# Train reported found in Poland with WW2 era Gold et al **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 21, 2015, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401 "2015-08-21T00:56:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/41 "2015-08-28T19:48:01Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > All this seems plausible to me, blow up the tunnel entrance and exit and pull up the outside tracks, a few years later with weeds and trees growing you would never know any tracks were there. If there are weeds and trees, the vegetation can produce enough soil from leaf litter to bury the tracks without taking them all up. Although I suppose you’d want to take out any connection to another line. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/42 "2015-08-28T19:52:09Z")
There is a killer joke just waiting to be written about this. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/43 "2015-08-28T19:57:02Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > There is a killer joke just waiting to be written about this. But you’ll have to tell it verrrrry slowwwwwlyyyy… ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/44 "2015-08-28T20:12:53Z")
I think it’s perfectly fair to retain skeptism until more conclusive evidence has been presented. Meanwhile, for [del]non-skeptics/party poopers[/del] intrigued observers/mystery addicts, [here](https://twitter.com/Exen)’s a Twitter link with some photos purported to be of the exact location!!! (I make no guarantees for their veracity) 😃 I suspect there’s probably only one entrance to the tunnel. I read that many of the similar tunnels in the region were factories or for storage and testing, so self-contained underground facilities and not necessarily having two connections. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/45 "2015-08-28T20:17:02Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Yeah, I know, **DrDeth** , I read all that, too. It’s all hearsay. So where’s a clip from the GPR, for example? > > [ “Speaking at a press briefing…Piotr Zuchowski, Poland’s National Heritage and Conservation Officer”= not hearsay. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/46 "2015-08-28T20:18:22Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > There is a killer joke just waiting to be written about this. “Is it safe?” Well…I wouldn’t exactly call it “killer” and does require one to have read/watched _Marathon Man_. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/47 "2015-08-28T20:40:30Z")
“Speaking at a mountaintop near you… God. No notes or proof was provided.” I accept that it’s real gummint officials. I find it peculiar that it’s real gummint officials making a bunch of second-hand comments, and nothing more. As for photos, every video so far has had creepy-spooky-amazing images of rusty, dripping trains in dark tunnels… all stock footage or from museums, as far as I can tell. The need to dress up this story with such fluff, and show maps with vague circles of the location, and so forth, pushes it all more towards the Jimmy Hoffa/UFO landing end of things than, say, the Titanic or MH370. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/48 "2015-08-28T20:47:46Z")
Remember a couple of years back when “radar detected” 50 never-built Spitfires underground, still in their crates, … I forget where, exactly, somewhere in Southeast Asia. It got enough play that the British PM and the local head of state discussed it during a state visit. Bullshit. These people, at best, want a financier to cover the costs of digging down and seeing what it is. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/49 "2015-08-28T20:50:16Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > “Speaking at a mountaintop near you… God. No notes or proof was provided.” > > I accept that it’s real gummint officials. I find it peculiar that it’s real gummint officials making a bunch of second-hand comments, and nothing more. > > As for photos, every video so far has had creepy-spooky-amazing images of rusty, dripping trains in dark tunnels… all stock footage or from museums, as far as I can tell. The need to dress up this story with such fluff, and show maps with vague circles of the location, and so forth, pushes it all more towards the Jimmy Hoffa/UFO landing end of things than, say, the Titanic or MH370. I’d say it’s more along Al Capones Vault. > **[The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mystery_of_Al_Capone%27s_Vaults)** > > The Mystery of Al Capone's Vaults is a two-hour live American television special that was broadcast in syndication on April 21, 1986, and hosted by Geraldo Rivera. It centered on the live opening of a walled-off underground room in the Lexington Hotel in Chicago once owned by crime lord Al Capone, which turned out to be empty except for debris. Thirty million viewers watched, making it the highest rated syndicated special in history. > Al Capone was born to Italian immigrant parents on January 17,... There’s nothing that indicates \*\*LOST NAZI GOLD!! \*\* Just a old WWII Military train. Might be loot, might be nothing but a cool old train. ---
**Author:** ![Balance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ccd318/32.png) [@Balance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balance)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/50 "2015-08-28T21:15:34Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > But you’ll have to tell it verrrrry slowwwwwlyyyy… _golf clap_ ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/51 "2015-08-28T21:19:42Z")
GPR? [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-penetrating_radar) says it works up to 15 meters for ideal conditions (like solid rock over a RR tunnel) down to a few centimeters in poor conditions (like wet soil on the surface above the tunnel). Note that tunnels in particular seem easier to spot on GPR. Air doesn’t look like rock or soil to radar. But even taking the higher figure, that’s a relatively shallow tunnel assuming they scanned a good length of the train and the train is well away from the entrance. It still seems shaky to me. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/52 "2015-08-28T21:34:02Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > But even taking the higher figure, that’s a relatively shallow tunnel assuming they scanned a good length of the train and the train is well away from the entrance. > > It still seems shaky to me. What’s shaky, in case I haven’t made my, er, case clear, is that we kept being told what someone else has done and found and reported. Just told. It seems to me that if the original finder up through the Second Minister of Lost Wartime Loot had a video or photo from the GPR, or anything, they would have shown it as proof. But no, it’s one figure after another \*telling \*us what someone else says they saw or found. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2015, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/53 "2015-08-28T22:22:40Z")
