Selke Valley Railway

The Selke Valley Railway (German: Selketalbahn) is the name of the 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) (metre gauge) railway in the lower Harz mountains that originally belonged to the Gernrode-Harzgerode Railway Company (GHE). The Selke Valley Railway line passes through:

  • Quedlinburg - Gernrode - Alexisbad - Harzgerode
  • Alexisbad - Stiege - Hasselfelde
  • Stiege - Eisfelde Talmüle. (connection to Harz Railway)

The track and the river Selke share a valley between Mägdesprung and Albrechtshaus, and hence the name was given to the track.

In Spring 1946, all but a small section of the Selke Valley Railway was dismantled and the resources were recycled and carried off to the Soviet Union. In Fall 1946, out of a need for a way to transport fluorospar, the track was rebuilt and ran until there was a short supply of fluorospar in 1950. In 1946, the GHE was expropriated and was taken over by the Deutsche Reichsbahn of the GDR in 1949. The section Lindenberg (present-day Strassberg) - Stiege was not rebuilt until 1983.

On February 1, 1993, the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways (Harzer Schmalspurbahnen GmbH or HSB), which had already acquired the Harz Railway and the Brocken Railway, took over the Selke Valley Railway from the DR.

In 2006 the Selke Valley Railway was extended to Quedlinburg by regauging the abandoned standard gauge DB line between Gernrode and Quedlinburg. This may make the Selke Valley Railway more popular with tourists visiting the World Heritage Site of Quedlinburg.

The Selke Valley Railway is today part of the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways but is relatively unknown. It is a well-kept secret among railway enthusiasts for the following reasons:

  • The stretch out of the northern edge of the Harz is a very varied landscape up to the high levels of the middle Harz mountains.
  • On the track between Wernigerode and Brocken, one-of-a-kind steam engines are used on the Selke Valley Railway, of which there are only 17 built.
  • The Selke Valley Railway traverses a slope of 1:25 (4%), which is the steepest track used in the Harz mountains. The Brocken Railway traverses more elevation but does so at a shallower gradient of 1:30 (3.333%).
  • Stiege Station has the smallest terminal loop of any public railway. This is a balloon loop which was constructed specifically to allow heavy trains to the power station at Silberhutte from Nordhausen to continue in the direction of Silberhutte without reversing.

Famous quotes containing the words valley and/or railway:

    ““Over the mountains
    Of the moon,
    Down the valley of the shadow,
    Ride, boldly ride,”
    The shade replied,—
    “If you seek for Eldorado!””
    —Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849)

    “Her personality had an architectonic quality; I think of her when I see some of the great London railway termini, especially St. Pancras, with its soot and turrets, and she overshadowed her own daughters, whom she did not understand—my mother, who liked things to be nice; my dotty aunt. But my mother had not the strength to put even some physical distance between them, let alone keep the old monster at emotional arm’s length.”
    —Angela Carter (1940–1992)