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| The Mecklenburg-Pomeranian Narrow-Gauge Railways | ||
| by John Craft and Thomas Kreitmair | ||
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| At the time of German Reunification in 1990, there were still eight narrow-gauge railways in the former East powered by steam. Two of these lines were located on the Ostsee (Baltic Sea) coast, at Kuhlungsborn and on the Isle of Rugen. | ||
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| The "Mecklenburgische Baderbahn Molli GmbH," operating from a mainline connection at Bad Doberan to the resort town of Ostseebad Kuhlungsborn, was the second narrow-gauge line to be privatized, after the Harz Mountain Railway. Shortly thereafter the "Rugenische Kleinbahn" from Putbus to Gohren was created. | ||
Travel Tips On Line Resources Photo Locations Non-Rail Tips Personal Recommendations | ||
| The Trains | ||
| Neither line features the steep grades or rugged scenery of the mountain lines. Instead, the attraction is unusual motive power. Bad Doberan - Kuhlungsborn West: The Bad Doberan line is a 900mm gauge line opened to Heiligendamm in 1886, and to Ostseedbad Kuhlungsborn in 1910. For motive power the line features 2-8-2Ts built by Orenstein & Koppel in 1932, and 0-8-0Ts built in 1951 by "Lokomotivbau Karl Marx" and first used as switchers at the uranium plants of "Wismut" in Saxony. In 1959, these 0-8-0Ts were converted for use here. The attraction for photographers on this line is a kilometer of slow street running within Bad Doberan. Trains returning from Kuhlungsborn work their way through the crowded streets among some lovely buildings and trees. | ||
| Putbus - Gohren: this 750mm gauge line operates with a mix of 0-8-0Ts, 2-8-0Ts, and 2-10-2Ts. The 2-10-2T's are virtually of the same type that can be found on the Saxon narrow gauge lines. Passenger cars also have Saxon ancestry as rolling stock from closed lines was brought to Rugen in order to replace ageing original rolling stock. There were even Saxon "Meyer" saturated steam engines on Rugen from 1952 to 1968. The two 2-8-0T's came to Rugen in 1965, when narrow gauge lines near Magdeburg were closed. An engine with a vivid history is 99.4652, a 0-6-0 saturated steamer with tender. It came to Rugen in 1964 from a closed Pomeranian narrow gauge line, and was withdrawn from service in 1968. After serving several years as a boiler for a precast concrete parts plant, it was sold to a West German railfan in 1974 (his company - Seidensticker - makes high-quality business shirts). In 1994, he brought the restored engine back to Rugen. It is named "Nicki & Frank S." in honor of him and his wife. The only original Rugen engines left are 0-8-0T 52M, a saturated steamer, built 1914 (DB # 099.770) and 53Mh, built 1925 (DB # 099.771), this one superheated. 53Mh wears the color scheme and road number of the former "Rugensche Kleinbahnen (RuKB)" which built the line and operated it from 1895 to 1940. The 53Mh usually pulls the historic extra consisting of restored original rolling stock dating back to 1911-1927. What can be seen today on Rugen is what survived of the 105km narrow gauge network covering Rugen. The last sections were opened in 1918, some of them closed as early as 1930, most of them closed between 1967 and 1971. Only the Putbus - Binz section survived and was declared a "technical memorial" in 1975 by the GDR government. Since 1999, Rugen narrow gauge can be found on a line that has never seen narrow gauge steam before. In order to enable smooth connections to the excursion ships departing from Lauterbach, a third rail has been laid from Putbus (which is not only terminus of the narrow gauge line but also on the standard gauge branchline from Bergen to Lauterbach) to Lauterbach. In addition, it was extended to Lauterbach harbor. So this part sees narrow gauge steam as well as modern DB RDC's. As there is no siding at Lauterbach Harbour yet, a second engine is added to the rear at Putbus which pulls the train back. | ||
| Download an information packet including this page's text and timetables for German Narrow Gauge lines | ||
| Travel Tips | ||
| When To Go: Most photographers tend to visit in January and early February, when the chance for snow is greatest. The line will be busiest in July and August, when most Germans take their holidays. For music fans, a festival of Frank Zappa tribute bands is scheduled each August in Kuhlungsborn. | ||
| The Language: Knowing some German helps. German is a very common second language for Europeans, so outside the places frequented by Americans, English is not common. | ||
| The Weather: Moderate. Temperatures tend to hover in the low 30s during the day in winter, dipping below freezing at night. Winds off the sea can be cold. | ||
| Maps: The essential map is Kompass map company's "Wanderkarte." Hiking is a popular pasttime in Germany, and this map series covers the most scenic parts of the country. Luckily, the narrow gauge lines fall within these maps' coverage. No. 1002 covers Bad Doberan - Kuhlungsborn; 1004 covers Putbus - Gohren. The Kompass maps are available at OmniMap for US$11.95 each plus shipping - see "Online Resources" below for details. (They cost anywhere from US$3 to US$6 in convenience stores in Germany. If you happen to be in London, Stanford's (on Long Acre near St. Martin's Lane in the West End) stocks an excellent supply of German maps, including Kompass titles.) | ||
| Getting There: You're most likely to fly into Frankfurt (about 660km to Bad Doberan, 880km to Putbus via Hamburg) or Berlin (about 225km to Bad Doberan, 280km to Putbus). You can also fly into Hamburg (160km to Bad Doberan, 280km to Putbus). There is regular train service to Bad Doberan and Putbus. | ||
| Lodging: There are plenty of options all over these much-visited restort areas. The most famous is the "Koloss," built on the Isle of Rugen by the Communists. It consists of multiple, identical apartment-style buildings, each about 500 meters long and one room deep (so that everyone gets a seaside room), stretched out over a 3.5km-long development along the seacoast. Over 20,000 people can be accomodated in this resort. This | ||
