[PRCo] Re: Germany again

Tue Dec 16 13:12:18 EST 2008

Last night Mark agreed that hunting those youtube videos can be  
addictive.   Wait until you see what I found next for the Swiss  
installment.

Not only is the euro rising again but the same day that crude oil  
began to rise, the gas stations started to push up the market price  
on gasoline already in their tanks.   Went up 2 cents yesterday from  
1.69 to 1.71.   Oh well.

I always liked self-guided better than being on a tour bus with  
someone else telling me what it was that I had to see.   They were  
not going to take me to places I wanted to go like into a coal mine  
in the English midlands or to a Chopin recital in Warsaw.   If you  
really want to get off the beaten path it helps to learn other  
languages but not necessary in small minority language countries like  
Portugal or Finland.   I even toured the central car repair shops in  
Lisbon without knowing Portuguese.

On Dec 15, 2008, at 10:34 PM, John Swindler wrote:

>
>
> 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 her!
>  e 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)> >  
> htt!
>  p://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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