The Old Railyard Hidden In A Berlin Park

For half a century after it closed down, the old Berlin Tempelhof railyard was completely sealed off from humans. During that time it became a haven for wildlife, and a tiny lost world on the edge of the city. But in 2000, it reopened - this time, as a protected nature reserve. I went to the German capital to explore it for myself...
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[@markstott6689]

Anthracite = black coal. Lignite = Brown coal. Anthracite gives off far more heat than lignite, making it ideal for steam locomotives. Lignite generally was used in power stations.

[@peter_meyer]

Unfortunately it still is used in power stations. Even in germany.

[@NoNameForNone]

> Lignite generally was used in power stations. Is, not was. The main tagebau site which is now digging up a highway and some villages in the ruhr area in germany digs up that for the nearby powerstations. Which is needed since germany stopped all nuclear power.

[@watson956]

@Mark Stott - Thank you, I was scratching my head about what the english equivalents would be.

[@Schmogel92]

​@@NoNameForNone this already is a very heated debate all over the internet. But I only want to add that the reason we have to continue using brown coal for a few more years (around 2030) is that the conservative party in charge botched the transition to renewable energy and bankrupted German solar industries in it's infancy. Our wind industry barely survived.

[@markstott6689]

@@watson956 You're welcome 😊

[@sirrliv]

Fun factoid about the steam train: A total of 3,160 DR Class 50 locomotives were built, making them one of the most ubiquitous single steam locomotive classes ever made. THE most ubiquitous was the DR Class 52, a later iteration on the Class 50, with over 7,000 engines built! A few Class 50 engines have seen service as far away as China and North Korea, with one being preserved in the Shenyang Railway Museum. If you enjoy park spaces transformed from old railway yards, I highly recommend the Heizhaus Eisenbahnmuseum in Strasshof, Austria, about half an hour outside of Vienna on the S1 Line (get off at Silberwald, not Strasshof). This incredible railway museum can basically be summed up as a steam locomotive maintenance yard that never got the memo that steam was dead. Most of the original facilities are still intact and still functional and you're free to wander around most all of them. The whole site is over 2km long! Much of the collection is stored outdoors, but the most prized pieces are found in the engine sheds, including locomotives dating back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire that are steamed up for demonstrations and rides and select days of the year. There's also a nice miniature railway and several model train exhibits, as well as a few passenger coaches that have been repurposed as cafes and a gift shop, so a lovely day out for all. If Tim ever has cause to swing down to Vienna, I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's a lovely place run by lovely people passionate about preserving Austria's railway history as more than dusty objects in a museum, historic machines still capable of doing the work they were built to do even after over 100 years.

[@andrewyoung749]

depending on whether you take the 4 e classes of russia railways as subclasses the russians built 11000-13000 e class steam locos depending who you ask the russians also built over 9000 o class steam locos re strasshof. yeah but they could make far better mainline use of that spectacular 310.23

[@smhorse]

Two Baureihe 52s made it to Britain. One went to Bressingham Steam Museum and was nicknamed "Peer Gynt", where it sat essentially doing nothing for about three decades, whilst the other did work on the Nene Valley Railway for a while. The NVR is the only line where Continental engines and stock can run in Britain, since its clearances were widened to take the Berne loading gauge.

[@paulbeneder9337]

Also at Strasshof: Squirrel = Oachkatzl. 🐿

[@MrPixelspin]

The VSM (Veluwse Stoomtrein Maatschappij) in the Netherlands owns 6 BR52's of which two are still operational. They also own 5 BR50's of which 3 are still operational. In the summer they have weekly riding days and in september they have the annualy "Terug naar toen" ("Back till then") weekend in which they try to run as many steam engines together as possible. Also a very great sight to see. If you search for "Terug naar toen" you can find some high quality video's of it.

[@tjj4656]

It's also interesting that the DDR kept the name 'Deutsche Reichsbahn". This is not a fact, but it is believed that they kept the name because in all the East-West treaties regulating rail transport across the corridors and in Berlin itself, the entity was explicitly named like that.

