Picture Book...Germany's Far North-East and North Poland

[glitch]

Oldtimer Museum Ruegen a.k.a. Rügen Railway & Technology Museum

Map https://bit.ly/3cZLLFM





http://oldtimer-museum-ruegen.de/


Wiki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldtim...eum_R%C3%BCgen


No, they don't have bears in the woods here...


... but tourists!!







tbc

[greybeard]

So bears are still ok to s#@t in the woods then?

[glitch]

Bears should be fine, I guess...but maybe they have extra signs for them?
It's Germany, they have signs and rules for everything.



Back to the museum, and it's a standout in a few ways.
It combines local trains + automobiles of all sorts (huge locos to tiny shunters to fire-trucks and signature common vehicles of the years that Germany was divided.

The main hall features the cars built and used in both the communist and capitalist Germany, each type of car opposed with the fitting type of the other side ( as in years, significance, usage and technical prowess) It's quite an interesting look-right versus look-left comparison, which also shows much of the commonality as many companies had common pre-WW2 origins, engineering teams, planning and product development.

EMW became BMW, there was MZ, CZ and Jawa.... 2-stroke development was carried post WW2 by the communist East for a lot longer (and bought by the Japanese in the early-mid 1960s by Suzuki/ Kwakas etc.) than the West German Auto-Union/ Lloyd/Messerschmidt micro-cars, mini-vans and utes of the '50s.
Many of today's German industrial Powerhouses (BMW/Audi/Porsche/Siemens/Krupp/Bayer/BASF-AGFA/ endless others) had their roots and base-engineering in the Communist East... if it had to do with planes, trains or automobiles... or military equipment... or chemicals... of ANY sort.


The entrance/ ticket office to the place looked extremely plain...an old Schienenbus (rail-bus, local rail transport of the 1950's/ '60s in Germany, later Europe, then the "3.world" from India to Argentina and Belize etc)






The front plaque of W-Uerdingen is like a whack across the head:
not only the the place of construction of this thing but my birth-place, too.






Uerdingen is a small town on the Rhine river..and this little railbus was most likely hand-varnished and painted (all timber interiors!) by my granddad, chief painter and
Interior Finisher at the Uerdinger Wagonfabrik for all of his working-years, from apprentice to master.







A beautifully restored Hanomag Kommissbrot (the brick-like loaf of bread for the Military), a 500/ 3-speed/ 10hp water-cooled thumper





They even had a lightweight/ streamlined wicker!!!-bodied racing version






Some great old steamers







An early EMW, complete with red+white "propeller-badges", the trademark that BMW stole....
Top mounted wipers, raggy rooftop and all...







Some early "Auto Union" products, already sprouting the 4-ring logo of today's Audi











G]

[glitch]

Ever wondered?




























East German "Trabbi" Fire-Service First-Response Vehicle







Here are the tech-specs for the "red racer"






Before BMWs, Audis and Messerschmitts, most like 2 Horsepower






Grandpa's railcar again on the way out... after a far longer afternoon-visit than anticipated.

You guys certainly came up with some weird and wonderful stuff to make the world go round

And so ends a good week spent around Germany's far north-east corner, and a little of northern Poland. Who said there's nothing much up here?