The Old Railyard Hidden In A Berlin Park

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  • Опубликовано: 13 июн 2023
  • For half a century after it closed down, the old Berlin Tempelhof railyard was completely sealed off from humans. During that time it became a haven for wildlife, and a tiny lost world on the edge of the city. But in 2000, it reopened - this time, as a protected nature reserve. I went to the German capital to explore it for myself...
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Комментарии • 643

  • @dansummers2965
    @dansummers2965 11 месяцев назад +161

    I suspect the belly-tickling pit is an ash dump, for dropping the locomotive's fire into at the end of a working session so it can be cleaned out - it's too shallow for a proper inspection pit, I'd have thought. But I prefer Niamh's explanation.

    • @B2BWide
      @B2BWide 11 месяцев назад +12

      Niamh is a real treasure, I loved her explanations (and her smile). Greetings to her! ;)

    • @kapegede
      @kapegede 11 месяцев назад +17

      You're right. It's an ember pit. It's too shallow to be an inspection trench. So there it would be more like tickling a dragon.

    • @gummybread
      @gummybread 11 месяцев назад +19

      Well if thats the ash dump then wheres the tummy tickling segment? Thats probably why the yard was abandoned, they forgot to build one

    • @thesteelrodent1796
      @thesteelrodent1796 11 месяцев назад +7

      considering this was a freight yard, a dump pit makes the most sense. Inspection pits were (normally) only ever built (dug) by the maintenance sheds.

    • @hedgehog3180
      @hedgehog3180 10 месяцев назад +9

      @@gummybread German trains are all very serious and refuse to be tickled, which makes them depressed and that is why DB is always late while SCNF is mostly on time. JR of course is the most timely railway company in the world because they cheer up their trains with cute anime decorations.

  • @sirrliv
    @sirrliv 11 месяцев назад +337

    Fun factoid about the steam train: A total of 3,160 DR Class 50 locomotives were built, making them one of the most ubiquitous single steam locomotive classes ever made. THE most ubiquitous was the DR Class 52, a later iteration on the Class 50, with over 7,000 engines built! A few Class 50 engines have seen service as far away as China and North Korea, with one being preserved in the Shenyang Railway Museum.
    If you enjoy park spaces transformed from old railway yards, I highly recommend the Heizhaus Eisenbahnmuseum in Strasshof, Austria, about half an hour outside of Vienna on the S1 Line (get off at Silberwald, not Strasshof). This incredible railway museum can basically be summed up as a steam locomotive maintenance yard that never got the memo that steam was dead. Most of the original facilities are still intact and still functional and you're free to wander around most all of them. The whole site is over 2km long! Much of the collection is stored outdoors, but the most prized pieces are found in the engine sheds, including locomotives dating back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire that are steamed up for demonstrations and rides and select days of the year. There's also a nice miniature railway and several model train exhibits, as well as a few passenger coaches that have been repurposed as cafes and a gift shop, so a lovely day out for all. If Tim ever has cause to swing down to Vienna, I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's a lovely place run by lovely people passionate about preserving Austria's railway history as more than dusty objects in a museum, historic machines still capable of doing the work they were built to do even after over 100 years.

    • @andrewyoung749
      @andrewyoung749 11 месяцев назад +3

      depending on whether you take the 4 e classes of russia railways as subclasses the russians built 11000-13000 e class steam locos depending who you ask
      the russians also built over 9000 o class steam locos
      re strasshof. yeah but they could make far better mainline use of that spectacular 310.23

    • @smhorse
      @smhorse 11 месяцев назад +7

      Two Baureihe 52s made it to Britain. One went to Bressingham Steam Museum and was nicknamed "Peer Gynt", where it sat essentially doing nothing for about three decades, whilst the other did work on the Nene Valley Railway for a while. The NVR is the only line where Continental engines and stock can run in Britain, since its clearances were widened to take the Berne loading gauge.

    • @paulbeneder9337
      @paulbeneder9337 11 месяцев назад +7

      Also at Strasshof:
      Squirrel = Oachkatzl. 🐿

    • @MrPixelspin
      @MrPixelspin 11 месяцев назад +4

      The VSM (Veluwse Stoomtrein Maatschappij) in the Netherlands owns 6 BR52's of which two are still operational. They also own 5 BR50's of which 3 are still operational. In the summer they have weekly riding days and in september they have the annualy "Terug naar toen" ("Back till then") weekend in which they try to run as many steam engines together as possible. Also a very great sight to see. If you search for "Terug naar toen" you can find some high quality video's of it.

    • @tjj4656
      @tjj4656 11 месяцев назад +2

      It's also interesting that the DDR kept the name 'Deutsche Reichsbahn". This is not a fact, but it is believed that they kept the name because in all the East-West treaties regulating rail transport across the corridors and in Berlin itself, the entity was explicitly named like that.

  • @markstott6689
    @markstott6689 11 месяцев назад +274

    Anthracite = black coal.
    Lignite = Brown coal.
    Anthracite gives off far more heat than lignite, making it ideal for steam locomotives.
    Lignite generally was used in power stations.

    • @peter_meyer
      @peter_meyer 11 месяцев назад +43

      Unfortunately it still is used in power stations. Even in germany.

    • @NoNameForNone
      @NoNameForNone 11 месяцев назад +38

      > Lignite generally was used in power stations.
      Is, not was. The main tagebau site which is now digging up a highway and some villages in the ruhr area in germany digs up that for the nearby powerstations. Which is needed since germany stopped all nuclear power.

    • @watson956
      @watson956 11 месяцев назад +8

      @Mark Stott - Thank you, I was scratching my head about what the english equivalents would be.

    • @Schmogel92
      @Schmogel92 11 месяцев назад

      ​@@NoNameForNone this already is a very heated debate all over the internet. But I only want to add that the reason we have to continue using brown coal for a few more years (around 2030) is that the conservative party in charge botched the transition to renewable energy and bankrupted German solar industries in it's infancy. Our wind industry barely survived.

    • @markstott6689
      @markstott6689 11 месяцев назад +1

      @@watson956 You're welcome 😊

  • @matthijsdeboer9932
    @matthijsdeboer9932 11 месяцев назад +288

    Hello Tim, I reckon you would like hearing this if you had not been aware of it already, so here goes. The German (Eichhörnchen) and also the Dutch (eekhoorn) share a remarkable and most probably not utterly coincidental resemblance to the English word for their favourite food, if you believe the stereotype that is ofcourse, namely the acorn. In fact, the pronounciation of the Dutch word 'eekhoorn' is virtually the same as 'acorn' is for you. Take care and keep posting, I thoroughly enjoy your videos and quite often pin the locations!

    • @AllegedlyHuman
      @AllegedlyHuman 11 месяцев назад +46

      Germanic languages unite! It's ekorn in Norwegian

    • @gwaptiva
      @gwaptiva 11 месяцев назад +30

      And then there's the "rule" in French where é at start of a word indicates that it at some point may have been 'es'... so the leap from squirrel to écureuil isn't that massive either

    • @lonestarr1490
      @lonestarr1490 11 месяцев назад +21

      @@kardinmo Ah yes, the pleistocenic Eichhorn with its saber teeth which the early humans hunted for their pelts, of which they made cute jackets for their pet mammoths, and also rode into battle.

    • @SquirrelSeb84
      @SquirrelSeb84 11 месяцев назад +8

      @@AllegedlyHuman Kaweechelchen in Luxembourgish

    • @thesteelrodent1796
      @thesteelrodent1796 11 месяцев назад +9

      same thing in Danish: They're called "egern" because they eat "agern" (acorn) - and both those words are nearly impossible for non-Danes to pronounce correctly (because the 'g' is a soft G, that's pronounced similar to, but not exactly like, a J - and if you pronounce it as J, you get "ejer" [which means owner] - and the N at the end is barely pronounced at all). And the one thing that usually throws off foreigners trying to learn Danish: the spokes of a wheel are called "eger", which is pronounced almost the same as "egern" - it refers to old wooden wheels where the spokes were made of oak.

  • @rontanser9369
    @rontanser9369 11 месяцев назад +235

    That was a very good idea to turn it into a nature park. It’s a pity we didn’t do something like that with a few of our abandoned sites.

    • @DrivermanO
      @DrivermanO 11 месяцев назад

      Ouir active sites seem to be overgrown! You trees and weeds sprouting out of buildings - look at Wolverhampton Station. Its a disgrace!

    • @bingbong7316
      @bingbong7316 11 месяцев назад +2

      I haven't been that way of late, but much of Feltham became forest.

    • @jackiespeel6343
      @jackiespeel6343 11 месяцев назад +4

      In London there is the Parkland Walk, and the former railway line nature reserve by the Horniman Museum - there are probably others.

    • @01jvb
      @01jvb 11 месяцев назад

      We have a similar site in Leamington called Foundry Wood - a triangle of land between 2 rail lines.

    • @jackiespeel6343
      @jackiespeel6343 11 месяцев назад +1

      There is also the Gunnersbury Triangle Nature Reserve (across Bollo Lane - which has two level crossings on it).

  • @mquietsch6736
    @mquietsch6736 11 месяцев назад +186

    One of Tim's particular charms is how elastically his British tongue adapts to other languages. I love Tim's French, and his German is just as impeccable. Yes, he may have a slight accent, but he manages the clear vowels in German and French so beautifully ❤

    • @anjachan
      @anjachan 11 месяцев назад +4

      yeah it sounds very good!

    • @MyRegardsToTheDodo
      @MyRegardsToTheDodo 11 месяцев назад +4

      He is good, but he is definitely an exception. Most English-speakers don't really addapt to speaking German, which is quite hillarious when you have a movie where one of the characters is supposed to speak German but isn't a German native (I am German, but sometimes I prefer to listen to a movie or especially TV show in the original English dub).

    • @wheeliebeast7679
      @wheeliebeast7679 11 месяцев назад

      Yeah?! I think you mean "Ja!"

    • @apveening
      @apveening 11 месяцев назад +2

      Not only German and French but also Dutch.

    • @Philibert73
      @Philibert73 11 месяцев назад

      I agree as for his French accent!

  • @kitchentroll5868
    @kitchentroll5868 11 месяцев назад +68

    The usual English term used for German Braunkohle is "lignite", which derives from Latin "lignum", meaning "wood". Whereas, "charcoal" in Latin is "carbones", which can also mean "coal", "soot", "anthrax", or "(burning) embers". Looping back to your friend's misapprehension, on my first visit to the lignite mine in Hambach, Germany, when I heard "Braunkohle" the first time, I misheard "Baumkohle" as well. Which confused the bejesus out of me, so I promptly asked my German hosts how they made any money making charcoal in such and enormous pit. There was much laughing. 😖

    • @Carewolf
      @Carewolf 11 месяцев назад +13

      And that is not even getting into Kohlkraft (powered by cabbage)..

    • @JamesChurchill
      @JamesChurchill 11 месяцев назад +3

      I hope you meant "anthracite" not "anthrax" :o

    • @kitchentroll5868
      @kitchentroll5868 11 месяцев назад +3

      @@JamesChurchill Strangely, no, both Latin dictionaries I have specify "anthrax" as one of the meanings of Latin "carbones". Let's just say that Latin can be weird that way 🤨 But then there is the Greek term "ἄνθραξ" which was also used interchangeably for coal and the disease anthrax, that in turn gives us "ἀνθρακίτης" (coal-like), which is the origin of "anthracite". Etymology is just plain weird.

    • @luelou8464
      @luelou8464 11 месяцев назад +2

      @@kitchentroll5868 Anthracite originally referred to heliotrope, which resembles coal. People later started using the term to refer to the type of coal to distinguish it from lignite. So basically anthracite is called anthracite because it resembles the gem formally referred to as anthracite which was named because it resembled the coal now referred to as anthracite.

    • @andershansson2245
      @andershansson2245 Месяц назад

      So basically, the difference of being invaded by the Roman Empire, or instead invading Rome itself...

  • @PonyOfWar
    @PonyOfWar 11 месяцев назад +130

    The "animals of farthing wood" theme at 02:20 was definitely unexpected. Must be 20 years since I last heard it! Loved that series even though I'm probably still slightly traumatized from it.

    • @hardcorehobbit
      @hardcorehobbit 11 месяцев назад +4

      I was convinced that's what I heard. Thank you for confirming. I love this about Tim's videos. :D

    • @pavelow235
      @pavelow235 11 месяцев назад +4

      This American had to look up your TV reference.

    • @sognsvann3
      @sognsvann3 11 месяцев назад +2

      Me too! Loved it when I heard it now again❤

    • @Craftlngo
      @Craftlngo 11 месяцев назад +11

      I was very pleased to hear the Thomas the Tank engine melody merging with the Jim Knopf Title melody. Excellent job on that

    • @vikkiruss
      @vikkiruss 11 месяцев назад +3

      It is definitely a series that teaches you about death straight from episode one!

  • @MrPete81
    @MrPete81 11 месяцев назад +60

    The pause after "genuine German train belly tickling trough" XD
    I can imagine Tim's face thinking "I can't believe I just said that..."
    Great video and an interesting story, thank you for sharing :)

  • @AfonNoria
    @AfonNoria 11 месяцев назад +31

    Well, technically Niamh isn't wrong since all coal is formed from dead plant matter in the first place, including trees. Jede Kohle ist Baumkohle! :D

    • @batonnetdecannelle
      @batonnetdecannelle 11 месяцев назад +2

      Yes, Braunkohle (lignite) is from very old trees.
      And Steinkohle (hard coal) is from... extremely old trees.

    • @AfonNoria
      @AfonNoria 11 месяцев назад +7

      Haha, I just realised that "Every coal is tree coal" adapts quite well to the melody of "Every sperm is sacred" by Monty Python. Thankfully, I am not a native speaker of the English language or else I'd feel obliged to wrote a full on coal version of that song. 😁

    • @jounneejr8073
      @jounneejr8073 11 месяцев назад

      Finland (maybe others as well?) Used actual wood (birch) instead of coal because there wasn't any.

    • @AfonNoria
      @AfonNoria 11 месяцев назад +1

      @@jounneejr8073 In olden days, wood charcoal was more widely used than lignite and hard coal since both of them were harder to find and extract and had to be specially prepared for efficient use. This started with and then enhanced the Industrial Revolution. Gosh, what I still remember from school from 35 years ago.

  • @cicerotullius
    @cicerotullius 11 месяцев назад +216

    Tim does a awesome job on videos, high quality and just plan fun and good entertainment! Never enough

    • @DerProfi09
      @DerProfi09 11 месяцев назад +6

      He should have his own BBC show

    • @mumblbeebee6546
      @mumblbeebee6546 11 месяцев назад +1

      +1

    • @Knaeckebrotsaege
      @Knaeckebrotsaege 11 месяцев назад +5

      I'm always surprised by his pronounciation efforts. I mean I personally can only judge that when he says something in german, but considering how well he does that I assume he puts a similar effort in with all the other languages

    • @apveening
      @apveening 11 месяцев назад +2

      @@Knaeckebrotsaege He does about as well with Dutch and as French is his second language, I am not surprised his pronounciation of that is just about perfect as far as I can tell.

  • @jacobbaer785
    @jacobbaer785 11 месяцев назад +53

    The main railway terminus that this railyard served, was located just inside East Berlin, while all the tracks that led to it (including these) were located in West Berlin. So naturally, once the Berlin wall came up, the station and the tracks that led to it were abandoned. Trains from the south were diverted to Ostbahnhof so they could remain entirely in East Germany. And turning this area into a nature preserve (or anything else for that matter) was not high on West Berlin's priority list, which is why it sat abandoned until after Reunification. I believe the technology museum is now located where the train terminal once was.

    • @DoktorOste
      @DoktorOste 11 месяцев назад +5

      Do you mean Anhalter Bahnhof? That used to be in former West Berlin, but was destroyed during the war. The Park am Gleisdreieck is another park using the field of tracks right in front of the station as park nowadays.

  • @___Me_
    @___Me_ 11 месяцев назад +17

    Wow, I actually live next to a Tim Traveller treasure site! So cool!

  • @Onomast
    @Onomast 11 месяцев назад +12

    Love especially for the music in this video. apart from the "Thomas the little Steam-engine" there was the very nostalgic theme of "als die Tiere den Wald verließen" at 2:20. I so loved that show as a child.

    • @vacuumdiagram
      @vacuumdiagram 11 месяцев назад +2

      I couldn't resist pulling an imaginary chain for the 'toot toot', as it kicked off! 😅

  • @juliaheinzelmann7756
    @juliaheinzelmann7756 11 месяцев назад +67

    Fun fact: Tempelhof has another former transportation hub now open to the public: The former airport! The entire airport, runways an all, is now a giant park very close to the one in the video! Kinda surprised you didn't mention it.

    • @HB-bl5mn
      @HB-bl5mn 11 месяцев назад +5

      There is even a subterranean railway track underneath the airport building.

    • @LadyAnuB
      @LadyAnuB 11 месяцев назад

      I would guess that a crapload of propeller cargo planes coming and going are missing from this park? 😀

    • @arno_nuehm
      @arno_nuehm 11 месяцев назад +4

      Except, it's not the entire airport. Only the airfield is open as a park during opening hours, not the whole vast building itself. Just a small part where community sport in one of the hangars is practised, everything else is closed off to the broader public.

    • @emjayay
      @emjayay 11 месяцев назад

      There are two hour long tours in English of the main buildings which are huge six days a week. Google it.

    • @Foxbat916
      @Foxbat916 11 месяцев назад +8

      He did not want to spoil the next vídeo. ;)

  • @pavelow235
    @pavelow235 11 месяцев назад +28

    Niamh should have her own RUclips show, her insights and giggles made the video great!

    • @timothyexner
      @timothyexner 11 месяцев назад +6

      And she's a major cutie.

    • @B-M.B
      @B-M.B 11 месяцев назад +9

      Not every diamond need to be set, some need to be free to shine. 😉

  • @TheSurlySoutherner
    @TheSurlySoutherner 11 месяцев назад +16

    Can confirm that is indeed how the Turntable works. You'd put a crank handle on that stub and you could wind the table around manually. I imagine it had some form of powered system as well being it had a large cabin on it as well.

  • @SentientMeatbag
    @SentientMeatbag 11 месяцев назад +64

    If you thought you were bad at naming things, this place is called: nature park pretty mountain's southern ground.

    • @UndeadScavenger
      @UndeadScavenger 11 месяцев назад +18

      I'm constantly amazed, how often Berliner's have used "pretty" to describe any kind of location within the city, like Schönefeld, Schöneberg, Höhenschönhausen, Schöneweide...

    • @anjachan
      @anjachan 11 месяцев назад +18

      @@UndeadScavenger because it´s schön there 🤣

    • @johaquila
      @johaquila 11 месяцев назад +28

      @@UndeadScavenger From the German Wikipedia article on Schöneberg I just learned how this happened. It's in fact a more general phenomenon, not just in Berlin but in large parts of Eastern Germany. And it's not just "Schön-" (pretty), but also "Licht-" (bright, clear), "Grün-" (green) and other positive sounding descriptions. The reason: This part of Germany used to be very sparsely populated. To change this, villages with nice sounding names were founded and advertised in other parts of Germany.

    • @avandras
      @avandras 11 месяцев назад +3

      ​@@johaquilaright, and that was about 800 years ago, talk about marketing being something modern... Also, the funnier is the Berg part. In Schöneberg itself the highest mountain is the Insulaner (directly by the south entrance to the park in the video), but it's an artificial one, from debris from WWII. It's 78 metres tall, above sea level. The old village has a hill that is maybe 8 metres above the surrounding area...

  • @alexdemoya2119
    @alexdemoya2119 11 месяцев назад +42

    Tim is truly the most neutral good of travelers

  • @sanashi27
    @sanashi27 11 месяцев назад +37

    I usually feel this bit of loneliness whenever I watch videos of old abandoned or unused places but this one just made me feel happy. It's very pretty once nature took over once again. It becoming a park also lessens the sad feeling as I don't end up thinking about how it used to have people (well, in trains) going through the area. And there's a cute squirrel too so even when there's not much people in the video, it still doesn't feel empty.

  • @xfel5913
    @xfel5913 11 месяцев назад +31

    The reason the yard was abandoned was the Berlin Wall - it sits in the western area and the lines out of it got cut off by the border.

  • @whiskeytuesday
    @whiskeytuesday 11 месяцев назад +3

    The little change of voice on "the German war effort" is a beautiful little Fawlty Towers moment.

    • @HB-bl5mn
      @HB-bl5mn 11 месяцев назад

      Yep, Brits can't help it, can they?

  • @QemeH
    @QemeH 11 месяцев назад +5

    0:40
    For the tourists: Big pink banner with "Please note!" on top and then 4 simple pictograms which explain the basic rules of the park.
    For the germans: White board with tiny, almost unreadable script for 100 paragraphs, titled "park regulations"

  • @themetalslayer2260
    @themetalslayer2260 11 месяцев назад +36

    there's a lot of old railways destroyed during WW2 in France and sometime these railroads have been transformed into park or path (rails have been removed only the gravel still exists and it's really interresting to ride these ex-railroads by bicycle)
    i know that germans reconvert ex-railroads into bike path creating bicycle highways between cities

    • @locohauledforum
      @locohauledforum 11 месяцев назад +6

      Unfortunately it wasn't just WW2, the French are still closing railway lines 😞

    • @andrewyoung749
      @andrewyoung749 11 месяцев назад +3

      @@locohauledforum yeah, i was just in le cruseot for steam train reasons and a notice of withdrawal of services was pinned to the station.

    • @MyRegardsToTheDodo
      @MyRegardsToTheDodo 11 месяцев назад

      This switch yard in the video wasn't closed because of any destruction occuring during WW2, but it was closed as a result of WW2. After WW2 Berlin was separated into four different sectors (as was the whole of Germany) and in 1949 the eastern sector formed the German Democratic Republic (DDR), shortly followed by the three other sectors forming the Federal Republic of Germany (BRD). Berlin was special, the eastern sector became the capital of the DDR, while the three other sectors became part of the BRD, surrounded by sort of enemy territory. Anything railway-related (including the West-Berlin subway) was owned and operated by the Reichsbahn, which was owned first by the Soviets and later in 1949 by the DDR as a fully state-owned company. The DDR didn't dare to rename it, because they wanted to keep the West-Berlin subway for propaganda reasons and their territory in West-Berlin, but were afraid that if they renamed the Reichsbahn, that would void the contracts the Soviets had signed with the Allies allowing them to operate in West-Berlin and the Allies wouldn't negotiate new contracts with them. However, starting in 1952 they ceased most trans-border operations for their trains (one of the last lines was demolished in 1961, literally one day after a train operator had used it to escape with some of his family to West Berlin by driving through the border with a steam train) and considering the switch yard was in Berlin Schöneberg, which was part of the American sector, the Reichsbahn couldn't really use it anymore. The Reichsbahn still owned the territory until 1993 and since the 1970s there were plans to build a new freight terminal there, to replace all other freight terminals in southern Berlin, those plans were finally abandoned in 1989.
      The existence of this park is a direct result of the Cold War, one of the nicer things to come out of it.

    • @locohauledforum
      @locohauledforum 11 месяцев назад

      @@andrewyoung749 Yes, unfortunately the French are going through what we were going through in the 1950s-1980s, making the services as basic and unattractive as possible, thereby justifying their closure. I'm sure they will regret it soon...

  • @shubus
    @shubus 11 месяцев назад +2

    Templehof! I wish Tim would visit that famous old airport. I lived in it 1971-2 in the military.

  • @AxelJahnichen-ck1yc
    @AxelJahnichen-ck1yc 11 месяцев назад +18

    Damn, I lived in Berlin for the first twenty years of my life and I never heard of this park. I am still visiting Berlin very often because of family reasons. I think I will have a look at this place. Thank you very much, Tim!

    • @madcowpp
      @madcowpp 11 месяцев назад

      My thoughts exactly, except 35 years. I wonder how Tim finds these hidden gems, even locals don't know about

    • @Moritz19081980
      @Moritz19081980 11 месяцев назад

      Well, Berlin is 8 times bigger than Paris (by area). I live here for 42 years and there are still things to discover. I visited Südgelände (the place in the video) several times though.

  • @KaidoLP
    @KaidoLP 11 месяцев назад +3

    When I grew up, which was not long ago (I'm 25 now) the park was admissions free. Also the crank you could not find was either there or was there on a second turning platform. As a child I was able to the platform around.
    This stopped when they installed more safety measures around the park and started to charge for entry. The park got a lot less interesting for me to explore and my family stopped going to, what was once my favorite park in the city (only seconded by the Britzer Garten maybe).

