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11:50.

Hi ho, hi ho – it’s off to work I go…

Having been up early again I’m now at the enormous Innotrans rail trade fair, waiting for the official opening. I’ll be blogging throughout the day and will attach pictures as soon as I can…

A late exhibit? A Db bi-mode class 249 approaches Messe Berlin…
Dirk Hoffmann, the COO of Messe Berlin officially kicks off the event to the world’s media. A bit of an embarrassing event for the British as the UK’s Rail Industry Association (RIA) had sponsored a table, but no-one from RIA turned up!

14;30.

I’ve spent the past couple of hours getting a preview of some of the rolling stock on display outside in the yard. It’s been challenging due to the untypical Innotrans weather, which has treated us to high winds and stormy skies. Here’s a few pictures.

The only train on show that relates to the UK is this Piccadilly line tube train for London Underground. The majority of the fleet will be built in Goole, Yorkshire.
Stadler are exhibiting the world’s first narrow-gauge hydrogen powered train they’ve built for Sardinia.
Innotrans isn’t all about sexy passenger trains or heavy freight locomotives, Track machines like this one from Spitzke are an important part of the show.
This is the ‘Vellink’ from Chinese builder CRRC. Or the ‘goldfish bowl’ as I’ve christened it.
The site is organised chaos at the moment as an army of Carpenters, Electricians and others frantically work to compete the 1000s of stands ready for the event’s opening tomorrow at 10:00.

You’ll be able to find the full gallery of photos by following this link to my Innotrans gallery, which features the event going back as far as 2008.

18:45.

Having covered a lot of stuff during the press preview I called it a day and headed into town with the idea of visiting some old haunts around Alexanderplataz to have a beer before going home. it wasn’t to be. Alexanderplatz station is a building site. All the shops and bars are empty as DB rebuild the station and the main lines above, leaving the -Bahn ridiculously crowded. I was gutted as I have fond memories of the ‘Alkopole’ bar which was where a lot of us met up over the years, not to mention that Thai noodle bar which used to keep us fuelled. Admittedly, it’s early days, but I’m beginning to wonder if Berlin isn’t loosing some of its funky edge. but then I’ve been coming here for over 20 years so the place is bound to change, and not that every change is for the worse.

One thing I’ve been fascinated by is something I’ve seen in a couple of countries now. Places in supermarkets where you can get cash back for recycling bottles and cans. Many EU countries charge you a small deposit (around 10 cents). If you’re rich enough and can’t be arsed you discard your cans and bottles, which are then ‘Wombled’ by those less fortunate who convert them to cash. Its serves two purposes. It keeps the place tidy – unlike the UK, which is littered with litter – and it puts cash into the pockets of the less well off who need the money.

Recycling for cash at a Berlin supermarket

I’ve a small favour to ask…
If you enjoy reading this or any of the other blogs I’ve written, please click on an advert or two. You don’t have to buy anything you don’t want to of course – although if you did find something that tickled your fancy that would be fab! – but the revenue from them helps me to cover some of the cost of maintaining this site (which isn’t cheap and comes out of my own pocket). Remember, 99% of the pictures used in my blogs can be purchased as prints from my other website –  https://paulbigland.zenfolio.com/

Cheers,

Paul