Short haul, real deal
Tornado’s S&C trains are very special but where else can you find ‘real’ steam services in 2017? TONY STREETER reports on winter in Saxony and Thuringia.
There were just three of us to see the spectacle on January 27. As a little 2‑10‑2T painted its exhaust across the sky, we aimed our cameras at the last afterglow of the sun, then picked our way back along the darkening path. Crunch… the sound of size ten boots on snow. Crunch, crunch. Time to go. In summer, little boats bob here on the Bormannsgrund, but in January the white‑shrouded dinghies are clear of the ice, waiting for temperatures to edge back above zero. Malter Lake’s sunbathers will be wrapped up, maybe by the fire. Yet daily in winter, as in the warmer months, the 4.42pm from Freital‑Hainsberg trundles over the stone arches of the viaduct here. How many people use it on a cold weekday ‑ or indeed travel on the 6.42pm or the 7.42am… who knows?
What is certain is that it runs. Rain, snow, darkness or daylight. This is one of the world’s last places where coal-fired engines still back out of grimy sheds to clunk onto the head of timetabled passenger trains. Whether or not anyone gets on. One or two such lines survive on the other side of the world - China’s Shibanxi narrow gauge is perhaps worth a mention, and of course there’s India’s incomparable Darjeeling Himalayan Railway that we plan to visit next winter (see page 88). By a quirk of fate though, most are much closer to home. Despite unceasing efforts, Poland’s Wolsztyn has not yet returned, though it now looks like it will (see News); yet in Germany, one cheap flight away from the UK, there are no fewer than seven steam-worked passenger systems. Most, like the line that skirts Malter reservoir, are in the eastern state of Saxony.
Winter wonderland
True, they are narrow gauge. But then, a handful of times a year in the neighbouring state of Thuringia, something very special happens. For this time it’s not a 750mm, 900mm or even metregauge engine that backs onto its train, but a full-sized ‘Mikado’. Unlike the 4.42pm, the ‘Rodelblitz’ is far from an everyday thing: it was timetabled for just three weekends this winter. Yet, like Tornado’s almost-simultaneous efforts on the S&C, No. 41.1144’s appearance is on a scheduled service. Which means that for a brief period in winter - and hopefully when sun and snow align - you can chase after steam both big and small. That’s why three of us were there in late January and early February. Who knows how much longer it will all still be possible? The narrow gauge lines are funded through public transport budgets and have already lasted so long that they seem pretty secure. Indeed, at Freital-Hainsberg the line is finally being returned to its full 16-mile length, more than 15 years after being severed by floods. On the other hand, the long-awaited seven-mile extension back to Kurort Kipsdorf from Dippoldiswalde looks like it will be accompanied by a controversial slashing of the timetable. Where will trains like the 7.42am or 6.42pm stand then? Will they simply melt away… like our footprints?