[@matthijsdeboer9932]

Hello Tim, I reckon you would like hearing this if you had not been aware of it already, so here goes. The German (Eichhörnchen) and also the Dutch (eekhoorn) share a remarkable and most probably not utterly coincidental resemblance to the English word for their favourite food, if you believe the stereotype that is ofcourse, namely the acorn. In fact, the pronounciation of the Dutch word 'eekhoorn' is virtually the same as 'acorn' is for you. Take care and keep posting, I thoroughly enjoy your videos and quite often pin the locations!

[@AllegedlyHuman]

Germanic languages unite! It's ekorn in Norwegian

[@gwaptiva]

And then there's the "rule" in French where é at start of a word indicates that it at some point may have been 'es'... so the leap from squirrel to écureuil isn't that massive either

[@lonestarr1490]

@@kardinmo Ah yes, the pleistocenic Eichhorn with its saber teeth which the early humans hunted for their pelts, of which they made cute jackets for their pet mammoths, and also rode into battle.

[@SquirrelSeb84]

@@AllegedlyHuman Kaweechelchen in Luxembourgish

[@thesteelrodent1796]

same thing in Danish: They're called "egern" because they eat "agern" (acorn) - and both those words are nearly impossible for non-Danes to pronounce correctly (because the 'g' is a soft G, that's pronounced similar to, but not exactly like, a J - and if you pronounce it as J, you get "ejer" [which means owner] - and the N at the end is barely pronounced at all). And the one thing that usually throws off foreigners trying to learn Danish: the spokes of a wheel are called "eger", which is pronounced almost the same as "egern" - it refers to old wooden wheels where the spokes were made of oak.

[@dansummers2965]

I suspect the belly-tickling pit is an ash dump, for dropping the locomotive's fire into at the end of a working session so it can be cleaned out - it's too shallow for a proper inspection pit, I'd have thought. But I prefer Niamh's explanation.

[@B2BWide]

Niamh is a real treasure, I loved her explanations (and her smile). Greetings to her! ;)

[@kapegede]

You're right. It's an ember pit. It's too shallow to be an inspection trench. So there it would be more like tickling a dragon.

[@gummybread]

Well if thats the ash dump then wheres the tummy tickling segment? Thats probably why the yard was abandoned, they forgot to build one

[@thesteelrodent1796]

considering this was a freight yard, a dump pit makes the most sense. Inspection pits were (normally) only ever built (dug) by the maintenance sheds.

[@hedgehog3180]

@@gummybread German trains are all very serious and refuse to be tickled, which makes them depressed and that is why DB is always late while SCNF is mostly on time. JR of course is the most timely railway company in the world because they cheer up their trains with cute anime decorations.

[@rontanser9369]

That was a very good idea to turn it into a nature park. It’s a pity we didn’t do something like that with a few of our abandoned sites.

[@DrivermanO]

Ouir active sites seem to be overgrown! You trees and weeds sprouting out of buildings - look at Wolverhampton Station. Its a disgrace!

[@bingbong7316]

I haven't been that way of late, but much of Feltham became forest.

[@jackiespeel6343]

In London there is the Parkland Walk, and the former railway line nature reserve by the Horniman Museum - there are probably others.

[@01jvb]

We have a similar site in Leamington called Foundry Wood - a triangle of land between 2 rail lines.

[@jackiespeel6343]

There is also the Gunnersbury Triangle Nature Reserve (across Bollo Lane - which has two level crossings on it).

[@PonyOfWar]

The "animals of farthing wood" theme at 02:20 was definitely unexpected. Must be 20 years since I last heard it! Loved that series even though I'm probably still slightly traumatized from it.

[@hardcorehobbit]

I was convinced that's what I heard. Thank you for confirming. I love this about Tim's videos. :D

[@pavelow235]

This American had to look up your TV reference.

