I will be in Germany next week on a business trip based in Friedrichshafen and will have free days Thurs. (5/17) through Sat. (5/19) with a mileage free rental car.

I would much appreciate advice on any steam sites I should visit while there.

Thanks in advance. Ross Rowland

I trust others can chime in where the live steam is hiding in the area, but if you like big transportation museums, I'd recommend both the Cite Du Train museum in Mulhouse, France and the Swiss Transport Museum (Verkehrshaus) in Lucerne. I just looked up their web pages and it looks like both museums have upgraded or remodeled quite a bit since I saw them 10+ years ago.

Thanks Evan. I'm not big on stuffed and mounted, very much prefer live action.

Ross Rowland

Here's a sample of some of the museums with an operation steam engine that I found:
DBK Historic Railway (active 0-6-0T, No. 80 106)
http://www.dbk-historische-bahn.de/index.php
The South German Railway Museum, seems to be similar to Didcot but smaller in scale:
http://www.eisenbahnmuseum-heilbronn.de/index.html
German Steam Locomotive Museum:
http://www.dampflokmuseum.de/cms/

Wish I could be of more help Ross, but I can't read German to save my life, and the translator isn't working the best right now.
Dylan Lambert

Mainline steam excusions in Germany for 17.05 thru 19.05 (May 17-19 in American terminology) are listed on http://railway-planner.net/?page=&lang=en&PHPSESSID=4gmlfb61coi7a9vj34e6q203i3&PHPSESSID=4gmlfb61coi7a9vj34e6q203i3. Luckily Thursday May 17 is Christ's Ascension Day ("Kristi Himmelsfahrt" in German), so there are special excursion trains that day.

Thursday May 17 http://www.ef-betzdorf.de/efbprogramm2012.pdf
Mainline excusion hauled by class 52 2-10-0 number 52 8134
(translated by Google Translate, with my corrections)
Travelling on water, standard and narrow gauge. Steam mainline trip from Siegen to Koblenz-Ehrenbreitstein. From there, about two and a half hours boat trip to Brohl. During the trip there the opportunity to have lunch. In Brohl ride on the Volcanic Express (Vulkan Express) narrow-gauge line to Engeln, and return.
You may board at Siegen, Brachbach, Betzdorf, Wissen, and Au(Sieg).
Tickets: Adults € 55.00, children € 27.50, Family € 137.50
including boat fare and travel on the Vulkan Express

It gets better! I strongly recommend the mainline steam trip on May 19 hauled by modernized 3-cylinder class 01 4-6-2, DR (East German State Railway) number 01 0509-8, and using vintage steam-era passenger cars. It includes a "snackbar" (Imbiss) car that I guarantee will have excellent food and drink!
http://www.lausitzerdampflokclub.de/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=2&Itemid=10
The trip starts at Cottbus, stops to pick up passengers at Lübbenau, Lübben, Berlin-Lichtenberg (one of Berlin's many stations), Bernau, and Eberswalde. It stops at the historic seaport Hansa city of Stralsund, and then goes to Putbus. There is a train station festival in Putbus. Putbus is the start of the narrow-gauge line to Binz, and a special roundtrip is available to the steam excusion passengers. (This is in the former East Germany, where mainline steam and local narrow-gauge lines were still viable transportation until German reunification in 1989. This sort of thing survived long enough that they're now popular as resorts and things to do for German tourists.)

Getting around in Europe by train is really easy compared to the USA. http://www.hrs.com Hotel Reservation Service (originally the German State Railway's reservation service) allows you to check schedules and book trains and hotels in English. It's a English-speaking-user-friendly website. You can sort hotels by distance from the train station (makes it easy to not need a car or a parking place), distance from the freeway exit, price, etc, etc. Train service is impressive. You hardly ever need to wait long for another train, and they travel fast. You can easily get from one end of Germany to the other between the end of business one evening and the start of an excusion the next morning.

- Doug Debs

I should also have mentioned that naerly everyone I've met in Germany speaks English, often extremely well. Even domestic products like laundry detergent often have English slogans!

- Doug Debs

Be really careful leaning out of the openable windows to watch the action or get photos. Lineside clearances are much much tighter than in the USA. On a steam-powered mainline trip in Austria, I nearly got decapitated at 80mph when I found out just how close signs bolted to the catenary supports are to the tracks. I felt and heard it go zooming by in the dark.

Be sure to take some photos of steam locos you've worked on, preferably showing you working on them. This can open doors worldwide.

- Doug Debs

Don't know how far it is distance-wise for you, but highly recommend the BRIENZ ROTHORN BAHN in Brienz, Switzerland. Steam cog RR to the top of Alpine mountains can't be beat!

