Reopening of Kemmlitz station (Saxony)

Hello alltogether,
The Döllnitzbahn GmbH, the official operator of the remaining Mügeln narrow gauge railway network and the supporting Förderverein Wilder Robert (Society for the promotion of the 'Wild Robert') were, thanks to the generous support by a bank, able to reopen the neglected and closed line between Nebitschen and Kemmlitz.
Now Kemmlitz, where everything is currently recultivated and has a nice lake, is able to be visited by the steam trains regularly. The railway line is located between the vibrant cities of Leipzig and Dresden and is an ideal Location to visit the countryside of middle/northern saxony. Besides the final repair of their railway network, they could aquire one diesel unit from Austria in order to rationalize the daily services for pupils.

Here is the best video of the "Mügelner Bahnhofsfest" (Station celebration of Mügeln, which used to be the biggest narrow gauge railway station in Germany and it is still impressive), where they've reopened this particular section.



If you're interested in how it looked like during the good old times:


Kemmlitz station with freight trains:


Here you see how they put standard gauge wagons on the narrow gauge "Rollwagen" (Oschatz):


Wikipedia articles covering the company and the railway line:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Döllnitzbahn
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mügeln_railway_network


If you want to keep an eye up on the ongoing developments, then just follow their facebook pages:
https://de-de.facebook.com/Döllnitzbahn-Wilder-Robert-191699664183078/
https://www.facebook.com/wilder.robert.ev/

 

Interesting. Some might question how 'good' most of the DR era was though, both for railways and Saxony in general.

 

Visited the line in DDR days but never went beyond Mügeln. A charming little line.

 

With six large beers costing just under the equivalent of £1, they were the good old days for me.

 

Good news, I visited this line (along with some others in Saxony) in 2009 and felt that it was lagging behind in terms of investment and indeed visitor numbers, so it's nice to see a positive story about the place. There is a lot of interesting stock there (including standard gauge stuff on transporter wagons) and of course three* Saxon-Meyers. I may just have been looking out of the wrong side of the train at the critical moment but I couldn't actually work out where the Kemmlitz branch went off. Guess I'll have to visit again now!

*Wikipedia is a bit confused on this but there were certainly three there in 2012.

 

Were they good beers?

 

Wernesgrüner, Haßeröder and Radeberger were three I can remember and they were all quite decent Pilsner style beers. I do know that the little log cabin style bar outside Oberwiesental station - sadly now gone - cost us the best part of a day's photography on one visit.

 

In Saxony the listed beer Brands (and many more) are still available and are horrendously cheap compared to the prices in the UK. If you have a chat with someone at the railway, they'll might invite you to a glass of beer (and our beer is still of high quality and has a nice taste).
Hopefully this answer made Saxony more invitable

Best regards

 

The Döllnitzbahn is currently steadily improving their infrastructure. Besides renewing the tracks along the line they even built a shed (or roof) for important historical vehicles in Mügeln. The station building Mügeln is currently undergoing a significant refurbishment for the new touristic concept.
In the narrow gauge forum in Germany one can see the wooden shed and the renovation of Mügeln station building.
https://bimmelbahn-forum.de/forum/i...-wilder-robert-2019/&postID=102737#post102737

Keep up to date of the Döllnitzbahn and its supporting group:
https://de-de.facebook.com/pages/category/Tour-Agency/Döllnitzbahn-Wilder-Robert-191699664183078/
https://www.facebook.com/wilder.robert.ev/?ref=py_c

Here you can read something about the Geoportal in Mügeln, which is an important touristic development in Middle Saxony (I hope the translator works properly):
https://translate.google.com/transl...geoerlebnis/besucherzentren/geoportal-kaolin/

 

Thanks for this. Looking forward to my next visit to Sachsen.