[@sognsvann3]

Me too! Loved it when I heard it now again❤

[@Craftlngo]

I was very pleased to hear the Thomas the Tank engine melody merging with the Jim Knopf Title melody. Excellent job on that

[@vikkiruss]

It is definitely a series that teaches you about death straight from episode one!

[@kitchentroll5868]

The usual English term used for German Braunkohle is "lignite", which derives from Latin "lignum", meaning "wood". Whereas, "charcoal" in Latin is "carbones", which can also mean "coal", "soot", "anthrax", or "(burning) embers". Looping back to your friend's misapprehension, on my first visit to the lignite mine in Hambach, Germany, when I heard "Braunkohle" the first time, I misheard "Baumkohle" as well. Which confused the bejesus out of me, so I promptly asked my German hosts how they made any money making charcoal in such and enormous pit. There was much laughing. 😖

[@Carewolf]

And that is not even getting into Kohlkraft (powered by cabbage)..

[@JamesChurchill]

I hope you meant "anthracite" not "anthrax" :o

[@kitchentroll5868]

@@JamesChurchill Strangely, no, both Latin dictionaries I have specify "anthrax" as one of the meanings of Latin "carbones". Let's just say that Latin can be weird that way 🤨 But then there is the Greek term "ἄνθραξ" which was also used interchangeably for coal and the disease anthrax, that in turn gives us "ἀνθρακίτης" (coal-like), which is the origin of "anthracite". Etymology is just plain weird.

[@luelou8464]

@@kitchentroll5868 Anthracite originally referred to heliotrope, which resembles coal. People later started using the term to refer to the type of coal to distinguish it from lignite. So basically anthracite is called anthracite because it resembles the gem formally referred to as anthracite which was named because it resembled the coal now referred to as anthracite.

[@andershansson2245]

So basically, the difference of being invaded by the Roman Empire, or instead invading Rome itself...

[@mquietsch6736]

One of Tim's particular charms is how elastically his British tongue adapts to other languages. I love Tim's French, and his German is just as impeccable. Yes, he may have a slight accent, but he manages the clear vowels in German and French so beautifully ❤

[@anjachan]

yeah it sounds very good!

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

He is good, but he is definitely an exception. Most English-speakers don't really addapt to speaking German, which is quite hillarious when you have a movie where one of the characters is supposed to speak German but isn't a German native (I am German, but sometimes I prefer to listen to a movie or especially TV show in the original English dub).

[@wheeliebeast7679]

Yeah?! I think you mean "Ja!"

[@apveening]

Not only German and French but also Dutch.

[@Philibert73]

I agree as for his French accent!

[@jacobbaer785]

The main railway terminus that this railyard served, was located just inside East Berlin, while all the tracks that led to it (including these) were located in West Berlin. So naturally, once the Berlin wall came up, the station and the tracks that led to it were abandoned. Trains from the south were diverted to Ostbahnhof so they could remain entirely in East Germany. And turning this area into a nature preserve (or anything else for that matter) was not high on West Berlin's priority list, which is why it sat abandoned until after Reunification. I believe the technology museum is now located where the train terminal once was.

[@DoktorOste]

Do you mean Anhalter Bahnhof? That used to be in former West Berlin, but was destroyed during the war. The Park am Gleisdreieck is another park using the field of tracks right in front of the station as park nowadays.

[@cicerotullius]

Tim does a awesome job on videos, high quality and just plan fun and good entertainment! Never enough

[@DerProfi09]

He should have his own BBC show

[@mumblbeebee6546]

+1

[@Knaeckebrotsaege]

I'm always surprised by his pronounciation efforts. I mean I personally can only judge that when he says something in german, but considering how well he does that I assume he puts a similar effort in with all the other languages

[@apveening]

@@Knaeckebrotsaege He does about as well with Dutch and as French is his second language, I am not surprised his pronounciation of that is just about perfect as far as I can tell.

