Breitspurbahn

MR77100 wrote:I'm confused. Is that picture of the Climax the 8-foot gauge logging railroad? I remember reading in the Book of World Records about that 80-foot gauge logging railroad, but it was only listed to exist in 1885.

It appears that the link to the photo of the 8' gauge Climax originally posted by NJTfan has been moved. Here's another link to the photo, this time courtesy of "Geared Steam.com":

http://www.gearedsteam.com/climax/image ... lbr_co.jpg

The information states that this was owned by Al Avery, and operated in Lacey, Washington. This is the 8' gauge loco, an 18 ton class A Climax, built in 1902. (Or so the photo information states.)

NJTfan wrote:They may not have helped in my quest for information, but it was certainly and interesting comment, and I appreciate your response. The whole idea of a gauge that wide seems outlandish to me, but perhaps it could have been quite something. If anyone does have some information to add- I'd like to see what can be contributed. As for the book, I find it interesting that the author did enough research to know details like that- projects that would have been completed had the war not begun so early- of if the Germans did win, sometimes books like that don't have such an attention to detail!

It's not all that obscure. Remember Hitler had grandiose ideas for what he wanted to do after he had won the war. One of these was for the rebuilding of Berlin - to be renamed Germania - with a Congress Hall so high that there would have been internal weather. All these would have been in a kitsch classical style - his favourite architecture. Albert Speer made him models for the new Berlin, which Hitler loved looking at and discussing with Speer. This was time when he could have been directing the war, so it was a plus for the allies.

He also diverted resources away from nuclear research to studying theories that the sky was a sphere and the stars just holes in it by firing rockets up, and using radar to reflect back from the sky. He was a sucker for fruitcake theories.

Hitler had the common delusion that bigger is always better, so he obviously thought that a two metre rail gauge would have been better than the standard gauge.

There is some truth in the idea that Brunel's seven foot gauge would have brought highish speed to the railways earlier than it came ultimately, but it had disadvantages too, even if all other lines had been built using it. One of these is that the capital cost of building would have been higher so some lines that were built would not have been if they had had to be of the Brunel gauge. The Brunel gauge had advantages in the early days of railways when engineering tolerances were looser than later. Now standard gauge is as safe and stable as Brunel's trains were and high speed is possible on it. If Brunel's gauge had srurvived (the whole Great Western was converted in the 1870s, some of it overnight) it would be no faster now than an ordinary LGV (ligne a grande vitesse) line.

So that IS the 8' gauge loco that operated in Oregon?

MR77100 wrote:So that IS the 8' gauge loco that operated in Oregon?

Yes, that's the one! I'd also heard rumors of the 8 foot gauge logging line in either Oregon or Washington (depending on your reference) for years. My brother loaned me a copy of the recent book on Climax locomotives (title forgotten at the moment) and I was pleased to find this photo to finally confirm the rumors. I was even happier to find a copy on line.

george matthews wrote:

NJTfan wrote:the Lartigue Monorail system. Why? Who knows, as far as I know it was built..

It existed from Balybunnion to Listowel in western Ireland.

And somebody built a model Lartigue with a live steam locomotive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiB__3O3ly0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I read that Brunel was sorry that he hadn't made the GWR broader than 7' 1/4".

philipmartin wrote:I read that Brunel was sorry that he hadn't made the GWR broader than 7' 1/4".

He may have been but he had a wrong idea. Standard gauge is good enough. He didn't anticipate modern engineering that allowed standard gauge to be even faster than he imagined.

How did this thread attract 17,800 viewers? Where did they all come from?

Google searches for the German Reich,I suspect. Doesnt seem to have earn't us any new German railfan contributors, Philip. Hopefully the site earn't a few pennies out of it though .

Die Breitspurbahn war eine Fantasie Idee ohne praktischen Nutzen.

CarterB wrote:Die Breitspurbahn war eine Fantasie Idee ohne praktischen Nutzen.

Yes, indeed. Hitler was a daft bugger, willing to adopt all sorts of crazy ideas, especially when others tried to dissuade him. Fortunately for the rest of us, dreaming of giant rail gauges probably didn't actually harm anyone.

That's right. Ask Putzi Hanfstaengl.

Somewhere in my collection I have an interesting little book about Hitler's broad gauge project: "Broader than Broad - Hitler's great dream, three metre gauge rails across Europe" by Robin Barnes, ISBN 1900340070, 1998.

Has anyone ever tried to do a model railway system of the Breitspurbahn? I feel like that would be neat to model in HO scale