The Märkische Museum Railway (german: Märkische Museums-Eisenbahn) or MME is a German railway society that was founded in order to show
narrow gauge vehicles in operation on small
branch lines.
History
Found on 14 July 1982 at
Plettenberg, the society used the opportunity to buy vehicles, that had formerly worked in the
Sauerland
The Sauerland () is a rural, hilly area spreading across most of the south-eastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, in parts heavily forested and, apart from the major valleys, sparsely inhabited.
The Sauerland is the largest tourist region in ...
, from the
Juist and
Spiekerooge island railways which had just closed.
The priority for their collection is the following railways:
*
Kreis Altenaer Eisenbahn (KAE), 1888–1967
*
Plettenberger Kleinbahn (PKB), 1896–1962
*
Iserlohner Kreisbahn (IKB), 1900–1964
*
Hohenlimburger Kleinbahn (HKB), 1900–1983
*
Kleinbahn Haspe-Voerde-Breckerfeld
The term ''Kleinbahn'' (literally 'small railway', plural: ''Kleinbahnen'') was a light railway concept used especially in Prussia for a railway line that "on account of its low importance for general railway transport" had less strict requirements ...
(HVB), 1903–1963
In Plettenberg the society could take over the remaining trackage from the PKB and set up a temporary workshop in an old boiler house in order to restore the vehicles acquired.
In the margins, relicts of the
Ruhr-Lippe-Eisenbahn (RLE) and a host of narrow gauge industrial railway were able to be salvaged, including for example the historically interesting
Harkort Coal Railway,which was founded by the industrial pioneer,
Friedrich Harkort
Friedrich Harkort (February 22, 1793, Hagen - March 6, 1880), known as the "Father of the Ruhr," was an early prominent German industrialist and pioneer of industrial development in the Ruhr region.(29 December 2009)Friedrich Harkort - Vorbild u ...
, and went into service in 1830 – no less than five years before the Nuremberg–Fürth railway – albeit initially as a
wagonway.
Museum railway
The society found a suitable site for the establishment of its museum railway on the trackbed of the
Plettenberg–Herscheid railway between Hüinghausen station and Köbbinghausen halt (formerly timetable route (''Kursbuchstrecke'' or ''KBS'') no. 239k, which had closed in 1969 and been subsequently dismantled. Operations are carried out under the name of the ''Sauerland Light Railway'' (''Sauerländer Kleinbahn'').
External links
Sauerland Light Railway
{{DEFAULTSORT:Markische Museum Railway
Heritage railways in Germany
Metre gauge railways in Germany