Schierke station

Schierke station
Schierke station
	Through station
	Schierke station
Other names	Bahnhof Schierke
Location	Schierke ; Germany
Coordinates	51°45′54″N10°40′40″E / 51.76500°N 10.67778°E Coordinates: 51°45′54″N10°40′40″E / 51.76500°N 10.67778°E
Line(s)	Brocken Railway ;
Platforms	2
Other information
Station code	LSCR [1]
History
Opened	1898
Location
	Schierke station Location within Saxony-Anhalt

Last updated February 21, 2019

Schierke station (German : Bahnhof Schierke) is the railway station in the village of Schierke operated by the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways on the Brocken Railway in the Harz Mountains of central Germany. Schierke itself lies as the foot of the highest mountain in the Harz, the Brocken, and is located in the borough of Wernigerode in the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt.

German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol (Italy), the German-speaking Community of Belgium, and Liechtenstein. It is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg and a co-official language in the Opole Voivodeship in Poland. The languages which are most similar to German are the other members of the West Germanic language branch: Afrikaans, Dutch, English, the Frisian languages, Low German/Low Saxon, Luxembourgish, and Yiddish. There are also strong similarities in vocabulary with Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, although those belong to the North Germanic group. German is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English.

Schierke is a village and a former municipality in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2009, it is part of the town Wernigerode. Situated within the Harz mountain range in the valley of the Bode River, at the rim of the Harz National Park, it is mainly a tourist resort, especially for hiking and all kinds of winter sport.

The Harz Narrow Gauge Railways is a railway company that operates a 1,000 mm metre-gauge network in the Harz mountains, in central Germany. The company was formed after the Second World War as a merger of two earlier companies. It owns about 140 kilometres of track, connecting the principal towns of Wernigerode, Nordhausen and Quedlinburg and several smaller settlements in the area. Much of the network is steeply graded and picturesque, but its most popular destination is the Brocken, the highest mountain in the region. The company runs a significant number of its trains with steam haulage, mostly employing 1950s vintage 2-10-2 tank locomotives, hauling traditional open-platform bogie carriages. The company is mainly owned by the various local authorities whose territories it serves.

History

The station, which is located at a height of 687 metres above sea level, was opened on 20 June 1898 and has been in continuous use as a railway station ever since. On the completion of the line up to the Brocken on 4 October 1898, trains to the highest mountain in North Germany, which were predominantly used by tourists, called at Schierke station. Because Brocken station was not served in winter due to heavy snowfalls, trains always terminated in Schierke from 16 October to 29 April. Not until the German Winter Sports Championships in spring 1950 did trains run to the Brocken in winter as well.

The Brocken, also sometimes referred to as the Blocksberg, is the highest peak of the Harz mountain range and also the highest peak of Northern Germany; it is located near Schierke in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt between the rivers Weser and Elbe. Although its elevation of 1,141 metres (3,743 ft) is below alpine dimensions, its microclimate resembles that of mountains of about 2,000 m (6,600 ft). The peak above the tree line tends to have a snow cover from September to May, and mists and fogs shroud it up to 300 days of the year. The mean annual temperature is only 2.9 °C (37.2 °F). It is the easternmost mountain in northern Germany; travelling east in a straight line, the next prominent elevation would be in the Ural Mountains in Russia.

Brocken station railway station in Wernigerode, Germany

Brocken station is the terminus on the summit of the Brocken, the highest mountain in the Harz in central Germany. It lies in the state of Saxony-Anhalt and is the end point of the Brocken Railway operated by the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways.

As a result of the location of the Brocken in the border zone between the GDR and FRG the Brocken Railway section between Schierke and Brocken station was closed to the public from 13 August 1961. Railway and station were then only used for military purposes or by the local population. After the Wende - the political changes in 1989 - the Brocken line was inspected and repaired, and Schierke station used for its original purpose again.

<i lang="de" title="German language text">Die Wende</i>

Die Wende is a German term that has come to signify the complete process of change from the rule of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and a centrally planned economy to the revival of parliamentary democracy and market economy in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) around 1989 and 1990. It encompasses several processes and events which later have become synonymous with the overall process. These processes and events are:

Location and facilities

The station lies just above the village of Schierke on the territory of the Harz National Park. Its approach roads are closed to private motor vehicles. Taxis, delivery vehicles and vehicles with special permission, such as e.g. for guests of the Brocken Hotel are excepted, but may not drive right up to the station. In the station building there is a restaurant and a ticket and souvenir shop run by the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways. In the station yard there is a mobile take-away stall. The station is only regularly worked by steam-headed trains of the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways. A little to the north is the rock formation of the Feuersteinklippe .

