(Jun 21, 2015) Herford - Paderborn - Fulda

The old friends of my parents who had lodged me saw me to Herford station. I took the train 90653 of RB 72 from Herford to Paderborn. RB 72 was operated by a private passenger operating company, Westfalenbahn (WLB). It operated 4 lines in Nordrhein-Westfalen from 2007 and used Stadler’s electric multiple units, named “Flirt”. Trains of RB 72 were operated hourly.



Almost half of the seats were occupied. The train left Herford at 09:33 on time, ran in a southeastward direction and reached Detmond which was a small town but famous for Hochschule für Musik Detmold (The University of Music Detmold), one of Germany's leading university-level schools of music.
After leaving Sandebeck, it merged to the railway line from Hameln, ran through Rahberg-Tunnel (1632m) and arrived at Altenbeken at 10:28.









Then the train crossed over the Bekeviadukt, which was the longest limestone bridge (482m) long over the Beke valley in Altenbeken town. The train got to Paderborn Hbf at 10:41.











Aside from DB vehicles, in Paderborn I could watch some kinds of private operate’s vehicles, including Stadler’s “Flirt” operated by ALB and eurobahn, Bombardier’s “Talent” operated by NordWestBahn. In addition, S-Bahn trains from Hannover came to this station.









Only a couple of ICE trains was operated in the railway line Hamm – Paderborn -Altenbeken – Warburg – Kassel. I took ICE 1223, one of the ICE trains, which ran from Köln Messe/Deutz to München Hbf via Düsseldorf, Essen, Hamm, Paderborn, Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, Würzburg and Nürnberg Hbf, using class 403 ICE 3 (Tz 306). The train left Paderborn Hbf 11 minutes behind the schedule. I sat on the 2nd class seat #17 in the lounge of coach #31. The seat located just behind the driver’s cab. The train ran at about 120 kph. After crossing over the Bekeviadukt, it arrived at Altenbeken.







Then the train ran in a southeastward direction, through the Egge-Tunnel, and got to Warburg 9 minutes behind the schedule. Warburg is a junction connecting with Obere Ruhrtalbahn to Hagen.





ICE 1223 passed Hofgeismar-Hümme which is the terminus of Kassel RegioTram line RT3. After passing Vellmar-Obervellmar, the train crossed over a junction and entered the high-speed railway Hannover – Würzburg. Soon it arrived at Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe at 12:02, 6 minutes behind the schedule.









The train left Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe at 12:04 and accelerated smoothly to 250 kph. The high-speed railway Hannover – Würzburg was one of the oldest high-speed lines in Germany, opened in 1991. The maxium speed of the railway was 280 kph. Indeed the signal indicated allowing the speed of 280 kph, but the train maintained the speed of 250 kph. A children sitting on the opposite seat was excited at the speed as well as I. ICE 1223 covered 89.9 km between Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe and Fulda only in 25 minutes and arrived at Fulda at 12:29, shortening the delay to one minute. I got off there. ICE 1223 left the station for München several minutes later.

















I had Doner kebab for lunch. Then I took pictures the rescue train hauled by diesel locomotives class 714 (Former V100) stored at the station. The train prepared for serious accidents. I hoped the train would never work.





Then I moved to platform 7 to go to Weimar.