Historic recreations

The attached pictures were taken last month on the Harz narrow guage in Germany during a series of charters by FarRail Tours. It has been 20 years since the Berlin Wall came down. Berd Seiler of FarRail, who grew up in East Germany and photographed the Harz narrow guage when it was a freight hauler decided it would be fun to recreate a bit of history. We ran the "usual" chartered trains, but in addition Berd arranged for some visits from the "Lost Battalion" of the East German army, some "socialist" vehicles, and a few leftover dour poorly dressed East German citizens to populate our passsenger trains. It was a hoot.

In the station scene, note some of the interesting details like the old DDR flag, clothing and accessories in the socialist "style", and even a copy of the official communist party newspaper, "Neues Deutschland".

I realize this is not everyone's cup of tea. But like Civil War reeactments, its a bunch of fun for some folks. Pete Lerro and John Craft have done similar rail events in the U.S. with significant success. Especially the Civil War events attract some pretty large crowds.

I would think the C&TS would be an ideal venue to have some fun like this. Not just chartered trains, but an attempt to recreate some broader images of life as it used to be.

Anyway, I had a ball for a week on the HSB, and the railway people had so much fun they have convinced Bernd to schedule a similar event next year.

JBWX









Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/16/2009 01:38PM by John West.