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Tiny Trains: Neat Narrow-Gauge Rail Connects German Island to Mainland
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- Odenwaelder 8y agoI'm german but I've never ever heard of neither the island, nor the trains. How remarkable!
- baxtr 8y agoMaybe it's because you live in a forest! ;-)
- k__ 8y agoSame here, but I have to admit I also from the Odenwald :D
- Torwald 8y ago"German" und "English" usw. immer groß schreiben. FYI.
- ktpsns 8y agoGerman north is really very different from German south.
- baxtr 8y agoYeah... someone said the other day that if they had divided Germany into south/north instead of east/west, there would have not been a reunion. Maybe that’s true
- FearNotDaniel 8y agoI've heard it commonly said in Austria: in Bavaria, you have left Austria, but you're not yet in Germany...
- opinionator1 8y agoI wonder what they meant by that. I've heard that Bavaria is the most German state of Germany.
- baxtr 8y agoIt’s similar to Texas. Quite German, but then again some people dream to be independent. It is also called “Freistaat Bayern”, “Free state of Bavaria”
- mhd 8y agoNot as much if you compare urban to urban parts and rural to rural ones. Frisian island folk and the inhabitants of remote Alpine valleys have more in common with each other than both do with Hamburg or Stuttgart.
- usrusr 8y agoThey would never admit that
- FearNotDaniel 8y ago
- djsumdog 8y agoYou totally need to go visit it now. :)
- theoh 8y agoThere are a couple of significant and actually, physically, miniature 15" gauge steam railways in the UK. I say a couple because the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway (Cumbria) and the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway (Kent) are the preeminent ones. They both served as genuine forms of transport at various points in their histories. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romney,_Hythe_and_Dymchurch_Railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romney,_Hythe_and_Dymchurch_Ra...
- flyinghamster 8y agoNorth Wales has several ~2 foot gauge steam railways as well, though they're not exactly "miniature." Ffestiniog Railway from Blaenau Ffestiniog to Porthmadog, and Welsh Highland Railway from Porthmadog to Caernarfon: http://www.festrail.co.uk/ http://www.festrail.co.uk/ Talyllyn Railway from Tywyn Wharf to Nant Gwernol: https://www.talyllyn.co.uk/ https://www.talyllyn.co.uk/
- theoh 8y agoBy miniature I mainly mean that the locos look like scale models of mainline steam locomotives: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Greenly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Greenly
- peteri 8y agoI'm always amazed that the Ffestiniog engines were built just around the corner from where I live at the Hatcham Iron Works on Pomeroy street in New Cross, London. It seems unbelievable that you would setup a locomotive works so near to central London. https://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/England_Engines https://www.festipedia.org.uk/wiki/England_Engines
- the_mitsuhiko 8y agoThis reminds me of Austria's Reisseck-Hoehenbahn which sadly closed down a few years ago. It was a 600mm narrow gauge train high up in the mountains originally used for the construction of a power plant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7XrOfSNdO4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7XrOfSNdO4
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- gtycomb 8y agoThank you. A remarkably clear youtube video. I wonder what kind of camera/lens was used.
- parliament32 8y agoPrivate train cars are the most interesting part. I wonder how signaling works? Does each house/"station" have its own fork in the tracks for getting their private train car home?
- TylerE 8y agoThere are only a few houses (approx 15 residents) on the island.
- Someone 8y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lüttmoorsiel-Nordstrandischmoor_island_railway https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lüttmoorsiel-Nordstrandischm... has a schematic of the track. Looking at the map, it seems there are only two endpoints to the line on the island. On the other hand, https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordstrandischmoor https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordstrandischmoor claims there are only 4 households on the island, so even assuming each has its separate fork, “each house” isn’t that much. I wonder what system they have to prevent the two locomotives from meeting each other half-way through and to get one of the locomotives to a home when needed.
- woodpanel 8y agoI've seen a couple of documentaries about how the inhabitants use that system. Though I forgot wether they have some signaling system, they do have passing loops (which they operate by driving there, getting out and manually perform the switch). Also since the area is 100% flat eyesight should be enough.
- jacquesm 8y agoEven without passing loops you could do it by simply swapping trains when you meet.
- jancs 8y agoThey use a marker in between the runarounds, and whoever reaches it first can pass while the other car needs to turn back.
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- riazrizvi 8y agoCan't this inspire the future of automated driving? Paint strips on the freeway optimized for visual-recognition systems, to serve as super cheap railway tracks. Super cheap because painted strips are far cheaper than laying tracks, and they would lower the cost of the visual recognition systems in cars. These automated driving sections would satisfy my principal pain point with driving, which is long commutes or drives on the freeway.
