Let’s Go East!
Posted on June 1st, 2008 in Photography, Railways, Travelling |
SIEMENS IS NOT against altering the liveries of its Dispolok lease fleet, even quite extensively, if you are a good customer.
At first glance, however, Wiener Lokalbahnen AG branded ES64-U2 No. 024 (DB 182 Class, 182 524-9) looks like it has severely faded yellow ends bookcasing the WLB blue centre-section, but in fact blue and cream are the corporate colours of this Vienna-based public transport operator, turned pan-European logisitics outfit! The ‘Eurosprinter’ glides through Fürth (Bay) Hbf on April 28th, 2008.
Austrian transport company Wiener Lokalbahnen AG leases several of what Siemens terms as ‘Bosporus Sprinters’, which are standard ES64-U2 machines retrofitted for operation into Eastern Europe. The modifications including such extras as another pantograph, ETCS1 and Hungarian cab signalling. The first locomotive to be so modified was No. 060 (182 560-3, ex ES64 U2-048), which is pictured at Köln Süd, Germany, on April 25th, 2008. Note the “Let’s Go East!” vinyls.
I also got a couple of shots of other members of the Dispolok fleet on my previous trip to Germany in a dismal and snowy February 2005:
