Under the Crossing Gate

Torsten Kammer, photographer, dedicated to making himself look like a fool to bring you good pictures since 1986. Yes, I could try to clone out that gate, and it would probably even work great, but I think it looks more funny like this.

So, today my father and I went on a tour to some stations of the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen (HSB) network. HSB operates three connected meter-gauge lines in the Harz mountains in Germany, with trains run (almost) exclusively with steam. It’s the largest narrow-gauge network in Germany.

Now, as you’d expected, we were luckier on some stations than on others, but my personal favorite picture was this one, taken in Wernigerode Westerntor, where 99 7238, a class 99.23-24 locomotive, is leaving towards the Brocken, the largest mountain in the Harz. Those units are known as "new locomotives" (Neubauloks), as they were built from 1954 and 1956, based on the last pre-war design. They are the standard on the system, being the most powerful narrow-gauge steam locomotives in Germany ever, and also the most numerous.