Judging from the postings on various internet news groups it seems that Mr. Patt (of Globe Steam infamy) may be offering his slide collection for sale and also attempting to run private tours. All this under various 'nom de plumes' as he did before. Think very carefully before parting with any of your hard earned cash and if you haven't done so yet, then please read what follows (this paragraph added 25th February 2008).

The Globe Steam website has now vanished (3rd November 2007), please if you have any money owed to you by Mr. Patt / Globe Steam please read the following as a matter of urgency.

The Globe Steam story seemed to have gone to ground, but on 28th September 2007, I received the following news which is of considerable significance to Patt's creditors:

"Peter Patt declared insolvency July 4th. Obviously this was meant to be his private independence day. This means that all efforts and titles in order to get money back from Patt individually are in vain. Patt is no longer entitled to pay money back to a single private party. As you know, Patt made payments to individual parties after July 4th. All such payments have been illegal and could be recovered by the official receiver in charge of Patt's insolvency, if he found out about such payments. Maybe he will not, because Patt made the payments from Iqbal's account.

I can't tell you at the moment if it is a private insolvency or another insolvency, but most likely Patt declared private insolvency.

In charge of the insolvency is  Dr. Wolfgang Schröder, Genthiner Str. 48, 10785 Berlin. Anyone who has claims against Mr.Patt should contact the said address as soon as possible. Unfortunately there is little hope that people affected will see their money back.

I heard hints that at the time Patt declared bankruptcy July 4th there have been at least 8 titles (!) present against him. So my guess is this is a much bigger story than just the Globe Steam part."

If this comes as news to you, please read on:

For those following the Globe Steam story (first mounted on 1st March 2007, see below, latest updates 9th and 24th August 2007), currently I have the names of 10 enthusiasts who tell me they are owed a total of about Euros 22,700 (updated 15th October 2007) for services they have not received. I am not in close touch with all the players and I am a long way from the centre of the action (or lack of it) but there have been further developments which I find disturbing. What I do know is that some of his creditors have received offers of staged payments while at least one (his former UK agent) has been paid almost in full. However, others have received no communication at all, let alone any payment. The failure to deal evenhandedly with all his creditors raises serious concerns about his bona fides, and the preferential payment to one or more creditors to the detriment of the others is illegal under English law. Common sense dictates that the following steps are needed to remedy the situation:

1. A full and complete public statement of the outstanding liabilities of Globe Steam in respect of customers' money owing;
2. A full and complete public statement of the outstanding assets of Globe Steam;
3. Full information about any travel operator's bond or similar security taken out by Globe Steam which may assist the creditors to recover all or some of their money; and
4. A credible plan to make payments to ALL the customers. 

I have always hoped that the current crisis was caused by poor business management rather than any deliberate attempt to defraud. It will be difficult to maintain this optimism if Globe Steam does not move quickly to address the concerns I have described. Currently the Globe Steam telephone number is reported dead, the German language website is promoting a reduced number of tours which I do not see can possibly take place while the English language version is unchanged from sometime back and continues to invite customers to buy from the full range of tours through 2007. Unsatisfactory would be a polite way of putting it. 

As of 9th August 2007 the website states in English and German, no comment from me is required:

"No globe steam tours are offered for the time being. 
Thank you very much for your business, it was a wonderful time and we look forward to meet you again in the near future!
If you are interested to join sporadically organized private tours, send an email to:
weltdampf <@> web <.> de !"

I have since been told by one of the (smaller) creditors that he has been refunded the money owing.

My strong advice remains:

"Do NOT make any payments to Globe Steam/Peter Patt under any circumstances unless and until there is a proper resolution of the current issues."

The original story lines follow. Up till 14th March 2007, no one had managed to elicit a response on the subject from Peter Patt.  At that time the Globe Steam website (German language side) was revised to include a statement in German on which at the time I said it was premature to comment. See http://www.globesteam.de/Liebe%20Eisenbahnfans.pdf (link now dead June 2008). 

Despite his alleged "personal bankruptcy", he seems to be alive and well and buying steam photographs on Ebay and selling items on this site: http://www.drehscheibe-online.de/news/kleinanzeigen.php3?action=lesen&reaktion=BIETE#3843 (note the date here of 8th March 2007!). He is even promoting specialist services on this website - http://reisen-mit-eos.de/Werwowas.htm (link dead by June 2008) - no "'Rent-a-Boy' Wochenenden in Prag" but it casts a new light on the Globe Steam website which offers "If you don't want to pay the single room supplement but nevertheless travel alone, globe steam will surely find a friendly travel mate for you to share a double room with." I have now been told (14th March 2007) of yet another trading name, "Rails and Wings" - http://www.rails-and-wings.de/Uns.htm (link dead June 2008).