Any indications the locomotive is still there? I would assume they backed cars into some hole and hid them. Locomotives weren’t exactly expendable. I haven’t seen anything one way or the other. ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/54 "2015-08-29T04:14:21Z")
> [@campp](#): > > Any indications the locomotive is still there? I would assume they backed cars into some hole and hid them. Locomotives weren’t exactly expendable. I haven’t seen anything one way or the other. I would say yes, the polish authorities are saying a 100 meter long train and usually the loco was as armoured as well as the rolling stock. So , I am guessing the engine and the coal car, and assorted rolling stock , and caboose. I am sure I seen an example in one of the post world war two movies, just not sure which one. Declan ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/55 "2015-08-29T13:41:01Z")
> [@campp](#): > > Any indications the locomotive is still there? I would assume they backed cars into some hole and hid them. Locomotives weren’t exactly expendable. I haven’t seen anything one way or the other. I can’t find it now, but there’s a famous picture of just dozens of locomotives in a pile the Nazis drove off a cliff to avoid having them end up in Soviet hands. As their territory shrank, the amount of train equipment the Nazis needed decreased. Better to bury it then let Stalin have it. In the last months of the war, things got really wasteful. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/56 "2015-08-29T19:41:25Z")
[speculation] Here is the alleged location of the train. 50.823412, 16.309656 Various photos and maps on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Exen) It looks as though there is an old abandoned rail route that runs just to the right of the modern one. It apparently then disappears underground and that’s where the tunnel is. If that’s the case, it doesn’t look particularly well hidden as that rail track looks to have been the main connecting route between Walbrzych and Wroclaw. [Walbrzych and Wroclaw are Waldenburg and Breslau in their old German names and pre-1939 they were within Germany rather than Poland’s borders]. Breaking: Alleged photo of the train at that Twitter feed above! [/speculation] ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/57 "2015-08-29T20:23:49Z")
Re: Alleged GPR pic. So it’s horizontal thru the collapsed entrance. That’s not a really good scenario for GPR with rubble, etc., and the resolution is way too high. Unless they dug thru a lot of the rubble to take it, I am really skeptical about that. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/58 "2015-08-29T20:42:03Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Re: Alleged GPR pic. > > So it’s horizontal thru the collapsed entrance. That’s not a really good scenario for GPR with rubble, etc., and the resolution is way too high. > > Unless they dug thru a lot of the rubble to take it, I am really skeptical about that. Are you referring to the photo of the train I mentioned in my previous post? If so, then I don’t think that’s a GPR pic - rather it’s an actual photo. I’ve seen photos of holes that have been drilled in the ground around the site. Presumably, a camera has been lowered down one of these holes. That’s if it’s genuine. The location is slightly different between a couple of the diagrams in that Twitter feed. I’m wondering if there’s a tunnel running parallel in between the old and new track lines at that point as there’s about a 100 meter distance between the area highlighted on the maps and the end of the old rail track, that appears to turn right into a factory. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/59 "2015-08-30T19:00:43Z")
> [@Declan](#): > > …My plan is a little more different and off the wall. Instead of giving them the 10 percent, the authorities actually give them the train itself, both the engine and the rolling stock. Minus the flak panzer cannons that seem to be in every movie and the rights to the enevitable movie… Would the average person, or even a railfan, actually be able to use such a train? Obviously the first problem is going to be cleaning and refurbishing it enough for it to actually move under its own power again, but once that is done, would the owners be allowed to just bring the thing out onto the current main line and travel around in it? For example, could they call the appropriate switch stations and get cleared on to travel to wherever they wanted to, stopping and various stations to pick up and drop off their friends or even customers? How much would it cost them to park it on a siding while they are off sightseeing in Spain? Could they commute to work in it? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2015, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401/60 "2015-08-30T19:08:04Z")
Supposed tunnel/train photo is third-hand, through Twitter, and even the poster says it’s “alleged.” I have yet to see a single image - still, video or any form of radar/sonar - that is declared authentic. We have seen all kinds of stock, stand-in, “recreation” and just plain unattached-figure stuff, some from sources that should be more honest or more forthcoming. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/train-reported-found-in-poland-with-ww2-era-gold-et-al/728401.md?page=4)