Carbon capture systems, Rjukan Railway, Tinn Lake Ferries, and Telemark World UNESCO Heritage

As a little add-on to my vintage car blog, I'm fixin' to share a bit about something that most vintage and amcar enthusiasts, especially them folks who love them big, luxurious American rides from the 1920s to the 1960s, might have a bit of a distaste for. I'm talkin' 'bout them V8s, V10s, V6s, V12s, and that Cadillac V16 from the 1930s with a V16 engine.

Now, as y'all might've noticed, for the last 20-40 years, there's been a whole lot of talk 'bout the climate, and over the last 10-20 years, it's become pretty darn clear that things have taken a turn for the worse. Gasoline and diesel prices have gone through the roof due to the war in Ukraine and deals about hikin' up energy prices - electricity, gas, and diesel ain't no different.

As for convertin' old vintage cars into electric ones, well, I'm a touch against it too. But don't you worry none, 'cause nowadays we got ourselves carbon capture setups.

(Here's the steamship Ammonia, the one and only remaining steam railway ferry in the world today).

Rjukan Railway, Tinnosfergene, Telemark World UNESCO Heritage.

The Rjukan Railway's been a shut-down part of the Norwegian industrial adventure of Norwegian Hydro in Telemark since 1991. For over 20 years, I've been downright frustrated thinkin' 'bout how this mighty fine old railroad with two of the world's only antique-style railway ferries has been left to rot and decay over the last 30 years.

The Rjukan Railway and the Vemork Terminal, especially the route to the Tinn Lake Ferries, also rest on somethin' mighty exceptional in Norwegian wartime history: the heavy water sabotage operation in 1944 during World War II. For them interested in vintage cars from the early and mid-1900s, and maybe even a bit of history and the times, they've probably also got a hankerin' for old steam locomotives, steam ferries, railroads, and the like. And for y'all who are into that and readin' my blog, you've probably caught wind of the plans to restore this Norwegian history. Both the Tinn Lake Ferries, the world's only remaining steam-powered railway ferry, and the entire railway stretch. I wonder why this industrial tale's been set aside to decay, considerin' the future and what's been goin' on in Rjukan. Remember now, this here was the very first place in the world where they truly tried to produce atomic weapons, and where the likes of Adolf Hitler, the craziest of the crazies, was close to gettin' his hands on it before the Norwegian sabotage operation shut him down. The operation that also sent a few poor Norwegian civilians on a trip into death, down into the unknown, and to the bottom of the Tinn Lake, alongside a couple of German soldiers. One of the two Tinn Lake Ferries that ain't around no more, yeah, there were four in total, where the other of the two destroyed Tinn Lake Ferries was chopped up and sent to history's scrap heap sometime in the 1960s.

By the way, Rjukan's been the stage for a heavily concealed industrial adventure from the part of Norwegian Hydro that's now known as Yara, and that's somethin' to mull over.

In my gearhead blog, I've also jotted down a bit about steam locomotives and steamboats and how it might just be that these eventually have to go electric, and how old installations in such antique structures are sealed off, nailed shut, or bricked over as a sort of symbol of them days when safety just wasn't a priority. So imagine how darn cool it'd be if, in the future, we got those Tinn Lake Ferries restored, the Rjukan Railway back on track, and them locomotives that came with it. A symbol of the whole Rjukan industrial adventure, and how the current climate problem worked to turn both these structures, the Rjukan Railway and Tinn Lake Ferries, as well as old vintage cars from a century back, into zero emissions. Just think how high-tech and science fiction that'd be! And of course, a 1700s-era sailing ship that's sailed the seven seas for 300 years, and where every part's been replaced - well, it's still the same ship, of course. The only thing, naturally, would be them engines, but maybe we can figure that out with carbon capture - at least for them cars from before 1960. But I'm afraid most of the ones from after the war days might have to shift over to electric, hydrogen, fuel cell, solar cell, and various zero-emission and hybrid rides.