 hello thank you for joining me I'm in Mannheim in Germany today we're going to go and visit the city's technical museum in today's video that big chimney you can see or future isn't a huge building that's the city's power station before we visit the technical museum I found a fantastic place you can come and look at trains I thought I'll show that to you first as we come on to this bridge you can see stretching out over there all over there is this very very vast railway marshaling yard and there's also some engine shares in fact there's two stations I wouldn't even say either end of the yard there's one Mannheim arena about halfway down the yard and then a couple miles and mile and a half that way there's another railway station so it is incredibly vast these lines here these are the high-speed lines to the south of Germany so in the past I've traveled by train to Freiburg I've traveled on those lines it's interesting how far apart the two tracks are they do get closer up there I wonder if possibly there was going to be another fly under with Morale ago in that way see a better view now of the power station behind us they did have some fireless steam locos at the last reported working of them was in 2013 I did look at possibly going to have a look there's only about one public road bridge which crosses the site so it's probably going to be a subject maybe in the future or first anyone knows if they still have if you know if they've still got the fireless steam locos working I know one of them's plinth then do comment and tell me she comes to here you can see we'll start see a few diesel shelters so it's the class 496 and the class 494 and there's quite a few of them shunting wagons about what's nice is that this bridge is very open so you get a very good view down into the trains you can just see another shunter there shunting some wagons so it's really good from that point of view so we can see there's a train here of say at cars this where it seems to be a train of all sorts like there goes a horn of one the locos they got behind the car you got a couple of flat wagons you got some log wagons so there's quite a lot of different types of freight passing through so we're now walking over the freight lines it's such a useful bridge and the fact that there's no you know I'm sure if it was in the UK they'd be fenced about here you wouldn't have much chance of seeing over it I'll be frustratingly sort of jumping trying to see over it but here they've just it's just that you can just stand and look as almost if they make it infuse just friendly there's a lot of people come to pick it out I'll take a picture insert it now there's a tri-bank combi didn't expect to see one of those here there's another diesel locomotive coming along there's going behind the building we should see if I can get to just past here we shall get a good view excuse me I'm just gonna run for a second we'll see loco there we go that's 294593 now when we get to here we're going to soon come to the engine shed well we already get to see it so there's quite a few different locos down there there's a quite a vintage past 151 it's not a preserved loco but it's one of the older electric locos you don't see so many of them now here in Germany the more modern loco is the tracks loco's which you do see a lot of on passenger trains and on freight so they're always exciting to see we've got two more shelters down now I reckon when I walked over here I'd already been over here I missed that tri-bank because I was so focused on loco's on shed there's another freight just over there so that's the city of Mannheim right over there so we're a couple of miles away now again I thought he comes picking out but just under the bridge and just see a tram over there that's the end of tram route 6 and 6a my plan is to take a tram on either route and there's a stop for the technical museum so I've got to go over to the railway station catch a tram and then that'll take us close to the city centre where we'll be able to see some interesting things in technical museum I'm gonna leave you with a view of the shed in the passing train so there you go that's one of the much more modern electric loco's you have to get a new platform five books they're not in the current one and then down there leave you with two shelters I'm gonna walk off down those steps to the railway station so here we are the tram stops railway station there this is the end of tram right it goes on a loop around there the tram is just waiting so we've got to catch tram route 6a as you can see we really are right on the edge of the city hence it being the end of the tram route the trams go off around there station being called arena hence the name so we take 6a up there the two routes split route 6 goes along the bank of the Necker and then they join against it's like variation of the route so I'm just gonna stand here now wait for my tram to come along and off we go to the technical museum so we've arrived at Techno Museum so that's like Technic Museum South there's a shell of a building which says York it's interesting I don't suppose they can do if York in England or probably New York for that matter this is the station or the tram stop I should say we've come from that direction on route 6a just up there there's another tram coming but just up there it does join with route 6 so route 6 runs over there let's see this tram come in the interesting thing to do with the numbering systems I'll be able to point out it's five six one five so they you've got really quite a big network you've got the Mannheim system the Ludwigarsen system the Heidelberg system the interurban line which links Mannheim and Heidelberg twice forgotten the name it comes up on screen now and