Tiny Trains: Neat Narrow-Gauge Rail Connects German Island to Mainland

The neatest part of this article was the fact that these trains used to operate by sail. It&#x27;s a strange image to imagine but it makes a lot of sense for an incredibly windy area with rails.<p>My uncle is actually a tiny train enthusiast. He bought really old schematics for a full-size steam powered locomotive and scaled them down, machining every little piece from blocks of metal.<p>He has been working on it for 20+ years; he originally planned for his grandchildren to get to play with it but they&#x27;re all adults now. Maybe it will be ready in time for his great grandchildren.

What is it about guys and trains? I reflexively upvoted before even reading the article, and after reading the article, I realize it is a pretty standard narrow gauge railroad. Don’t care! Would vote again if I could!

I&#x27;m german but I&#x27;ve never ever heard of neither the island, nor the trains. How remarkable!

Private train cars are the most interesting part. I wonder how signaling works? Does each house&#x2F;&quot;station&quot; have its own fork in the tracks for getting their private train car home?

While in Japan last summer, we rode the Kurobe Gorge Railway deep into the Japanese Alps. It&#x27;s a 762 mm narrow gauge railway, originally build as industrial railway for dam construction, but now open to the public. It goes through 42 tunnels and on the crazy steep sides of the deep V shaped Kurobe Gorge. It was a really nice trip - breathtaking views &amp; nice outdoor hot springs to bathe in. :)<p>Some links: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kurotetu.co.jp&#x2F;en&#x2F;railway&#x2F;index.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kurotetu.co.jp&#x2F;en&#x2F;railway&#x2F;index.html</a> <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=Eeo7Qxw88P4" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=Eeo7Qxw88P4</a>

I was envisioning a little village of houses with trains, but peeking from the satellites, it looks like one fork and only one guesthouse has rail service (Familie Siefert - Hallig Nordstrandischmoor). There seem to be a couple of guesthouses, a &quot;Glockenturm&quot; which is a school&#x2F;church servicing three students, and one private house on the island.

There are a couple of significant and actually, physically, miniature 15&quot; gauge steam railways in the UK. I say a couple because the Ravenglass and Eskdale Railway (Cumbria) and the Romney Hythe and Dymchurch Railway (Kent) are the preeminent ones.<p>They both served as genuine forms of transport at various points in their histories.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Romney,_Hythe_and_Dymchurch_Railway" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Romney,_Hythe_and_Dymchurch_Ra...</a>

Can&#x27;t this inspire the future of automated driving? Paint strips on the freeway optimized for visual-recognition systems, to serve as super cheap railway tracks. Super cheap because painted strips are far cheaper than laying tracks, and they would lower the cost of the visual recognition systems in cars. These automated driving sections would satisfy my principal pain point with driving, which is long commutes or drives on the freeway.

This reminds me of Austria&#x27;s Reisseck-Hoehenbahn which sadly closed down a few years ago. It was a 600mm narrow gauge train high up in the mountains originally used for the construction of a power plant. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=s7XrOfSNdO4" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=s7XrOfSNdO4</a>

This reminds me of the Ooty toy train. Despite the name, it&#x27;s not a toy, but a meter gauge train that goes between the plains and the hill station of Ooty &#x2F; Udhagamandalam, in Tamil Nadu, a state in South India. Moves quite slowly. Good fun riding it. I&#x27;ve been on it years ago.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Nilgiri_Mountain_Railway" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Nilgiri_Mountain_Railway</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Rack_railway" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Rack_railway</a><p>Images of it:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.co.in&#x2F;search?q=ooty+toy+train+images" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.co.in&#x2F;search?q=ooty+toy+train+images</a>

You can ride an underground tiny train in London -- what used to be used for postal mail delivery (Mail Rail)<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=gCsKUNIspW8" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=gCsKUNIspW8</a>

Mildly related: The bus replacement rail service - <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=3WHmETKW72E" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=3WHmETKW72E</a>

There&#x27;s a rather good documentary about it here <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=v3XI-4wfYxI" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=v3XI-4wfYxI</a> (in German, unfortunately), for anyone interested in how it operates.

Hey! With something (modernized) like that, you could ride in the suburbs to mass transit ... and leave the car at home.

They look ready to fall over.