Hello RyPNers,

Please allow me to present a dear friend to this group, also named Sammy, who now works for Deutsche Bahn. He's from Dresden, and was introduced to trains as a hobby by his father in the last years of the DDR. Just after reunification he worked in the famous Dresdener Parkeisenbahn, then graduated to a job as a fahrdienstleiter (station agent/towerman) with the DB. When I met him in 2000, he was assigned to the station of Piding, the midway meeting point for the branch serving Berchtesgaden. Now he is in Leipzig, and as near as I know, is currently involved in planning new signaling installations and upgrades.

Sammy is half my age, and he impressed me with a very comprehensive knowledge of both the hobby and the business of railroading. He is a very accomplished photographer, and travels all around continental Europe shooting both contemporary and historic rail subjects.

Since he is interested in USA railroading, I suggested that he join RyPN, and that some of our guys would be interested in seeing his fotos. His first post landed on the RAILFANNING forum, titled "Narrow Gauge Steam In Germany". I just bumped it up to the top of that board, please check it out, there is lots more where that came from.

Willkommen aus Texas

Sammy, didn't think it was possible to get me over to the Railfan section - and it took me a while to find it - but for this kind of material it was worth it. While I was there, set a fellow straight on turbocharging...... other Sammy, welcome here and looking forward to more of this. German industrial steam is of interest - a few examples are over here, well tanks, trench locomotives with Klein Lindner axles, etc. Fascinating!

Another Sammy, half way around the world? Mr. King, does THAT Sammy also own title to a saddletanker that he is restoring? If so, I might have to try to find the Railfan section of RyPN, a place, I admit, that I have never been.


Les

Dave,

The Krauts are VERY clever, as we learned in the first world war. The German railroaders do many things the same way we do, but trust me on this, many times they have different ways to accomplish the same thing. The standard gauge steam is very interesting, too, Sammy has a fresh serving for us real soon... I also didn't know where "railfanning" was, until my young friend Cody Muse found it for me.

I suggested that Sammy's future posts be placed on this forum, I think he will get a lot more traffic.

Les, Sammy is too smart to get suckered into buying a real locomotive !!! However, he DID come all the way from Leipzig last summer to see her.

Thanks for you'all's interest.

Where is the "RAILFANNING forum"?

The link is tricky to find, but if you click on the yellow "NEWS" at the top of this page it will take you to the main page, where it is listed below interchange (this board) and I think classifieds.

If you log in, just use the "View New Posts" option -- threads containing new posts from both Interchange and Railfanning are shown in that view.

The way I get to "railfanning" is by clicking on "board index" at the upper left corner, then I get the link for the railfanning forum.

Thanks to everybody who checked it out.

Mit Volldampf in 2018 !!!

Sammy King's friend from Germany made it to the States this Spring and after spending some time with Brother King out west, made it to Chicago via Amtrak. I was able to get him out to IRM today and here is a photo of the OTHER Sammy wearing one of those famous "6" caps at Union.

Les

Thanks for showing my friend around, Les. I bet he enjoyed his stay in Chicago a lot more because of your hospitality.