Tour Report: The Medical Train

Towards the end of our summer vacation in 2018, we were more or less on our way home - only one more overnight stop at a friend's place was scheduled - and we decided to check if we could pay a visit to the so-called "Medical Train".

The "Medical Train" was a kind of mobile hospital in the GDR and was used especially during major military maneuvers under the Warsaw Treaty. It is kept by the "Eisenbahnfreunde Staßfurt" and can be visited legally.

It was Monday, so we didn't really think that we'd get the chance to even enter the old railyard/museum where the trains are kept, especially since we knew that it's better to make an appointment in advance, but since it was on the way to our destination, we tried it anyway.

As we arrived, we were surprised to find the gate open, and we started looking around. Inside the engine shed, we found a couple of guys working on various old locomotives, and we asked them if it was possible to photograph the Medical Train. Since they were working, the asked if we could make an appointment and come back on the weekend, but when we explained that we were almost five hundred kilometers from home and that it was more or less the last day of our vacation, they made an exception and started looking for the key to the train. It took some time to find the key - and also to find the door which the key unlocked - but at some point, we were inside the train and started taking photos.

Of course, I had seen plenty of photos from the train in the past, but it's always different when you're finally there for yourself and have the chance to look in every corner for yourself, so we took our time to explore the train from front to back.

After we were finished, we said a big thank you to the guys that had let us in, and we left a donation, so this amazing place can be kept up for future visitors, and I'm sure that we will return sometime in the future to check out all the other trains that they have there.

To find out about the history of this place and to check out all the photos, click the button below.

The Last Train from Denmark

Late in July of last year, our friend Lost Places in Schleswig-Holstein und Umland took my wife and me for a short tour through the North of Germany.
Our first stop were a couple of old railway cars that I had noticed a bunch of times from the train going through a small town, but this was the first chance I had to check them out frome up close.
There was a public parking lot really close by and the area wasn't really off limits, so we just walked up to the old train. The first cars we passed were freight cars, but a few meters further, we reached the passenger cars.
Considering the long time that they had been standing there, they were still in a remarkable condition.

There were a lot of details to be seen - especially when we found the wagon full of railway memorabilia.
We went through the train for the entire length before we went back to the car to head for the next location.
From what I've heard (and seen from other urbexer's photos), the trains's windows have since been boarded up and most of the doors have been sealed.


To find out more about the history of this li'l ol' place and to check out all the photos from this spot, click the button below.

Train Track Therapy

A selection of photos that I took in a forest near Kiel.
The railroad tracks are not for "normal" traffic, but they are used to transport tanks and trains built in the Caterpillar factory in Kiel-Friedrichsort. Most of the time, there are no trains, so the tracks have a somewhat deserted feel to them.

Night Train from Hamburg

Some raw iPhone video footage I shot on the night train from Hamburg to Kiel after a concert.
It was one of those pretty rotten old trains that you imagine really would only be on the tracks at night because the daylight would expose their true ugliness.
The real advantage, however, is the fact that these old train cars have pull-down windows...