Constructed in the last years of the 19th century in central Germany, a sizeable number of narrow-gauge railways transported industrial workers from Dresden and Chemnitz to picturesque resorts in the mountainous Harz and Erzbebirge regions, as well as opening up seaside resorts on the Baltic coast. Though fortunate enough to sidestep the worst ravages of World War Two, these railways came under the control of East Germany and continued to serve industrial and leisure needs in the socialist country. That government's plans to run down and close the lines foundered on the lack of capital to do so, while a similar lack of interest by the inheriting Deutsche Bahn after the fall of the Berlin Wall saw them sold to private operators who continue to make a success of them. Containing more than 150 evocative colour images and detailed line maps, this comprehensive account takes readers on a gentle excursion behind timeless steam locomotives along seven narrow-gauge German branch lines, through chocolate-box villages with beautifully kept stations to snowbound mountaintops and resorts not too far removed from their turn-of-the-century heyday.
