DE-4450752 Steam Locomotive 99-7246-4 on the Trans-Harz and Brocken Railways, Germany

This postcard came from Sven W. (19 August 2015) Postcrossing. It shows the steam locomotive 99-7246-4 working during winter.

This locomotive belongs to the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways  (Harzer Schmalspurbahnen) or HSB. This company took over all stock, lines, staff, etc., from the Deutsche Reichsbahn on 1 February 1993.

HSB is a network of 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 3⁄8 in) metre gauge railways in the Harz mountains, in central Germany (formerly East Germany). It connects the principal towns of Wernigerode, Nordhausen and Quedlinburg and several smaller towns in the area with about 140 kilometres of track, much of which is steeply graded and picturesque. The most popular destination on the network is the Brocken, an old Soviet listening post on top of the tallest peak in the Harz mountains, accessed by a spiral railway line, the Brocken Railway. The railway is notable for running a significant number of its trains with steam haulage, mostly employing 1950s vintage 2-10-2 tank locomotives, hauling traditional open-platform bogie carriages.  One of these tank locomotives is the one shown on the postcard : 99-7246-4.

HSB operates more than ten steam locomotives, seven diesel railbuses and three trams (on the Nordhausen Tramway). The network can be divided into three principal railways, which are interconnected:

(1) the Trans-Harz Railway, the interconnecting railway in the network, runs from Wernigerode (the network's headquarters) south to Nordhausen, the largest city in the region,

(2) the Brocken Railway branches off the Trans-Harz Railway at Drei Annen Hohne and runs to the top of the Brocken, and
(3) the Selke Valley Railway branches off the Trans-Harz Railway at Eisfelder Talmühle, and runs to Quedlinburg, with branch lines to serve Hasselfelde and Harzgerode.