Goetheweg station (german: Bahnhof Goetheweg) is located between the stations of

Schierke Schierke is a village and a former municipality in the Harz district, in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2009, it is part of the town Wernigerode. Situated within the Harz mountain range in the valley of the river Bode, at the rim ...

and

Brocken The Brocken, also sometimes referred to as the Blocksberg, is the highest peak in the Harz mountain range and also the highest peak in Northern Germany; it is near Schierke in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt between the rivers Weser and Elbe. ...

on the

Brocken Railway The Brocken Railway (german: Brockenbahn) is one of three tourist metre gauge railways which together with the Harz Railway and Selke Valley Railway form the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways railway network in the Harz mountain range of Germany. It run ...

in the

Harz Mountains The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...

of Central Germany at a height of 956 m above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical datuma standardised g ...

. The track layout today consists, as in the past, of a horizontal reversing track (''Rückdrückgleis'') and just one turnout, whilst the running line maintains its continuous gradient of 33

permille Per mille (from New Latin, Latin , "in each thousand") is an expression that means parts per thousand. Other recognised spellings include per mil, per mill, permil, permill, or permille. The associated sign is written , which looks like a ...

History

The station was first opened on 17 July 1900. During the 1930s it was given a new station building, entry signals and accommodation for the track maintenance gang. The station was only manned by a stationmaster during the summer half-year because, in the winter, no trains ran on the Brocken Railway. After 1961 only goods trains worked the route and, in the 1980s, supply trains for the Brocken, usually moved by a pusher engine, terminated at Goetheweg station because of the increasingly poor condition of the

permanent way A railway track (British English and UIC terminology) or railroad track (American English), also known as permanent way or simply track, is the structure on a railway or railroad consisting of the rails, fasteners, railroad ties (sleepers, ...

. All the buildings had been destroyed during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and had not been rebuilt. Since that time its facilities have only consisted of a garden bench and an operator control for the key lock. The station is not listed in the timetable and is only used as an operating point for train crossings. For a long time it was only equipped with ''So 5'' railway signs (i.e. trapezium boards). Today, however, after changes to the operating system following the train accident in Thumkuhlental in 1994, signals have been installed again. Above the station on the mountain of

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was named ...

in the

Harz National Park Harz National Park is a nature reserve in the German federal states of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. It comprises portions of the western Harz mountain range, extending from Herzberg and Bad Lauterberg at the southern edge to Bad Harzburg and I ...

are the rocky crags of the Hirschhornklippen which are not accessible.

External links

Extract from the 1944 timetable

2008 summer timetable at the Selke Valley Railway Society
(pdf file; 78 kB)

Goetheweg Transport in the Harz Railway stations in Germany opened in 1900 {{SaxonyAnhalt-struct-stub