We arrived to Frankfurt am Main on the same night, and were therefore too tired to go out and make some night photos. So instead we looked through the window at the illuminated skyline with all the skyscrapers for a while, and then went to sleep.
We came here to take photos of the old "round" DÜWAG tramcars (type "O" and "N") still in service, but we ran out of luck: there were none of them in traffic because of some temporary line shortening.
Instead we saw a lot of these type "Pt" cars. This one's in the classic Frankfurt livery...
... while this one features a new, single color painting.
Type "R" cars, built by DUEWAG, photographed in front of some skyscrapers.
In the last years local transportation operator VGF have bought a new type instead of more "R" cars: this is type "S" from Bombardier Transportation, based on the LF2000 design.
A type "S" in the bend. I know that the top of the houses are "missing", but this photo was all about the vehicle :)
Frankfurt am Main also has a tourist tram called the "Ebbelwei Express". The idea is, you hop onto the tram, pay your ticket, get a bottle of apple juice and some salt sticks, and then sit down and look at the city through the window while listening to "schlagers", i.e. artifical folk-song as I would call them (what's the english term for this?).
Although the tram was full (many people
have "fled" on-board the heritage motor+trailer set when it started to
rain), and we did not have a seat, it was fun!
MainLine (Hanau-Rüsselsheim Opelwerk)
Beside classic DÜWAG cars, we were also looking out for a special service called "MainLine".
This was a rail-bound service between Hanau and Rüsselsheim via Frankfurt, operated on "big railway" tracks with two bimodal ("tram-train") tramcars loaned from Karlsruhe.
One of these cars even featured a buffet with a toilette!
This was an experiment, which I believe
ended, or will be ending in the near future. Its aim was to make a direct
rail connection from Hanau to some nearby cities besides the S-bahn.
I believe it would have been more successful, if there would still be a
tramway network in Hanau, where these cars could have approached
the public more efficiently...
Erfurt is a former-East German city, still bearing some small signs of communism, but all-in-all it's a wonderful place!
A "boxy" DUEWAG MGT6D tramcar in front of the new railway station, just being erected.
A coupled set of Tatra KT4D cars.
This is a KT4D, too, but a works car, lubricating the tight bends to make trams run more quietly.
A 5-part Combino tramcar at the central square of the city, called Anger.
Another "DUEWAG-box"...
... and a Combino in front of some really nice architectury. Remark: don't be surprise if you see another picture instead of a bigger version of this one when you click on it; I blew this one alright, and I don't feel like changing it, sorry ;-)
A Combino at the railway station, followed by...
... another DUEWAG in a full-vehicle advertising livery. Note the visual passenger information system to the right, and the slightly raised platforms in the stops!
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