Harz Narrow Gauge - HSB

For the reopening on 18th May, face masks and 1.5 metre social distancing are mandatory. Payment must be by contactless means.

Andy

 

An update on this, all of our party received a full refund for the tickets today.

 

Good news. An interesting coincidence of HSB news, as today is the first day of a full resumption of services across the network. 6001 is covering the Gernrode duty. I think things remain tight with 7 locos needed busy days (e.g. today with Tradzug running) yet only 7 locos available, so the standby must be diesel.

 

This came up as a suggestion on YouTube. Now that’s what I call snow.

 

I came across these 2 on YouTube yesterday. Nice to see some action over there.


Hope they are of interest to someone.
Pat

 

First regular steam train on the Brocken with a nice cam view. The forest is about to regrow and will be more resilient against the climate change.

 

99 7244-9 has been taken from Hasselfelde to Wernigerode today, for restoration to service. Been out of traffic for 23 years, though I doubt much of the original will survive the overhaul at Meiningen!

As reported elsewhere, 99 5906-5 will be withdrawn in May, and looks like it'll be going to Hasselfelde to replace 7244. That'll leave the Harz without a working Mallet! One of 5901 or 5902 should be restored for 2024 though.

 

From 2013. There were at least 2 working Mallet's then - 5901 and 5906 .

 

Is the new workshop at Westerntor in operation yet? Can it handle an overhaul / rebuild at that level?
Pat

 

No, not yet, and yes it will be capable of everything from what I can gather, so no need to send locos to Meiningen any more.

 

Thanks.
Pat

 

Any ideas why it is diesel only to Brocken at the moment? I'm there again in a months time, anyone know if it will be back to normal?

 

Forest fire near Schierke earlier in the week. Lots of dead trees, drought and high temperatures aren't a good combination.

 

Sounds similar to the UK, hopefully they will have some rain soon.

 

Accident at Elend today involving a VW on a level crossing and 99 7241.

 

Dampflok 1 : Volkswagen 0

With luck, the car driver got out uninjured ..... and will take the level crossing signs rather more seriously in future. Let's hope the car's insurers don't keep the HSB waiting too long before they cough up for the necessary bufferbeam repaint.

 

Fire on the Brocken this afternoon, still burning by all accounts. Fire crews were being moved by train as well looking at the photos. Surprisingly HSB were using steam - I thought it was still all diesel above Schierke at the moment.

 

Fire still burning this morning. Seven helicopters being employed, plus two planes arriving from Italy, as well as all the ground fire crews.

 

My video and a few photos from last weeks visit to the Harz.

 

According to the HSB website all trains between Schierke and Brocken are cancelled today due to the weather. The Summer timetables are now available and, surprisingly, the Selketal timetable appears to show a return to 2 steam turns Th. - Sa. https://www.hsb-wr.de/out/pictures/ddmedia/333_Selketalbahn_Sommerfahrplan_01.04.23-31.10.2023.pdf
Ray.