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A public garden line in Germany celebrates … A public garden line in Germany celebrates … YEARS The garden railway at Park Railway Chemnitz by Dieter Kuhnert | Chemnitz, Germany 20PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR EXCEPT WHERE NOTED THE PARK RAILWAY in Chemnitz, Germany, opened in 1954 as the Pioneer Railway of Karl Marx City. It is a 600mm-gauge, 2.3km circuit, and was designed as a recreational facility for kids and young people. In 1989 Karl Marx City was renamed to its old name of Chemnitz. In 1992 the Pioneer Railway was also renamed to Park Railway Chemnitz, but continued as it had for the previous 38 years. The garden railway was added in 1998. Around 135,000 visitors come to the Park Railway facility annu- ally, many of whom also visit the garden railway. Children aged 10 1. A Harz Mountain train with locomotive Nº 99 7238-1 approaches the Goldbach station while a diesel-powered 2. Visitors enjoy the vehicle parade in October 2012. In the foreground freight train departs. a large, scratchbuilt crane waits to unload cargo. www.GardenRailways.com 33 The railway at a glance Name: Gartenbahn der 3. Aerial shot of the garden railway taken from a drone, August 5th, 2014. PHOTO BY YVES LANGE Parkeisenbahn Chemnitz Size of railroad: 21m x 9.5m to 18 receive job training as Park Railway The younger members of the Park (69' x 31') operators. Training starts with inspection Railway expressed a wish to use the Scale: Mostly 1:22.5 service at the ticket booth, train conduc- courtyard for a landscaped outdoor model Gauge: Nº 1 (45mm) tors, gatekeepers, and continues to ticket railway. The former manager of the Park Era: 1965-present vendors, locomotive engineers, super– Railway contacted local model-train Theme: Central German visors, and dispatcher. Particularly com- enthusiasts and asked for proposals. It Mountains mitted youth can help with the mainte- quickly became clear that the theme of Age: 20 years nance of the locomotives and rolling the railway was to be narrow gauge, repre- Power: Massoth DiMAX 1210Z; stock. Some continue on to become senting the mountainous region of central Digital Central Station 20 V/12 A locomotive engineers in our facility. Germany without a specific prototype. Length of mainline: 245m (803') The Park Railway Chemnitz and the Tracks would be laid with a radius of at Length of storage sidings: garden railway are operated by a group of least 1,195 mm (LGB R3). 125m (410') in two levels volunteers—Friends of the Park Railway Shortly before the completion of the Track switches: 61 switches; Chemnitz. The only full-time employees new locomotive-and-rolling-stock shed in LGB #16050 and #16150 are the technical manager, locomotive 1997, model railroaders laid out LGB Maximum gradient: 3.5% engineer, station manager, and a caretaker. track in the open space of the courtyard Type of track: LGB to demonstrate the feasibility of the con- Minimum radius: 1,195mm Garden railway origins cept. This started of the garden-railway (LGB R3) The old (full-size) roundhouse was par- work group. With the financial and mate- Structures: Pola, Piko, and tially destroyed by arson in 1994. A new rial support from the city and the people scratchbuilt locomotive-and-wagon shed for the Park of Chemnitz, the project started. In the Control system: DCC Railway was finished in October 1997. winter of 1997-98, up to 10 garden-railway Website: www.parkeisen The new facility is larger and better volunteers began the work, sometimes bahn-chemnitz.de/uebersicht equipped, providing better training and under lights to get the railway ready for sanitary facilities and a courtyard. the grand opening on May 1, 1998. 34 Garden Railways | August 2017 Rolling-stock sidings Engine Level 2 house 7 Level 1 Control 4 center Langenberg Station 8 9 6 Goldbach Station Gartenbahn der 5 Station Tiefenbach Unloading facility Parkeisenbahn Mine Chemnitz Feldbahn 1 Visitor’s platform 45mm railway 2 30mm feldbahn railway Rack railway Aerial ropeway Tram 3 Construction Multiple short pieces of track received Work began by clearing and leveling from donations became problematic. the leftover rubble. A weed barrier was Despite electrical connections installed laid down where the track and the train every three meters, we found that after stations would be located. Track and three to four years of use, there were switches were laid. When flex track power fluctuations at the joints. To solve became commercially available, we used a the problem, the short track sections were bending machine to bend larger-radius exchanged with flex track and connec- curves and adapt the track to the planned tions received soldered-wire jumpers. terrain. When this was done, we put down Initially, we had to carry the equip- a bed of gravel for the track with a grain