[@MrPete81]

The pause after "genuine German train belly tickling trough" XD I can imagine Tim's face thinking "I can't believe I just said that..." Great video and an interesting story, thank you for sharing :)

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

Well, if he didn't say it, no one else would!

[@ausie7of9]

That line was brilliant

[@fburton8]

Echter Zugbauchkitzelntrog?

[@geraldwagner8739]

It‘s an ash pit!

[@AfonNoria]

Well, technically Niamh isn't wrong since all coal is formed from dead plant matter in the first place, including trees. Jede Kohle ist Baumkohle! :D

[@batonnetdecannelle]

Yes, Braunkohle (lignite) is from very old trees. And Steinkohle (hard coal) is from... extremely old trees.

[@AfonNoria]

Haha, I just realised that "Every coal is tree coal" adapts quite well to the melody of "Every sperm is sacred" by Monty Python. Thankfully, I am not a native speaker of the English language or else I'd feel obliged to wrote a full on coal version of that song. 😁

[@jounneejr8073]

Finland (maybe others as well?) Used actual wood (birch) instead of coal because there wasn't any.

[@AfonNoria]

@@jounneejr8073 In olden days, wood charcoal was more widely used than lignite and hard coal since both of them were harder to find and extract and had to be specially prepared for efficient use. This started with and then enhanced the Industrial Revolution. Gosh, what I still remember from school from 35 years ago.

[@juliaheinzelmann7756]

Fun fact: Tempelhof has another former transportation hub now open to the public: The former airport! The entire airport, runways an all, is now a giant park very close to the one in the video! Kinda surprised you didn't mention it.

[@HB-bl5mn]

There is even a subterranean railway track underneath the airport building.

[@LadyAnuB]

I would guess that a crapload of propeller cargo planes coming and going are missing from this park? 😀

[@arno_nuehm]

Except, it's not the entire airport. Only the airfield is open as a park during opening hours, not the whole vast building itself. Just a small part where community sport in one of the hangars is practised, everything else is closed off to the broader public.

[@emjayay]

There are two hour long tours in English of the main buildings which are huge six days a week. Google it.

[@Foxbat916]

He did not want to spoil the next vídeo. ;)

[@___Me_]

Wow, I actually live next to a Tim Traveller treasure site! So cool!

[@alexdemoya2119]

Tim is truly the most neutral good of travelers

[@TheSurlySoutherner]

Can confirm that is indeed how the Turntable works. You'd put a crank handle on that stub and you could wind the table around manually. I imagine it had some form of powered system as well being it had a large cabin on it as well.

[@Onomast]

Love especially for the music in this video. apart from the "Thomas the little Steam-engine" there was the very nostalgic theme of "als die Tiere den Wald verließen" at 2:20. I so loved that show as a child.

[@vacuumdiagram]

I couldn't resist pulling an imaginary chain for the 'toot toot', as it kicked off! 😅

[@sanashi27]

I usually feel this bit of loneliness whenever I watch videos of old abandoned or unused places but this one just made me feel happy. It's very pretty once nature took over once again. It becoming a park also lessens the sad feeling as I don't end up thinking about how it used to have people (well, in trains) going through the area. And there's a cute squirrel too so even when there's not much people in the video, it still doesn't feel empty.

[@pavelow235]

Niamh should have her own KZbin show, her insights and giggles made the video great!

[@timothyexner]

And she's a major cutie.

[@B-M.B]

Not every diamond need to be set, some need to be free to shine. 😉

[@SentientMeatbag]

If you thought you were bad at naming things, this place is called: nature park pretty mountain's southern ground.

[@UndeadScavenger]

I'm constantly amazed, how often Berliner's have used "pretty" to describe any kind of location within the city, like Schönefeld, Schöneberg, Höhenschönhausen, Schöneweide...

