BRITISH MILITARY TRAIN 2012 TRIBUTE

21 years ago the curtain came down on one of the most difficult and yet smoothly and consistently delivered trains in the history of European railways. The British Military Train was born in the wreckage of defeated and broken Germany, and spent its life on the front line of the Cold War. It was operated in a unique and highly politicised partnership between British Army railway operators and the two state railways of the divided Germany. There had been nothing like it before, and it is unthinkable that we will ever see the like of it again. It ran without fuss, with a very British understatement of the political minefield surrounding it.

On 12 May 2012 we acknowledge and celebrate the calm professionalism of railway people, civilian and military, British and German, who did the job, day in day out, without triggering a Third World War. Steam loco 03 1010 will head a train of 1960s carriages, including a dining car, from Berlin to Hannover and back. Proceeds from the train will go to the Royal British Legion in Berlin, and the military guest of honour will be Major General David Burden CBE, retired Colonel Commandant of the Royal Logistics Corps and a former OC Train of the Berliner. The dining car will serve a typical Royal Corps of Transport menu and wine list. For reservations, or to discuss the Berliner train, please email us at militarytrain2012@gmail.com

i really loved those trains ,getting off the old vienna after a rough crossing from harwich was a pleasure, getting on the train was an even greater pleasure, . it was just like the british pullman trains but better. smashing meals, comfort, just like the orient express but no poirot on board. does anybody remember that station on the dutch german border, where it stopped for security checks , i think it was called dalheim , or something like that, the station had very long platforms, when the train came to a halt ,dozens of barrows laden with spit roasted chickens were trundled along the platform , as far as i can remember , it cost 1, d, mark for a whole chicken or fifty pfennigs for half a chicken , those lads did a roaring trade and the chickens were a lot better than cookhouse ones, those trains were really the business , made us feel like millionairs, ginger

Ginger, the Vienna was notorious as a vomit comet, can well imagine how glad you were to reach terra firma at the Hook. Yes, in those days the Hamburg (Green) train stopped at Dalheim, for about 25 minutes, to change from a Dutch to German engine. And to load up with chickens too!!

How I wish I could join this trip, a real journey down memory lane. but preplanned family commitments will prevent this By the time I first went to Berlin the line had been dieselised by both DB and DRB but I was once hauled by a newly outshopped 050 Class between Helmstedt and Braunschweig.

The 03 variants were one of my favourite DB locos, they were the loco of choice for many ofht BAOR Troop Trains in addition often hauled my School Trains to and from Ploen and Cologne/Gutersloh

Agree that it was the Green Train that stopped in Dalheim for the reasons stated but according to my records it then went on to serve the southern BAOR Garrisons ending up in Hannover/Brunswick. It was the Blue Train which crossed the border at Bentheim which served the northern Garrisons via Osnabruck (where it split) which terminated in Hamburg

I travelled on the train/troopship a couple of times when I was stationed in Nienburg.

Would I be right in saying we used the Blue train and detrained at Diepholz ?

Good read about trains here Brum.includind your blue train

http://www.movcon.org.uk/History/Documents/DID/D-MCHS%200501.htm

Gordon. wrote:

Good read about trains here Brum.includind your blue train

http://www.movcon.org.uk/History/Documents/DID/D-MCHS%200501.htm

Thaks for that mate.

Can't see Diepholz mentioned anywhere.

Looks like the old memory's failed me this time !

Gordon

Thank you for the link, had not realised the McNaughton report was available on line

The subject of the BAOR Troop Trains, especially in the early years is fascinating and this report tells only half the story as for example the routes of the various trains changed over the years to reflect the state of the actual railway system and the deployment of British Army/RAF units across BAOR (the sketch map at the end of the document shows the Blue Train route in place in the later years of the scheme (post 1952))

Brum

Your memory is not at fault, another sketch map on the Movement Control site shows that in earlier years the Blue Train did take the direct mainline from Osnabruck to Bremen and did indeed stop at Diepholz. In later years when the Soltau loop was introduced passengers for Nienburg probably got on/off at Langwedel (just to the north of Verden ).

