Sachsen Steam

Our eldest daughter lives in Germany, half her luck, and as it was her birthday yesterday she went out into the beautiful countryside for some walking and a picnic with friends.  The reason I mention this here is that while visiting her last year we also had the opportunity of visiting the same area.  Our reason was somewhat different, albeit predictable- trains!!  Still very much alive and operating here in this remote corner of the former Eastern Germany is the Zittauer Schmalspurbahn (Zittau narrow gauge railway).  So I thought I would take the opportunity to post some information about this wonderful line on my blog.

We bought unlimited day tickets, and as the line forms a Y shape we were able to spend most of the day on trains!  Ok, we had a nice lunch in a village, too.  Although it is a preserved railway, the impression is much more that it is simply a working passenger railway that has survived continuously.  There is nothing put-on or artificial about this line, it is a useful passenger service that just happens to be steam operated!

The locos are very large, powerful, 2-10-2s of characteristic German design, running on 750mm gauge track, if my memory serves me correctly.  It is mostly uphill outbound as the lines climb to two different villages in the mountains near the border with Poland and the Czech Republic, and the locos work hard.  Music to the ears of a steam-buff!!  There are quite a few comparisons that one could draw with Australia’s own Puffing Billy, however I was amazed that the German whistles were incredibly similar, if not the same, as the whistles on our Na class, and that same haunting echo as the sound reverberates through the hills.  I can ‘hear’ it now as I write this, thousands of miles away!!

A real thrill for me was on the last trip, returning to Zittau.  No, not a cab ride, but the next best thing!!  Of course being a tank loco the return trip is made in reverse, and the carriage coupled next to the loco was one with end platforms………. Are you seeing where this is leading??  Yes, I made the return journey on the end platform right next to the smokebox and chimney, and even though it is mostly downhill (the loco not working hard) there were sections where the regulator was well open and the resulting sound was, shall we say, most satisfying!! I did this many years ago on Puffing Billy too, on the end platform of an ex Mount Lyle carriage, and filmed most of it on video tape.  When the loco whistled LOUDLY it destabilized the picture being filmed, goodness knows how, but there is incredible sound energy in a loco whistle!!  Fantastic memories all round!!

Any of the small steam railways still operating in Germany are well worth visiting if you ever get the chance, and the Zittau line is sensational!!  And there are LOTS of other train-oriented activities in this beautiful region.