[@anjachan]

@@UndeadScavenger because it´s schön there 🤣

[@johaquila]

@@UndeadScavenger From the German Wikipedia article on Schöneberg I just learned how this happened. It's in fact a more general phenomenon, not just in Berlin but in large parts of Eastern Germany. And it's not just "Schön-" (pretty), but also "Licht-" (bright, clear), "Grün-" (green) and other positive sounding descriptions. The reason: This part of Germany used to be very sparsely populated. To change this, villages with nice sounding names were founded and advertised in other parts of Germany.

[@avandras]

​@@johaquilaright, and that was about 800 years ago, talk about marketing being something modern... Also, the funnier is the Berg part. In Schöneberg itself the highest mountain is the Insulaner (directly by the south entrance to the park in the video), but it's an artificial one, from debris from WWII. It's 78 metres tall, above sea level. The old village has a hill that is maybe 8 metres above the surrounding area...

[@xfel5913]

The reason the yard was abandoned was the Berlin Wall - it sits in the western area and the lines out of it got cut off by the border.

[@themetalslayer2260]

there's a lot of old railways destroyed during WW2 in France and sometime these railroads have been transformed into park or path (rails have been removed only the gravel still exists and it's really interresting to ride these ex-railroads by bicycle) i know that germans reconvert ex-railroads into bike path creating bicycle highways between cities

[@locohauledforum]

Unfortunately it wasn't just WW2, the French are still closing railway lines 😞

[@andrewyoung749]

@@locohauledforum yeah, i was just in le cruseot for steam train reasons and a notice of withdrawal of services was pinned to the station.

[@MyRegardsToTheDodo]

This switch yard in the video wasn't closed because of any destruction occuring during WW2, but it was closed as a result of WW2. After WW2 Berlin was separated into four different sectors (as was the whole of Germany) and in 1949 the eastern sector formed the German Democratic Republic (DDR), shortly followed by the three other sectors forming the Federal Republic of Germany (BRD). Berlin was special, the eastern sector became the capital of the DDR, while the three other sectors became part of the BRD, surrounded by sort of enemy territory. Anything railway-related (including the West-Berlin subway) was owned and operated by the Reichsbahn, which was owned first by the Soviets and later in 1949 by the DDR as a fully state-owned company. The DDR didn't dare to rename it, because they wanted to keep the West-Berlin subway for propaganda reasons and their territory in West-Berlin, but were afraid that if they renamed the Reichsbahn, that would void the contracts the Soviets had signed with the Allies allowing them to operate in West-Berlin and the Allies wouldn't negotiate new contracts with them. However, starting in 1952 they ceased most trans-border operations for their trains (one of the last lines was demolished in 1961, literally one day after a train operator had used it to escape with some of his family to West Berlin by driving through the border with a steam train) and considering the switch yard was in Berlin Schöneberg, which was part of the American sector, the Reichsbahn couldn't really use it anymore. The Reichsbahn still owned the territory until 1993 and since the 1970s there were plans to build a new freight terminal there, to replace all other freight terminals in southern Berlin, those plans were finally abandoned in 1989. The existence of this park is a direct result of the Cold War, one of the nicer things to come out of it.

[@locohauledforum]

@@andrewyoung749 Yes, unfortunately the French are going through what we were going through in the 1950s-1980s, making the services as basic and unattractive as possible, thereby justifying their closure. I'm sure they will regret it soon...

[@whiskeytuesday]

The little change of voice on "the German war effort" is a beautiful little Fawlty Towers moment.

[@HB-bl5mn]

Yep, Brits can't help it, can they?

[@mahuhude]

It might be worth mentioning that the area was unused for so long due to the Eastern German Reichsbahn was responsible for handling rail in the whole city of Berlin during the time of separation. So they owned the land and didn’t want to give it up for west Berliners to make use of it

[@QemeH]

0:40 For the tourists: Big pink banner with "Please note!" on top and then 4 simple pictograms which explain the basic rules of the park. For the germans: White board with tiny, almost unreadable script for 100 paragraphs, titled "park regulations"

[@AxelJahnichen-ck1yc]

Damn, I lived in Berlin for the first twenty years of my life and I never heard of this park. I am still visiting Berlin very often because of family reasons. I think I will have a look at this place. Thank you very much, Tim!