there's also the Reinhardt up on she got five systems and they each have their own prefix number so the five prefix that means it belongs to Mannheim two belongs to Ludwigarsen three belongs to Heidelberg four of the interurban ones and I think one is the Reinhardt up on anyway route 6 then is somewhere over there for tram could come along then we see exactly if it is just over there and there's also a stop for the technical museum on route 6 maybe you'll see a locomotive there let's go have a look at that that's in front of the technical museum so here's that little shunter loco which we can see from the tram stop let's have a look at what else there is to see so there's this loco now if you have a look it's a class 365 and it's number 715 so that's quite good to see I think it's on a plinth it's actually on a bit of track if you look the track is well it's also dual gauge for a star that's interesting you can see I'm not sure what the second gauge is give it a rough idea of my feet I'd say it's probably meter gauges most likely I keep saying this every video I really should have a tape measure on me and then I could measure things anyway what else we got we have a carriage here so yeah again we haven't actually gone into the museum yeah this is just what there is to see outside we have a carriage we have well it's interesting just spotted something not that one something I didn't expect to see it looks very modern so I don't wish to engineer in a museum I've never seen a loco like this before it looks fairly modern maybe it's one of those futuristic ones actually quite old never seen one of these for I'll have to look it up in my book or maybe some sort prototype it seems a class 202.004 which suggests that they built more than one of them and what else have we got we have a big steam loco always good to see oh it's a class 18 316 so we also went to the technical museum at yes in time they had one painted green and in a streamlined livery so we have seen one of them there so that is a class 18 so specific like Pacific is the same will arrangement of say flying Scotsman clan line and the A4s etc so it's exciting to see and then oh look we have a narrow gauge loco so if you look this loco here you can see it sat on the narrow gauge track so let's have a closer look at that as it's works place so she was built in 1886 to work number one one six seven this is a cute little loco and then through there just see inside but there's not a lot of point me showing you through the window so we can see from similar fiction in the camera we're going to go in the museum and see all that properly but we're gonna go and have a look at something else we're going to go over see that bridge over there there's something I want to have a look at just over on that bridge but I'll give you one last look at this little steam loco well there's that meter gauge steam loco and there's that class 18 the reason I said I'll see you over at this bridge is to have a look at it it's actually free bridges not free bridges as in that station it's perfect bridge a bridge as a railway line here it's an even hour a gauge the meter gauge I would suggest again I'm going to do the thing with measuring with my feet we can probably say that's two foot might be 256 I think it's more like to be two foot now this is an hour a gauge railway runs around the park unfortunately it's not running today this seems to be a running problem with my visit I've come here in November and I've had a great time I'm not saying I haven't but I haven't been able to do any of the heritage lines in the area purely because none of them are running but I've had a great time doing tram bashing and I've visited other museums so it's not been waste of time but what I'll do my next visit to this area oh look look it's the the I don't even see it over there it's the tram that cleans the rails just over there what I'll do I saw it earlier on so I'll put a link on screen now but it's a vintage tram it's number 1302 I think so that was over there so that was exciting anyway yes you can see just be careful of trains I don't think I need to work too much obviously we'll check both ways so this is the museum's field barn I checked on the website I knew it wasn't gonna be running today but what I'm gonna do because I'm in a public park I'm going to walk around and follow it see where it goes if I find anything interesting then I'll point that out to you just because you know we're here but I think I'm going to have to come back next year and have a ride on this so this is the little station here see that field barn so if this is where you'd catch a train I don't think they have any steam locos I might be wrong thing is if I follow the track I should at some point come to an engine and when I come to an engine I may or may not be able to find any rolling stock what I'm also gonna do is while we're here and I'll show you as I said there's a tram stop on route six yeah route six because that route six days over there so I don't know where that trams disappears but just over there is the tram stop it's also where trams on the Rhine-Hutard barn start so there's a turning circle just there we'll go over and have a look at that if you look over there now you should be able to see a tram there you go so let's just have a look and then there's another tram waiting there and then what we'll do is I'll then go and follow an hour of gauge line to see where that goes I think it must be a circle not entirely sure so as that tram disappears off on route six we can see a Rhine-Hutard barn tram or tram forming a service of the Rhine-Hutard barn which is quite an interesting journey I did do that I didn't actually make a video you can see that tram is waiting just