Jon Searles' photos with the keyword: Frankfurt

This is Frankfurt am Main airport, the main, literally, airport for Frankfurt, Germany. I don't know if that Boeing 747 is a 400 or an 8I, but Lufthansa were the launch customer for the 8I, and the next time I was in Frankfurt there were quite a lot of them already. This is in spite of the fact that Lufthansa have also bought a fleet of Airbus A380's. Many newspapers lately have referred to the "aging" 747-8I, and claiming that Boeing will soon discontinue them. However, as journalists often don't do their homework, they ignore that if a platform is the basis for what is "aging," then the 737, never criticized by them, is even more "aging," having been introduced two years earlier, in 1968. The 737-900 and the 747-8I variants of these aircraft, however, are arguably state-of-the-art, and much more reliable than the much touted (but just as criticized) 787-800. Boeing have slowed 747 production, which may make short-term business sense, but it seems like they should be working on fixing the 787-800, rather than releasing the new 787-900 before the older one is ready, or pouring money into the 797, which hasn't even flown yet (in spite of some hoax photographs). Officially, in fact, the 797 is still the "7x7," as it isn't even an official catalog item yet.

Here's a shot that I like better than Picture 5, although I chose to upload both anyway.

Here's a lucky shot that I got of my ICE (the one my friend was impressed by) pulling in.

Here's yet another tram shot. Notice Frankfurt Hbf in the background behind the trees.

I originally meant this to be a generic shot of some of Frankfurt's modern buildings, but in fact this is also rail-related. That skyscraper is actually an office building used by Deutsche Bahn, and the red DB loco is visible close to the roof on the left.

Here's the exterior of Frankfurt Hbf, as monumental as the interior.

This was the tram in the background in Picture 1. This appears to be a TUI advertising livery, as most of the trams I saw had one advertising livery or another.

I took this just outside of Franfkurt Hbf. I don't know much about the Frankfurt tram system, but because I had a layover I chose to shoot some photos anyway.

The steam-era beauty of Frankfurt Hbf is to be seen everywhere, even in little details like this clock. More impressive is that this station survived World War II, although I'm sure it had to have been rebuilt (I don't know all the history of that).

Introduced in 1952, and originally designated the E10 Class, these electrics represent one of the oldest surviving locomotive classes in Germany, and for that matter the world. Equally impressive is that these units have managed to stay in passenger service in the country of the ICE. Power output is 3,700Kw, or 5,000 horsepower, which is also impressive for its era, tractive effort is 62,000 lbs., which is also good, and this is distributed through a Bo-Bo (or B-B) wheel configuration, with 85 metric tonnes overall weight (so figure 21.25 tonnes per axle, a heavy axle loading for Europe). The cruising speed for the best-maintained units is 140Km/h, although the maximum design speed is 150Km/h.

Here's one of the newer Classes of ICE introduced around the time of my first visit to Germany in 1998. At the time, the Class were still in testing, but now they have been in service for many years. Although there isn't a high-speed line in Germany yet that can accommodate their full 330Km/h (205 m.p.h.) cruising speed, they still get to run quite fast, up to at least 250Km/h on most high-speed lines.

Incredible as it may seem now, the original Class 401 are already over 20 years old and counting, and showing little of their age. I got to meet up with some old American friends on this trip, including one old hot rodder who was suitably impressed, not to mention surprised at our train's age. "It works," he said.

I first got to see Frankfurt's impressive Hauptbahnhof in 1998, and it still looks more or less the same. It naturally hosts a lot of ICE's and other express trains, so it's fun to watch trains here. The trainshed is also spectacular.

Changing transport modes for one shot, I spotted this A380 (or what looks like one) from my train into Frankfurt. If my spotting is right (please correct me if I'm wrong) this marked only the second time that I managed to get a photo of an A380, after I photographed the very first one built in Paris Charles De Gaulle some years ago. Although I can't prove it, I'm assuming this one is operated by Lufthansa, as they are the primary operator of the A380 at Frankfurt am Main airport.