I believe that the advertised March Globe Steam China tour has been cancelled and I again appeal to anyone who has paid any money towards this (or any other) tour to get in touch with me - - so that I can add their names to the list of unfortunates. No names or other information will be made public without your specific consent. A number of people have initiated legal action. I have been told that Globe Steam is not a registered business or company and no one has been able to satisfactorily confirm the declaration of "private bankruptcy". Indeed, one of my contacts (10th March 2007) has done a search of the Berlin section of the official German bankruptcy registry (https://www.insolvenzbekanntmachungen.de/) and can find no trace of either Peter Patt or Globe Steam being declared bankrupt so far. One issue which, to my knowledge, no-one has been able to determine is whether Globe Steam had a 'bond' in the event of business failure (added 12th March 2007). Obviously for anyone pursuing repayment through the courts, the exact position will be important. As always in such cases, 'Chinese whispers' are passing round and there are many rumours which have to be separated from the facts and which I will not quote here except to say I think he may be involved in this organisation too - http://www.dampfloks.net/ (link dead June 2008).

At the time of the (ultimately successful) campaign to get Peter Patt's Globe Steam to pay for its tour in Eritrea in 2004 (for details see below), there were a number of stories circulating about its, at best, slowness and, at worst, failure to repay money owed for tours which were subsequently cancelled (particularly one to Cuba). I did not mention these because I did not know anyone personally affected and had no way to verify them. Now John Day has come public with his experience, circulated through a number of news groups:

"Basically I've been "stiffed" for the full amount of the price of a tour to South Africa, due to run last October (2006), paid for in June and cancelled in August. Since August I have been trying to get my money back through various means, to no avail, and I now understand that Peter has declared "private bankruptcy" in Germany. I am pursuing various angles but hold out faint hope for seeing my 3,711 Euros ever again." 

Please get in touch with me and/or John (email john "at" johnmday.ca) if you are in the same situation so we can make all enthusiasts aware of the extent of the problem - your name will not be mentioned in public unless you request it. Meanwhile Globe Steam's website is still active and offering tours and I believe advertisements are still appearing in the enthusiast press. Clearly, your money is at risk if you book on one of their tours. Be warned!

Specifically, can I request anyone who is booked on the advertised Globe Steam tours to China and Zimbabwe to contact me immediately. RD 

The paragraphs which follow were written in mid-2005. Amanuel G/selassie wrote to me (and others involved) in August 2006 to say:

"Thank you very much for your relentless efforts to settle amicably the long outstanding bill of the 2000 tour of TN. The issue is settled once and for all. TN has paid 6000 USD and I have written an official letter stating that the bills settled. An official receipt is also send to him. Once again I express my deep gratitude and appreciation for all of you who have contributed in settling the issue. I am very proved to have such reliable friends at my side."

If railway enthusiasm can be described as a 'broad church', then you don't need a Ph.D. from Cambridge to place me firmly on the libertarian (many would say anarchic) left. When I first established these web pages what seems like half a lifetime ago, it was with the express intention of encouraging others to follow my lifestyle, to get out and about and enjoy the last years of 'real steam' at the grass roots. With the benefit of hindsight, I can say I was, at best, naive and the major beneficiaries of the reports I have published have not been my target readership.

I have never been a fan of the group tour or mass tourism in any shape or form and whoever it was who coined the now hackneyed phrases 'take nothing but photographs' and 'leave nothing but footprints' got it absolutely right in my books. In my youthful explorations in south-east Asia in the 1970s, shear economic necessity led me to discover the joys of independent travel, where every day was totally unpredictable, but for every disaster there were many moments of total bliss. Later, even when I had the means to travel in a more luxurious style, I consciously chose not to. Regular visitors to these pages will have read reports of multiple trips to Indonesia, China and Burma in particular which sought to champion the simple life.