there so the turning circle goes just over there it's hard to see on camera I know and then that is the museum's tram stop so what I'm gonna do now I'm gonna have a look around an hour of gauge line and see where it goes I'm quite enjoying walking along this non operational railway of course I would rather do it on a train but you know it's quite fun just to sort of explore it at a gentler pace you can see track over there so I'm getting the impression it does do a full circuit I've been I've not actually been on a railway quite like this in Germany there are I went to Dresden once I did a similar thing there's a 15 inch gauge railway around the park and it wasn't running so I walked some of the track that one was just so vast that I simply couldn't do all of it look at that it's just be nicely going off through the tree so I'm definitely gonna come back here have a ride on it hello and look over there there's a little diesel look I think that's standard gauge track so we'll go over follow the narrow gauge track because it looks like if it goes right round if it doesn't we're gonna go and have a look at that anyway but let's I'm now gonna walk down through this really nice avenue of trees so I'm gonna come to us far away from the museum as the little narrow gauge railway goes it goes up quite a gradient there so I don't know if they have steam but if they did it would probably look quite good I can imagine an enthusiast charter and a lot of people stood here cameras waiting to see little local come up the bank towards the standard gauge lines there's another standard gauge line just there that's one of the main line so if we're lucky the train might go past I'm not gonna hang around wait for one you do get a lot of freight in this area we found out when we were at the yard so you know he's never quite know what's gonna happen so I'm just gonna now follow the railway around there and I think soon we'll be at the standard gauge line that's part of the museum so as I said I'm about as far away from the museum as possible that was just around that corner have a look at this I have come to a railway station very small railway station see the points I'm not gonna play around change them just in case they did run a train ended up coming into the wrong track but it gives me the impression that they potentially could run two trains so it's just making me now kind of really wants to come back here and have a ride there's even a little siding and then so here you've got the passing loop a siding and as I said about a standard gauge line well and the diesel loco there you go almost gives me the impression that they might have once I reckon this track goes right through and that they possibly used to do train that I wonder so they've got this nice little diesel shunter very low shunter you see these quite a lot or you did see them quite a lot in Germany quite often get them at museums I'm not gonna go up the bank I can see if the track goes down there I wonder if it's still dual gauge at this point like it was back there oh yeah it is so it looks like they might want to run trains up and down here I'm not entirely sure but certainly interesting the idea I've got this bit here because it's not gonna move and yeah there we go right here see the loco now and we can see see the numbers that's cast 323 not like the 323 electric motor used to get in learning in Manchester 702 and then there's the dual gauge track going off there it's also stationary steam engine just over there so I'm going to go back down to the narrow gauge railway and continue following it I've just seen another set of points there and I'm thinking one of them must go to a depot which must be somewhere in the museum complex so following on from I'm going to look at that little loco back on the narrow gauge line there's a junction just here now the track set for that way I wonder if that means that's for the depot or for the main line or if that is even the case I think looking at it to go along here I'm currently on the main line and that's the depot line this is point where you've got two tracks running along parallel one of them seems to disappear off down so I'm going to continue to follow them and see what happens next we're going down quite a gradient the main line is just there running literally where my finger is at that level we're disappearing off down here give you an idea of how far we've dropped so right down we're going to go under this bridge I don't know if I'm actually supposed to but still I'm going to have a look if I get told someone says to need to go away I'll either tell them I'm the railway be just or I'll just go I think it'd be all right oh look here we go so here is the depot there's some steps up there so I think I'm probably all right to be down here see how lightly laid it's a typical field bomb very lightly laid it's literally laid over the bricks now I have a look here I should be able to see the rolling stock put my camera through there yeah I can see something it's fun to sit on that wagon oh and then this is what more interesting there's a diesel low-cut and there's some wagons have a look at that so maybe they do like charters like say the diesel would run around to pull in those wagons and I'm just looking I'll come back a better look and so there's always one loco and there's these wagons which you see on it reminds me of at the Apedale Valley Railway the their field railway and sorry there's a thing in the way but you can sit better like that they have wagons a bit like that which I did ride on once I said video over look at the screen now yeah and then that is literally the end so I think we've I've satisfied my curiosity of what runs on this railway I'm going to head back up there now and now we're going to go and look around the museum itself so here we are we're inside the technical museum that's been rather funny happened I sat down here to have a cup of tea yeah seemed a really nice place to sit by this locomotive which you know appears to be on display in the museum very quiet everything I got the shock of my life when a moment ago it whistled and pulled off with a carriage I was like what you can have a ride on this so I missed the ride I did film it so have a look at the video of the steam loco so that was really unexpected I'm gonna have to have a ride on the next one at four o'clock so unfortunately I won't get any shots of it outside there's no idea looking at it now I can't smell anything to suggest it's in steam it really did give me a shock but I'm pleased because I know I'm gonna get a winning steam loco so this is the only steam loco inside the museum we've seen there's a few steam diesel loco's outside the museum and so what they did they they basically shut this off and then look at it now it just looks like it's on display and then it went off through those doors open it reversed back in it really was the most random thing ever it was just like be like if this horse suddenly sprung to life and trotted off with this little horse I don't think it's gonna happen but it's a bit like what it was so yeah we're down on the ground floor at the moment so see this horse tram she's quite interesting to see there's quite a few flaws I'm not gonna show you the whole museum because there's simply so much to see and there's a lot of interactive things you can do which are quite fun you can have a go at various things it was a bit like it reminded me of all the fun bits of science lessons when I was at school coming here today did so it's a very really a very good museum and well worth a visit what we'll do though I'm just gonna show you a couple of interesting parts of the museum I've got to be here at four no matter what basically because I want to have my ride behind that steam okay I'm not gonna miss that for anything and when I come sir yeah for me getting loco's for haulage is like yeah something that's fairly important on my list but I really didn't expect to get anything so I have to come here again to do feel but I know now next time to hang around outside because it's a chance I'm gonna see a steam loco go by and so yeah we'll definitely come back in the future anyway here we are down on the ground floor nice selection of classic cars and there's all this it's got I'd say the subject this technical museum covers us an NSU by the way that's an opal it's probably more vast than the technical museums we saw at Speyer and Mannheim but there's less of the exhibits it's not as vast the subject covers is more vast but the actual size of the museum it's pretty big I mean you do need all day here I'd say but it's not as big as the Speyer one so you know if you're thinking of coming here I would allow a whole day to visit it and it's very much worth it as I said I'm gonna next visit will be when the field barn is running so you can it's a strange building as well an interesting but strange building their steps sort of to each floors there's lifts there's various different sort of these long walkways that take you around so it's quite and takes you a while to get your head around it I would say the other two at Sinsheim and Speyer were more sort of easily laid out anyway come to here's a few more cars another yeah these are both NSU so that's quite cool to see not a car that was really ever sold in Britain bubble car and then the car that always makes my day and it's the second one we've seen today the Trevancs we were lucky enough to see a Trevanc combi earlier on I couldn't believe it when I saw that it's like looking at the sticker on site that whoever drove this worked at the power station the Volkswagen car there talking about power stations I think this is out of one of the power stations this machine here I think it's a generator not a tire shop it's big steam engine that would have powered a generator it's what I understand it to be so what we'll do now you can see all the controls for the power station we'll go if you have a look running now but there's some water mills which are very interesting up there so what we'll do go up to those levels and then as I said I've got to be back down here for five o'clock or four o'clock to have my ride behind that steam locomotive it feels so strange we're in a museum it's everything so clean and yet there's a steam locomotive running here really is well just a very nice surprise I'm really looking forward to having my ride behind that well one of these long corridors which goes up a slope around the corner up to another level they have these and there's like a garden on the roof there's one over the other side it's quite a fascinating place this museum there's just so many different levels to it all I get to here we have another steam engine there the stationary one they have lots of interactive exhibits which is quite fun you can have a go at doing it I don't know if I'm really gonna be able to do this I've got camera in my hand obviously but it's like one here let's let's give this one a go so as you can see it's like the piston of the steam engine now I push this basically if you move this I should feel that I'll stop doing that because it's noisy and you can't really hear what I'm saying but you you get the idea it says there's lots of quite exciting things you can do here in this part of the museum which I you know find really interesting there's one other one if somebody else isn't here look you can see some animated exhibits going on there's like a giant McKarno kit oh yeah this is one I wanted to have a go with see this thing here we used to see these in supermarkets when I was a child see this thing get this if you lift that up hard to do it when you've got one hand so that's in there now it goes down and then what you do you can send it with air so there's a big bellow here so if I lift this bellow it's going you just see it going around as you can see that little boy over there has just picked it up so that's quite a fun thing you can do so there's lots there's lots of interactive exhibits like that this is all about electricity and the different things forces you can do with electricity so that's quite exciting so there's really a lot to see oh look there's our steam worker down there I've got to be down there four o'clock to have that ride last ride date I don't know how I didn't realize I heard the sound of whistles I'm sort of you know kicking myself I was like well I heard a whistle so of course it was going well that's the exhibition on television which hasn't yet opened so I was just like yeah how did I not tweak that it was actually doing rides I think I just did not expect it and I'm really excited about getting that ride so maybe I'll get to kind of making a video this part of the museum shows as if the local locomotive works you can see a boiler down there like it's under construction directly above me is the carriage which will ride in so it is all one piece of track as I said earlier as well as I fought earlier one long line literally one long dual gauge line runs in and out the museum so that's down there we have a little cool model of a steam generating engine if I press this button it'll go yeah look so that's that's quite interesting yeah so if you look out there you can see that class 18 Pacific in the little narrow gauge logo so yeah there's our carriage my carriage awaits for my steam hauled ride that's an overhead crane you're not often seen them at this level there's one more thing I want to show you before I have my ride so as we come out here that you can see the through the window what I think must be a meter gauge steam loco out there is the field barn those three bridges so about what is this go this takes us to the entrance oh yeah get a nice view of the of the Pacific out there so that like I said there's just so many different things to see here and actually what's come down here because I'm trying to get to another level too I'm gonna find all that to the next level and I'll show you that when we get there we're on the next level there's some machines so to give you an idea of where we were a moment ago have a look that's that animated there's animated models we can see see that one working just there have a look at this though here is a meal in action that's great to see a waterwheel turning and it would have course powered all of this machinery which would ground the calm down bills will use various different things this one not working anyway let's try another exhibit so let me see loads of just there there's loads of looms and everything now for waterwheels that waterwheel well there's two types you get undershot and overshot so that's an undershot waterwheel this is an overshot waterwheel way to see how they work is we process but yeah look there's a load of water coming you can see water is starting to come down there we go look and see the overshot wheel is springing into action and so is the undershot one and it shows you how much so that how much they're generating I think so at the moment the overshot one is generating more than the undershot one but the I don't know the undershot ones is taken over now let's make more so that's really quite fascinating to see talking of undershot waterwheels there is one down here look at this there is a mill you can see okay the loot the looms aren't running but all the machinery all these belts are turning that's really quite fascinating to see it's a bit reminds me a bit quarry bank mill in the UK in Manchester and that is powered by well it doesn't appear to be turning at moment but an undershot waterwheel and then there I think this is another water powered machine looking at the diagrams I think the water would have flown through there to power that machine I'm gonna go downstairs now and get my ride on that steam train so here I am at the barn half this is the most unusual railway station I've ever been to I've ever been to one quite like it and as I said the mate the loco seems to giving no indication it's in steam there it is there so here's my carriage I'm just it's still about 15 it goes but I just like I just want to be on it so I'm just gonna wait here until it's time for me to get my ride on a very short bit of track but very unexpected and exciting little railways that I'm going to travel on so I really can't wait for this right so the moment has arrived I am now on the train we're just waiting to go I found out a bit of information has been talking to driver he tells me it's fireless so the steam is created down below and it's pumped up to the steam locomotive so that's why so although it looks like it wasn't originally a fireless loco it currently is now so hence the reason there was no noise anyway we're gonna go so I'm really excited about that so when we were walking around outside on the field bone we're now gonna make up the museums this has got to be one of the most unusual and most unexpected train rides I've ever been on but I'm really happy you know that I was able to get this very unexpected experience it just you know went from being what I thought was a static exhibit to something that gives you a little ride so yeah it's really made my day so the drivers got off I think my winning loco of the day might be just about to get two winning loco's a