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The Last of German Steam

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The Last of German Steam
Posted by Flintlock76 on Sunday, August 15, 2021 10:58 AM

Hey everyone!  Sara T sent me this film of some German steam operations late in their era, steam's still hanging on but the diesels are on the way.  One glorious last hurrah.

The film quality's excellent and the photography's superb!  I think you'll all like it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYVJPEYbE08

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Posted by M636C on Wednesday, August 18, 2021 9:23 PM

I visited the area in January 1974, when one of the class 38 4-6-0s and one of the class 78 4-6-4s were still working. I'm sure I stood on the bridge in one of the closing scenes and photograhed one of the steam passenger trains.

I was a little disappointed when visiting Rottweil not to see one of the dogs named after the town....

If you look closely in the initial scene of the freight departing behind the class 44 2-10-0, both the 4-6-0 and the 4-6-4T are visible.

Peter

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, August 19, 2021 10:06 AM

M636C
I was a little disappointed when visiting Rottweil not to see one of the dogs named after the town....

Look at it this way, there's no town in Germany named "Dachshund."  Wink

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Posted by pennytrains on Thursday, August 19, 2021 6:05 PM

Treu.  Mom's maiden name was Bischof and supposedly we're German.  But, Bischofshaven is in Austria.  So, am I ein Deutscher or einen Osterricher?  Hmm

Big Smile  Same me, different spelling!  Big Smile

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Posted by Flintlock76 on Thursday, August 19, 2021 6:31 PM

pennytrains

Treu.  Mom's maiden name was Bischof and supposedly we're German.  But, Bischofshaven is in Austria.  So, am I ein Deutscher or einen Osterricher?  Hmm

 

Good question.  Considering how borders got shifted around in the old days when the European upper-classes played the "Sport of Kings" anything's possible.

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Posted by M636C on Thursday, August 19, 2021 9:17 PM

Flintlock76

 

 
M636C
I was a little disappointed when visiting Rottweil not to see one of the dogs named after the town....

 

Look at it this way, there's no town in Germany named "Dachshund."  Wink

 

But I saw an Alsatian in Strasbourg....

I'm a big fan of "roof dogs" although they have lots of sharp edges when they sit in your lap.

Peter

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Posted by Overmod on Thursday, August 19, 2021 9:40 PM

M636C
I was a little disappointed when visiting Rottweil not to see one of the dogs named after the town....

But did you get to see the Multi tower?

 

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Posted by NKP guy on Friday, August 20, 2021 1:10 PM

   Pennytrains:       "Mom's maiden name was Bischof and supposedly we're German.  But, Bischofshaven is in Austria.  So, am I ein Deutscher or einen Osterricher?  Hmm"

 

   I'd say you're a German (-American) whose people came from what is now Austria.  Before the war, Germans lived in communities all over Central and Eastern Europe.  If my German-speaking ancestors came from what is now Serbia or Ukraine I wouldn't think of my heritage as being from those two countries; I'd say I was German.  I think of Germans as a people first, the vast majority of whom live in Germany.  But many other German-speakers live in Austria, Switzerland, etc.

   Another way you could look at your question:  Who controlled the area your people are from in 1914?  Were they under the Hapsburg or Hohenzollern monarchs?  

   Similarly, the Rusyns, or Carpatho-Rusyns, lived on both sides of the Carpathian Mountains in what is now Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine.  Not as numerous as their neighbors, they never had a sovereign or state of their own.  They speak a western dialect of the Ukrainian language.  They wouldn't consider themselves Poles or Slovaks, but many consider their heritage to be Ukrainian, often because of the language and also the Ukrainian Catholic Church (an Eastern Church under the Pope).  Only in the past 30 years has a Rusyn identity in North America been developing.

   By the way, Carpatho-Rusyns are one of the largest ethnic groups in Western Pennsylvania...but they often mis-identify as Poles, Slovaks, or "some kind of Ukrainian," as I was once told.

 

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Posted by Fr.Al on Friday, August 20, 2021 3:18 PM

My late wife was Carpatho Rusyn. Two grandparents came from the Austrian side, now Southern Poland. The other two came from the Hungarian side, now Slovakia. My wife's people called themselves "Russian" because of religious affilation. She was from Eastern Pennsylvania.

     I'm in Western PA, which has the largest Slovak population outside of Slovakia. Almost nobody speaks the language any more; I rarely get a chance to practice. The dialect my wife's people spoke is sort of a Ukrainian-Slovak hybrid.

     In the town I'm living in, the is a 108 year old Slovak lady. Not only was she born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which no longer exists, but she came from Czechoslovakia with her family in the 1920's. Not only did she outlive the country she was born in, but the country that she emigrated from, Czechoslovakia, was born after she was, and has now passed on during her lifetime!

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Posted by M636C on Saturday, August 21, 2021 12:31 AM

I heard of a pianist who said:

"My father was born in Germany, my mother was born in Poland and I was born in the USSR, but all in the same town..."

Peter

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Posted by Overmod on Saturday, August 21, 2021 7:44 AM

M636C
"My father was born in Germany, my mother was born in Poland and I was born in the USSR, but all in the same town..."

But not with the same name!

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Posted by Fr.Al on Saturday, August 21, 2021 8:03 AM

There is Lemberg(German),Lwow(Polish), and now Lviv, reflecting the city being in Austria, Poland, and Ukraine. Of course, between Poland and Ukraine, it was in the Soviet Union until the collapse in 1991. The Soviets occupied Eastern Polish territory, after WWII, Poland was "compensated" by receiving German territory in the west. I believe that's where those steam locomotives in Poland still run, to bring this conversation back to trains.

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Posted by Fr.Al on Monday, August 23, 2021 6:57 AM

Along the same lines, Steamtown's Canadian locomotives now run on home rails without leaving the United States, since CP aquired the D&H!

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Posted by daveklepper on Monday, August 23, 2021 7:25 AM

Except that Steamtowm itself ix on ex-DL&W/EL property and  tracks.

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Posted by Fr.Al on Monday, August 23, 2021 9:30 AM

That's true, but the engines have been used on fantrips over former D&H trackage. Note I said," without leaving the United States." I didn't say," without leaving Scranton."

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Posted by daveklepper on Thursday, August 26, 2021 11:22 AM

Your statement is correct.   Just trying to point out that their current home is not their traditioinal home.

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