On The Patapsco

Quick question — are the Kato CIWL cars 1:160 N scale or 1:150 Japanese N scale since they are sold in sets that represent the 1988 train that ran in Japan?

My family lived in West Berlin 1980-87 and then came back in 1995. I graduated from high school at the Kennedy Schule in Zehlendorf. Some of my earliest memories involve taking the S-Bahn and U-Bahn to Friederichstrasse in order to cross the border. My parents had originally come to Germany as Mennonite missionaries and after a stint in Poland (when I came along) had developed relationships with East German Lutherans and Baptists while Dad studied at the Freie Universitaet in West Berlin. We lived in Tegel and I attended school across West Berlin in Zehlendorf. We had to take the U-Bahn through Zoo in order to catch the school bus. For some reason, my parents let me take the U-Bahn by myself in the first grade and I learned pretty early on how to navigate the system. I think that speaks to how “small” West Berlin felt at that the time. I don’t think most parents would allow their first graders ride the subway by themselves these days. By the 1980’s, the Reichsbahn no longer ran steam into East Berlin, but I remember seeing from the S-Bahn locomotives used as stationary boilers in the area around Warschauerstrasse and Ostkreuz (though I could be wrong). I also have a fondness for the Soviet-built “Ludmillas,” which were the primary power for the Interzone trains through Zoo. In 1981, I fell off the platform at Zoo, while my mom was handing luggage through the compartment window to my Dad on a trip to Holland. A friend laid on the platform and pulled me up. Mom was checking me out after the train left Zoo, because she knew she could get off at Wansee before it went into East Germany. My first memory is her checking me out in the railcar’s loo. I was two.