The 1948 Show - Quedlinburg

Back to Crossing the Border

Friday, 20th April 1984 (Good Friday) (Continued)

The previous post saw us sitting in the station buffet in Marienborn having missed our connection to Halberstadt. Fortunately Mark had brought along a copy of the DDR railway timetable from which he was able to work out an alternative route:

We left Marienborn on a diesel-hauled train formed of double-deck rolling stock and followed the route of the Berlin express as far as Magdeburg, where we arrived at 17.20.  We were able to have a meal and a coffee in the "grotty" buffet on the station (the standard of catering on the Deutsche Reichsbahn was a big disappointment). I felt that the people around us, by their dress and appearance, would have looked at home in the north of England - although perhaps not in the south! Maybe this photo, taken while doing a bit of tram-spotting outside Magdeburg station, will give you an idea:

Tram spotting in Magdeburg

Our next train was the 18.03 to Halberstadt. On this, we were delayed 20 minutes at Oschersleben - although this did give us the chance to see our first steam locos of the trip: Two "Class 50s" and a Class 44 in use as a stationary boiler.

Two class 50s at Oschersleben

We had an hour to wait in Halberstadt, where there were more steam locos and also a rather charming  narrow-guarge tram system.

A Halberstadt tram

I remember reading a few years later, after reunification, that the tramway authorities in Halberstadt had had to stop the system by which passengers could alight on either side of the tram - i.e. into the middle of the road - due to the increase in car traffic. A sad day!

The final train of a long day (which for us had begun in Ostend at 04.30) was the 20.44 to Quedlinburg. This was also diesel-hauled and although by now it was dark, the carriages were unlit - as was the station platform at Quedlinburg when we arrived. Another great introduction to the DDR!  At least the streets were lit and after seeking directions from the booking clerk in the still-open ticket office,  we made our way to our hotel for the night, arriving just in time for "last orders" at 21.30!

Quedlinburg - and our hotel.

Another view of the centre. Note the TV ariels, needed to pick up West German stations.

 I saw Quedlinburg as "a very nice mediaeval town" and noted that it had "no traffic and no commercialisation".  It's very different today.

A recent image of Quedlinburg courtesy of Hotel Domschatz       

The following day we headed for the Harz Mountains...