Fire destroys Ballenberg Dampfbahn depot

[Tigerli]

http://www.jungfrauzeitung.ch/artikel/127970/

 

The newer part of the depot was destroyed where the locomotives HG 3/3 1068,  G 3/4 208 and the C 5/6 were stationed. The HG 3/3 1067 steam engine, together with the historical 3-axled passenger coaches, were unharmed in the older hall.

[PaulRhB]

After the German museum fire and the Baltimore museums roof collapse I think they are very aware of the risks. Affording full sprinkler systems though is another matter. Does the Severn Valley have such a system in its carriage shed? The Mid Hants also lost a couple of vehicles last year when half the workshop caught fire.

[The Stationmaster]

To be honest it did strike me as a potentially dodgy place to keep steam engines when I visited in 10 years ago - an awful lot of exposed woodwork sorry about the quality of the pics)

 

 

 

 

 

[PaulRhB]

Lets hope it's dents and scorching on the three locos rather than destruction.

[jonti]

I think that from a structural integrity stand point wood construction is often better than concrete and steel. Shame to see this as I know the area well having lived 1/2 a mile down the road from it for over a year back in 2004/2005

 

Lets hope they get it up and running again soon.

[eastwestdivide]

Reading through the article in the first post, it says

 

Ein langjähriges Vorstandsmitglied des Vereins bestätigt, dass die HG 3/3 1068, die G 3/4 208 sowie die C 5/6 im abgebrannten Teil des Depots stationiert waren, und vom Brand in Mitleidenschaft gezogen worden sind. 

 

Which roughly says that a long-time associate said the HG 3/3 1068, G 3/4 208 and C 5/6 locos were in the burnt-down part of the depot, and were pulled from the fire, but were affected/damaged (Mitleidenschaft) by it.

[much later edit - my mistake - not pulled from the fire, but just "were also damaged" - see later posts]

 

and 

 

Dies gilt allerdings nicht für die Dampflok HG 3/3 1067 sowie die historischen Dreiachs-Personenwagen, welche im alten Teil des Depots stehen. Sie haben nichts abbekommen

 

This does not apply to the HG 3/3 1067 steam loco and the historic three-axle passenger carriages, which were in the old part of the depot. Nothing happened to them (?).

Edited November 18, 2013 by eastwestdivide

[Grovenor]

I wonder where you got that information from...

From where he said!

Keith

[Horsetan]

Having passed through Interlaken Ost, I didn't even know that shed was there....

[Dagworth]

I'm quite proficient in reading German, at least enough to understand newspaper articles like the one quoted above, and at no point in that article did the report mention the pulling of the loco's from the burning depot hall, nor any time after it... So, did he have another source for that parcel of information, one I haven't seen yet? He could, I'd never pretend to know everything!

Here are two screen caps from the article linked to in the original posting

 

 

And with Google translating it

 

Andi

Edited November 18, 2013 by Dagworth

[Blandford1969]

After the German museum fire and the Baltimore museums roof collapse I think they are very aware of the risks. Affording full sprinkler systems though is another matter. Does the Severn Valley have such a system in its carriage shed? The Mid Hants also lost a couple of vehicles last year when half the workshop caught fire.

To answer the question, yes there is a sprinkler system

[Guest]

Wife speaks mother-tongue German and she confirms that the stock mentioned in the article was damaged. "Have been pulled" does not mean what the translation says. Or at least, in a literal sense, it does but it's like us saying "If I go down, I'll drag you down with me." We don't literally drag someone down with us, we imply we'll also cause damage to them. In this case, the article is using this device to say that other stock was also damaged.

[eastwestdivide]

Apologies for my misunderstanding of "gezogen", which I took to mean pulled - I hadn't come across the phrase "in Mitleidenschaft gezogen". Looked up "Mitleidenschaft" to get the meaning of, roughly, "collateral damage", but missed the idea that the locos were "dragged down" as David Elvar says in post 15.

[Guest]

You're not the first to get caught out by Google Translate, you certainly won't be the last. Over here in Denmark, I teach English at all levels to Danish business people. On one job recently, I had a case that illustrated the limitations of Google perfectly.

 

Someone had received an e-mail from the company's British office where the sender had said the company had had to "cough up a grand" for some reason or other, and of course, the poor girl on the receiving end hadn't a clue what that meant. She ran it through Google (as I've just done) and got this:

 

hoste op en storslået

 

Hoste means cough, and storslået means magnificent/spectacular/grand. You and I both know, of course, that "cough up a grand" means the company had to reluctantly pay a thousand pounds. When I told this to her, the whole group stared at me in dumbly. And half the problems the company had been having disappeared overnight. I told HR the root of their problem and they issued an immediate memo to the British office forbidding the use of slang, colloquialisms, etc. Communication improved rapidly and I was left with one very satisfied client.

