Gernrode-Harzgerode Railway Company
The Gernrode-Harzgerode Railway Company (German: Gernrode-Harzgeroder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) or GHE was a private railway company in Germany that operated the Selke Valley Railway (the line from Gernrode via Hasselfelde and Alexisbad to Harzgerode and the line from Stiege to Eisfelder Talmühle). It had a junction with the network of the Nordhausen-Wernigerode Railway Company (NWE) at Eisfelder Talmühle station.
The Gernrode-Harzgerode Railway Company was founded on 10 May 1886 with the aim of developing the East Harz by means of a small scale railway line. After the experience of the Felda Railway in Thuringia it was decided on cost grounds that a concession would be granted in March 1887 for a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) metre gauge line from Gernrode to Harzgerode and Silberhütte. Gernrode had already had a railway connexion since 1885.
By 7 August 1887 the first section of the line, from Gernrode to Mägdesprung, was opened. Gradually the network was expanded until, on 15 July 1905, it reaches its farthest extent at Eisfelder Talmühle station. To counter the increase in motorised traffic in the 1930s, the GHE introduced new diesel railbuses (the GHE T 1) and its own bus routes.
From April to May 1945 operations of the GHE's lines ceased. In April 1946, all tracks were dismantled as war reparation payments to the Soviet Union, with the exceptions of the lines from Eisfelder Talmühle via Stiege to Hasselfelde and from Straßberg to the Flussspat mineshaft. From 15 April 1945, running powers were transferred to the NWE. The GHE was nationalised on 30 June 1946, together with its remaining installations and buildings.
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