Great !

That's senility fended off (for a while at least).

Just so everyone knows, the 2012 Berliner will be slightly off-route at the Berlin end due to planned engineering work at Wannsee - we will be going Charlottenburg - Spandau - Helsmstedt - Braunschweig - Hannover and v.v. So not quite right for any of the earlier incarnations, but close enough to pay tribute to the guys who ran it. It will be lettered ROYAL CORPS OF TRANSPORT and we will be reviving the "Potsdam Port" tradition, which past OC Train and TCWOs will remember!

why not a tribute to the old tubs that went under the guise of harwich -hook troopships, vienna, empire wansbeck , and empire parkestone, tribute , i must be joking, seriously though the liverpool st train to harwich , the journey across was all a nightmare, the crowning glory was the military trains at the hook , does anybody remember the nightmare of the customs shed at harwich , ginger

alte bahnbeamter wrote:

Proceeds from the train will go to the Royal British Legion in Berlin, and the military guest of honour will be Major General David Burden CBE, retired Colonel Commandant of the Royal Logistics Corps and a former OC Train of the Berliner.

Gen David bought me a pint at the RAOC reunion last month. He is also the President of the RAOC Association, and Honorary Ordnance Officer of HM Tower of London. They have a great mess for the Yeoman of the Guard by the way!

I have asked him for a loan of any Berliner Menus etc he has to place on the BAOR Locations pages.

gingerjim wrote:

i really loved those trains ,getting off the old vienna after a rough crossing from harwich was a pleasure, getting on the train was an even greater pleasure, . it was just like the british pullman trains but better. smashing meals, comfort, just like the orient express but no poirot on board. does anybody remember that station on the dutch german border, where it stopped for security checks , i think it was called dalheim , or something like that, the station had very long platforms, when the train came to a halt ,dozens of barrows laden with spit roasted chickens were trundled along the platform , as far as i can remember , it cost 1, d, mark for a whole chicken  or  fifty pfennigs for half a chicken , those lads did a roaring trade and the chickens were a lot better than cookhouse ones, those trains were really the business , made us feel like millionairs, ginger

I remember Dalheim, the first stop in Germany for the Green Train.  I was at RAF Bruggen and the station was the
connection point for other RAF bases - Wildenrath, Geilenkirchen - together with a number
of army establishments such as the RASC Petroleum Depot at Arsbeck and the Royals Signals at Birgelen.  Dalheim was
a small hamlet on a seemingly unwanted connecting railway line from Roermond through Vlodrop in Holland to Germany.   There were no through passenger services, although there was a Munchen Gladbach/Dalheim infrequent service.    But the station  was a hive of activity when the inbound (midday) and outbound (late afternoon) Green Trains passed through three times a week.  The station buffet did a roaring trade.   I think the German steam locomotives were uncoupled at Vlodrop and a Dutch railways diesel loco took it to Roermond where an electric loco took over for the final part of the journey to the Hook of Holland.

The Dutch section of this cross border line was abandoned many years ago.

Train to Berlin 1962/3.
We were a young REME Family serving in West Germany during the Cold War.
The travel document was printed in Russian. MOV was at Brunswick where we joined the Train.
There were Armed soldiers at the end of each carriage and all doors were locked and wedged.
When the Train arrived at the East German Border, the Train Major presented all of the Travel Docs to the Russian Officer. If all was in order the West German Engine was repositioned at the rear of the train and pushed it into East Germany. An East German Engine then pulled the Train to Berlin's Border where this procedure was repeated and a West Berlin Engine pulled it into Charlottenberg Station. All curtains in the Carriages had to be pulled back at all times and the lights had to be on. I can only remember one brief stop at Magdeburg where a Russian Soldier walked along the Platform looking in all of the windows.
The story had it, that if the Russian inspecting the documents found a Typo, he would send the complete Train back. We went to Berlin for 2 Christmasses 62/63,(my Father was at RAF Gatow) and it was the same each time.