 

To get back on topic, does anyone have an update on this fire re. damage, etc.? 

[eastwestdivide]

It wasn't even google translate that caught me out, purely my own misinterpretation. Cheers.

One oft-repeated apocryphal story about machine translation is that someone put in "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" to be translated into Russian, and when back-translating it, they got "the vodka is strong but the meat is rotten".

 

Diversion over. Another article here, with lots of photos:

http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/panorama/vermischtes/Der-ideelle-Schaden-ist-sehr-gross/story/31460485

where the first photo caption is "Nach dem Vollbrand blieb nicht mehr viel übrig" - "after the fire there wasn't much left"

and

 

Nicht beschädigt wurden die Dampflok HG3/3 1067, die historischen Dreiachspersonenwagen sowie die Achsen der HG3/3 1068; sie standen im alten Depot, welches beim Brand nur leicht in Mitleidenschaft gezogen wurde

Steam loco HG3/3 1067, the historic 3-axle carriages and the axles of HG3/3 1068 were undamaged; they were in the old depot, which was only slightly affected by the fire. 

(elsewhere it says the frames and boiler of HG3/3 1068 were in the destroyed depot)

[jonti]

Quote from eastwestdevide.

 

"

Quote

 

Ein langjähriges Vorstandsmitglied des Vereins bestätigt, dass die HG 3/3 1068, die G 3/4 208 sowie die C 5/6 im abgebrannten Teil des Depots stationiert waren, und vom Brand in Mitleidenschaft gezogen worden sind. 

 

Which roughly says that a long-time associate said the HG 3/3 1068, G 3/4 208 and C 5/6 locos were in the burnt-down part of the depot, and were pulled from the fire, but were affected/damaged (Mitleidenschaft) by it.

[much later edit - my mistake - not pulled from the fire, but just "were also damaged" - see later posts]

 

and 

Quote

 

Dies gilt allerdings nicht für die Dampflok HG 3/3 1067 sowie die historischen Dreiachs-Personenwagen, welche im alten Teil des Depots stehen. Sie haben nichts abbekommen

 

This does not apply to the HG 3/3 1067 steam loco and the historic three-axle passenger carriages, which were in the old part of the depot. Nothing happened to them (?)."

 

Quote ends.

 

As a fluent German speaker, reader, writer I can confirm this is correct. Google translations are very hit and miss.

 

Jonti

Edited November 18, 2013 by jonti

[eastwestdivide]

As I said above, it wasn't even google translate that caught me out. But yes, GT isn't a reliable source of translation.

[big jim]

Another article here, with lots of photos:

http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/panorama/vermischtes/Der-ideelle-Schaden-ist-sehr-gross/story/31460485

picture 9 shows what looks to be the front of a steam loco in the burned out shed

[5944]

http://www.bernerzeitung.ch/region/thun/Der-ideelle-Schaden-ist-sehr-gross/story/29309391

 

First photo shows 1068 clearly, seemingly with another couple of locos to the side and behind. However, the damage doesn't look too bad, at least from that photo. Burnt and scorched, but not irreparable.

[RJS1977]

The Achenseebahn have also lost a loco in a shed fire in recent years.

[EddieB]

The Achenseebahn have also lost a loco in a shed fire in recent years.

...not to mention the recent losses at the Zig-zag Railway at Linlithgow, NSW.

[Horsetan]

Similar grim images when the DB roundhouse went up in Nuremberg in 2005....

[stadman]

I recall seeing Durango roundhouse after their fire. Although looks bad, especially if wooden vehicles inside really little hope for them all the D&S locos were recovered.

After steam locos are designed to have fires albeit on the inside so hope not everything is lost.

[PaulRhB]

Update, 208 has gone to the RhB workshops at Landquart for restoration. Seeing what they've done with the 'friends of the RhB' Heidi recently and how they rebuilt a crushed Ge4/4 it's in very safe hands Not sure who's actually doing it as the 'friends' have a high number of RhB staff and borrow workshop space so someone might be able to translate more.

http://www.ballenberg-dampfbahn.ch

[PaulRhB]

Thanks nice to know I got the gist ok

[Simon Moore]

Fantastic news.

 

I was really hoping to travel along lake Brienz last year & was gutted when I heard the news.

 

The loco is in good hands & hopefully a good start to bringing steam back to the bernese oberland region.

 

Simon