Hannover Hbf 30+ years ago

[Jim Jehosofat]

Many many years ago I travelled by train a few times from London to Berlin via Harwich/Hoek van Holland and then by direct train to Berlin.

On the outward journey at the Hannover stop I'm sure I noticed a passenger train go past on the the through lines and then around 5 minutes or so later the same train would then arrive on a platform line. Did I imagine this or did it really happen?

 

[P Binnersley]

It quite possibly happened. More likely due to some kind of failure than a normal occurrence. I've been on a train that reversed out of Birmingham New Street and then ran through non-stop on a different platform (early 1990's).
I've also been on a ICE train that was diverted to the closed Nuremberg Langwasser (Marzfeld) station to reverse before reaching the Hbf due to a fault in the cab at the front end (2015).

 

[30907]

Other possibilities are:
running through the station to back down onto a second portion (not very likely IMO)
ECS to form a departure from one end of the platform while the other was occupied (Hannover has long platforms but no intermediate crossovers Leeds-style).
I realise it is many years back, but do you remember whether it looked like an InterCity or a Regional train, and whether it had passengers? Also, was it travelling in your direction or the opposite way?

 

[The exile]

Other possibilities are:
running through the station to back down onto a second portion (not very likely IMO)
ECS to form a departure from one end of the platform while the other was occupied (Hannover has long platforms but no intermediate crossovers Leeds-style).
I realise it is many years back, but do you remember whether it looked like an InterCity or a Regional train, and whether it had passengers? Also, was it travelling in your direction or the opposite way?

Or a critical points failure blocking access to several platform roads at one end at a time when there wasn’t much platform capacity. Haven’t experienced that at Hannover but think I’ve seen it happen somewhere else in Germany many years ago

 

[Jim Jehosofat]

Other possibilities are:
running through the station to back down onto a second portion (not very likely IMO)
ECS to form a departure from one end of the platform while the other was occupied (Hannover has long platforms but no intermediate crossovers Leeds-style).
I realise it is many years back, but do you remember whether it looked like an InterCity or a Regional train, and whether it had passengers? Also, was it travelling in your direction or the opposite way?

My memory is of it being a loco hauled train with red and white carriages. It was travelling in the same direction as us but was several tracks away. The really strange thing is that I'm sure I saw it happen on at least three seperate occasions. I know for sure that the first time I did this journey there was a Mitropa dining car in the train formation.

 

[The exile]

Pre reunification there would have been regular IC services (not the current "red and white", but the older three tone version) starting and terminating at Hannover, as services to points further East were somewhat limited, so this may have been shunting of ecs rakes - for which such a move is slightly less unlikely than for a train in public service, though probably still more likely to happen following some kind of infrastructure failure (which happened in Germany even then!) than under normal conditions. Back then, the removal of a terminating service to carriage sidings for cleaning and preparation would have been almost a given - with quite possibly some additional shunting and re-formation into the bargain, though admittedly that was pretty unlikely for "normal" regular-interval IC services. Weird things still happened on more local services though - I can remember travelling in a DR compartment coach in January 1989 on a Saarbrücken - Frankfurt regional train which was marked up as returning to Görlitz for works attention - presumably it was no longer deemed fit to travel in its normal service rake at higher speed, but was fine to be in passenger service on lower speed lines. I dread to think how long it took to escape capitalist clutches and get back to its people's owned "home", but it made a change from our local diet of "Silberlinge".

 

[dutchflyer]

Are you definitely sure it was Hannover (for which quite incidentally I am bound to go tomorrow-the local RE trains seem to be not hit by the strikes)?
Around 1,5 hr before that it is Osnabrück-also a quaint station layout as its a crossover with a long loop south-east to gain access from the low level east-west line to the high level south-north line-toward Bremen-Hamburg. In that time there were still some trains that used this curve to go from Nl toward Haburg-or even Scandinavia.

 

[30907]

My memory is of it being a loco hauled train with red and white carriages. It was travelling in the same direction as us but was several tracks away. The really strange thing is that I'm sure I saw it happen on at least three seperate occasions.

Red and white (or beige) suggests IC stock

I know for sure that the first time I did this journey there was a Mitropa dining car in the train formation.

Your train (D345) in 1989 certainly had one. Plus through carriages Norddeich-Hannover-Berlin and Hoek-Hannover-Bad Harzburg. My first thought is that what you saw was E3135 Norddeich-Bad Harzburg exchanging portions with yours, but I don't think that part would have been IC-liveried stock.
Maybe one of our German members could offer advice?

If you regularly travelled on a Friday, there was D2591 Hannover-Stuttgart which would have come empty in your direction from the carriage sidings at about the right time. (Not sure how far back in the 80s that applies, but D345 had run for decades.)