Location: Germany Gender: Male Total Likes: 514 likes
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Deutsche Reichsbahn Medical Train < on 2/21/2018 6:06 PM > | Reply with Quote
A mobile hospital with an untouched surgery. If you’re searching for pictures of urban exploration on the internet you might come across this set of railway carriages. This place is known as “Medical Train” within the urbex community. It’s supposed to be somewhere in Eastern Germany. But if you have a closer look to those pictures you might notice that there are no signs of vandalism at all and that, apparently, everything is still there. So we wanted to know: Is it really possible that a place like this could be abandoned?
No, it’s not. Not at all actually. A non-profit association is looking after the ambulance train. We travelled all the way to the location and a friendly member of this association showed us around.
The Medical Train is located on an old railway yard in Staßfurt, Germany. It’s the premises of the so called “Eisenbahnfreunde”. In English: “Friends of the Railway”. This association deals with the preservation of historical rail vehicles. Amongst others several trains from bygone eras. Some of those were creating a post-apocalyptic atmosphere on the property.
But we were here to see the Medical Train. It’s a so called “Katastrophenzug” which means “catastrophe train” in English. There were 14 of them in total, distributed all over the former German Democratic Republic. Originally this one right here was located in Leipzig and went under the name of “K9”. That’s short for “catastrophe train number 9”. Unfortunately, most of those K-trains were scrapped by now. But this one is one of the few trains that have survived.
In the 1950s, the German State Railroad Company (Deutsche Reichsbahn) started to produce the first catastrophe trains. Officially they were planned as emergency trains during natural disasters. But this civil protection was only a disguise. Off the record those vehicles should serve as ambulance trains for the USSR and the GDR’s National People's Army. Allegedly those trains were only in transit during night hours to prevent possible espionage activities. In case of a nuclear war those vehicles would have been called into action as some kind of first care. Fortunately, the deployment of the trains didn’t become necessary.
A variety of cots on both sides of the wagon. Always one above the other. In this sickbay there was space for 27 patients in total. Over here the wounded were waiting for their treatment.
From here the patients were brought to the surgery. What a terrifying imagination: Undergoing a surgery inside a moving train which might be rushing through a war zone. But when it’s a matter of life and death you probably don’t have any other choice. This room was and is provided with all the necessary medical equipment.
In the apothecary cabinet doctors could find a variety of drugs. Machines that were standing right next door were used for sterilizing all the surgical instruments.
Without doubt this is a very remarkable vehicle. The “Medical Train” is drawing attention from urban explorers all across Europe. Unfortunately plenty of them don’t know that this is more like a museum than an abandoned site. As we were told the train was broken into by photographers several times already. In order to get access even windows had been smashed. To be honest, this is just stupid. All you need is to ask those friendly association members and they will let you in. In fact, it’s even free. But if visitors are interested they can support the preservation of the train with a voluntary donation.
Location: at the beginning Gender: Male w/ Female Bits Total Likes: 277 likes
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Re: Deutsche Reichsbahn Medical Train < Reply # 3 on 2/21/2018 7:34 PM > | Reply with Quote
pretty cool
Kabbalah is an undramatic tradition that requires great patience and stability. One of the reasons for this tempo is that everyone has to mature his potential gradually and thoroughly at his natural pace. In this way his life's work unfolds at the right moment in his own and the cosmos's time. Z.B.S. Halevi -- Kabbalah