The sahel express.... remainders of the great days of railroading (7)

Construction work using forced labour on the Dakar–Niger Railway began at the end of the 19th century under the French general Gallieni commander of French Sudan

The railroad connected the Niger River with the port of Dakar. The line was completed at the beginning of the 20th century, the Kayes-Koulikoro section being inaugurated in 1904, but the final section of line did not open until 1924.

The line covers a course of 1,287 km of which 641 km lies in Mali.The track gauge is 1000 mm

Engines in the station in Dakar. End february, the suburban commuter trains were not running due to bad tracks.

The railway uses old Indian 1000 mm engines and coaches, which are not needed there any more since the Indians change to broad gauge

Open air repair shop in the Dakar station

The railway is in a much worse shape in Senegal than in Mali. Freight trains run all the way to Koulikouro beyond Bamako, but there are passenger trains only in Mali between Bamako and Kayes close to the Senegal border.

The border station at Kayes

The fantastic colonial hotel du rail in Kayes....

....and its reception....

.... and restaurant

Mali is dependant on the railroad. It has no ports and the railroad is the only means of transportation to the next sea port at Dakar 

The freight trains entering Mali are fully loaded. The trains leaving Mali are empty.... they don't produce a lot. Here a freight train at Bamako station. The railroad is owned by trainsrail, a canadian company

Three times a week this train connects Bamako and Kayes at the border. It could also run somewhere in Radjastan

The Bamako - Kayes train leaves at 7.15 in Bamako and arrives in Kayes at 22.00.

It stops at all intermediate stations. For some people, this is the only chance to make a couple of RFA six times a week.

The bargains are made at the train window. The train is safe. Non-passengers are not allowed to board, there are security guards and all the seats are reserved

In between the many stops, the train rides about 80, which is quite good for the circumstances.

A "griot", a traveling singer on the train

Village on the way from Bamako to Kayes

Station restaurant and....

....local luggage transport

Accidents seem to happen. In Senegal, 5 were killed on May, 13th 2009

A station mosque

Bamako station

Inside the station hall 

One of the passenger cars.... not used any more. This former French car used to go from Bamako to Dakar

The nice former conductor, who opened the doors for me at Bamako station

Mostly people are honest in Mali. A lost passport awaiting its owner at Bamako station

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dakar%E2%80%93Niger_Railway

the hangover.... the end of a party

oktoberfest muenchen, afterwards

The first "Oktoberfest" occurred in Munich, on October 12, 1810. For the public commemoration of their marriage that took place five days before, Crown Prince Ludwig (later King Ludwig I) and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen (namesake of the Theresienwiese festival grounds) organized a great horse race. The event was so successful that it was decided to renew it in 1811. An agricultural show was added to boost Bavarian agriculture. The horse race persisted until 1960, the agricultural show still exists and it is held every four years on the southern part of the festival grounds.

In 1816, carnival booths appeared; the main prizes were silver, porcelain, and jewelry.

The founding citizens of Munich assumed responsibility for festival management in 1819, and it was agreed that the Oktoberfest would become an annual event. Later, it was lengthened and the date pushed forward, the reason being that days are longer and warmer at the end of September.

In the year 1910, Oktoberfest celebrated its 100th birthday. 120,000 litres of beer were poured. In 1913, the Bräurosl was founded, which was the largest Oktoberfest beer tent of all time, with room for about 12,000 guests.

From 1939 to 1945, due to World War II, no Oktoberfest took place. Since its beginnings the Oktoberfest has been cancelled 24 times due to war, disease and other emergencies.

There are many problems every year with young people who overestimate their ability to handle large amounts of alcohol. Many forget that beer has 5.8 to 6.3% alcohol, and they pass out due to drunkenness. These drunk patrons are often called "Bierleichen" (German for "beer corpses"). For them as well as for the general medical treatment of visitors the Bavarian branch of German Red Cross operates an aid facility and provides emergency medical care on the festival grounds, staffed with around 100 volunteer medics and doctors per day.

A pipe bomb was set off in a dustbin at the restrooms at the main entrance on September 26, 1980 at 22:19. The bomb consisted of an empty fire extinguisher filled with 1.39 kilograms of TNT and mortar shells. Thirteen people were killed, over 200 were injured, 68 seriously. This was the deadliest terrorist attack in the history of Germany after the Munich Massacre. Governmental authorities propounded a summary of official inquires, purporting that a right-wing extremist Gundolf Köhler from Donaueschingen, a social outcast who was killed in the explosion, was the lone perpetrator. However, this account is disputed strongly by various groups.

