The Harz and the BAE

Before the war there were three different meter gauge railroads in the Harz mountains forming a network. There had been plans to establish a direct connection between the two most important towns in the center Harz: Braunlage and St.Andreasberg. While the distance between the two locations is only 3 miles the 300 ft. deep gorge of the Oder river was an obstacle that could not be surmounted at reasonable cost.

The only way to build a railroad between the two towns would have been a horse shoe routing using the Oder dam that had been built by miners in the 18th century. In reality it has never been built. But in my basement it has!

The mainlines have been drawn into a geological survey map with contour lines in a way that they could have been built like that:

Braunlage - Sonnenberg - Sieber with max. 3.3%, Sonnenberg - St. Andreasberg and the mine branch with max. 4.5% grades.

29th April 2008

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