- twic 8y agoMINITRAM!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfIZOElSgOE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfIZOElSgOE (attention UK nerds of a certain age: this opens with the brilliant late '80s Tomorrow's World theme - despite the fact that this segment was on Tomorrow's World in 2003!) EDIT: Oh, apparently they switched back to that version in 2002. Good.
- RandallBrown 8y agoThey tried something like this in the 90s. https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/01/automobiles/a-smart-road-starts-to-take-shape-in-california.html https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/01/automobiles/a-smart-road-...
- alorimer 8y agoExisting lane markings serve the same purpose, just with a slight offset. They're actually a lot better because there are usually two. But of course driving is a lot more complicated than just staying in your lane.
- tomcam 8y agoWhat is it about guys and trains? I reflexively upvoted before even reading the article, and after reading the article, I realize it is a pretty standard narrow gauge railroad. Don’t care! Would vote again if I could!
- twic 8y agoI think it's nerds and trains, rather than guys and trains. I know at least one woman who is pretty excited about trains too, and she is a colossal dork. EDIT: and what it is about nerds and trains is that trains are wicked sweet.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- kposehn 8y ago>I think it's nerds and trains, rather than guys and trains. I know at least one woman who is pretty excited about trains too, and she is a colossal dork. >EDIT: and what it is about nerds and trains is that trains are wicked sweet. I do believe you've hit the nail on the head with that question. Or, in this case, the rail.
- OnlineCourage 8y agoYou mean the railspike?
- kposehn 8y agoWell put :)
- wazoox 8y agoI went to several remote places just to ride a weird train. For instance the Pilatus Bahn in Switzerland is a must-see. Or "Le train à vapeur de la baie de Somme". If it's a steam locomotive, its appeal is greater; if it's ancient and weird, the draw is indomitable.
- jws 8y agoI was envisioning a little village of houses with trains, but peeking from the satellites, it looks like one fork and only one guesthouse has rail service (Familie Siefert - Hallig Nordstrandischmoor). There seem to be a couple of guesthouses, a "Glockenturm" which is a school/church servicing three students, and one private house on the island.
- m4rtink 8y agoWhile in Japan last summer, we rode the Kurobe Gorge Railway deep into the Japanese Alps. It's a 762 mm narrow gauge railway, originally build as industrial railway for dam construction, but now open to the public. It goes through 42 tunnels and on the crazy steep sides of the deep V shaped Kurobe Gorge. It was a really nice trip - breathtaking views & nice outdoor hot springs to bathe in. :) Some links: http://www.kurotetu.co.jp/en/railway/index.html http://www.kurotetu.co.jp/en/railway/index.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eeo7Qxw88P4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eeo7Qxw88P4
- tobylane 8y agoMildly related: The bus replacement rail service - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WHmETKW72E https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WHmETKW72E
- vram22 8y agoThis reminds me of the Ooty toy train. Despite the name, it's not a toy, but a meter gauge train that goes between the plains and the hill station of Ooty / Udhagamandalam, in Tamil Nadu, a state in South India. Moves quite slowly. Good fun riding it. I've been on it years ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilgiri_Mountain_Railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilgiri_Mountain_Railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rack_railway https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rack_railway Images of it: https://www.google.co.in/search?q=ooty+toy+train+images https://www.google.co.in/search?q=ooty+toy+train+images
- TipVFL 8y agoThe neatest part of this article was the fact that these trains used to operate by sail. It's a strange image to imagine but it makes a lot of sense for an incredibly windy area with rails. My uncle is actually a tiny train enthusiast. He bought really old schematics for a full-size steam powered locomotive and scaled them down, machining every little piece from blocks of metal. He has been working on it for 20+ years; he originally planned for his grandchildren to get to play with it but they're all adults now. Maybe it will be ready in time for his great grandchildren.
- azernik 8y agoTo me, what's fascinating is the way it's operated - families have rails running to their personal garages, and own their own individual wagons.
- gowld 8y agoNSTAAF talks about sail trains on https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/flavio-briatore-3/no-such-thing-as-a-fish/e/51414013 https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/flavio-briatore-3/no-such-t... (@14minutes)
- rhizome 8y agoFor those like me who tried to google this, the term of art is "sail bogey." "sail train" gets you a bunch of travel agencies.
- vermontdevil 8y agoGood tip! There's a wiki page on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sail_bogey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sail_bogey
- aphrax 8y agoI would love to see some pictures of this, any chance he would share some?
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- Erwin 8y agoYou can ride an underground tiny train in London -- what used to be used for postal mail delivery (Mail Rail) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCsKUNIspW8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCsKUNIspW8
- jancs 8y agoThere's a rather good documentary about it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3XI-4wfYxI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3XI-4wfYxI (in German, unfortunately), for anyone interested in how it operates.
- hguhghuff 8y agoThey look ready to fall over.
- 8bitsrule 8y agoHey! With something (modernized) like that, you could ride in the suburbs to mass transit ... and leave the car at home.