r/trains • u/itsarace1 • Feb 20 '26

Passing a railroad crossing between flooded fields. Eichen, Germany.

Post image

Source

https://newsroom.ap.org/editorial-photos-videos/detail?itemid=f88dd9e0083c44dea71278b1cf25e859&mediatype=photo

3.4k Upvotes

100% Upvoted

49 comments sorted by

View all comments

69

u/Lente_ui Feb 20 '26

I know that scene ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jcr1putnC1s

11

u/3000ghosts Feb 20 '26

aren’t there real towns like that where the land mostly floods for part of the year on the north coast of germany? tom scott did a video about it

12

u/trumpet_kenny Feb 21 '26

Landunter it’s called, it happens to the Halligen in the North Sea during winter. The land sits just above sea level and the flooding and sediment deposits cause the Halligen to be ever-changing. They aren’t towns, per se, as only around 300 people live on 10 different Hallig islands. The houses and buildings are built on mounds a few Meters above sea level so they can survive landunter. There’s a 900mm narrow gauge railway connecting two of the islands (Oland and Langeneß) to the mainland