[@madcowpp]

My thoughts exactly, except 35 years. I wonder how Tim finds these hidden gems, even locals don't know about

[@Moritz19081980]

Well, Berlin is 8 times bigger than Paris (by area). I live here for 42 years and there are still things to discover. I visited Südgelände (the place in the video) several times though.

[@shubus]

Templehof! I wish Tim would visit that famous old airport. I lived in it 1971-2 in the military.

[@KaidoLP]

When I grew up, which was not long ago (I'm 25 now) the park was admissions free. Also the crank you could not find was either there or was there on a second turning platform. As a child I was able to the platform around. This stopped when they installed more safety measures around the park and started to charge for entry. The park got a lot less interesting for me to explore and my family stopped going to, what was once my favorite park in the city (only seconded by the Britzer Garten maybe).

[@mumblbeebee6546]

Thanks to Julian & Niamh for being good sports! It’s good to see not just the backs of people Tim travels with ,)

[@fredericfrancois3234]

the french word "écureuil" and the english one "squirrel" are related, it's even almost the same. In old french, it was probably "escureuil"...

[@johanneswerner1140]

Interesting! And the Norwegian Version is ekekatten literally "oak cat", which is the same as in Bavarian "Oachkatzl". The high German word is apparently mostly used to mock Spanish exchange students (they have their sweet revenge, and don't mess with the Polish, their language is mostly consonants - I wish I had an ear for it, impossible to do).

[@gerdforster883]

​@@johanneswerner1140The traditional Berlin name for said woodland rodent is "Eichkater", so an oak cat once again, albeit a male one.

[@CruiseTT]

Don't ask a woman her age , a man his salary or a German train what it did during the 1940s.

[@designtechdk]

Guten Tag. I sure do love me a Berlin Bonus Video!

[@chrissmith8773]

I’m amazed that the theme from the animals of farthing wood had such a reaction in my brain. I’m sure I heard a neuron snap. Great work.

[@brick6347]

They used those class 50 locomotives in Poznan till 1979. Near Poznan is Wolsztyn, which is the only city in Europe still served by steam trains... as in not a heritage line but an actual, regular, timetabled line... with steam trains!

[@barvdw]

they are in regular use, but with support from steam associations, as their continued use is quite costly, and if not for the visitors, it wouldn't be viable. And Wolsztyn needs those tourists, let's be honest, there isn't much else to see... Still much fun, though.

[@pr0tux]

Man, I grew up in Berlin and never heard of that one. Thanks for sharing, Tim!

[@Albi310]

I‘ve been living in Berlin for years and never heard of this park. But I always wondered what that huge red tower was whenever I went past it on an ICE train. Now I know and I will definitely pay a visit to the park soon.

[@CraigerAce]

In the US many abandoned railroad tracks have been converted into hiking/biking trails; some are paved, some are not. A close friend owned property in rural Virginia. They lived in a house that had been built circa 1920. About 100 yards from their home was a log cabin built in the early 1800's. It was more spacious than one would first think. The previous owner and our friends completely updated the interior with many modern amenities, but left most of it untouched. My wife and I stayed in it for about a week and it was very relaxing. Our friends rented it as a bed & breakfast and it was very popular. Also on their land was an abandoned railroad track. The RR company had long ago removed the track and the land reverted back to the original deed. There was about 1500 feet of former track that was on our friend's land. It was gorgeous, with thick grass cover and trees lining it, arching over what was now a walkway. Gorgeous year ‘round! Our friend was an executive who was frequently transferred by his employer, the Norfolk Southern Railway. They lived there for a few years and then he was transferred again… to Philadelphia.

[@adrianrutterford762]

Wonderful! Thank you Tim.

[@wolfgangvan-uber6515]

Great video as always Tim, keep it up!

