PSPS Chairman John Allen took these pics in Dresden following a recent trip aboard the veteran coal fired paddle steamer Kaiser Wilhelm from Magdeburg on Wednesday June 11th to Dresden, where the ship was greeted by the paddle steamer Diesbar, with overnight stops at Rosslau, Witttenberg and Reisa along the way. This pic shows Kaiser Wilhelm berthed alongside the Terrassenufer between the Dresden based Diesbar, which is also coal-fired, and Stadt Wehlen.

Built in Dresden in 1900, Kaiser Wilhelm was taken into preservation in 1970, is based in Lauenberg, runs a number of special excursions each season mostly at weekends and is manned, operated and run entirely by volunteers.

Paddle steamers Meissen, Dresden, Leipzig and Pillnitz plus the large diesel vessels August der Starke and Grafin Cosel berthed upstream of the Carola Bridge at Dresden.

Work is continuing to remove the Carola Bridge which collapsed last September but transit of it remains generally closed to navigation. It was opened briefly earlier this year on a ship by ship basis in order to let the paddle steamers reposition themselves and reach the Laubegast shipyard which is upstream of the bridge. As a result all the paddle steamer sailings to Pillnitz and on into Saxon Switzerland sail from these berths upstream of the bridge. Those running down river to Meissen and Reisa leave from the usual berths at the Terrassenufer.

John also reported that while he was there the paddle steamer Dresden had issues with the burners in her boiler and was out of service temporarily at Kleinzschachwitz.