(Germany) Brohltalbahn (Vulkan Express)

[Old Yard Dog]

The Brohltalbahn is a narrow gauge 17.5 km tourist railway climbing from Brohl-Lützing on the west bank of the Rhine to Engeln at 465m. The ironically named Vulkan Express (it is anything but) is easily reached by hourly MRB 26 trains from Köln, Bonn or Koblenz to Brohl, the two stations being adjacent. Diesel hauled services run on most days throughout the summer with steam on selected weekends and bank holidays.

The 1000 mm Brohltalbahn also has a 1.1 km branch down to a riverside station called Brohl Rheinanlagen. This is where trains meet ships running special boat/train excursions from Bonn, Königswinter and Linz (Rhein). Maps indicate that two reversals are required to reach this PSUL halt.

http://vulkan-express.de/fahrplan/f...1000/-/betriebstag-1-zug-mit-schiffsanschluss

These excursions run on Fridays starting on 6th May and ending on 17th June at a cost of €45 and start from Bonn Alter Zoll at 1000. For bookings see

http://www.b-p-s.de/Veranstaltungen_anzeigen.php?Auswahl=sonstige&Art=S

 

[Calthrop]

I've always felt fond of this line, in a rather "theoretical" way. Bryan Morgan travelled on it in the 1950s, and gives it a paragraph in The End of the Line. He reckons it nice, but not anything terrifically special: of course sixty-odd years ago, narrow-gauge lines in West Germany were "two a pfennig", and one could afford to be choosy. Back then, the line ran a few kilometres beyond Engeln, terminating at Kempenich.

My only first-hand brush with the Brohltalbahn was nearly fifty years ago, when I was doing a brief course in German at Bonn University. Not much spare time for gricing; but we were given a day's R & R including a coach tour of the hills east of the Rhine, during which (I'm sure by chance, not by design) we travelled a few kilometres alongside the line on a roadside section in its upper reaches. This didn't coincide with any rail working !