[@ZetaFuzzMachine]

It's nice when people in charge realise the potential in these sanctuaries! Tim, love your work!

[@Zoltanlouis2009]

Lovely video.... as always. This and the other Tim videos never fail to make me smile. Thank you and well done 😊

[@Kordanor]

Cool video as usual. I also liked the little discussions you cut in this time to supplement it a bit :)

[@jasonbieber6431]

ISWYDT with the "Angering the Germans" part. ;)

[@RCake]

Oh, I loved this. Thank you, Tim!

[@hattid101]

After almost 14 years that we now live in Berlin and drove past it hundreds of times, we finally managed to take a look at the park yesterday. And like you said, just fantastic. Nature and a little German history. Perfect.

[@whyyoulidl]

Tom and co. many thx for this piece - what a great idea turning it into this nature reserve. Another one for the bucket list 👍🏿

[@seanolaocha940]

Delightful video as always Tim, danke schön!

[@FilmscoreMetaler]

2:19 Thanks for that musical theme! The nostalgia kicked in hard.

[@tededmunds8476]

Ah memories of Erasmus days in Berlin during the hot summer of 2010. Took that line almost every day to get in and out of town from Osdorfer Strasse. Didn’t know about this railyard though, an incentive to go back and revisit my student days. Thanks for another great video Tim! :)

[@lauraketteridge324]

I love you find such interesting things to tell us about, AND that you tell us about the accessibility aspects too. It's so wonderful and refreshing.

[@seanh2286]

What an amazing repurposing of a railyard! Thanks for the video, plus all the info on wheelchair accessibility.

[@jkbm]

I'm from Berlin and I love watching you discover "my" city. The Natur-Park Schöneberger Südgelände really is a lovely park, and still quite unknown by many Berliners.

[@atomdent]

Hello and thank you, Tim!

[@squee222]

This is so cool. I miss germany. Thanks for sharing these videos so I can vicariously experience these things. Lots of love from Canada

[@chuckygobyebye]

Delightful! Thank you.

[@stephencloak7502]

Thanks Tim. Your videos always make me smile :-)

[@hainanbob6144]

I love to see places that nature has reclaimed, or is reclaiming. Nice video.

[@CanuckJim]

Thank YOU - we'll be in Belin for several day in Oct and this might be gorgeous in autumn!

[@flo_i]

This is one of my favorite places in Berlin, so happy to see Tim presenting it! Also, squirrel!

[@uzetaab]

Nice mini video. Thanks!

[@dave_h_8742]

Nice place to visit by the looks of it Tim and time to explore other places over a weekend

[@meiermuellerschulze]

Thanks for this video. I'm visiting Berlin currently and enjoyed this park today. A really nice location!

[@juffinhally5943]

That's massively cool; I like both animals and railways. Thanks for making the video!

[@thomaswodarek1257]

Great timing on the upload! I'm on a trip in Berlin, leaving tomorrow, so I can actually visit this one!

[@GoenndalfTheBlue]

You are great Explorer and you teach us alot. Thank you!

[@Supermunch2000]

Thanks Tim! I love your videos, I save them until I have a nice cuppa and some time to unwind as it's always so delightful. Fun opinion, Tim is my favorite explorer named Tim!

[@TradieTrev]

Such the linguist Tim! I wish I had your uprising as a kid, it's super hard to learn music and different languages when you get older! Here in Australia we had a few classes on Mandarin but I would of much preferred the Latin variants.

[@brunhildevalkyrie]

A cunning linguist

[@AndrewTBP]

Tim studied French at university in Paris.

[@wheeliebeast7679]

…..is what your mom calls me lol

[@hochenwarter]

Hey this is just around the corner where I life! Enjoy your stay!

[@bruceyoung1343]

Simply wonderful marvelous and neat. Thank You

[@absolutjackal]

Yeah another TT video!!! Happy day.

[@e36z32]

I love your videos Tim. Greetings from Massachusetts in the USA. This little park is fascinating for both nature and train lovers. Have you also done a video on the Flughafen Tempelhof park that used to be one of Berlins airports?

