The Brockenbahn is a predominantly tourist used, meterspurige railway line of the Harz narrow gauge railways (HSB). It leads from Drei Annen Hohne on the Harzquerbahn over Schierke on the Brocken.
Route:
The Brocken Railway leaves the station Drei Annen Hohne (542 m above sea level) next to the Harzquerbahn in southwestern direction. However, it crosses - still in the exit - the road to Schierke / misery and then drives immediately, combined with an increase in the route, in the Harz National Park. Then it leads west to Schierke station (688 m). Approximately halfway there existed until 1963 a siding to the granite quarry Knaupsholz. After leaving the Schierker train station, the route leads on a longer section through the valley of the cold Bode, which extends south and far below the track. On the left, the 971 m high Wurmberg appears, and the railway crosses Brockenstraße for the first time.
After a tight left-hand bend in front of the Eckerloch Bridge and another right-hand bend, the route reaches the Goetheweg station (956 m), which is now only used as an operational station. Then the train leads directly to the Brocken, circumnavigating it in a spiral 1½-times, again crossing the Brockenstraße, and then finally ends after 18.9 kilometers in the station Brocken (1,125 m).
traction:
In winter, a maximum of six train pairs a day travel to Brocken. Four of them are tied to and from Wernigerode. In summer, traffic is compressed to eleven train pairs per day. The fastest train takes 49 minutes to the summit. The Brockenbahn is the only track of the HSB, which is operated in the regular traffic exclusively with steam locomotives (in the special train traffic also diesel railcars as well as diesel locomotives of the series 199.8 in the snow clearing service).
(Source: Wikipedia)