My first experiences of group tours for real steam were not calculated to make me repeat the experience. In 1975, I went to Indonesia on what was the first ever such trip. There was no internet in those days, of course, and we blundered round Java and Sumatra for nearly 3 weeks using reports which were inaccurate even when they had been written two years before with an inflexible tour leader who spoke no Indonesian and guides who had no idea of what we wanted. But I have no regrets about the experience as it opened my eyes and the following year I spent 30 days in Java all on my own on what was the best bash I have ever done. It was the start of a 30 year love affair which continues to this day.

It was over 20 years before a very good friend of mine persuaded me, against my better judgement, to join another tour, this time to Cuba. By now I had opted out of regular employment and spent at least 4 months a year chasing real steam wherever it remained. I had been to the island the year before with another friend who was less of a dedicated photographer than I was at the time and I hoped to do better. I certainly got the photographs I wanted to, of course, but with very little thanks to the tour leaders who, after turning up an hour late for breakfast, somehow expected me to follow their dust clouds round the island on some kind of safari rally. Instead, I quietly went off and did my own thing with a few like-minded individuals. 

By now real steam was very thin on the ground and after this, I have to say I actually enjoyed group tours to Jordan, Syria, Cambodia, Sabah (East Malaysia), Burma (for the Burma Mines), North Korea and Eritrea. This was the only way to enjoy any kind of steam on railways which I had read about long ago and had always dreamed of visiting. They weren't cheap, but by and large they did the job and  the best of them were absolutely excellent - I would have no hesitation in recommending most of the organisers involved.

Somewhere along the way though, things started to go badly wrong in most of the few countries where real steam survived. Too many tour participants, gorged on the photographic feasts available when plastic steam trains performed to order, forgot their roots and began to demand that real steam trains do the same thing. Those who were once impecunious end-of-platform train spotters now had the means to buy their photographs. What started in Cuba soon spread to China. Tour operator after tour operator felt obliged to pay the 'going rate' to keep their customers. At the top end of the market, gullible, ill-informed but well-heeled enthusiasts are now recruited by a mass of misinformation, aided and abetted by magazine editors who can enjoy the free trips generated by their 'advertorial'. 'Fools and their money' are regularly and unceremoniously parted in large quantities. 'Caveat emptor' applies in full, and I leave it to the intelligence of my readers to decide whether my advertisers offer good value for money or not.

At the other end of the market and not just with real steam, more sinister forces have been at work, maybe as a result of the scrabbling for a reducing number of travelling enthusiasts with an eye to a budget. In the autumn of 2004, "Steam in Paradise" who had advertised on my pages for several years, agreed to renew their advertising for the 2005 season. I waited unsuccessfully for nearly six months for payment, by which time they had recruited their 'punters' at no cost to themselves. But that was just small beer. In late 2000, Transnico Tours visited Eritrea. I learned soon afterwards that there had been some contractual difficulties, only very recently did I learn that some 80% of the bill amounting to over U$10,000 remains unsettled more than four years later. Worse even is the fact that they are still refusing to pay now. More recently the Globe Steam group visiting Eritrea in October 2004 left the country with their account with a local travel agency amounting to over Euros 12,000 unsettled. Many months later rather less than one half of the bill was paid in May 2005 and the balance at the end of June 2005 - and that only after intense behind the scenes pressure by a number of people. Such behaviour, whatever excuses are proffered, is totally unacceptable and tarnishes the names of other operators and steam enthusiasts in general. None of those organisations named above will be allowed to advertise here in future and their current advertisements have been removed. I will not do business with such people, ask yourself the question whether you should also............

Not one of us is perfect, we have all done things we have regretted afterwards and would rather not have exposed in public. I am no exception. Indeed, I too accept the tourist dollar, since 1991 I have taken many, many small groups to Indonesia. From the start, I have tried to take the position that I would do nothing that would prejudice either a future tour of mine or the experience of independent travellers to that country. By and large, I have succeeded. Perhaps as a result, Indonesia has remained a refreshingly unfashionable destination and I certainly haven't got rich from my hard work   Increasingly, though, I have found it difficult to recruit like-minded individuals as customers. This year 2005, when it is almost too late - although you wouldn't believe it from what is being said in some promotional material which is at best optimistic and at worst downright misleading and inaccurate - there are far too many tours on offer to Java; few if any will make a real profit and the effect of such exposure in future years makes me shudder. How many of 2005's visitors and their leaders will have any real interest in anything beyond the steam locomotives and having a 'good holiday'? How many will have the time and patience to wait for a real steam locomotive to do its job without reaching for their wallet? Judging from what I have seen in China recently, not very many.

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