo-classical façade of Wuppertal Elberfeld Hbf (yes, we do culture as well!). Arrival at Northampton was at 10.30pm ending a very long but enjoyable day.

13/05/08