[@kaltenstein7718]

The nearby "Deutsches Technikmuseum" also has a sizeable collection of historic Rolling stock

[@harrytodhunter5078]

Love this place! German steam locos are so beautiful, that red underside is iconic!

[@altbau-e-lok-pfeife]

The „train-belly-tickling-trough“ was used to empty the ash pan of the steam locomotives. Nice Video!

[@reinerjung1613]

Hey thanks for the tip. I'll put it on the list for my next Berlin visit.

[@FrauWNiemand]

These are the stories need to be told. Even me as aGerman did not know that much about it. And jut smiled about the "Als die Tiere den Wald verließen" theme. There are hundreds of old factory or train areas where wildlife is thriving in eastern Germany. I have one next to my neighbourhood with jaybirds, martens, hedgehogs, foxes and even raccoons.

[@mltnetwork]

Thank you...this is good!!

[@johnberry3824]

Glad you kept in the bits you were thinking about cutting.

[@carlopton]

I want to go there so very badly. I love this video. That park looks like such a neat place to visit.

[@badxxxmonkey5541]

Thank you for the clips of the Red Squirrels

[@HenrysAdventures]

I'm defiantly putting this on my list of things to do when I visit Berlin!

[@gallifrog6144]

Finally we've found a place where Tim can go 'and we're here to see all that!' Love it!

[@_SpamMe]

Neat. I've not seen an example as interesting as this, but old military land and old railway yards are often now nature conserves since they provided some rare habitats in areas where possibly there wasn't anything else left. Munich for example has this for old tank driver training grounds (nobody could go there because of ammunition) and old rail-post sorting yards (nobody could there because rails). It's space that's left free of human intervention and now can keep existing as parks.

[@joneshock]

Never thought I'd see Tim film my way to work..

[@CaptainM792]

This reminds me of the time I went to Germany with my mother (It was guided tour to Eastern Europe actually), during the last day of the tour, we were in berlin and we took a taxi to the German Museum of Technology (Deutsches Technikmuseum) Inside was an entire train locomotive shed, complete with a turntable.

[@tilongatao]

Beautiful yard area. Braunkohle is lignite.

[@KOTDM1988]

If you ever find yourself in Kalamata in the Peloponnese region of Greece - they also have a railway yard turned into a public park (with loads of trains you climb into)

[@ArjanBeumer]

I've shared this video with my dad who's a train spotter. As I do with all your train themed video's 😉

[@SchismTP]

Tim, i would watch you narrate your trip to the grocery store. That's how much I love your videos.

[@davekirwin]

Fantastic! I feel a need to visit...oh, Niamh is great. Tickling trough...hee, hee.

[@dfwrider3830]

as a former train belly tickler, i would have loved if the yard was a forest like that, it would have been so much nicer. instead it was all concrete and steel, the only shade was from the trains, and because they were steel they would radiate heat at you.

[@ericprice3225]

Brilliant. Will make sure I got there if I am in the area.

[@Vehshya]

Oh I love the song choice for the train

[@gaius_enceladus]

Very cool park and video! Loved the squirrel too! NZ doesn't have them, unfortunately - we missed out there...... :(

[@dedew84100]

Great, I didn't know about this. I'll visit it soon, thank you!

[@Rsama60]

Thnaks for sharing. That said Berlin is not really in my neck of the woods. I live in southern Germany. But I will keep this in mind for my next trip to Berlin. And btw. your German pronounciation is really good.

[@JackieBaisa]

Love this one! I think I'm headed to Berlin in the fall; will check it out!

[@sschmidtevalue]

Many old rail lines in the US have been converted to bike trails. This was a big boon to numerous small towns in our state. I spent some time in one of them today.

[@valleyscottblog2440]

That is just an awesome use of space. And a great example of natural resilience.

[@Adventures-in-Berlin]

One of my favourite parks in Berlin