Trainwatching around Altkloster (6 - foreign equipment).
Altkloster is not a long distance from the border with France, and here is a line-up of French motive power of the SNCF, in the mid 1950s, going about its businesss of transferring freight and passengers on the German side of the border at Altkloster.
Firstly on the left, a Y class 150 engine (one of the German designed Kriegloks built in France at war's end) arrives to handover some freight originating in France. Engine is Marklin 34157, originally supplied with a basic Delta decoder. I have replaced this with a Marklin 60945 MFX decoder and this gives it full sound and finer running qualities.
Secondly, the brand new 12061 25KVa electric, is ready to head for French territory with some construction steel. Marklin 37335 digital. (Hornby Acho also produced a HO scale model of this same engine in the 1960s).
Thirdly, an ex German 18 class commandeered at the end of WWI, is ready to leave Altkloster with a morning train for Strasbourg. The engine was operated in France as the 231A class, this is number 995. It is Marklin 3317 (1996), and has been fitted with the latest Marklin 60941 motor and 60965 mSD decoder. The engine now operates on the MFX protocol.
This photo shows the 231 A 995 in detail.
Here is a side view of the 150Y class engine as it enters Altkloster from the west.
