Mainz Hauptbahnhof, 1999

Business travel used to take me to Mainz, Germany, on about half a dozen occasions in the 1990s and up to 2002. Within the constraints of expense, the first British Midland flight out of Heathrow on a Sunday could give the better part of a free day in Mainz, some of which could be spent at the Hauptbahnhof, and of course positioned me for business from first thing on Monday morning. It is strange to think that the work activity has become consigned to the dustbin of engineering history, but the train pictures remain meaningful.

Having looked at my travel records, I think that these pictures are from 17th October 1999, when I flew out on BD831 to Frankfurt, operated by G-MIDE, an A321-231, delivered in August 1998, later flying for Monarch until that airline's bankruptcy, recorded at 53428 hours, before a short period with Small Planet Airlines of Poland, until return to lessor AerCap in October 2018. Broken up at St Athan by September 2019.

110 415-7 departs with a train for the north or west. This Class 110.3 locomotive is of the later body design, originally E10-415. The locomotive was allocated to EDO (Dortmund) for all of its working life, and by the time of the picture was push-pull fitted, equipment coming from withdrawn examples of Class 141. When first introduced in 1956 Class E10 was the front line electric locomotive class of West Germany, but by 1999 they were being used in regional and local services, and the last examples were withdrawn in February 2014.

E10-415 was built by Krauss Maffei, entering traffic on 24th May 1966.  The locomotive is seen as repainted in DB "traffic red" at an overhaul at Dessau in January 1999. Withdrawn on 1st August 2012, and scrapped by 8th October 2012 by Bender at Opladen (one two)

Specification sheet for Class E10
Discussion of design differences
Preserved Class E10

218 375-4, with the rabbit ears, was looking rather the worse for wear, leading to overhaul in June 2000 at  HBX (Bremen). However it was destroyed in an accident in September 2002. Delivered from Henschel, it entered traffic on 19th February 1975 (just as the last Hymeks were being withdrawn), fitted with a MTU MA 12 V 956 TB 11 engine of 2060 kW (2800 hp), driving through a Voith L 3820 brs rb transmission, but unlike British diesel hydraulics it was fitted with ETH.

Preserving 218 128-4
Review of Class 218

101 116-2, delivered October 1998, is at the other end of the station facing south and east including towards  Frankfurt. At this time, the 6200 kw (8400 hp) Class 101 of was the flagship passenger locomotive of DB, having replaced Class 103. Still in traffic, it appears to be due for a 'revision' this year.

In the background, the station was under a major reconstruction.

An ICE 1 train arrives from the north or west. The ICE 1 trains entered service in 1991 - 1993, and entered further refurbishment from 2018, being shortened to nine passenger coaches, including a plan to fit 19 of them with ETCS through to 2021, for service until the mid-2030s. The signal box, on the right, was in the news in 2013, when summer staffing levels became critical, affecting services.

DB guide to ICE 1
Railfan Europe
German Wikipedia for ICE 1