Harz Narrow Gauge Railways - The HSB Period

The HSB Period

On 1 February 1993 the private railway company, Harzer Schmalspurbahnen GmbH (HSB) took over all stock, lines, staff, etc., from the Deutsche Reichsbahn and since then has acted as both the railway operating company (EVU) and railway infrastructure company (EIU). Shareholders in the HSB are the districts of Harz and Nordhausen, the communes along the railways, the town of Quedlinburg, the municipality of Tanne and the spa company of Braunlage. Its head office is in Wernigerode, where its shops are located. Today the HSB has the longest single network of narrow gauge railway in Germany with a total length of 140.4 km, 44 stations and halts.

Its trains run daily to a timetable and it operates more than ten steam locomotives, seven diesel railbuses and three trams (on the Nordhausen Tramway). All the lines are worked by steam trains, only in the winter timetable does the Stiege–Eisfelder Talmühle section of the Selke Valley Railway have no regular steam services due to its relatively low workload at that time of year.

The best-known line is the Brocken Railway which is worked by steam locomotive-hauled trains to a daily scheduled timetable running from (Wernigerode –) via Drei Annen Hohne to the Brocken and back. Regional services between Nordhausen and Ilfeld, on the other hand were transferred to diesel railbuses and (since 1 May 2004) trams, apart from one steam train pair. In addition the HSB still operates regular goods trains from Hartsteinwerk Unterberg (on the Selke Valley Railway) to Nordhausen Übergabebahnhof (on the Trans-Harz Railway) using diesel locomotives of Class 199.8 and piggy-backed standard gauge wagons.

On 1 May 2004 a link line was opened in Nordhausen between the Nordhausen Tramway and the Trans-Harz Railway. Since then, the above-mentioned tramway between Nordhausen Hospital and the HSB halt of Ilfeld-Neanderklinik (Line 10) has been worked by electric and hybrid vehicles of the Combino duo class. On the Trans-Harz Railway (which has no catenary), haulage is diesel-electric. As a result of the connecting track to the Nordhausen Tramway, the station of Nordhausen Nord, in particular, lost its significance. Apart from one pair of steam trains from Nordhausen and a few HSB railcars all trains since then have terminated at the tramway stop of Nordhausen Bahnhofsvorplatz.

On 18 April 2005, work started on the extension of the Selke Valley Railway from Gernrode to Quedlinburg (length 8.5 km) after DB AG had closed this standard gauge section and sold it to the HSB. First, the Gernrode terminus was converted into a through station. On 4 March 2006, the first narrow gauge train Quedlinburg station and, since 26 June 2006, there have been scheduled services by the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways to Quedlinburg with at least two pairs of steam trains per day. In Quedlinburg the HSB stops at a platform with trains of the Harz-Elbe Express to Halberstadt.

In 2009, with the support of the state of Saxony-Anhalt, the standard gauge steam engine no. 95 1027 was in overhauled at the Meiningen Steam Locomotive Works. It was used on the HSB and is now running museum railway services on the Rübeland Railway.

On 30 November 2009 construction was started in Nordhausen on a new halt (Schurzfell). This halt is intended to further improve access to the railway network for the population of Nordhausen. Building work continued until shortly before Christmas 2009 and was mainly carried out during the overnight pause so as not to interfere with services. The new halt was opened in time for the summer timetable in 2010.

In 2009 Lower Saxony tried to co-finance a connecxion of the town of Braunlage to the HSB network using an accumulation of capital from the economic stimulus package, Konjunktur II. (see also South Harz Railway). This initiative was shelved on 29 April 2010 due to the unacceptably high costs that were predicted.