Harz National Park national park of Germany

Harz National Park is a nature reserve in the German federal states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. It comprises portions of the western Harz mountain range, extending from Herzberg and Bad Lauterberg at the southern edge to Bad Harzburg and Ilsenburg on the northern slopes. 95 % of the area is covered with forests, mainly with spruce and beech woods, including several bogs, granite rocks and creeks. The park is part of the Natura 2000 network of the European Union.

The Feuersteinklippe is a rock formation in the Harz National Park in central Germany and the landmark of the nearby village of Schierke.

Related Research Articles

Wernigerode Place in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany

Wernigerode is a town in the district of Harz, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Until 2007, it was the capital of the district of Wernigerode. Its population was 35,041 in 2012.

The Selke Valley Railway (Selketalbahn), Gernrode-Harzgerode Railway and the Anhalt Harz Railway were different names for the metre gauge railway in the Lower Harz, Germany, originally owned by the Gernrode-Harzgerode Railway Company.

The Harz Railway or Trans-Harz Railway was formerly the main line of the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways and runs north to south right across the Harz Mountains from Wernigerode to Nordhausen. However, the tourist attraction of the Brocken, the highest mountain in the Harz, is so great that the Brocken Railway is effectively the main line today. The Trans-Harz Railway joins up with the Selke Valley Railway to Quedlinburg at Eisfelder Talmühle where all trains are organised to make good connections.

The Brocken Railway is one of three tourist metre gauge railways which together with the Harz Railway and Selke Valley Railway form the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways railway network in the Harz mountain range of Germany.

Nordhausen-Wernigerode Railway Company transport company

The Nordhausen-Wernigerode Railway Company or NWE was the second railway company to be founded in the Harz mountains in Germany, after the Gernrode-Harzgerode Railway Company. On 15 June 1896 the NWE was formed by the Vereinigten Eisenbahnbau- und Betriebs-Gesellschaft in Berlin, who also ran its operations. As early as 1896 the first section of this narrow gauge Harz Railway ('Harzquerbahn') was opened, followed by the Brocken Railway (Brockenbahnin) 1898, which was also narrow gauge. On 1 April 1908, the NWE took over operations from the Vereinigten Eisenbahnbau- und Betriebsgesellschaft.

The Heinrichshöhe is a subsidiary peak of the highest mountain in the Harz, the Brocken, and, at 1,040 m above NN, it is the second summit in the Harz Mountains.

The Hohnekamm or Hohne Kamm is a mountain ridge up to 900 m above sea level high in the Harz mountains of central Germany. It is located in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, and is well known for its rock towers or tors, the Hohneklippen.

Drei Annen Hohne is the name of a small settlement within the municipal area of Wernigerode in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany.

The Renneckenberg is a mountain, roughly 933 metres (3,061 ft) high, in the High Harz part of the Harz mountain range of central Germany within the borough of Wernigerode in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.

Hasserode has been a quarter in the town of Wernigerode since 1907, a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.

Goetheweg station railway station in Wernigerode, Germany

Goetheweg station is located between the stations of Schierke and Brocken on the Brocken Railway in the Harz Mountains of Central Germany at a height of 956 m above sea level. The track layout today consists, as in the past, of a horizontal reversing track (Rückdrückgleis) and just one turnout, whilst the running line maintains its continuous gradient of 33 permille.

The Eckerloch is a forested mountain valley, 845 metres above sea level near the village of Schierke in the Harz Mountains of central Germany.

The Ahrensklint or Ahrentsklint in the Harz Mountains is a granite rock formation, 822.4 m above sea level (NN), on the Erdbeerkopf in Harz district in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt.

The Barenberg, also called the Bärenberg or Bärenkopf, is a mountain, 695.5 m above sea level (NN), in the Harz Mountains of Germany near the village of Schierke, Harz county, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.

The Großer Winterberg is a mountain, 906.4 m above sea level (NN), and a subpeak of the Wurmberg, the highest mountain in the neighbouring state of Lower Saxony in the High Harz of central Germany. The Großer Winterberg rises within the borough of Wernigerode in the county of Harz in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.

References

↑ http://www.bahnstatistik.de/BfVerzL.htm

External links

www.harz-bahnen.de Photos of Schierke station

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] ttp://www.bahnstatistik.de/BfVerzL.htm