ment every day from the workshop to the size of 3-5mm. The track is not anchored railway and back. But in 1999, we con- to the ground but, like the prototype, lies structed a protected storage area for the on top of the soil. LGB brass track is high railway equipment, with 75 meters of quality; even after 19 years of running in track located at the side of the locomotive- the heat of summer (up to 100° F) and in and-rolling-stock shed. 4. The control and switching desk in the the cold of winter (down to -13° F), not In May of 2003, the four-day Interna- weatherproof shed. Also visible are two of one piece of track has had to be replaced. tional Garden Railway Meeting took place the DiMAX R/C systems. By May of 1999 the basic shape of the at the Park Railway Chemnitz. About trackplan and the terrain was finished. In 20,000 visitors attended the exhibition in display, and a large number of dealers the following years, only single pieces of a 600-square-meter tent on the fairground showed their wares. track and switch connections were of the Kuechwald in Chemnitz and on the In preparation for this, our garden changed for practical reasons, so trains premises of the railway depot. A total of railway was changed from analog to could be operated independently on three 14 large garden railways from Germany, digital technology. Initially, LGB’s DCC different circuits from the control center. the Netherlands, and Austria were on technology, MTS I, II, and III was used. www.GardenRailways.com 35 But by 2008, the MTS technology had been superseded by the DiMAX products of Massoth, which used a digital switch- board and offered more innovative ideas, such as radio transmitters and receivers. Compromise We initially planned to use only narrow- gauge trains representing those in use in the German-speaking countries (Germa- ny, Austria, and Switzerland). Over time, though, we found that younger children could not relate to our narrow-gauge steam locomotives. They knew only modern mainline trains, such as the BR 642 (Talent) and the ICE. This led to a compromise. We now run both standard- (ICE and the BR 218) and narrow-gauge trains (Saxon narrow-gauge railways) on the 45mm track. Chemnitz is located in Saxony, so there is a historic link with the former Chemnitz locomotive factory of 5. The forging hammer inside the rustic shed is powered by the water wheel. In the Richard Hartmann. background is the cog railway. In 2005, we built a small switch-and- signal house that contains not only the Plants of the Garden Railway at control console but also the railway opera- Parkeisenbahn Chemnitz tor, protecting him from the weather while still offering a good overview of the Chemnitz, Germany, USDA Hardiness Zone 6 entire system. Switches are connected dig- TREES SHRUBS Heather itally via push buttons and the switch Maple Boxwood Erica vulgaris var. direction is indicated by lights. Individual Acer platanoides Buxus sempervirens Gentian locomotives are controlled with the Chestnut Common hornbeam Gentiana clusii DiMAX radio-control system. The Castanea sativa Carpinus betulus Evergreen candytuft trackplan shows the three independently False cypress Privet Iberis sempervirens operating loops. Chamaecyparis sp. Ligustrum vulgare Spring snowflake At stations and passing sidings we can Beech ‘Atrovirens’ Leucojum vernum change trains or they can pass each other Fagus sylvatica Barren strawberry Poached egg plant when operating. This allows the operation Waldsteinia ternata Limnanthes douglasii Juniper of at least two trains per loop, making it Juniperus sp. Geranium more interesting for visitors. From the White cedar FLOWERS AND Pelargonium sp. Thuja occidentalis GROUNDCOVER Stonecrop depot we can also constantly send trains Basswood tree Snapdragon Sedum sp. to each route, returning other trains to the Tilia platyphyllos Antirrhinum majus Horned pansy depot. We also have an electrified rack Dwarf aster Viola cornuta railway running up the hill. Aster dumosus Pansy A light railway of 30mm gauge and a Crocus Viola wittrockiana streetcar on 45mm gauge also exist, but Crocus vernus these are operated via analog, as they are Dwarf dahlia Dahlia ‘Braveheart’ not connected to the rest of the network. We also have an aerial ropeway tram with lower and upper terminals. Originally made by LGB, only the cars are left from Celebrating 20 years the original set-up. Everything else we rebuilt. Our cable car functions like the The Garden Railway of the Park Railway Chemnitz celebrates its 20th anniversary prototype, with carrying and pull ropes. in October 2017. Our website is www.parkeisenbahn-chemnitz.de/uebersicht Two garden-railway volunteers operate Please contact us with any questions or requests. the whole system on open days, Satur- A two-minute video can be seen on YouTube: http://bit.ly/2qa0O7s days, Sundays, and holidays.