BANKING MEMORIES

What makes ‘real’ steam so special? TONY STREETER savours the unique atmosphere of Plandampf as part of our series on surviving steam in the old East Germany.

Men fill their cars at a garage, overshadowed by a stone bridge that carries a railway through the town. There’s a rumble, they glance up – a solitary steam locomotive is heading for home. The petrol pumps click, they carry on. An everyday moment? Once, maybe. But now, for only a few days each year. Even then, only because people pay to make it so.

As with so many things, the genius of Plandampf is its simplicity: powering regular trains with steam, funded by enthusiasts. Making it happen though is evermore difficult. Why bother? What makes it worthwhile?

The answer is in… a surprise whistle breaking the frosty crackle of a dark street. The creaks and bangs as wagons leave a yard against the pre-dawn red, silhouetted shapes simmering in front of them. Or the guttural exhaust as an unseen engine struggles to start a train.

It’s in the snorting banker blocking the road at the tail of a long rake; or the whispered here-and-gone rhythm of a faraway train on the breeze. It’s there too in a driver’s concentration, an injector’s sizzle, the pungent haze that shows a shed is alive after dark. Or the quiet clank of an air pump, while glowing tenement windows prove that evening’s normal life carries on. And yes, it’s in the warmth of an unfamiliar pub as the day’s events are debated, and plans are made by window hangers and linesiders alike.

It’s in ‘normality’. As it once was, and as we would wish it to be again.

Then the fires are dropped, the timetables closed, the bags packed. Until next time. Perhaps.

In 2012 there were doubts whether even the last events would continue. It has, until now. A final, wonderful outpost.

Yet as supporters gather in October amid the autumn colours and falling leaves on the lines around Eisenach and Meiningen, how many will wonder how long this can continue...?

Or will they just ‘click’ and carry on?

ROBIN GARN Although an ICE (InterCity Express) stops here soon, the only sign of life at Eisenach is the distant call of ‘Mikado’ No. 41.1144 as it gets a 712-ton goods train under way on the morning of January 22 2016, as temperatures fall to -11ºC.