"One difference between pessimists and optimists is that while pessimists are more often right, optimists have far more fun."
Dave,
just copy and paste the link into the translater and hit the button translate.
Santa Fe All The Way:
Pity the poor guys who were running the thing! I hope they were able to jump in time.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Thanks Ulrich. I'm not quite sure how to use the translater so any tips would help.
this project is handled by the Foundation "Bahnwelt Darmstadt-Kranichstein". This foundation operates the railroad museum in Darmstadt, one of the largest collection of railroad equipment in Germany. They also operate a number of steam train excursions in Germany.
If you wish to support this project, write an email to these folks, and they will be able to tell, how that can be done from outside of Germany:
Their email address is: stiftung@bahnwelt.de
More info on the project can be found here - sorry, the page is in German only, but Google translate will help you grab the contents.
Ulrich:
That is an interesting story! I really hope that the locomotive can be raised. Perhaps you could post a link here to the organization that is working on raising the locomotive. Maybe some MR forum participants might be willing to part with a buck or two to help. I will!
Thanks
Only recently, a sunken engine was discovered in midst of the Rhine river in Germany. The loco dates back to 1852 and never saw service. While being transported on a sailing barge from the shop to the railroad, a storm hit, the barge capsized and the loco "fell" into the river, sinking deep into the mud. The loco´s name? "The Rhine" - what else?
Now there is a fundraiser going on to have that loco retrieved from its wet grave. It is expected to be in an excellent state.
I originally posted this to another thread that was seven years old. I did that because there had been a couple of recent posts about lost engines. Instead of letting the post wither in an old thread I thought it might be interesting to hear about other lost engines.
Here is the copied post:
"I know this is an old thread but the recent posts about sunken engines bring up an interesting topic, i.e. lost engines.
We have a local legend of a lost train.
I live close to Tottenham, Ontario where the South Simcoe Railway runs 4-4-0 #136 that is, if memory serves correctly, 135 years old and has been operating for all of its life, save for downtime to do boiler rebuilds etc. It was used in the Pierre Burton TV series called "The National Dream: Building the Impossible Railway" and it travelled the whole distance from Tottenham to British Columbia under its own power to film the series. That was in 1974.
http://southsimcoerailway.ca/
Here is a link to the TV series. It was very well done.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_National_Dream_%28TV_miniseries%29
Unfortuneatly the SSR website seems to be a little outdated in some places, and lacks a lot of information about steamer #136.
Anyhow, I digress. Sorry.
When you take the train from Tottenham to Beeton the conductor tells a story about a steam engine that disappeared in the fog one day while running on the same track. Supposedly it fell into a creek and sank without a trace. They have a lot of fun with the story. At one point the conductor tells the passengers that the whistle of the lost train can still be heard, at which point the engineer toots a few times. The creek is barely big enough to sink a wheelbarrow let alone a steam engine and train. Its all malarky of course but it adds a lot of fun to the excursion.
I saw another wrecked steam engine in Cuba a few years ago, except instead of being sunk in a marsh this one was on prominant display outside our resort. The resort had a railroad theme - rather tacky I might add. At first glance all you saw was an old steamer, but once you studied it a bit you realized that the frame was twisted rather badly and some of the major components were no longer connected as they should have been. I guess that was an example of how to make use of a wreck. Put it on a pedestal and build a huge resort around it! Please remember - no politics!
Dave"
Here are the other two recent posts to the old thread:
"At the bottom of Kerr lake in North Carolina, the is a steam locomotive. Before there was a lake, a bridge went across a river. The bridge was damaged in a forest fire, so the two brothers who operated the locomotive came up with an idea. They would stop before the bridge and one would walk to the other side, then the other would open the throttle and jump off. When the locomotive got to the other side, the first one would jump on and stop the train, and wait for the second one to walk across. They did this for awhile with out incedent. Finally the bridge was repaired so they decided to go across in the locomotive. Sadly, the bridge failed sending the brothers and the locomotive to a watery grave. The locomotive was never recovered because it went deep into the mud. Locals use to swim down and ring the bell, but then the dam was built, and it is now under sixty feet of water."
"I have a locomotive buried out back almost in my back yard. My grandmother used to tell me of a locomotive that fell off the tracks and sank into the marsh. The ground was so soft it sank away and could not be recovered. Its called Chandlers marsh in East Lansin Michigan. There is a bunch of student housing built up in the area which is called "The Landings". There is a huge field here which up until recently was a sod farm and is now a corn field. I spent some time researching it and if I'm right the date was 1869. My grandmother said that townsfolk laughed at the idea of running the tracks through the Marsh and after the derailment the railroad moved the tracks further north to what is now the corner of Chandler Rd and State Rd."