Rail Route of the Month: A Steam Climb Through Germany's Harz Mountains
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the opening of the railway to the Brocken, the highest peak in Germany's Harz Mountains at 1,142 meters. The Brocken line is part of a wider network of narrow-gauge railways - mainly hauled by steam trains - in the eastern half of the Harz region, which is a wonderful place to explore by train.
Direct steam trains run to the Brocken from Wernigerode several times a day, in around 1h40. But there is an alternative: a year-round, once-daily service leaving Nordhausen mid-morning and taking just over three hours to reach the summit. The northern route from Wernigerode and the route from Nordhausen, far to the south, converge at Drei Annen Hohne, a railway junction high in the Ziller Valley on the eastern flank of the Brocken.
Regardless of the appeal of a longer trip for the same price, there are good reasons to favor the Nordhausen option: it includes a magnificent 90-minute stretch from Ilfeld to Drei Annen Hohne through the most beautiful landscapes of the Harz mountains. In my opinion, this section of the route, following the Harzquerbahn (Trans-Harz Railway), is even better than the last steep climb to the top of the Brocken.
Literary connectionsOn a gloomy day out of season, there are few takers for Nordhausen's 10:33. There is a moment of anxiety nearing departure time when several engineers gather around the steam engine. Is there a problem? After many clinks of oily keys, the train leaves Nordhausen and climbs towards the wooded hills. Beyond Ilfeld, the hillsides slope more and more, and in the calm air, steam descends above the burgundy and cream cars.
Happy ticket inspector asks if we need something solid for the trip. That's the famous schnapps , who is a mainstay on the train to the Brocken. We pass on the offer, but the crew assures us that she will come back later if we change our minds.
We are lucky to have an empty train, but on spring and summer days the journey to the Brocken is immensely popular.When the first trains reached the summit in 1898, the German intelligentsia had mixed feelings. The literary establishment scorned the arrival of the hoi polloi in one of its most sacred spaces, echoing John Ruskin's opposition to the railroad's intrusion into some of the landscape s most revered in England. For German scholars, the Brocken was not just any mountain, but the very peak that...
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the opening of the railway to the Brocken, the highest peak in Germany's Harz Mountains at 1,142 meters. The Brocken line is part of a wider network of narrow-gauge railways - mainly hauled by steam trains - in the eastern half of the Harz region, which is a wonderful place to explore by train.
Direct steam trains run to the Brocken from Wernigerode several times a day, in around 1h40. But there is an alternative: a year-round, once-daily service leaving Nordhausen mid-morning and taking just over three hours to reach the summit. The northern route from Wernigerode and the route from Nordhausen, far to the south, converge at Drei Annen Hohne, a railway junction high in the Ziller Valley on the eastern flank of the Brocken.
Regardless of the appeal of a longer trip for the same price, there are good reasons to favor the Nordhausen option: it includes a magnificent 90-minute stretch from Ilfeld to Drei Annen Hohne through the most beautiful landscapes of the Harz mountains. In my opinion, this section of the route, following the Harzquerbahn (Trans-Harz Railway), is even better than the last steep climb to the top of the Brocken.
Literary connectionsOn a gloomy day out of season, there are few takers for Nordhausen's 10:33. There is a moment of anxiety nearing departure time when several engineers gather around the steam engine. Is there a problem? After many clinks of oily keys, the train leaves Nordhausen and climbs towards the wooded hills. Beyond Ilfeld, the hillsides slope more and more, and in the calm air, steam descends above the burgundy and cream cars.
Happy ticket inspector asks if we need something solid for the trip. That's the famous schnapps , who is a mainstay on the train to the Brocken. We pass on the offer, but the crew assures us that she will come back later if we change our minds.
We are lucky to have an empty train, but on spring and summer days the journey to the Brocken is immensely popular.When the first trains reached the summit in 1898, the German intelligentsia had mixed feelings. The literary establishment scorned the arrival of the hoi polloi in one of its most sacred spaces, echoing John Ruskin's opposition to the railroad's intrusion into some of the landscape s most revered in England. For German scholars, the Brocken was not just any mountain, but the very peak that...
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