  • @mumblbeebee6546
    @mumblbeebee6546 11 месяцев назад +6

    Thanks to Julian & Niamh for being good sports! It’s good to see not just the backs of people Tim travels with ,)

  • @mahuhude
    @mahuhude 11 месяцев назад +7

    It might be worth mentioning that the area was unused for so long due to the Eastern German Reichsbahn was responsible for handling rail in the whole city of Berlin during the time of separation. So they owned the land and didn’t want to give it up for west Berliners to make use of it

  • @fredericfrancois3234
    @fredericfrancois3234 11 месяцев назад +7

    the french word "écureuil" and the english one "squirrel" are related, it's even almost the same. In old french, it was probably "escureuil"...

    • @johanneswerner1140
      @johanneswerner1140 11 месяцев назад +1

      Interesting!
      And the Norwegian Version is ekekatten literally "oak cat", which is the same as in Bavarian "Oachkatzl". The high German word is apparently mostly used to mock Spanish exchange students (they have their sweet revenge, and don't mess with the Polish, their language is mostly consonants - I wish I had an ear for it, impossible to do).

    • @gerdforster883
      @gerdforster883 11 месяцев назад

      ​@@johanneswerner1140The traditional Berlin name for said woodland rodent is "Eichkater", so an oak cat once again, albeit a male one.

  • @chrissmith8773
    @chrissmith8773 11 месяцев назад +7

    I’m amazed that the theme from the animals of farthing wood had such a reaction in my brain. I’m sure I heard a neuron snap. Great work.

  • @designtechdk
    @designtechdk 11 месяцев назад +6

    Guten Tag. I sure do love me a Berlin Bonus Video!

  • @brick6347
    @brick6347 11 месяцев назад +4

    They used those class 50 locomotives in Poznan till 1979. Near Poznan is Wolsztyn, which is the only city in Europe still served by steam trains... as in not a heritage line but an actual, regular, timetabled line... with steam trains!

    • @barvdw
      @barvdw 11 месяцев назад

      they are in regular use, but with support from steam associations, as their continued use is quite costly, and if not for the visitors, it wouldn't be viable. And Wolsztyn needs those tourists, let's be honest, there isn't much else to see...
      Still much fun, though.

  • @tededmunds8476
    @tededmunds8476 11 месяцев назад +2

    Ah memories of Erasmus days in Berlin during the hot summer of 2010. Took that line almost every day to get in and out of town from Osdorfer Strasse. Didn’t know about this railyard though, an incentive to go back and revisit my student days. Thanks for another great video Tim! :)

  • @pr0tux
    @pr0tux 11 месяцев назад +2

    Man, I grew up in Berlin and never heard of that one. Thanks for sharing, Tim!

  • @Albi310
    @Albi310 11 месяцев назад +4

    I‘ve been living in Berlin for years and never heard of this park. But I always wondered what that huge red tower was whenever I went past it on an ICE train. Now I know and I will definitely pay a visit to the park soon.

  • @ZetaFuzzMachine
    @ZetaFuzzMachine 11 месяцев назад +3

    It's nice when people in charge realise the potential in these sanctuaries! Tim, love your work!

  • @CraigerAce
    @CraigerAce 11 месяцев назад +3

    In the US many abandoned railroad tracks have been converted into hiking/biking trails; some are paved, some are not.
    A close friend owned property in rural Virginia. They lived in a house that had been built circa 1920. About 100 yards from their home was a log cabin built in the early 1800's. It was more spacious than one would first think. The previous owner and our friends completely updated the interior with many modern amenities, but left most of it untouched. My wife and I stayed in it for about a week and it was very relaxing. Our friends rented it as a bed & breakfast and it was very popular.
    Also on their land was an abandoned railroad track. The RR company had long ago removed the track and the land reverted back to the original deed. There was about 1500 feet of former track that was on our friend's land. It was gorgeous, with thick grass cover and trees lining it, arching over what was now a walkway. Gorgeous year ‘round!
    Our friend was an executive who was frequently transferred by his employer, the Norfolk Southern Railway. They lived there for a few years and then he was transferred again… to Philadelphia.

  • @kaltenstein7718
    @kaltenstein7718 11 месяцев назад +2

    The nearby "Deutsches Technikmuseum" also has a sizeable collection of historic Rolling stock

  • @jasonbieber6431
    @jasonbieber6431 11 месяцев назад +4

    ISWYDT with the "Angering the Germans" part. ;)

  • @adrianrutterford762
    @adrianrutterford762 11 месяцев назад +3

    Wonderful!
    Thank you Tim.

  • @jkbm
    @jkbm 11 месяцев назад +2

    I'm from Berlin and I love watching you discover "my" city. The Natur-Park Schöneberger Südgelände really is a lovely park, and still quite unknown by many Berliners.

  • @FilmscoreMetaler
    @FilmscoreMetaler 11 месяцев назад +1

    2:19 Thanks for that musical theme! The nostalgia kicked in hard.

  • @lauraketteridge324
    @lauraketteridge324 11 месяцев назад

    I love you find such interesting things to tell us about, AND that you tell us about the accessibility aspects too. It's so wonderful and refreshing.

