Day 1
10:00 - Itinerary
Saturday 12 November 2016: Travel to Start of Annual Technical Tour
Flight from UK to Hannover and train to Wernigerode (hourly, 02:30 hours) OR train journey from London to Wernigerode (10:45 hours). Meet at our hotel for dinner. Overnight in Wernigerode.
Sunday 13 November 2016: Depot Visit to the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen and Brocken Excursion
A leisurely start to the day, beginning with a two-hour visit to the depot and workshop facility of the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen in Wernigerode. This is followed by an excursion to the top of the Brocken with time to have lunch and to visit the Brocken museum. The steam-hauled train works hard for about 90 minutes to reach the top of the mountain, an experience not to be missed. Overnight stay in our hotel in Wernigerode.
The visit to the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen is sponsored by Wabtec Rail Ltd.
Railway Division of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Annual Technical Tour 2016
Sunday 13 November 2016: Travel to Official Start of ATT 2016
Flight from UK to Hannover and train to Wernigerode (hourly, 02:30 hours) OR train journey from London to Wernigerode (10:45 hours). Meet at our hotel for dinner. Overnight in Wernigerode.
Wernigerode is a small town in the Harz mountains and is the starting point for excursions on the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen, a steam-operated network of narrow gauge railway lines, which includes a branch to the top of the Brocken, a mountain that features prominently in Goethe’s Faust.
Monday 14 November 2016: Bochumer Verein Wheelset Manufacturing and Alstom Rolling Stock Works
Midi-bus journey from Wernigerode to Ilsenburg for a visit to Bochumer Verein’s wheelset manufacturing plant, which specialises in solid wheels and axles. From Ilsenburg we continue by bus to Salzgitter for a visit to Alstom Transport’s manufacturing plant. This is a very large facility producing a wide variety of diesel and electric regional trains. We hope to see a vehicle for a hydrogen powered train. In the afternoon we travel by train to Minden, via Braunschweig. In Minden, Eversholt Leasing have kindly agreed to invite the group for a welcome dinner at a local hostelry. Overnight is in a hotel in Minden.
Tuesday 15 November 2016: DB Systemtechnik in Minden
Visit to Deutsche Bahn’s Research Centre in Minden (DB Systemtechnik AG). We expect to see the test
facilities and to be introduced to current research activities, including brake testing. In the afternoon, we will travel by train to Bochum for our next overnight stay. Bochum is a typical town of the Ruhr with a rich industrial and mining history. There is an underground line and fair-sized tramway network that can be explored individually.
Wednesday 16 November 2016: Wuppertaler Schwebebahn
We travel with an early train from Bochum to Wuppertal for a visit to the Wuppertaler Schwebebahn
(suspension railway) opened in 1901, a unique mode of transport developed for the specific constraints of Wuppertal. It is a suspended monorail system that uses the airspace above the river Wupper to avoid congestion in the narrow streets. We shall have an introduction to the railway by its director, followed by a presentation by PROSE, the engineering company that supported the design of the new trains that will be entering service later in November. We shall visit the depot and will be able to inspect one of the new trains, which have to satisfy very exacting requirements imposed by the age of the structures!
In the afternoon we travel by train to Düsseldorf for a visit to the Wehrhahn line, the most recent addition to the Rheinbahn network. Alternatively, we may visit the German Mining Museum in Bochum. We stay in the same hotel in Bochum.
Thursday 17 November 2016: Siemens Rolling Stock Works and Wildenrath Test Track
We travel by train to Krefeld for a visit to Siemens’ rolling stock plant where the new trains for Britain can be studied in different stages of production. The Krefeld plant is responsible for intercity and suburban trains within Siemens and should prove to be very interesting for the visitors. Subject to permission being received from Siemens, we expect to visit Siemens’ famous test track at Wildenrath where ETCS integration testing for the Thameslink project takes place. We then continue to Aachen for an overnight stay. Angel Trains will invite the party for a goodbye-dinner either on Thursday or Friday evening.
Friday 18 November 2016: Opencast Lignite Mining near Aachen
We leave the hotel in Aachen by coach for a visit to the famous opencast lignite mine at Garzweiler near Düren and to the Hambachbahn, the mine’s own heavy-haul railway with 40t axle-load spoil trains. There will be stops at several viewing points and we hope to be able to take the coach into the mine and to the workshops of the railway. There is only one word to describe this site: Awesome. The mechanical and electrical engineering that goes into the excavators is mind-blowing. Subject to timings fixed by the railway, we may visit the Dürener Kreisbahn, now operated by the Rurtalbahn, one of the pioneers of regional railway operations in Germany. After the visits, we return to the hotel in Aachen.
Saturday 19 November 2016: Supplementary Visit to Antwerp’s Rebuilt Station
There is the option of an excursion to the amazing historic station of Antwerp in Belgium and to hear from the architects how they managed to build a new high-speed rail and regional rail station underneath the iconic old building. This visit concludes the 2016 ATT at about 13:30. Return to the UK by intercity and Eurostar trains.