Among the glory og Tønder was the old interlock system. As I asked for a permission to photograph the central signalling post, I was introduced to the station master, who forbid me to publish the picture in books and magazines. He did not mention Internet, so here we go. His most statutory appearence, and mechanical reeling off, made me remember im as "The Automatic Station Master". His tie, and giving departure, was very far from the rules, and revealed a person with good sense of humor, when turning off the automatics.

We will take a last look at Tønder H. The Mo stands ready at the platform, but its days are numbered, the electric connectors for the MR units which are about to take over has alredy been installed. The class MR had alredy taked over most trains, and at the change of timetable few days later, the Mo unit will be gone. In the middle the storehouse and water tower is seen again, together with the mail van standing ready for a later train. Left, the double train has arrived. Only the last passenger car is opened to (the few) passengers. The front train is empty, and will return to Esbjerg next morning.

It is time to leave, Mo 1957, built in 1935, still in regular service in late 1982, stands ready, if it can start. The passengers cabin in the driving trailer ist extreme hot. It can either be ice cold, or very hot. The steamclouds gives the impression of a sauna. The Mo class was no steam locomotives, (i think?) but they had steam heating. Several windows stands open even if the date is 30 December 1982. The Mo unit starts, and at 9.11 The Automatic Station Master comes and gives a somewhat off-standard departure permission with is tie thrown over the shoulder. The Mo unit is coupled to the driving trailer with 3 thick control cables, one buzzer cable, two air hoses, a steam tube, and of course the coupler itself, being as "long" as it can be. The train will leave with the driving trailer at front, the Mo car bangs up in the driving trailer, and off we go.

The large number of stations and halts give good chances for taking photos along the line. Here are some pictures from the flat marshland.

The MR class had taken over a number of trains originally driven by class Mo rolling stock. Which trains were operated by class MR was not foreseeable, as Mo breakdowns often altered the plans. A broken down class Mo could result in a scheduled Mo driven train to be taken over by a class MR, with the result that a later train that was planned driven by class MR, had to be driven by a meanwhile available class Mo. Now, more than 20 years later, time is running out for the MR class.

An important part of the adventure was the train in which we travel, and the train crew. Here is an impression from the class Cls car, actually empty. The conductor is Mr Travel Document, a gruff perfect dressed legalist. On stations with sale of tickets, he would ask to see the tickets even before allowing access to the train. "Hey stop, do you have a valid travel document!" The day happens to be a warm August day, so I make some pictures out of the open window. "You may not bother the other passengers with draught!" There were no other passengers. "Do not rest your feets on the seat!" i did not. "Do you have clean shoes!" Yes sir. In less than 3 months the Cls car would stand at its final stop in the scrapyard.
The train arrives in Skærbæk. Here will be a passing of a southbound train. But our train starts before the arrival of the southbound train, stops suddently, and returns to the goods siding. 3 freight cars are added to the train. They are empty, but were not supposed to be. The cargo is cattle, and they are being brought from the nearby export stable. The loading takes place, while the passengers (now 2) are waiting. A lot is to be loaded, and even Mr. Travel Document helps loading the cattle. The 3 cars are not enough, so 2 or 3 animals are put into the cargo room of the class Mo unit. They are not likely to put the hoofs on the seats, but are the hoofs clean? And will the floor of the cargo room be clean when we reach Esbjerg? On the picture you see Mr Travel Document in person guiding a cow into the cargo room of the Mo unit.

Here we are on some of the halts on the line. From left: Rejsby, Hviding and Døstrup. On the picture from Døstrup, the solid waiting room is seen. They could stand vandalism, but not the design programme of the Danish State Railways (DSB) They are now replaced withs some glass cheese-dish cover, which needs replacement often, as they are very exposed to vandalism. In the solid log cabin, waiting passengers had left names, and poems cut in the logs.

Here I sit and get old, waiting for a train, some rubbish so old.

On the pictures from Rejsby and Hviding (middle and left) the train is the afternoon double train with only the last car, always an uncomfortable class Cls open to the passengers.

The mail train went towards Esbjerg late afternoon. The mail train was operated by the new class MR for a short time, before all mail transports were tranferred to the road. Here the mail is on its way with the help of the faithful Mo unit.

Just some more pictures from the flat marshy land.

Here follows the stations in Ribe og Gredstedbro. More traffic, and more passengers may be seen. It appears that the train also runs a little faster.

A treasure on the way was Bramming. Here the Tønder line branches off from the main line Esbjerg - Fredericia. But all trains from Ribe and Tønder continues from Bramming to Esbjerg using the main line.

Between Bramming and Esbjerg the Mo units had a hard work. The old Frichs engines went on full load, or as full as possible for an engine up to 40 years old. The tracks were fine here, and the Cls cars with their wood-frame trucks had a fine run. Scheduled speed on the mail line was 100 km/h, and also maximum speed for the class Cls cars. The Mo units were able to run 120 km/h, and when the train was delayed, they did thier best. Once I measured the speed to 125 km/h.

Here comes Esbjerg, the end of the line in this narrative. Perhaps our train would continue to Varde, or even Struer. On a friday a funny little local train could be seen, running Esbjerg-Holsted-Esbjerg, most as a solo Mo unit. This train arrives here on a nice day in May 1981. In track 1 and 2 Mo trains were standing ready to leave for Varde, and Ribe. Here some of the differences between the 18 and 19 series can be seen. Appearently the engineer on Mo 1959 has forgot to remove the red glas disc that turned the front light into a tail lamp.

I will stop at the depot in Esbjerg, the year is 1983, and the Mo units were getteing rare to be seen in service, most of them stood jobless at the depot. It all stopped at the start of the summer-timetable, where the MR class took over all the traffic formerly serviced by the Mo units, which had only the last ride to the scrapyards in Århus or Bjerringbro. The introduction of class MR improved the traffic, and the number of passengers increased considerably.

Class Mo, the mail train, Mr. Travel Document, and the Automatic Station Master are now only menmories.