| Food: Again, lots of options in this tourist destination. Vendor stands serving Wurst for lunch are common, and you can also find pastry shops along the tracks in Bad Doberan. | ||
| Money & Prices: Forget the traveller's checks or large wads of cash. BY FAR the safest, simplest and least expensive way to get cash overseas is your plain old ATM card. You'll find ATMs in Bad Doberan, Kuhlungsborn, Gohren, Putbus, and Rostock. | ||
| Hotels tend to run about $60-$100 for a business hotel; bed-and-breakfasts will be less expensive. Petrol (gasoline) is $4-5 per gallon. Food is moderatly priced. | ||
| Timetables: German timetables use the 24-hour system. 12.00 is noon, 13.00 1 PM, 14.00 2 PM, etc. Midnight is 0.00. Dates written in digits have the format DD.MM.Year. On timetables, it is usual to write months in Roman numbers. | ||
| Online Resources | ||
| Use the following links to plan your trip to the Harz Mountains area: | ||
| http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/translate? - If you don't read German, you're going to need this excellent translation site. Simply copy text off one of the pages listed below, or put the URL into the box. Set the command to "German to English" and you're all set. | ||
| http://www.schmalspurbahn.de - the Narrow Gauge Dictionary - this should be your first stop. Ralf Muller has information on every narrow gauge line built in Germany here, including lines now gone. Links to pages where more can be learned are included. In German. | ||
| http://mercurio.iet.unipi.it/home.html#TIME - the European Railway Server - you'll find lots about German steam scattered throughout this site, including in the links section. | ||
| http://www.molli-bahn.de - The Mollibahn - the official site for the railway, in German. | ||
| http://www.lokomotive.de/ruegen/RueKB - Ruegenische Kleinbahn - the official site for the railway, in German. | ||
| http://www.ringhotels.de/englisch/indexE.htm - Ringhotels - a German hotel chain worth considering for your visit. Locations in Kuhlungsborn and Putbus. | ||
| http://www.mapquest.com - MapQuest - order maps online. | ||
| http://www.omnimap.com - Omnimap - order maps online. A word on ordering Kompass Wanderkartes: while searching for these maps, it became apparent that OmniMap's web site leaves a bit to be desired. When looking for the Kompass maps, the direct link to the Kompass page from the Germany page did not work. Believe it or not, the only way to order these maps online that I found was as follows: from the "International Maps" page, click on "Italy" in the Country and Regional Listings, then "Itemized Listing of Kompass Hiking maps." | ||
| http://www.xe.net/currency - Universal Currency Convertor - self-explanatory. | ||
| http://bahn.hafas.de/bin/db.s98/detect.exe/bin/db.s98/query.exe/e? - Deutsche Bahn (German State Railways) - Look up schedules for trains all over Europe. This is the English-language page. | ||
| http://www.mastercard.com/cgi-bin/atm - MasterCard ATM Locator - Find a MasterCard or Cirrus ATM. | ||
| (Links are provided as a convenience and do not imply any endorsement of products or services offered on the linked sites.) | ||
| Photo Locations | |
| Bad Doberan - Kuhlungsborn: much of the line is either beside or in public roads, with only the short stretch between the Heilegendamm halt and Ostseebad Kuhlungsborn Ost station away from the road. It's the street running that draws the photographers. | |
 | For almost a mile, many different views can be had. |
 | It's so common the locals don't even pay attention. |
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| Putbus - Gohren: From Gohren to Sellin, the line is generally along the road. From Sellin to Putbus, the line winds along stopping at five halts and a station at Binz. | |
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| Non-Rail Tips | |
| The Baltic Seacoast is a resort area where one will find lots of non-rail diversions. If you're expecting the warm seas of Florida, better take your wetsuit - the Baltic is COLD! | |
| Personal Recommendations | |
| First, let me explain how I travel, so you can adjust my recommendations as you need to. I don't often travel alone - either my wife comes with me, or I join forces with one or two friends. I'm not willing to suffer to conserve money, so I'm not looking for the cheapest hotel or restaurant. Nor do I seek out American touchstones like McDonalds and Holiday Inn; being in a non-English-speaking environment doesn't intimidate me at all. Finally, I don't exclude a little tourism once a few nice photos are in the bag. | |
| Cars & Hotels: Berlin is by far the most convenient airport for these two lines. Pick one of the many guesthouses in Bad Doberan, or stay at a seaside hotel in Kuhlungsborn. Putbus is an easy day-trip from the Bad Doberan area, and most photographers find that one day is plenty on this line unless the goal is shooting all three classes of motive power in action. | |
| Food: Breakfast is typically a cold buffet at the hotel, where you can get the standard pastries as well as sliced meats, cereal and yogurt. Hot breakfasts aren't typically German. Lunch is usually a "wurst" with a roll, mustard, and beer gotten at a roadside stand. (You can go into town and eat at a restaurant, of course.) There are lots of options for dinner, and even non-German restaurants the resort towns. | |
| Trip Strategy: It's not likely you'll be doing these lines in isolation - you're probably going to spend a few days up here while also taking in the other German lines, or perhaps Poland. Three days should be sufficient to cover the photo locations well - plan for more, as much as a week, if you want to shoot all classes of power. | |
| Download an information packet including this page's text and timetables for German Narrow Gauge lines | |
| Enjoy Your Trip! Add your comments to this page | |
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