In looking through some old family photo albums today I found this old photo:
It may have been taken in the mid to late 1920’s. The sign on the right clearly reads in-part “der Eisenbahnwagen”, and, presumably, the sign hanging from the ceiling says “Eisenbahnen”.
Does anybody know of any German, Austrian or possibly Swiss rail museums or expositions where this might have been taken?
The box also included photo books and postcard folders from London, Brussels, Paris, Venice, the Rheinland, Rome, Milan and one from Berlin but very few photos not professionally taken and sold to tourists. Somebody, possibly a family member, but maybe not, went on “the grand tour” in the late 20’s. With the exception of a book about the Museum of the Army in Paris which shows the Versailles Treaty car still safely on the museum grounds, this is the only rail related photo I found.
I believe it is one of the replicas of the Puffing Billy Locomotive, built in 1906 in a Royal Bavarian State Railways workshop, display in the Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany:
I had to hit my copy of Colin Garratt’s “The World Encyclopedia of Locomotives” to try and find an answer, and I think I may have been successful.
I don’t believe that engine’s German, or Continental at all. It looks an awful like the British “Puffing Billy” of 1813. The Germans didn’t start building railroads until the 1830’s and a “Puffing Billy” tye would have been obsolete by then. Same with Austria and Switzerland.
hehe, all roads lead to Rome, isn’t it… or wasn’t it [C][:P]
You are right that I have seen it before, but it was another replica from another place, where I learned about this locomotive have another “copy”. [;)]
During the good old days when people could easily buy adhesive for plastic model building or even plastic train model from a stationery shop (not necessary a hobby shop), I bought a 1:24 Stephensons Rocket model kit form a larger stationary shop near my home which reminiscent of my childhood learning about the ‘superstar’ of the industrial revolution, aka the vintage steam locomotive from the early 1800s.
There was another 1:24 model kit of the Coalbrookdale locomotive from the same manufacturer. And I always mixed up the “Puffing Billy” and other vintage steam locomotives like the Coalbrookdale (also designed by Richard Trevithick)
I believe we have guessed it right, let see if any other forumer could provide a better answer for this puzzle from Becky’s collection!
Oh yeah, I remember the “sniffing model airplane glue” panic from the late '60s, remember it quite well. Just how widespread the practice was is open to question, but you know how panics are.
The Testors company solved the “problem”, if a problem it was, by adding mustard oil to the glue, and I believe others followed suit. No-one was going to sniff glue if they got a snoot-full of mustard at the same time!
Anyway, 16 year old (at the time) Wayne ( model airplane building me) got a first-hand education about media-fueled public panics and to never underestimate their power, no matter how unreasonable or illogical they are.
Hey, I remember back in the '70s TV host Johnny Carson made a joke about a toilet paper shortage. Only a joke, but in days supermarkets all over the country were sold out! [banghead]
Sound like I missed another episode of Scare Tactic or Stephen King’s movie (Thinner?) [:P] The Media is the fourth branch of government; if they want to turn some healthy hobby like model building and oil painting into plots in the movie ‘Final Destination 1,2,3,4,5…’) for whatever reason, it is still a powerful and efficient tool to manipulate the general public. But thanks to the internet, people could find the truth by themselves much easier than before, but the internet itself is also a double-edged sword…
That’s GOT to be it! [:D] If you look close at the pic I scanned the ceiling beams match exactly.
Thanks! [:D]
BTW, I didn’t want to mention that the words “Puffing Billy” had been written in pencil on the back of the photo because I know that’s something of a generic term.
I found 3 others today while I was sorting more stuff which I believe show a yard in Pennsylvania, maybe Pittsburgh.
Of course this is the one that makes me think “Pittsburgh”:
It just happens that I know some of the ‘secret’ behind this. Not all model-airplane glues were equal in producing delight; Ambroid and Testor’s (bottle or tube) were not particularly good at it (which kids might not know if there hadn’t been MUCH better alternatives)…
The one that likely caused most of the problems was a product in a tube but with a very fluid consistency (as I remember it) called “Styro-Weld”. This had a remarkably aromatic, ethereal smell to it … and yes, there were terrible medical risks associated with breathing its solvents, which have subsequently become much, much better documented in connection with that ridiculous HC-134a refrigerant scam.
I can’t find the official ‘smoking gun’ from the Government, but there has to be one: the product quietly but definitively disappeared from the market, even from the specialist ‘professional’ community using solvents for plastic welding, and I have only just now seen the name reappear (on a Dutch site, of all places) – I will have to see if this is the same product I remember so well. From what I see on the label it is not.
Not ‘mustard’ but the chemical that makes for the sharpness, with the ugly name and ugly formula ‘allyl isothiocyanate’. (This, printed on the tube, was my introduction to practical organic chemistry back in the day, as it most certainly ruined the good smell of solvent cement!) Cyanide glued
Thanks for the tutorial Overmod! As I said, it was a very frustrating time for plastic modelers.
Personally I could care less about onions, don’t care for those vile vegetables at all! Lady Firestorm, on the other hand, wants to know what happened to Bermuda onions! They used to be the gold standard for onions, now they’re gone! She LOVES onions! [+o(]
Becky, I’ve been to Pittsburgh twice. The first photo I’m not sure, the second I’m 75% sure it’s P-burgh, the third definately! That’s the Mount Washington inclined railway all right. It’s still there but I don’t think those buildings are anymore, I only remember woods at the base of the hill when I was there about eight or nine years ago.
Here’s a current photo spread on the Duquesne (Mt. Washington) Incline.
It’s been said Pittburgh is the only city in the country that “makes an entrance” and it’s true. Driving into the city you go through a tunnel or over a mountain and presto! There it is! Pretty cool!
The middle photo shows the “Wabash Bridge” to the “Point”, along with part of the P&LE station. Jay Gould’s “Wabash Pittsburg Terminal” later became the Pittsburgh and West Virginia. (note the “h” missing from Pittsburg(h) before WW I). The bottom photo shows the roof of the P&LE station, the Smithfield Street Bridge and the Mon(ongahela) Incline, still in service today. Towards the bottom of the photo the Incline crosses PRR’s Panhandle, hiden by the embankment. Out of sight to the right is the portal to the Mt. Washington Tunnel, and PRR’s Smithfield St. suburban station.
FWIW “Puffing Billy” (sometimes written “Puffin’ Billy”) was the name of the song used as the theme song for the Captain Kangaroo TV show, the BBC used it for one of their shows for many years around the same time. Apparently it was inspired by an old steam engine the composer, Edward White, saw on vacation on the Isle of Wight in the U.K.
All Mining Schools are built atop steep walking climbs. Michigan Tech at Houghton, Haileybury School of Mines, Colorado School of Mines, South Dakota, and Pittsburgh… been to all of them. Met with Jan Mutmansky, emeritus, just before I started here at Northlands. Talked with him several times on the phone since , and the students use 3 of his published books in our curriculum.
Despite its worldwide nature Mining people are a close knit group and most know each other in one way or another.
No suspension! [:O]