  • @altbau-e-lok-pfeife
    @altbau-e-lok-pfeife 11 месяцев назад +1

    The „train-belly-tickling-trough“ was used to empty the ash pan of the steam locomotives. Nice Video!

  • @seanh2286
    @seanh2286 11 месяцев назад

    What an amazing repurposing of a railyard! Thanks for the video, plus all the info on wheelchair accessibility.

  • @seanolaocha940
    @seanolaocha940 11 месяцев назад

    Delightful video as always Tim, danke schön!

  • @whyyoulidl
    @whyyoulidl 11 месяцев назад

    Tom and co. many thx for this piece - what a great idea turning it into this nature reserve. Another one for the bucket list 👍🏿

  • @wolfgangvan-uber6515
    @wolfgangvan-uber6515 11 месяцев назад +1

    Great video as always Tim, keep it up!

  • @CruiseTT
    @CruiseTT 11 месяцев назад +4

    Don't ask a woman her age , a man his salary or a German train what it did during the 1940s.

  • @Kordanor
    @Kordanor 11 месяцев назад +2

    Cool video as usual. I also liked the little discussions you cut in this time to supplement it a bit :)

  • @Zoltanlouis2009
    @Zoltanlouis2009 11 месяцев назад

    Lovely video.... as always.
    This and the other Tim videos never fail to make me smile. Thank you and well done 😊

  • @RCake
    @RCake 11 месяцев назад

    Oh, I loved this. Thank you, Tim!

  • @TradieTrev
    @TradieTrev 11 месяцев назад +8

    Such the linguist Tim! I wish I had your uprising as a kid, it's super hard to learn music and different languages when you get older! Here in Australia we had a few classes on Mandarin but I would of much preferred the Latin variants.

    • @brunhildevalkyrie
      @brunhildevalkyrie 11 месяцев назад +2

      A cunning linguist

    • @AndrewTBP
      @AndrewTBP 11 месяцев назад +1

      Tim studied French at university in Paris.

    • @wheeliebeast7679
      @wheeliebeast7679 11 месяцев назад

      …..is what your mom calls me lol

  • @hattid101
    @hattid101 9 месяцев назад +1

    After almost 14 years that we now live in Berlin and drove past it hundreds of times, we finally managed to take a look at the park yesterday. And like you said, just fantastic. Nature and a little German history. Perfect.

  • @squee222
    @squee222 11 месяцев назад

    This is so cool. I miss germany. Thanks for sharing these videos so I can vicariously experience these things. Lots of love from Canada

  • @CanuckJim
    @CanuckJim 11 месяцев назад +2

    Thank YOU - we'll be in Belin for several day in Oct and this might be gorgeous in autumn!

  • @juffinhally5943
    @juffinhally5943 3 месяца назад

    That's massively cool; I like both animals and railways. Thanks for making the video!

  • @atomdent
    @atomdent 11 месяцев назад

    Hello and thank you, Tim!

  • @stephencloak7502
    @stephencloak7502 11 месяцев назад

    Thanks Tim. Your videos always make me smile :-)

  • @KOTDM1988
    @KOTDM1988 11 месяцев назад +2

    If you ever find yourself in Kalamata in the Peloponnese region of Greece - they also have a railway yard turned into a public park (with loads of trains you climb into)

  • @e36z32
    @e36z32 11 месяцев назад +3

    I love your videos Tim. Greetings from Massachusetts in the USA. This little park is fascinating for both nature and train lovers. Have you also done a video on the Flughafen Tempelhof park that used to be one of Berlins airports?

  • @dave_h_8742
    @dave_h_8742 11 месяцев назад

    Nice place to visit by the looks of it Tim and time to explore other places over a weekend

  • @Supermunch2000
    @Supermunch2000 11 месяцев назад

    Thanks Tim! I love your videos, I save them until I have a nice cuppa and some time to unwind as it's always so delightful.
    Fun opinion, Tim is my favorite explorer named Tim!

  • @carlopton
    @carlopton 11 месяцев назад +3

    I want to go there so very badly. I love this video. That park looks like such a neat place to visit.

  • @GoenndalfTheBlue
    @GoenndalfTheBlue 11 месяцев назад

    You are great Explorer and you teach us alot. Thank you!

  • @chuckygobyebye
    @chuckygobyebye 11 месяцев назад

    Delightful! Thank you.

  • @davekirwin
    @davekirwin 10 месяцев назад

    Fantastic! I feel a need to visit...oh, Niamh is great. Tickling trough...hee, hee.

  • @absolutjackal
    @absolutjackal 11 месяцев назад +4

    Yeah another TT video!!! Happy day.

  • @bruceyoung1343
    @bruceyoung1343 11 месяцев назад

    Simply wonderful marvelous and neat. Thank You

  • @gallifrog6144
    @gallifrog6144 11 месяцев назад

    Finally we've found a place where Tim can go 'and we're here to see all that!'
    Love it!

  • @flo_i
    @flo_i 11 месяцев назад

    This is one of my favorite places in Berlin, so happy to see Tim presenting it! Also, squirrel!

  • @harrytodhunter5078
    @harrytodhunter5078 11 месяцев назад +2

    Love this place! German steam locos are so beautiful, that red underside is iconic!

