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RWE Rheinbraun 26 531, 08-275 Unimat 3S Plasser & Theurer Neurath, 25-09-2008. © Eddy Konijnendijk.

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The central cab of historic loco 686 of Rheinbraun (now RWE Power), a member of the EL 2 class. It seems that the box containing all the electrical switches was simply put into the middle of the cab. So the driver had to operate the traction levers more or less behind his back, while the brake levers were located in front of him below the window. These locos were designed for 1200 V DC. This system was used around the briquette factory Wachtberg in Frechen and on the line towards Cologne (which also is an interurban tram line). Later the catenary around Wachtberg was removed (trains in this area are now moved by diesel locos) and the voltage on the interurban tram line was reduced to 750 V, leading to a complete disappearance of the 1200 V network and making these locos redundant. The picture was taken at the opencast mine Garzweiler (north west of Cologne) on 12 August 2007, at a rail vehicle exhibition in the course of an open day. Digital photo by Christoph Schmitz (christoph.schmitz2@post.rwth-aachen.de)

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780 of RWE Power (formerly Rheinbraun) seen parked at the end of the sand unloading track at Hürth-Knapsack (south west of Cologne) on 18 August 2007. This kind of vehicle is called "Pflugrücker" in German, it is used to shove the sand dumped by side-dump gondolas away from the track and down the scarp. The vehicle is obviously self-propelled and powered electrically (as well as the overburden trains which deliver the sand), note the two pantographs. The cab is mounted laterally in the middle of the vehicle. Maybe it fits into the loading gauge when the blades are removed, but it seems to be used at this location permanently. Some sections of the track are equipped with a third rail, probably remains of the time when Rheinbraun also operated narrow gauge trains (900 mm). Digital photo by Christoph Schmitz (christoph.schmitz2@post.rwth-aachen.de)