[PRCo] Re: Germany again

Mon Dec 15 22:34:11 EST 2008

Well yes, but we are not going all the way.  We leave in just over two weeks.  

Sure hope I can still pick up the Steeler games on cable while out of the country.  What a game yesterday.

But the follow-on trip might include a few days in Spain.  Phil Craig had some great videos of new light rail lines, and have never been to Barcelona and Madrid.  We also found a cheap way to include Casablanca and the Canary Is. on a Spanish trip, just have to put the pieces together and not excessively offend my wife's co-workers.   Another option is a self guided package including Prague and Vienna, and possibly Berlin.  We  enjoyed a Prague/Budapest trip earlier this year.   But the euro is starting to rise against the dollar.      

Ah, the hell with vacation.  How about them Steelers!!!

Cheers
John
> To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org> Subject: [PRCo] Germany again> From: fwschneider at comcast.net> Date: Mon, 15 Dec 2008 20:21:56 -0500> > > Does anyone want another vacation over on the other side of the > puddle? Again, you know where the delete key is.> > How about Heidelberg and Manheim.> > Maybe we can catch a rocket sled to go there. How about an ICE > (Intercity Express train). The third one is the engineer's view at > 186 miles per hour ... catenary poles going by like a picket fence.> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFtcGOUXNLA&feature=related> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX2xcfpGynA&feature=related> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcy2tg6Lk4Y&NR=1> > Heidelberg, Germany, on the Neckar River was the setting for the > opera the Student Prince. This is one of those central German towns > on everyone's tourist map. The next two are general interest > videos ... no trams ... just pictures of why normal people go to > Heidelberg ... the castle, the cathedral, the pretty views of the > Neckar River.> > I think this stop motion photo photo of the castle and the cathedral > from the hill on the north bank of the Neckar is great > photography. I remember tramping around Bismarkplatz (named after > Otto von Bismark) in the fall of 1959 when you could buy a wurst out > of a sidewalk vending machine for all of one mark (that was 23.8 > cents for a sausage). I think I might have been back three or four > times since ... it's a rather pretty city.> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqgAnfwxoHA&feature=related> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV8Kuw6GRo0&feature=related> > And the railfans have a reason to go there. The Heildelberger > Strassen und Bergbahn (--- Street and Mountain Railway) operated both > the trams on the street and the funicular up to the castle. The > long inteurban down the narrow main street past the cathedral has > been a victim of traffic congestion and low patronage beyond Karlstor > (Karl's Gate; the rest of the system survived. And the old > Oberrheinische Eisenbahn Gesselschaft (Upper Rhine Railway Company), > an interurban that connected Heidelberg, Mannheim and Weinheim with > 1200 volt DC lines is still there. The OEG runs the white and red > cars. The others, mostly blue and white are the city system.> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isSoGLXEUJs> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS702z8ik14&feature=related> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9ulxWilI7Y&feature=related> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwYLhWbYh1Q&feature=related> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxaTkdJg_0g&NR=1> > Mannheim was a huge industrial city to the west. All I found to > look at there were static pictures put onto a DVD. The sign with > the circular H at the beginning stands for Haltpunkt, or halt > point. It is the standard car stop sign used all over the German > speaking world. Very few for the huge Mannheim city system.> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbLAVMKFGzo> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vau38jVNp2E> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70WteFiU9Q> > And here is one of the most fantastic videos I've seen in a long > while ... you have watch to the biter end to realize what it was > taken from. But you are on one railway vehicle racing an O. E. G. > interurban train .... side - by - side and going like a bad out of > hell. Pittsburgh Railways never ran the inteurbans like this.> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mab8dQQbPqM&NR=1> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwdIbVf43PQ&NR=1> > This one says it is an OEG Sonderzug or translated, special train. > What confuses me is that the first two cars are 600 volt cars from > the Heidelberg system. Has to be a local museum. The city > portions of the OEG (and their cars) were 600 volts so perhaps this > was running in 1200 volt territory and perhaps the whole system has > been downgraded in order to use standard equipment. The very first > car is a Ksw or Kriegstrassenbahnwagen, translates war streetcar or > more appropriately war time utility car. Those critters were built > during and right after World War II as cheaply as possible in order > to provide basic transportation. Remember, the Brits and the > Americans had bombed the nation to smithereens and Russians didn't > help either. And almost every able bodied man was a prisoner of war > somewhere or had been killed, and that included kids back to age > 13. Their object was to put some form of rudimentary > transportation together on a well worn shoestring and they did a > marvelous job. When I got there in 1959 the German economy was in > far better shape than the French and I cannot believe it was the > Marshall Plan; that would not have accounted for a drop in the bucket > without the dedication of the people and most of them women.> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PFiMrUmtM4&NR=1> > The final clip comes from the 1960s. This is the kid of stuff that > I first saw when my Uncle Samuel (that guy in red, white and blue > pants) went me to Germany.> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5e24-Q4GoZ0> > > > Link to google maps (But you'll have to paste it back together)> > http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=heidelberg > +germany&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=42.766543,66.357422&ie=UTF8&ll=49.4 > 5786,8.500671&spn=0.275381,0.518417&z=11> > 
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