Eisenbahn-Romantik (literally: "railway romance") is a German television programme, broadcast by SWR. It portrays

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

-related reports, whose content covers modern railway systems, museum railways and their facilities as well as items on

model railway Railway modelling (UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland) or model railroading (US and Canada) is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale. The scale models include locomotives, rolling stock, streetcars, t ...

layouts worldwide. Politics and criticism is not left out; the series reports on closures, controversial model ideas, delays to reconstruction plans or smart commuter transport concepts. The broadcast has been presented since its inception by

Hagen von Ortloff Hagen von Ortloff (born May 1949, in Zwickau) is a German TV presenter. He is most famous for '' Eisenbahn-Romantik'', a television programme about rail travel and railway history (specifically steam engines in Germany, Switzerland and Austria), ...

History

The series began on 7 April 1991 on SDR as a filler between programmes on their regional TV channel, Südwest 3. Although the first broadcast was especially for railway fans, it was so well received by the public that the programme length was increased from half an hour to 45 minutes. From 1994 Eisenbahn-Romantik had a fixed half-hour slot. Since autumn 2008 Eisenbahn-Romantik has been broadcast in alternating quarters with the SWR series ''Rasthaus'' (literally: "motorway restaurant"). During the winter and summer seasons, Eisenbahn-Romantik is shown weekly; in spring and autumn this slot is taken by ''Rasthaus''. After the merger of SDR and SWF into SWR in 1998, the whole editorial function were moved from Stuttgart to

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the Rhine, the border with Fra ...

. Eisenbahn-Romantik is also broadcast on

SR Fernsehen SR Fernsehen is a regional public service television channel owned and operated by Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR) and serving Saarland. It is one of the seven regional "third programmes" that are offered within the federal ARD network. The cha ...

NDR Fernsehen NDR Fernsehen is a German free-to-air regional television channel targeting northern Germany, specifically the states of Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Hamburg and Bremen. It is broadcast by both Norddeutscher Rundfun ...

hr-fernsehen hr-fernsehen is the regional television channel of Hessischer Rundfunk for the state of Hesse, Germany. Overview The channel focuses on regional reporting. In addition to the afternoon programme ''hallo hessen'' and the weeknightly tabloid magaz ...

MDR Fernsehen MDR Fernsehen is a regional public service television channel owned and operated by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR) and serving Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ) ...

and rbb Fernsehen.

3sat In logic and computer science, the Boolean satisfiability problem (sometimes called propositional satisfiability problem and abbreviated SATISFIABILITY, SAT or B-SAT) is the problem of determining if there exists an interpretation that satisfies ...

shows several programmes per week on an irregular basis. The average number of viewers is about one million. A list of all episodes (in German, and called ''folgen'') can be found her
at www.swr.de

Production

As a rule the series are pre-recorded. The occasional special broadcast ''Lange Nacht der Eisenbahn-Romantik'' ("Long night of railway romance"), an extended version lasting several hours, is transmitted live. In addition to the usual presentation of short reports, Hagen von Ortloff talks to interesting railway fans and railway modellers in the studio. The programmes are mainly recorded today by Jo Jung, who shared this task in earlier series with Peter Schurr. Since the anniversary in December 2006 the programme has been produced and broadcast in 16:9 format.

Themes

A selection of the themes covered to date is given below: * '' Sauschwänzlebahn'' *

Glacier Express The Glacier Express (GEX) is a direct train connecting railway stations of the two major mountain resorts of Zermatt and St. Moritz via Andermatt in the central Swiss Alps. The train is not an "express" in the sense of being a high-speed train ...

* ' ''Zug der Wunder - von Nizza in die Seealpen''- "The Wonder Train - Nice to the Maritime Alps" * '' Eisenbahnausbesserungswerk'' - Railway repair depots * Das ''

Krokodil ''Krokodil'' ( rus, Крокодил, p=krəkɐˈdʲil, a= Ru-крокодил.ogg, ) was a satirical magazine published in the Soviet Union. It was founded in 1922 as the satirical supplement to the '' Workers' Gazette'' (called simply «При� ...

'' - the Crocodile locomotive * ''Materialbahn'' - Goods lines in various countries e. g. in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

or in the Eastern Bloc * ''

Miniatur Wunderland ''Miniatur Wunderland'' (German for 'miniature wonderland') is a model railway and miniature airport attraction in Hamburg, Germany, the largest of its kind in the world. The railway is located in the historic Speicherstadt neighbourhood of the ci ...

'' – the world's largest H0 model railway layout in the ''

Speicherstadt The Speicherstadt (, literally: 'City of Warehouses', meaning warehouse district) in Hamburg, Germany is the largest warehouse district in the world where the buildings stand on timber-pile foundations, oak logs, in this particular case. It is ...

'' at

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

* The

Schienenzeppelin The () or rail zeppelin was an experimental railcar which resembled a Zeppelin airship in appearance. It was designed and developed by the German aircraft engineer Franz Kruckenberg in 1929. Propulsion was by means of a pusher propeller locate ...

and the MO187 model railway show in Bad Driburg * ''Pontonbrücke'' - pontoon bridge at Speyer over the

Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , so ...

* ''

Salzkammergut-Lokalbahn The SKGLB-museum is a railway museum in Mondsee in Upper Austria. It shows relics of the 1957 closed Salzkammergut-Lokalbahn (abbreviation: SKGLB) that was a railway line in gauge track from Salzburg to Bad Ischl Bad Ischl (Austrian Germ ...

'' - the branch line at

Salzkammergut The Salzkammergut (; ; bar, Soizkaumaguad, label=Central Austro-Bavarian) is a resort area in Austria, stretching from the city of Salzburg eastwards along the Alpine Foreland and the Northern Limestone Alps to the peaks of the Dachstein Mou ...

* The show reports annually on the new railway models appearing at the

Nuremberg International Toy Fair The Nuremberg International Toy Fair ( German: ''Spielwarenmesse''), held annually since 1949, is the largest international trade fair for toys and games. Only trade visitors associated with the toy business, journalists and invited guests are ...

Title music and logo

The song " Sentimental Journey" by Les Brown is always played at the beginning of the broadcast and sometimes at the end during the credits. The steam locomotive 99 633, which is homed at

Ochsenhausen Ochsenhausen () is a city in the district of Biberach, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is located between the city of Biberach and Memmingen. it has a population of 8,916. The mayor of the town is Andreas Denzel. History For many centuries, ...

today, has featured in the introduction since the first broadcast in 1991. In addition it appears in the programme logo.

Eisenbahn-Romantik Club

For dedicated fans (including family members for a minimal surcharge) the ''Eisenbahn-Romantik-Club'' was founded. It has a magazine and a fan shop.

Special rail journeys

On occasions, special railway trips - usually with historic trains and steam traction− are organised and run in Germany and abroad. The film material produced on these trips is then used in the following programme(s). Journeys lasting one or more days have been run, for example, to north of the Arctic Circle, to the motherland of all steam engines or through the French, Swiss, Italian and Austrian Alps as well as into neighbouring countries of the former Eastern Bloc.

Similar programmes

A monthly programme, also half-an-hour long and along similar lines, but especially focussed on central Germany, is produced and broadcast by MDR under the title '' Bahnzeit''.

External links

''Eisenbahn-Romantik'' (in German)

''Eisenbahn-Romantik-Club'' (in German)
1991 German television series debuts 1990s German television series 2000s German television series 2010s German television series German documentary television series German-language television shows Südwestrundfunk Das Erste original programming Documentary television series about railway transport Adventure travel