Notes

Aachen West has a significant amount of traffic, but it’s still not that usual to see two trains pull into the (freight) station at the same time. In the foreground, Crossrail’s 185 590-7 (leased from BTMU), a Bombardier TRAXX F140 AC2, is coming on the lines from Aachen central station and further Cologne and is quickly gaining on COBRA 2804, a Bombardier TRAXX F140 MS (rented from SNCB/NMBS, who leased it in turn from Angel Trains Cargo) coming from Belgium, possibly Antwerp.

You can nicely see the differences between the two closely-related types, the TRAXX F140 AC2 (known in Germany as class 185.2) and the TRAXX F140 MS (known in Germany as class 186 and in Belgium as class 28), namely that there isn’t any difference you can really spot at first glance. The few differences that do exist are too subtle to tell, so remember kids, always go for the number.