Welcome to "Phil's Loco Photos"

The final weekend I was valid in NS on their summer August weekend ticket, so I did the Manchester - Eindhoven flight again and made my way Gilze-Rijen where I was staying for two nights. I did a full day on Traxx power on the Saturday picking up three winners in the process. Next day one more and then I covered a few 1700 turns before making my way to Osnabrück for my hotel. A local Niedersachsen ticket the next day covering the Bremen 146 turns and went to Emden Außenhafen and Norddeich Mole on the new IC2 double deck sets. On the Tuesday I dated a free DB ticket and joined Clive for a chase of 218s on the Westerland line. Another Niedersachsen ticket the next day again mainly covering Bremen 146 and Metronom also, ending the day with a hotel in Hamburg. The Thursday was the final day of IRE4273 getting dragged by a pair of 218s to Berlin Ostbahnhof and an excellent run on time all the way. I then sampled the re-introduced "Locomore" train all the way from Berlin Lichtenberg - Stuttgart for a bargain €9.90! A web ticket to Bonn next day and then a one day NRW ticket and I kept very busy with twelve new 146 during the day! Next day was the EFW tour with V200-033 to Cuxhaven via Bremerhaven, almost impossible to believe it was thirty-three years since I was last at Cuxhaven, it felt like no more than ten years, so it certainly brought back some memories! I bailed off the return at Holzwickede and walked to the Ibis Budget for my one night stay. Wizz to Sofia next morning, €9 for me, €11 for my bag! I waited for Kev and we took the metro into town. The Monday was the dreaded crawl to Niš, good start with plenty of power with new 46211 and then very pleased with "Tito" 666.001 forward. Much more noise than I was expecting and a very enjoyable run. Had hoped for 666.003 on the return but it did an Optima and we got ultra dull 661.112 for a totter back to Dimitrovgrad and about average two hours late back in Sofia. Next day we set off down the narrow gauge, plenty of carriages now have full opening widows and very comfortable seats making it a very enjoyable journey nowadays. I did extra short run to Bansko in the evening as winning 75004 was following us down the line. Next day we went north to Velingrad for lunch and the back to the summit at Avramovo and then back to Sofia. Back home the next day after a morning in Sofia.