Oktoberfest figures (2007)

• Area: 0.42 km² (103.78 acres)
• Seats in the festival halls: approx. 100,000
• Visitors: 6.2 million
• Beer: appr. 6,940,600 litres (126,900 litres non-alcoholic)
• Wine: 79,624 liters
• Sparkling wine: 32,047 litres
• Coffee and tea: 222,725 litres
• Water and lemonade: 909,765½ litres
• Chicken: 521,872 units
• Pork sausages: 142,253 pairs
• Fish: 38,650 kg
• Pork knuckles: 58,446 units
• Oxen: 104 units
• Expenditure of electricity: 2.8 million kWh (as much as 14% of Munich's daily need or as much as a four person family will need in 560 years)
• Expenditure of gas: about 205,000 m³
• Expenditure of water: about 90,000 m³ (as much as 27% of Munich's daily need)
• Waste: 678 t (2004)
• Toilets: about 980 seats, more than 878 meters of urinals and 17 for disabled persons
• Phone booths: 83, also for international credit cards
• Lost property: about 4000 items, among them 260 pairs of glasses, 200 mobile phones, wedding rings, and even crutches.

Nearly 1,000 tons of garbage result annually from the Oktoberfest. The mountains of garbage created are hauled away and the ways cleanly washed down each morning. The cleaning is paid for in part by the city of Munich and in part by the sponsors.

After 2004 the queues for toilets became so long that the police had to regulate the entrance. To keep traffic moving through the restrooms, men headed for the toilets were directed to the "Pissoir" (giant enclosed grate) if they only needed to urinate. The number of toilets was increased in 2005 by 20%. Now approximately 1,800 toilets and urinals are available.

Reminders of the great days of railroading (6) .... a social institution

In the great days of railroads, the railroad company were sometimes also the biggest local employers and took pride into taking care of their employes.

Begin of the 20th century the Bavarian railroad constructed in Nuernberg what became to be one of the biggest shunting yards in Germany. The little hill was used to divide up the trains.

The wagons were uncoupled and rolled down the track to be redirected to form other trains. Now the whole yard is modernised. The dark installation is a brake, which electronically slows down the wagons depending on weight, speed and distance to the waiting train.    

For all the people working there they also built this neighbourhood in 1912. The engine above the entrance was stolen at the end of WW II, but returned when it was found in the harbour of Bremen and ready to be shipped to America

They not only built houses, but also schools and churches

This building in the middle was called "die Burg" and had separate entrances to all the appartments.

These buildings had a typical southern Bavarian style.... otherwise the buildings of this time in Nuernberg were from non-plastered/sandstone-blocks. 

You could even rent (and still can do so) patches of land between the tracks as little gardens. They call it railroad agriculture

In the 50ties and sixties, a completely new quarter named after the planets of the solar system was constructed next to the railroad town.

Part of it were separate houses, part of it big appartment buildings in the style of the time.

The hall like building was not used for entertainment, but it provided for central heating of the whole new neighbourhood.

The little station serving the railroad men is long out of use. They now take a car to work....

harbour view

Scheveningen (the Hague) harbour.... a midsummer summer night's dream

but: remember the bitter end...

Annals of water management... Poldergemaal Limmen, Akersloot

Since the Dutch polders are beneath sea level, water has to be pumped out constantly, otherwise the land would fill like a bath-tub. Originally, the famous windmills were used for this purpose

In 1879, the two windmills of Polder Limmen were replaced by a steam driven pumping installation, called a "gemaal"

The archimedic screw used by one of the windmills to pump up the water was kept and integrated in the steam powered installation. The teeth of the left wheel were from wood. Therefore they were easier to replace, since it happened frequently that a dead cow was caught in the mechanism... the farmers used to throw dead cows into the canals to get rid of them.

The transmission belt was made from thin leather stripes held together by screws. If one of the leather stripes broke, they were easy to be replaced without replacing the whole belt.

After 40 years the steam engine was replaced by an electric motor. Since the electric engine turned much faster than the steam engine, an additional drive wheel and transmission had to be installed under the roof of the building. The whole electric installation including the safety plugs, which were much bigger than now, is still there.

After 111 years of service, the whole installation was replaced by a modern electric pump in a little shed next door

http://www.gemaal1879.nl/

Boat reflections

Reflections of a beautiful morning among the fishing boats

 Scheveningen harbour