Who...How...What...

still sputtering

goobnav wrote:

You'd be surprised the amount of rail history on the East Coast of the US. I am originally from the area of the US where the first steam engine operated and home of the oldest operating railroad in the US granted now completely owned by CP Rail. The Delaware and Hudson is oldest railroad in the USA. Also in Scranton is Steamtown NHS where there is an active steam excursion program and operating shortline, the Delaware Lackawanna. You can travel down to Baltimore to the B&O museum and also to Union station in Washington DC. That's just a taste of rail history in the Eastern US.

If you mean the D&H is the oldest railroad still in operation, that's correct (with the caveat of being owned by the CP, as you noted). Otherwise, the Baltimore and Ohio has the distinction of being the oldest chartered railroad in the United States, dating back to 1827. The New Jersey Railroad Company was in fact chartered almost 20 years earlier than that, but this was speculative and nothing was built; the Camden and Amboy Rail Road and Transportation Company was finally chartered in 1830. Numerous other railroads were born in the next 30 years, before the D&H came into existence.

Hello Fred,
Fred wrote:

still sputtering

don't worry to much. I can tell you that the last, or Golden Spike was also my first thought. I also knew that the UP still operates a Challenger, and therefore I checked out the UP but since the dates didn't match I went on a hunt. Here I had an advantage: the Mount Washington Cog Railway is listed on the German Wikipedia site, but not on the English version of that list. It's very interesting to see the different language versions of a Wikipedia site. Just check the menue on the lower left of a Wikipedia site.

Now David has to tell us if I was right or wrong...

ULie wrote:

Hello Fred,
Fred wrote:

still sputtering

don't worry to much. I can tell you that the last, or Golden Spike was also my first thought. I also knew that the UP still operates a Challenger, and therefore I checked out the UP but since the dates didn't match I went on a hunt. Here I had an advantage: the Mount Washington Cog Railway is listed on the German Wikipedia site, but not on the English version of that list. It's very interesting to see the different language versions of a Wikipedia site. Just check the menue on the lower left of a Wikipedia site.

Now David has to tell us if I was right or wrong...

ULie, you are correct, it is indeed the Mount Washington Cog Railway.

David K. Smith wrote:

you are correct, it is indeed the Mount Washington Cog Railway.

well...

...then I I will try to find something special for the game.

This is a picture of a vehicle on the railline or I should better say line of rails in question:



Can you give me the track width and the first year of operation on those rails?

well...

...15 hours and no response...

Even if it seems to be hard to get the answers, it really isn't that hard. I have to admit it isn't a railroad company operating that line, but mostly private citizens who are allowed to use this stretch of tracks. The vehicle shown is even the most luxory one of this categorie. I can also tell that I rode in that vehicle on the way to and in one of the other vehicles on the way back on a weekend trip some years ago.

To get the answer it would be a good idea to see where the picture is from (besides that I took that picture back then) and go on from there...

oh yeah, Googles translation feature can help also a little...

Is this one of those rail lines out to the beach in Holland or somewhere.
Fred

Hello Fred,
Fred wrote:

Is this one of those rail lines out to the beach in Holland or somewhere.
Fred

You should better say out "from" the beach.
And no not Holland, closer to my home.

Id want to say 1 meter or perhaps 700 mm. I know that North Germany was full of narrow gauge. The Grandfather of my Ex started his apprenticeship as a Heizer on one of those narrow gauge engines (he was perhaps 14-16 in those days. As he waved to a girl (who later became his wife,) the engineer gave him a whack across the face. Not unusual reaction in those days.
He worked on those railroads and later worked on boilers for Bloem und Voss, where he helped build the luxury ship Deutscheand and the battleship Bismark.
A lot of the track on the railroad he worked on was ripped out and taken by the Russians after the war. I am thinking the Family orginally was around Rugen and the Ostsee.
I know there are Schmallspur up in the dunes and Deiche of north Germany. I also know they had wagons in the oldays that went into the water.

Hello Kelley,
Kelley wrote:

Id want to say 1 meter or perhaps 700 mm.
[...]
I know there are Schmallspur up in the dunes and Deiche of north Germany. I also know they had wagons in the oldays that went into the water.

Somewhere in between 1000 to 700 mm

and the answers are onn the net...

Still guessing ..I seen some pretty crazy looking Draisinen from up there ..The Fischkoepfe have all kinds of crazy railroads up around Ost Friesland, Sylt,(?? maybe just cows) and Schleswig-Holstein,Usedom.
I seen there is a special going on with the Hamburg tourist bureau, where you pay for a hotel and they will pay for the ICE tickets.. Maybe this year I will get there.

well...
the night is over, 8 hours of work too, still no ideas...

Still guessing .. Sylt, and Schleswig-Holstein

Sylt is part of Schleswig-Holstein, and even if the tracks in question aren't really the Hindenburgdamm, they are relativly close to that landmark.
Besides... the picture can be found on my website...

Fahrt de Lowenbraun

All Right---I'll GONG myself- I don't even understand what I wrote- But I think it's on your website.

Fred

Hindenburgdam??!! Does that have anything to do with the Dueppler Schanzen??? I will check out your website and see

Hello Kelley,
Kelley wrote:

Hindenburgdam??!! Does that have anything to do with the Dueppler Schanzen???

Nope... The Hindenburgdamm connects the German Mainland with the island Sylt in the North Sea. The Düppler Schanzen are near Sonderborg in Denmark at the Flensburger Förde which is a bay or fjord of the Ostsee (Baltic Sea). There are about 47 miles / 76 km between those two places in a clear east west line. The place I meant is about 14 miles / 22.5 km south of the Hindenburgdamm.

Wow what a railroad..turn the motor!! I thought the VW bus drasine was crazy, cause the body turned and wheels with frame stayed. Why dont they just put a sail on the thing and use wind power??

Ulie,
How about track width 900mm.
Began operation in 1927.



Great job Ulie.

Thanks,
JerryB)

Hello Jerry,

Congratulation, yes that's what I wanted to read.

It was a funny weekend back then in 1989. We had to drive some 250 km to get to Dagebüll where the line starts, and since the line is washed over by the sea sometimes in high tide, we were told to be on time. Unfortunately we were late, and missed the departure of our group. So we faced the need to drive back home again. But we wanted to tell our friends that we just were late and that we didn't had an accident or such. Back then a mobile phone was something for the really really important people, and besides mostly of the size of a building brick... ...not Lego, the real ones...
so when I found a phone booth I thought about whom to call on the island. Since the accomodations were organized throught he group we had no phone number for the landlord. In the phone book I found that they had a midwife on the island, and so I thought, if she didn't knew everyone on the island, then who will...
I called, and she told me not to drive home, since her husband had to pick up someone later anyway. So we still got our weekend on the Hallig Oland. I've been there once again in early summer 2007, but this time we walked over the free ocean ground at low tide.

@Kelley:
Yes they had cars that used sails, the only problem is that if the wind was blowing directly along the railline you couldn't sail against the wind, since you can't cruise on rails like a sailboat on the water can...

For some more pictures see here for the translated version , and here for the German version of a website that tells about a replica projekt. There are four pages: History - page 1 - page 2 - page 3.

More pictures about the current state of the line are here translated or here in German .

Well Jerry, now it's your turn to send us out for a research...

Mine works- Jim must have gafixit.