Narrow gauge rail south of Hanover, north of Alfeld - Germany ?

[eMeS]

Back in 1959, I took a photo of a narrow gauge railway* (with steam loco on it) running by the side of a road (definitely not an autobahn) - perhaps in the Elze area. A quick Google search comes up with no suggestions, so I wondered if our experts here know what I might have snapped.

* From my snap, I'm guessing that it was around 2' gauge, with the loco overhanging the track.

Many Thanks

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

Might it have been this, the Kleinbahn Marienhagen-Banteln, which was 800mm gauge and 7km long, from the main line at Banteln.
https://www.ebay.de/itm/Neben-Schmalspurbahnen-4-Marienhagen-Banteln-12S-/202014014216
There doesn't seem anything visible left of it today, not even a trackbed, but it's shown in the Schweers atlas.
Looks like it was a line to a limestone quarry.

 

[eMeS]

Thank you so much.
I've looked at several of the books / links you suggested, and it seems to fit my poor quality snap and memories of where it was taken. I was serving at an RAF station sited in the Ith Hils north-east of Escherhausen, and each day our couriers visited Hanover rail station and airport, and occasionally I was in the party.

 

[Struner]

it seems the limeworks was closed in 1961 & dismantling started in 1962. Here the train passes through Marienhagen.
---Peter.

 

[eMeS]

That's a much better view than I have - recorded through the windscreen of our VW beetle, as below.

 

[Struner]

When the wipers were still sitting somewhere on the windscreen . Was it a beetle with specs?
I like the man with the flag as well.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

For what it's worth, the engines in the two photos don't look the same, so the line must have had at least 2 of them!
The loco in the "Beetle" photo may well have been the same one as on the ebay web site.
If I translate properly, the men in that photo are having a glass of (non-alcoholic) beer to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the line's opening - so it must have been in 1932.

 

[Struner]

& another one, looks like an empty one on the return journey.