Freight Operations around Altkloster (6 - wagon sorting and storage)
Here there are wine wagons waiting to be picked up in the team track yard.
Not only do I spend time taking photos, but I am also the guter fuhrer and
have to arrange carriage of freight out of Altkloster.
Some will go toward the French border, others via Basle to Swiss or Italian
destinations.
The front track has a wine car from Germany, one from Switzerland, and 2 from
France, and on the rear track, is a grey 2 barrel box car made by Rivarossi
in the 1960s.
I am the lokfuhrer (locomotive superintendant), so I have to locate a freight
engine to take the wine cars, or do I add them to passing trains?
All this is getting bit much, as I also have to worry about passenger trains
being on time, and have to ensure signals and switches are set so trains do
not collide.
That's it, I am going to ask for a salary rise!
Whoever heard of driving 4 trains at once?
Here's to a slower pace, so I take courage from the older methods used to
shift freight. Barrels are filled from the wine wagons, and delivered to wine
bars in the Altkloster environs.
Wagon loads in and out of Altkloster, are many and varied. Here are a few
examples. Steel corrugated pipes for roadworks.
This load is being shipped to the USSR.
This load comes from the Maybach industrial engine factory and requires a
six-axle wagon. The engine is being shipped to Austria.
7 - various wagons and various industries