  • @joneshock
    @joneshock 11 месяцев назад

    Never thought I'd see Tim film my way to work..

  • @uzetaab
    @uzetaab 11 месяцев назад

    Nice mini video. Thanks!

  • @johnberry3824
    @johnberry3824 11 месяцев назад

    Glad you kept in the bits you were thinking about cutting.

  • @thomaswodarek1257
    @thomaswodarek1257 11 месяцев назад +2

    Great timing on the upload! I'm on a trip in Berlin, leaving tomorrow, so I can actually visit this one!

  • @tilongatao
    @tilongatao 11 месяцев назад

    Beautiful yard area. Braunkohle is lignite.

  • @hochenwarter
    @hochenwarter 11 месяцев назад

    Hey this is just around the corner where I life! Enjoy your stay!

  • @hainanbob6144
    @hainanbob6144 11 месяцев назад +1

    I love to see places that nature has reclaimed, or is reclaiming. Nice video.

  • @_SpamMe
    @_SpamMe 11 месяцев назад +3

    Neat. I've not seen an example as interesting as this, but old military land and old railway yards are often now nature conserves since they provided some rare habitats in areas where possibly there wasn't anything else left. Munich for example has this for old tank driver training grounds (nobody could go there because of ammunition) and old rail-post sorting yards (nobody could there because rails). It's space that's left free of human intervention and now can keep existing as parks.

  • @SchismTP
    @SchismTP 11 месяцев назад

    Tim, i would watch you narrate your trip to the grocery store. That's how much I love your videos.

  • @meiermuellerschulze
    @meiermuellerschulze 10 месяцев назад

    Thanks for this video. I'm visiting Berlin currently and enjoyed this park today. A really nice location!

  • @dedew84100
    @dedew84100 11 месяцев назад

    Great, I didn't know about this. I'll visit it soon, thank you!

  • @velocity5646
    @velocity5646 11 месяцев назад +1

    Love the thomas the tank engine theme! You totally got me, I wasn't expecting that. Looks like an epic park.

  • @reinerjung1613
    @reinerjung1613 11 месяцев назад

    Hey thanks for the tip. I'll put it on the list for my next Berlin visit.

  • @badxxxmonkey5541
    @badxxxmonkey5541 11 месяцев назад

    Thank you for the clips of the Red Squirrels

  • @ericprice3225
    @ericprice3225 11 месяцев назад

    Brilliant. Will make sure I got there if I am in the area.

  • @sschmidtevalue
    @sschmidtevalue 11 месяцев назад +1

    Many old rail lines in the US have been converted to bike trails. This was a big boon to numerous small towns in our state. I spent some time in one of them today.

  • @gaius_enceladus
    @gaius_enceladus 11 месяцев назад

    Very cool park and video!
    Loved the squirrel too! NZ doesn't have them, unfortunately - we missed out there...... :(

  • @timcampo
    @timcampo 11 месяцев назад +2

    Damn you Tim, I was just in Südkreuz two days ago and had no idea. Now I am sad I missed it.

  • @mltnetwork
    @mltnetwork 11 месяцев назад

    Thank you...this is good!!

  • @ArjanBeumer
    @ArjanBeumer 11 месяцев назад +1

    I've shared this video with my dad who's a train spotter. As I do with all your train themed video's 😉

  • @wilcofaber9863
    @wilcofaber9863 11 месяцев назад +1

    Another very original video. I want to visit this. It looks so cool.

  • @valleyscottblog2440
    @valleyscottblog2440 11 месяцев назад

    That is just an awesome use of space. And a great example of natural resilience.

  • @xfel5913
    @xfel5913 11 месяцев назад +3

    North of Südkreuz there is another former railyard turned park. It is part of the Berlin Technology Museum, and you can find even more old trains there. Is a bit more expensive though.

    • @zork999
      @zork999 11 месяцев назад +1

      Yes, but it's got two huge roundhouses of locomotives stretching back to the 1800s, so it is worth the expense. Plus a magnificent HO gauge layout of the former Anhalter Bahnhof (station) that is almost 100 feet long!

    • @MEKKANNOID
      @MEKKANNOID 11 месяцев назад

      @@zork999 Unfortunatelz the tracks aren|t proportionally accurate as they used standard off the shelf points which have too small a radius....

  • @thecosmicyak1370
    @thecosmicyak1370 11 месяцев назад +1

    "It's not everyday you can walk into an actual train belly tickling trough" - I guarantee that sentence has never been said before

  • @littleoldme123
    @littleoldme123 11 месяцев назад +1

    Train belly tickling trough is perhaps the best phrase I have ever heard

  • @daanwilmer
    @daanwilmer 11 месяцев назад +3

    I went to Berlin last spring, but totally missed this park. It's definitely on the to-do list for next time!

    • @daanwilmer
      @daanwilmer 6 месяцев назад

      Update: I'm here! It was very cool indeed. No eichhörnchen, though.

  • @darkmist65
    @darkmist65 11 месяцев назад

    I really enjoy your videos. I find them just good entertainment