Mr. Rowland,

You're going to be a good five or six hours away, but I don't think any steam fan can go wrong visiting the Harz Mountain Ry. out of Wernigerode, in the Harz Mountains of Central Germany, along the border of old E. Germany. 87 miles of meter gauge steam on three lines, 23 operable steam locomotives, 17 of which are beefy 2-10-2 tank engines. They operate this railroad like a mainline - well ballasted and signalled. Track is really smooth, puts a lot of Amtrak routes to shame. It actually is used for transportation by people in the region. It connects to the DB at all three major end points, Wernigerode, Nordhausen and Quedlinburg. Just an outstanding railroad, and well worth at least a couple of days. I like to think of the lines as The Silverton meets Cass with a side of EBT.

Most of the trains operate out of the main terminal of Wernigerode, where the shops and engine facility are. Most trains go to and from the main point of interest on the line, The Brocken, the highest point in the Harz Mountains at 3,700', and a former E. German listening post. It's a lot like going to the top of Bald Knob, above the tree line and usually cloudy. There is a museum and the old E. German spy station still there. We're coming into the best time of the year to go there, probably. Grade is around 3%, but the engines never seem to bog down. Top speed for trains is about 25mph. There are all kinds of YouTube clips of the Harz, so you can check it out for yourself. Chasing is possible, and really not all that hairy if you have a navigator with you, especially if you are not fluent in German.

If you get to Quedlinburg, eat at the Greek place near the old town square and have the Leg of Lamb if it's on the menu. One of the two or three best meals I've EVER had.

Paul Woodring beat me here, not only in posting about the Harz system, but in actually having had the chance to visit it.

I'm afraid I've never been outside the US, but from its reputation, this is one railroad to see. As Mr. Woodring notes, extensive regular service, excellent maintenance, and interesting roster dominated--but not monopolized--by modern 1950s vintage steam power, beautiful scenery, mountain railroading, and--based on YouTube video clips--whistles that sound like N&W hooters!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5xDGZSN ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COqFD6Eu ... re=related

Sincere thanks to all for your excellent advice. Sure will be plenty to do and see for the 3 days we have to play tourists.

I'll report back on our findings and again many thanks for the help.

Ross Rowland

Ross,

The advantage of visiting the HSB is they have very frequent service between Wernigerode on the north end and the junction at Drei Annen Hohne, with service continuing on to the Brocken, so you can ride and chase all in the same day. Great scenery and interesting towns to visit along the way, as well as a fleet of surprisingly chunky narrow gauge 2-10-2t's.

While I agree with Paul that the HSB is probably the greatest steam attraction in Germany, the southern end of the line at Nordhausen is six hours from Friedrichshafen. Since you only have three days, that may not work for you. You might want to consider Switzerland, which has steam railways less than two hours away.

Given your interest in modern steam, the Brienze Rothorn Bahn has four locomotives built between 1992 and 1996 by SLM. These incorporated many of Dante Porta's ideas for increasing efficiency.

From The Ultimate Steam Pages:
"The new SLM locomotives compared to the 1933 design SLM steamers as follows :
Service weight reduced 25 percent
Power increased 36 percent
Power-to-weight ratio increased 82 percent
Fuel consumption per trip reduced 41 percent
Fuel consumption per passenger trip reduced 61 percent
Maximum speed increased 56 percent"

Brienze is only 90 minutes from Friedrichshafen.

Brienze is also just an hour from Lucerne and their fleet of paddle wheel steamers as well as the Rigi bahn cog railway. The Rigi bahn does not run a full steam schedule, but if they are running steam when you are there, take the paddle steamer from Lucerne to Vitznau and ride the Rigi bahn.

Consider riding some non steam lines. Even the electric powered Swiss mountain railways are spectacular.

Michael Allen

At that location you are on the border with Switzerland. Whether drive the long way around the lake or take the ferry and rail is your choice. You are also close to western
Austria.

The Bavarian Railway Museum is in Nordlingen, relatively close by. They are a running museum, and their website lists excursions. Augsburg has a new museum in development. There is a narrow gauge line to the west/southwest of Augsburg. There is a running steam dummy line in the Munich vicinity.

There is a lot of steam narrow gauge around Dresden, and Dresden is really nice to visit. Steam paddle steamers operate from Dresden.

Don't go any further north. You will burn all your precious time traveling.

Well, Ross is likely over there by now; hope he has a good trip.

Thanks to all for the great advice. Pleased to report that we rode 2 standard guage and one narrow guage operations in southern Germany and had a great time.

I was especially gratified to see how many younger ( teens-20's)) men are involved and also the superb condition the equipment is kept in.

Overall a wonderful experience.

Ross Rowland