Notes

Today’s Harzer Schmalspurbahnen, in short HSB, can actually be traced back to two distinct lines in the Harz mountains (the third was closed in the sixties) that were combined to form a single network. The one that might be considered most important is the Nordhäuser-Wernigeräder-Eisenbahn, NWE, part of which also was the touristic route up on the Brocken, the highest mountain of northern Germany. Among others, the line had a number of Mallets, configuration B’B (I think 0-4-4-0 describes this best in the american notation), built between 1897 and 1901, a few of which survived until today. They are still in normal service.

99 5901, oldest of them all (111 years) is in the steam engine equivalent to idle, warting for the next job, which might not appear until the next morning.