Planes, Trains and Motorbikes

Here's Kai who I met and blipped on my way back from Rio last November here. He lives in Berlin and we were able to meet up for a coffee today, as well as take up some of his suggestions for places to visit during our stay.

He is a very nice and open young man with a penchant for different forms of transport. Planes are probably his least favourite but he rides a Suzuki 750 motorbike very fast on the unrestricted German autobahns...oh, and he has his very own train!

The story is remarkable. His late father was a steam locomotive driver on the GDR (formerly East Germany) railways. When the steam trains were about to be scrapped he set out on a personal mission to save one for posterity. So, he asked for one to take home! The government would only sell him one for the scrap value of 45 tons of iron which was way beyond his immediate means. He set out to collect 45 tons of scrap metal to finance his dream. It took him two years but he did it!

When the deal was complete, he headed off to collect his locomotive which was laid up in a distant siding on the other side of Germany and got permission to drive it over the railway network to the stop nearest to his village. It was then transported on a huge truck to his garden and set down on twenty metres of track, and a train shed built around it.

Since his death, it has fallen to Kai to care for it in a continuing labour of love which I think shows something of the qualities of this young man and the love and respect he had for his father and his dream. 'I'll never leave, you know', says Kai, 'I have my train to look after.'

Long may it be so, and long may people come to marvel at it (which can be down by private arrangement). Fancy a ride? You can climb aboard here!

PS
Kai gave me permission to share this story here.