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Tiny Trains: Neat Narrow-Gauge Rail Connects German Island to Mainland

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Re: Tiny Trains: Neat Narrow-Gauge Rail Connects German Island to Mainland

#81

Post by burfog »

wazoox wrote: post #40
twic wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 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.

You'll have to visit New Hampshire, USA. They have the first mountain-climbing cog railway. It's the second steepest. Some of the trains still burn coal, including one built in 1875.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Washington_Cog_Railway

Re: Tiny Trains: Neat Narrow-Gauge Rail Connects German Island to Mainland

#82

Post by usrusr »

mhd wrote: post #52
ktpsns wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

German north is really very different from German south.

Not 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.

They would never admit that

Re: Tiny Trains: Neat Narrow-Gauge Rail Connects German Island to Mainland

#83

Post by gambiting »

usrusr wrote: post #78
bobthepanda wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And all of those also have a lot of nerds who like those things.

Except for cars, those who obsess about cars are considered the antithesis of a nerd.

Since when? I work at a games studio, you couldn't imagine more dorky people than those who work here, and yet there's several serious petrolheads here, we go to car meets, one dude rents a barn to keep all of his rare US-imports and to work on them in his spare time.....

I don't understand(and rather dislike) the notion that if you are a nerd/into computers, you have to automatically dislike cars.

Re: Tiny Trains: Neat Narrow-Gauge Rail Connects German Island to Mainland

#84

Post by vermontdevil »

rhizome wrote: post #60
gowld wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NSTAAF talks about sail trains on https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/flavio-briatore-3/no-such-t... (@14minutes)

For those like me who tried to google this, the term of art is "sail bogey." "sail train" gets you a bunch of travel agencies.

Good tip!

There's a wiki page on this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sail_bogey

Re: Tiny Trains: Neat Narrow-Gauge Rail Connects German Island to Mainland

#85

Post by OrganicMSG »

jancs wrote: post #71
OrganicMSG wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Each island house has its own wagon — some used to be wind-powered, using sails, but today they run on diesel. Is that pretty standard?

It's a unique situation in Germany, and one that works for a small community where everyone knows everyone else. The cars are not only privately owned, but handmade with wood and motorcycle parts. There are a couple of safety rules, which are enforced by a permit you get from the mayor of the Hallig (island), and if you break the rules too often, it gets revoked. Which has happened only one time so far, apparently.

With the ones powered by sails, it sounded to me like something out of a Studio Ghibli film.

Re: Tiny Trains: Neat Narrow-Gauge Rail Connects German Island to Mainland

#86

Post by peteri »

flyinghamster wrote: post #12
theoh wrote: post #4

There 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_Ra...

North 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/ Talyllyn Railway from Tywyn Wharf to Nant Gwernol: https://www.talyllyn.co.uk/

I'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

Re: Tiny Trains: Neat Narrow-Gauge Rail Connects German Island to Mainland

#87

Post by Fjolsvith »

twic wrote: post #25
tomcam wrote: post #19

What 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!

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 .

Trains (toy) were my first conceptual introduction to programming.

The pieces of track are the instruction set. The layout is the program. Running the train is the execution.

Re: Tiny Trains: Neat Narrow-Gauge Rail Connects German Island to Mainland

#88

Post by FearNotDaniel »

baxtr wrote: post #48
ktpsns wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

German north is really very different from German south.

Yeah... 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

I've heard it commonly said in Austria: in Bavaria, you have left Austria, but you're not yet in Germany...

Re: Tiny Trains: Neat Narrow-Gauge Rail Connects German Island to Mainland

#89

Post by FearNotDaniel »

mhd wrote: post #52
ktpsns wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

German north is really very different from German south.

Not 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.

Though they may have some difficulty understanding each other, the dialects are so significantly different.

Re: Tiny Trains: Neat Narrow-Gauge Rail Connects German Island to Mainland

#90

Post by ThinkingGuy »

dalore wrote: post #54
twic wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 .

Trains are like an information network you can see in action.

Yes, this. I was really into model railroading when I was a child, and had a faily elaborate layout in the attic. What appealed to me the most, I think, was being able to sit at the controls, flipping switches on a big control panel, and manipulate the locomotives and switches way over in the next "town" (on the other side of the room).

Years later, when I first started using the internet, I found myself sitting in Atlanta, editing a text file on a server in California. And I immediately recognized that same sensation, of "control from a distance." And, well... here I am.

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