Harz Narrow Gauge Railways
 |
|
| GmbH | |
| Industry | Railways |
| Founded | 1 February 1993 |
| Headquarters | Wernigerode, Germany |
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Number of employees
|
249 (2014-12-31) |
| Website | www.hsb-wr.de |
The Harz Narrow Gauge Railways (German: Harzer Schmalspurbahnen or HSB) is a railway company that operates a 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) metre-gauge network in the Harz mountains, in central Germany (formerly East Germany). The company was formed after the Second World War as a merger of two earlier companies. It owns about 140 kilometres of track, connecting the principal towns of Wernigerode, Nordhausen and Quedlinburg and several smaller settlements in the area. Much of the network is steeply graded and picturesque, but its most popular destination is the Brocken, the highest mountain in the region. The company runs a significant number of its trains with steam haulage, mostly employing 1950s vintage 2-10-2 tank locomotives, hauling traditional open-platform bogie carriages. The company is mainly owned by the various local authorities whose territories it serves.
The present-day narrow gauge operator emerged as a result of the merger of two different railway companies that operated their own lines:
In 1887 the first narrow gauge line in the Harz, from Gernrode to Mägdesprung, was opened. It was owned by the Gernrode-Harzgerode Railway Company (Gernrode-Harzgeroder Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) or GHE. In the years that followed, the line was extended and the network enlarged. The GHE network included the railway lines from Gernrode to Harzgerode, Hasselfelde and Eisfelder Talmühle. Because the line followed a section of the valley of the Selke, a small river, it was also nicknamed the Selke Valley Railway (Selketalbahn). Another pet name was the Anhalt Harz Railway (Anhaltische Harzbahn).
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