In Part 2 we retrace our route back to Freital-Hainsberg following the Red Weißeritz (river) through the picturesque Weisseritz Valley.
The Weisseritz Valley Railway, dating from 1883 is the oldest narrow gauge railway still in operating in Germany. The railway connects Freital near Dresden, with Kipsdorf in the Ore Mountains following a highly scenic route through the Red Weißeritz (river) valley. Construction of the 750 mm (2 ft 5+1⁄2 in) line started in 1881 with the first section to Schmiedeberg opening on 1st November 1882, by 3rd September 1883 regular trains were run-ning to the end of the line at Kurort Kipsdorf. In 1912 construction of the Malter Valley Dam necessitated part of the track to be re-routed. By the time of the floods in 2002 freight services had ceased, but the railway was still carrying in the region of 200,000 passengers per year. Like the 1897 floods, the 2002 floods caused severe damage to the track-bed with most bridges damaged or destroyed. The estimated repair bill of around €20 million put the lines future at risk until a successful fund-raising campaign to cover the cost was put in place resulting in regular trains returning to Dippoldiswalde on 14th December 2008. The line between Dippoldiswalde and Kurort Kipsdorf was due to reopen in 2010, but with rising costs and budgetary cutbacks, the Saxon narrow gauge lines suspended work until new funding could be secured. Work on rebuilding the remainder of the line resumed in 2014 with the completed route to Kurort Kipsdorf reopening on 17th July 2017.
Please join me for a magical journey through the Red Weißeritz (river) valley with a powerful 2-10-2 tank locomotive at the head of our train.
The Weißeritztalbahn is a 26.33 km (16.36 miles) long, 750 mm (2 ft 5+1⁄2 in) gauge railway, with a maximum gradient of 3.47% and a top speed of 30 km/h (18.6 mph).
00:34 - Wikitravel Map of Europe - wikitravel.org...
00:42 - Route Map - www.openstreet...
Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license (CC BY-SA 2.0)
To learn more about the railway, please click on this link - en.wikipedia.o...
This visit was part of a rail tour arranged by the “Railway Touring Company” - if it’s something you’d like to know more about, please click on this link - www.railwaytou...
5 сен 2024
