Sunday morning started Mat '64 (also known as Plan V, called with train number 876, together with three other coaches on his last kilometres on the Dutch track. The ride began in Maastricht and led through 's-Hertogenbosch, the netherlands, Arnhem and Zwolle to the railway Museum in Utrecht. More than 300 travellers, who through the NS blog and social media were selected, experienced this particular ride. Editor Matthias Huijgen reed.
Mat ’64 449 on the head in Eindhoven.
The last ride of Mat '64 with its distinctive bulbous nose was an initiative of machinists Linda Kool and Frank Scharloo. It began with a spontaneous tweet in march 2015 to a afscheidsrit to organize. After a lot of deliberating, and to do it was after more than a year so far: 9.37 hours left the Mat '64) from Maastricht, the place where the maintenance of the Mat '64's happened. Linda Kool, who is also the train controlled: "It was a very exciting moment, the equipment had a time seems to have stood still. In the days before there are rides made around Eindhoven, but it was only 30 km/hour driving, and it was purely a test of technical systems, it still did. Fortunately, they keep themselves at the higher speeds now too."
Hundreds of people were scattered along the entire route to say goodbye to Mat ’64, here at the Ox in Zwolle.
The route went along the main stations in Sittard, Eindhoven, 's-Hertogenbosch, Arnhem, Zutphen, Zwolle and Amersfoort and the Utrecht railway Museum. Along the way was also on a number of smaller stations gehalteerd. Where it comes to the travelers in Maastricht (by the work on the tracks in the province of Limburg) still was quite calm, was gradually stops becoming busier and atmospheric in the train. Also scattered along the route there were hundreds of people to the loud honking of the train to say goodbye to. Among the passengers were former machinists, -conductors and engineers, but also commuters from the '70s daily, with Mat '64 traveled, or the occasional traveler looking for something special and had been in a Plan for Everyone had his or her own story and memory at the Mat '64, and you could do that in a relaxed atmosphere to communicate with each other. Thus, there was a pop-up presentation about the history of the Mat '64 by Lex van der Valk, equipment engineer at NedTrain. He told me about the for the time revolutionary technology that allows the Mat '64 was equipped, such as the centrally-operated doors, destination designation (koersrollen) and swing-swing-doors. This was the lightest train in Europe (in contrast to the Hondekop, which is the heaviest). Co-founder and machinist Frank Scharloo and Rutger Hamelynck of NS were in the carriages a Mat '64 quiz, with questions about the length of a Plan V (52,1 m), the number of axles (8), the maximum allowed speed (140 km/h) and the number of seats (after refurbishment) in a 'sheet of paper' (Plan T; 230 pieces).
The Mat ’64 quiz with Frank Scharloo (l) and Rutger Hamelynck.
The last kilometers between Amersfoort and Utrecht were emotional. Linda Cabbage, which her career had begun in the Mat '64: "The Mat '64 was the basis for the generation of machinists. I say at the youngest generation: you learn to work with a BMW, a Volkswagen Beetle. The latest equipment has of course also many more features such as air conditioning, touch buttons and digital displays, but with the Mat '64 you had the idea that you are really with the train was busy. If you have a malfunction, went you himself after which components it could be. Now you are looking at a screen and you see immediately where it is wrong. Very useful of course, but it has no charm."
Plakbanken in hot weather and no air conditioning, yet it had its charm.
In Utrecht arrived took director Marten Foppen of the railway Museum, the key of the 876. It is still not quite clear on what to do with the Mat '64 is going to happen. Fool: "We have around 80,000 objects in our collection, we’re now going to look how we make this piece of modern history a place in our museum. It may be that the Mat '64, first in the depot or that he term can also be used for Homesickness-express."
managing Director Marten Foppen of the railway Museum gets the key of the Mat ’64 876 handed.
Inside the museum got Tricked of the initatiefnemers a miniature version of the Mat '64 awarded. Linda Kools: "in this way, a small reminder to hold on to what Mat '64, the Dutch rail means."
Founders Linda Kool (l) and Frank Scharloo (middle) handing over a miniature Mat ’64 to Spoorwegmuseumdirecteur Marten Foppen.
Plan V 876 after the end of the ride at Utrecht Maliebaan station.
No comments:
Post a Comment