day because I think because it's last ride that diesel which you might be able to see there it looked like he was coupling it up so he's even gonna drag the diesel back in or the diesel's being fired up so if he fires up the diesel I've then had two locos for haulage I'm not quite sure what's going on the drivers got out and tends to jump out and get a picture but then if the train went it's not really you can see we are literally on the edge of an embankment so I probably shouldn't just get out just stand on the steps but as we saw earlier this is the end of the line so I'm really not sure what's going on of course there's also the main line over there so if I was going past on the main line train I would be like what there's a steam engine I'd be desperate to come and find out anyway let's wait and see what happens this very very short train ride has just become even more mysterious than ever so just going back now it appears we're just dragging the diesel back so I can't count the diesel as a winner even though I've had it in the context of a train so I'm done I have to come here be on a separate visit to Germany now because this is my penultimate day but I'll have to be here about four o'clock and film all this from outside because it is quite a fascinating little operation I'm gonna flip the camera around you can see forward back into the museum you'll see what short distance we've really travelled that was all rather a bit of a big exciting surprise one more whistle from the steam locomotive so after our ride she had to then shunt the diesel locomotive the carriage and that other wagon into the depot so it's all on it's like it's just yeah it's just such a funny railway see there's level crossing gates you just feel so surreal that we're inside a building you've got a steam engine going up and down on this railway which has no points it's just one long bit of track it has station down there depot in the middle takes you outside it's a very short ride but it's also one of the best rides I've ever had it's just so I don't know just really exciting I think because it was so unexpected it just sort of shows you don't need a long long ride for it to be a good ride so that was really really good I really enjoyed that so if you're in Mammheim you've really got to come and see this place just a couple of things I want to show you before I finish the video here we have like the appearance of a car factory since they're car under construction more vintage cars and I'm just going to finish off with something else well I just one other thing there that's quite cool that the thing I want to finish off with and I really want to make a video on one one day because I think they have one the most exciting coolest things ever invented a bit dangerous and that's pretty why I haven't ever featured one in a video before have a look at this doesn't look that exciting at first glance but it's if I step back you may have an idea what it is it's a pattern-oster lift now okay this one isn't working for those of you don't know what pattern-oster lift is it's a continuous lift so that one will be going up that one will be going down and what would happen is you'd have to require a leap of faith to jump in and have a ride so what would happen is you can actually stay in it and you can ride right over the top I don't think you're supposed to but you can't you can ride right up there over the top and you could stay in it and go down it's called if you go to the top it's called overriding and underriding so you basically you you jump in when you get the next floor or before you want you to jump out and the reason it's called a pattern-oster lift pattern-oster are the first words of the Lord's Prayer it's because you require a leap of faith to get in now I did go in one in Cologne a few years ago I found a public building with one in operation and it goes quite fast it's actually quite scary get into them the only place I've seen one in the UK is Norfolk Park Hospital now I've been in the hospital a few times purely to look at the lift I've never ever seen it operational and it is only for staff although I was tempted to try and sneak in somehow and have a ride I really want to make a video though one day on a pattern-oster lift there's a few universities I believe the Arts Tower Sheffield University has a pattern-oster lift I think possibly less the University and maybe there might be one in the University of Essex in Colchester but I really I really want to have a go-in one and make a video I think they're fascinating things so it's also made my day to see a pattern-oster lift here even if it's not a working one so I think that's quite fascinating subject to finish the video on something that certainly belongs in a technical museum so I really hope you enjoyed this video from the Technical Museum in Mannheim it's been full of surprises for me as I made this video it sometimes shows you you know unplanned days out well I plan to come here can be some of the best I've just seen all these things unexpected steam engines that you think are static that suddenly come to life pattern-oster lifts saw we saw the Trabant that's parked over there and then we saw the other one which was in the depot I'm gonna finish with one other thing just a short model railway press this button should go let's go on the other side this is one other thing I was just gonna tell you about to finish see this locomotive here it's called a rabbit I don't know how obvious it is on here but it's exhaust pipes look like rabbit ears so from the Mannheim Technical Museum I hope you enjoyed this do come and visit them I've really had a fantastic day so thank you very much for watching please do feel free to like subscribe and comment