Easter 1970 Western Europe

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Willbridge

50+ Year Amtrak Rider
AU Supporting Member
Joined
Mar 30, 2019
Messages
2,958
Location
Denver
In the days of Trans-Europe Express and overnight Channel rail ferries:

BERLIN - Bremen - Leer - Groningen - AMSTERDAM - PARIS - Strasbourg - Baden-Oos - FREIBURG im Schwarzwald - Donaueschingen - Bonn - Hoek van Holland - Harwich - LONDON - Brighton - LONDON - Harwich - Hoek van Holland - AMSTERDAM - Bentheim - Braunschweig - BERLIN

The proper way to cross the English Channel. British Rail's SS St George at Harwich.

19 FR-DE-GB 1970k.jpg
 

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Enjoyable to read of your experiences this side of the pond, back in 1970. I am not very conversant with computer technology, but I am wondering if you placed your typewritten sheets (the pdf's) on a scanner, I believe there are programmes which would convert the scanned items into a modern document which would be easier to read, etc.
I believe it is called OCR, optical character recognition?

I have taken the ferry several times from Harwich across to the Hook of Holland... I think there is only one train track there these days, a local line that just takes passengers towards the main line services to Amsterdam, etc.
One small correction, the voyage from Harwich to Holland crosses the North Sea, not the English Channel. ;)

Funny to think that in those days, KLM stewardesses being allowed to marry was a new thing!
 
Enjoyable to read of your experiences this side of the pond, back in 1970. I am not very conversant with computer technology, but I am wondering if you placed your typewritten sheets (the pdf's) on a scanner, I believe there are programmes which would convert the scanned items into a modern document which would be easier to read, etc.
I believe it is called OCR, optical character recognition?

I have taken the ferry several times from Harwich across to the Hook of Holland... I think there is only one train track there these days, a local line that just takes passengers towards the main line services to Amsterdam, etc.
One small correction, the voyage from Harwich to Holland crosses the North Sea, not the English Channel. ;)

Funny to think that in those days, KLM stewardesses being allowed to marry was a new thing!
Good point about OCR, although when I've used it there is a lot of correcting required.

Also a good point about the Harwich-Hoek crossing of the North Sea. It was listed with the Channel services and so I never thought of it otherwise (compared with the Esbjerg crossing!).

Trade press articles indicate that the Hoek line is being turned into a Light Rail Transit line as part of the Rotterdam system.

Here are other scenes from this 1970 trip. Photo 15 shows the Rheingold Hoek section waiting for its passengers to clear customs.

08 NL-DE 1970k.jpg

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Nice to see the British Rail logo on the ship. I was employed by B.R. back in the mid 1970's and the ships were then branded as "Sealink". We used to enjoy cheaper or even free tickets on trains and the Sealink ferries. Sadly I didn't remain there long enough to qualify for free or reduced rate continental train travel. :(
Gosh, I wish this Corona virus stuff would vanish, I am getting itchy feet again just talking about trains and ships!
 
Nice to see the British Rail logo on the ship. I was employed by B.R. back in the mid 1970's and the ships were then branded as "Sealink". We used to enjoy cheaper or even free tickets on trains and the Sealink ferries. Sadly I didn't remain there long enough to qualify for free or reduced rate continental train travel. :(
Gosh, I wish this Corona virus stuff would vanish, I am getting itchy feet again just talking about trains and ships!
I understand.

Mentioning Sealink reminds me that my best partner and his wife had me help plan their once in a lifetime trip to England and I routed them on the Night Ferry between London and Paris. He said it was the smoothest part of the trip. Even though I had many kms of Continental rail travel in my 27 months stationed in Berlin, I envied them that part of their journey!

[For readers without military experience: you learn that in a unit there are people who are experts on extremely diverse topics. Of course, I was the guy who knew how to read the train and transit schedules that I kept in my locker. We had a Teletype operator who knew the opening and closing time of every bar in a 1 km walk distance and the Brigade's Arts and Monuments Specialist knew where to take your out-of-town visitors to prove that you were paying attention to Kultur.]

In honor of British Rail in 1970...

1970 04 21Clapham Junction.jpg

and a lovely Sunday excursion to Brighton...

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There was NO way to take a good photo of the Brighton station...

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Thanks for the extra photos, most enjoyable!

I very much enjoy feeling the real distance travelled on trips, and often go the "long way round".
The train to Harwich, the night ferry crossing, Amsterdam, and then off to Berlin, etc, is a recent favourite of mine, as well as the train to Holyhead, the ferry to Dublin, and then off to the Guinness bar... ;)

Being stuck inside myself these days, I have just started trying to scan some old slides in from my 1st visit to India, back in 1983. Glory days, eh! :)
 
Thanks Mr Willbridge that was lovely, a little nostalgia from time to time does bring out a smile.

Are you and others reading this starting to make plans for future travel providing we return half way back to normal? Be interested to hear the sort of things we have in our dreams just to see what eventually becomes reality.

I have two journeys partly planned and am working on two others, at least one if not a couple will be possible one day I think/hope, what about you?
 
Great postssroldmap.jpg25401091680_b7688f3a58_b.jpg593d291d-18e5-4f60-b4cc-ff8b5955c9e0.c10.jpg on British Rail... I was backpacking in Great Britain after college graduation in the early 70's and was fascinated by the dense rail system and the many stations in London. Found it absolutely amazing that even the small Isle of Wight had it's own passenger rail as well. Stayed in a little 'room to let' with 'proper' British breakfast. Aaah... those wonderful days!:)

sroldmap.jpg
25401091680_b7688f3a58_b.jpg
593d291d-18e5-4f60-b4cc-ff8b5955c9e0.c10.jpg
 
The red train on the Isle of Wight with the "Shanklin" destination is actually a former London Underground train of 1938 vintage, still running today! They are/were due to be replaced this year... by renovated 1980's former tube trains!
I do remember that from a Britrail guide book I had been carrying around with me when backpacking. The British could certainly teach us something about maintaining and recycling!
 
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