Sometimes you get lucky, and find out about stuff

At some point in time, long enough after I have arrived in Germany, S-Bahn Rhein Ruhr brought some old rollingstocks back onto the S1 Line, citing technical considerations. What's curious about this change was that the vintage trains (Class 420 EMUs or Eastern German locomotive-hauled trains with the x-Wagen on the tail-end) did not run the entire route. In fact, the S1 was cut into two portions, one from Dortmund Hbf to Bochum Hbf (later to Essen-Steele Ost) which utilized older equipment exclusively, the other from Bochum Hbf to Solingen Hbf, and only had the newer Class 422 trains. I don't suppose the majority of the passengers that frequent this route had been greatly affected, thanks to the numerous Regional Bahn and Regional Express trains that stop at the major stations between Dortmund and Solingen, but it felt weird to me. I mean, after all, once a railroader, always a railroader.

Class 422 on the left, and the older train got cut off by me...

Given all the trains are electric, so it couldn't be something to do with catenary upgrades or what not, and the only noticeable difference was that, the older trains were shorter. Oh, maybe it's because of operational changes at Dortmund that didn't offer a long enough platform? Or the same thing but long enough platform, but a short tiny signal block so the hogger sits past the signal (I mean it's a thought that doesn't make too much practical sense)? Upon close inspection of the station, neither of my guesses turned out to be true, and I ran out of ideas pretty quickly. All of this, lasted until August 27, 2017.

It was a rare sunny day, and I couldn't sit still at home and had to get out to tend to my foamy cravings. I found some trail around the 100 mph bend west of Bochum-Ehrenfeld S-Bahn Station that could offer me a clear view of the tracks, the curve, and give me good lighting in the early afternoon. Off I went. Boy, were there a lot of people busting out their cameras around this station, something must've been happening. I just didn't know what. Then I met young Leon, photographing trains in one of the bush openings beside the tracks. He appeared very knowledgeable about trains and railroading in Germany, and was extremely kind and patient to bear my ignorantly lacking of the German language skills (here's Leon on Instagram by the way).

The said curve I wanted to photograph, and Bochum-Ehrenfeld Station can be seen on the right. You can see two S-Bahn tracks and two main-line tracks, plus a cut of cars and a little yard in the background.

It had turned out that the rooftop equipment on the Class 422 was found to have a habit of catching on fire, and was therefore banned from entering the underground section of the tracks east of Dortmund Hbf. But fortunately, the problems were successfully remedied, and they were about to re-enter service on the entirety of the S1 Line on the following day, re-replacing the older trains. Right, railfans, that's why they are out and about. Cool.

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