''Die Schönsten Bahnstrecken Deutschlands'' (''Germany's Most Beautiful Railways'') was a regular night-time feature on Germany's
ARD television channel which ran from 3 September 1995 to 28 October 2013.
The programme was a real-time, mostly uninterrupted, recording of railway journeys as viewed from the driver's cab. There was no commentary or music, but the sounds of the recording were retained for broadcast. Small interruptions did occur if the train was traversing a tunnel or sat at a station, usually cutting away to view some of the cab's controls. The camera did not pan to take in scenery, being fixed in the forward position for the duration of the journey.
External shots of the train and the station building, and occasionally the wider town, were included at the route termini. A simple map of the route was displayed on screen at the beginning of the programme, and whilst the train was stationary in a station, the name of that station was also displayed. No supplementary information was provided.
The programme was used to fill the time between other programmes and as such was often cut short without explanation, so the following programme could start as scheduled.
Broadly considered a successful programme,
there were two spin-offs: ''Die Schönsten Bahnstrecken Europas'' (''Europe's Most Beautiful Railways'') and ''Die Schönsten Bahnstrecken der Welt'' (''The World's Most Beautiful Railways''). These followed the same format and went to picturesque routes such as
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
to
Mallaig
Mallaig (; ) is a seaport, port in Morar, on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. It faces Skye from across the Sound of Sleat. The Mallaig railway station, local railway station is the terminus of the West Highlan ...
, which was recorded on 8 September 1997.
Many of the journeys were released on VHS and DVD.
[.]
Europe's Most Beautiful Railways
The following are journeys included in the European version of the series, which included some German railways.
See also
*
Eisenbahn-Romantik
Eisenbahn-Romantik () is a German television programme, broadcast by Südwestrundfunk, SWR. It portrays railway-related reports, whose content covers modern railway systems, Heritage railway, museum railways and their facilities as well as items ...
*
London to Brighton in Four Minutes
References
{{reflist
German documentary television series
Das Erste original programming
1995 German television series debuts
2013 German television series endings
1990s German television series
2000s German television series
Interstitial television shows
Documentary television series about railway transport
Adventure travel