The 1948 Show - Dresden and Beyond

Memories of travels in the Eastern bloc, where it was always 1948

A Correction.

The following image appeared in yesterday's post, purporting to be of a train at Wernigerode. Did you spot the deliberate mistake?  The clue is on the station nameboard that appears high up on the gable end of the red brick station building, which clearly identifies it as "Bertsdorf", which is the far south-east of the DDR and formed part of the following year's trip!

The image has been replaced in yesterday's post by a more appropriate one, but I thought it worth repeating to draw attention to the railway staff who occupy the platform (and far outnumber the passengers). Despite being a narrow-guage line in a remote part of the country and operated by ageing locomotives and rolling stock, the staff are all smartly-turned out in military-style uniforms, complete with peaked caps for the men. Even the driver, who in the UK would have been wearing greasy overalls and a filthy cloth cap, keeps up the standard, which was the case everywhere on the Reichsbahn.

My fellow-traveller Mark has also just supplied me with some of his images for that part of the trip and I've added shots of the train/tram crossing at Weisses Ross and the "Leipzig station incident" to yesterday's post.

Now on to Day 4:

Day 4  Sunday, 22nd April 1984  Easter Sunday 

Yesterday had seen us on a a marathon train journey through the Harz mountains and then across much of the DDR to the city of Dresden, in the south-east of the country.

Despite the second long day in a row and "a night out in Dresden, but only just" we were out and about early enough to catch the 07.34 local S-Bahn train to Freital-Hainsberg for a trip on the narrow-guage Weisseritztalbahn to Kurort Kipsdorf. 

Freital Hainsberg, Junction for the Weisseritztalbahn

Despite being in the suburbs of Dresden, this was a very scenic line, following the course of the Rote Weisseritz river all the way to the terminus at the small spa town of Kurort Kipsdorf. 

Approachiung Rabenau on the early stages of the climb up to Kurort Kipsdorf

 We weren't able to buy return tickets for the journey so needed tickets to travel back to Dresden. However the booking office was closed and not due to re-open until after our train had left. We assumed we'd get them from the guard on the train, but no ticket check was forthcoming giving us a free ride at least as far as the junction with the main line, which we made on a train hauled by two steam locos.

On the way back down the valley on a double-header.

The line was damaged by serious flooding in 2002 and closed completely for six years when it reopened to the halfway point of Dippoldiswalde. Full re-opening to Kurort Kipsdorf was not completed until 2017.

Dresden

We spent the rest of the morning in Dresden.  In February 1945 the old city centre was destroyed by a series of Allied bombing raids. Unlike many west German cities, but in line with British towns such as Coventry, Plymouth and Swansea, the east German authorities opted not to attempt to restore everything had been lost but to create a modern cityscape and in the DDR one that reflected the priorities of socialism over commercialisation. Many of the city's most famous historic buildings were left in a state of disrepair, officially as a memorial to the folly of war, but after reunification, when money was available, most of them were restored to their former glory.

Dresden city centre from our hotel. (c) Mark Doran

The city council were very fond of fountains.

Many of the war-damaged historic buildings were still in a state of disrepair

After a walk around the city centre we made a fruitless tram journey to the suburbs to see a funicular railway that was "closed for reconstruction".  It had been similarly closed twelve months earlier when Mark visited it, but such was the shortage of money and materials in the DDR that repair works often took a very long time. (It's been re-opened and closed again more than once since).
One railway that was operating was the Pioneer Railway in one of the city's parks.

Dresden Pioneer Railway

Pioneer railways were found throughout the DDR. They were similar to railways often found in parks in the UK, except that they were operated to main-line standards of professionalism mainly by schoolchildren (presumably with adult supervision) and served as a training ground for youngsters with ambitions for a career with the state railway.

Moving On

We seemed to have packed a lot into the morning as it was only 12.34 when we left Dresden Neustadt station. Our travels for the rest of day were largely determined by where we expected to find steam-hauled trains that we could ride on. 

Firstly, we set off north-westwards to Riesa. By 1984, main line steam locomotives were largely confined to freight and secondary and local passenger services, but the 13.46 to Magdeburg, which we were due to catch as far as Dessau, to the north of Leipzig was one of the last steam-hauled passenger expresses in Europe.  As an added bonus, it had no. 35.1113-6 on the front - the last known serviceable class 35 locomotive, according to an obscure railway enthusiasts magazine we had with us.  We weren't the only enthusiasts to know about it though and we shared the journey with several west German gricers.

The Magdeburg Express at Riesa, hauled by 35 1113-6

We had - or made - time for a beer and a meal at Dessau before catching another steam-hauled train (this time headed by a class 41)  across country in a south-westerly direction to Kothen to change for an electric train due south to Leipzig.  The diary records that I photograped the class 41 leaving Kothen for Gursten.

The class 41 leaving Kothen for Gursten.

We certainly had time for more beer and another meal at the station buffet in Leipzig, where we spent much of the evening.

Leipzig Hbf station buffet

 This was a quite a bit more upmarket than those we had previously come across, even to the extent of providing live musical entertainment for diners.  Unfortunately, after 21.00hrs they stopped serving beer, but we were able to find a "Neues Restaurant" around the corner, where using my best (not very good) German, I managed to persuade the doorman to let us in for "ein paar beer", which he let us have as long as we sat in the waiting area and behaved ourselves. Despite their reputation for being closely monitored to ensure they stuck by the rules, some DDR citizens could be quite flexible at times.

By now it was late evening and you may be wondering why there has been no mention of a hotel for the night. But I'll tell you about that next time!