A few photos and additional info in this article:

http://www.dw.com/en/treasure-hunters-d ... a-19477482

The article includes a link to a live video feed.

It seems there's at least a tunnel waiting to be discovered, since multiple scans from various teams on the site indicate its probable existence. Even the Polish government's negative survey last year indicated an anomaly which could well be a tunnel:

http://eng.belta.by/society/view/explor ... 3622-2016/

It will be interesting to see whether the drilling finds it soon. And if there's a tunnel, who knows where it will lead, or what will be in it... whether or not a train is found.

Steve Hunter

Didn't I read about this in a Clive Cussler novel?

It will be interesting to see what they find, but I suspect that if it was there, they would have come back to get it as quickly as possible. A guy can do a lot of digging when he thinks the light at the end of the tunnel is a trainload of gold.

Hey- maybe they'll find a kriegslokomotive or two.

They have it pretty well secured, with this having global interest you have to stave off such a thing. Somebody cant jump in there and just smash dig their way around, it has to be slow and carefull not to destroy things.

It appears that the landscape features a bit of a settled earth where a presumed spur left the existing main line railroad. This was mentioned in earlier news coverage as being evidence of where the original cut was filled in and settled. The searchers have moved further down along the presumed route of the spur, and are digging vertical pits to find the spur and what may be parked on it.

Also mentioned in past coverage is the possibility that the route of this spur may have been in a tunnel that was sealed; or it may have been an open cut that was filled in. The settled area where the spur leaves the main line may be evidence of either the filling involved in sealing the entrance to a tunnel; or evidence of filling the entire cut containing the spur. So if the searchers are correct about the site, their digging will either break through into a tunnel or simply strike the floor of the cut and possibly encounter track or rolling stock.

There is one detail that I am curious about. On one side of the spur route is the existing railroad running at a much lower elevation than the surface where the digging is underway. Also, on the opposite side of the spur route, the elevation seems to be quite low in relation to where they are digging. So it seems that the route of the spur is a high ridge with the spur being about even with the bottom of the ridge as opposed to on top of it. I realize that there could be reasons for this arrangement, but it does strike me as a bit unusual. Perhaps the ridge is a more recent creation resulting from cutting down the grade on the side opposite the railroad.

If there really are tunnels in there... this might have been a hillside location at one time, and the spoil from tunneling operations might have been dumped across the mainline from the tunnels. I think this would be more likely than deliberately building up the ridge.

Time will tell... hopefully they find the end of the tunnel, even if it was blown up... then they might be able to clear the rubble back to where the tunnel is whole.

Steve Hunter

By my understanding there are tons of WWII relics scattered around Europe. A military train hauling 'contraband items' being sealed off from a approaching army is very plausible. By the sound of it there are facts to support a rail tunnel and something in the tunnel, however the possibility of it being a set of rail cars laden with Nazi contraband items is doubtful. Hitler being desperate in 1945 would have wanted that train in Berlin safe from the Russians. A train can run faster then a army of tanks and artillery.

It would be cool to be proven wrong, but facts of the time suggest its highly improbable.

I meant immediately after the war. It seems all the locals "know" about this trainload of gold, buried in the mountainside. Back when it happened, you would have also known, for certain, whether or not there was a tunnel there. You'd have a pretty good idea of where to dig, even if it was buried by bombing or landslides or whatever the reason is that the tunnel portal no longer exists.

Given that, wouldn't you think that somebody would have started digging right after it happened?

WHAT! And let the Russkies know where it was?

Tales of gold and riches are endlessly embellished. If they find a train, it is as likely to be loaded with Zyklon B as with gold.

It appears they may have indeed found a tunnel:



From this site on the dig: http://www.zloty-pociag.com/

Google Translate does a marginal job with Polish, but that's what the text seems to imply.

Don't forget that incredibly valuable unobtanium...

I'll go with the unobtanium.

That latest photo looks really interesting. I could not care less about the gold even though that seems the be the only thing that drives this story. I would be nice if they found something besides just an empty tunnel. An armored train would be a fantastic find, even without any gold.

But what intrigues me at the basic level is the possible validation of the treasure hunters to have had the conviction and vision to press this forward.

Actually, I am not sure what that photo shows. Those dark areas in the holes do appear to indicate that the digging has broken through into a tunnel. But that may just be the deepening shadow as the hole gets deeper.