Re: 4' 8.5" gauge VW beetle near Bitburg Air Force Base, 1960s

Russo, thanks for your imaginative version of events in 1960, but I may have to lay some misconceptions to rest. First, that beetle looks to me like a convertible. I never had one of those luxury bugs.
Second, I left Germany in March, 1957 on a US Air Force (MATS) DC6 from Frankfurt (where I was allowed to be in the cockpit as far as Prestwick AFB in Scotland) en route to McGuire AFB in New Jersey. I didn't get back to Germany until May 1969, when steam was still operating all classes of service including fast express runs. I have never driven a car in mainland Europe - I either chased with other railfans or rode the trains, including steam cab rides up to 75 mph. By then of course I was 4 years too late to see the Phillipsheim - Binsfeld narrow gauge as photographed by Klaus Adam. Back then I only had 10 days vacation a year - maybe I should have taken up a teaching career and had hugely more time available for chasing trains.

But my 10 days did allow for seeing regular service steam in a world where steam was still indispensable for a good part of rail operations. And I kept coming back.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/06/2020 09:05PM by Olaf Rasmussen.