Molli - die Mecklenburgische B?derbahn

[rekoboy]

We have just spent a few days in the furthest reaches of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern attending a wedding in a village near Stralsund. On Sunday Frau Rekoboy and I joined her childhood friend and her husband for the day in Graal-Müritz and we managed to pull in a quick visit to Molli for a return trip to Heiligendamm. Molli, official title 'Die Mecklenburgische Bäderbahn' is truly lovely and an object of my admiration when I was teaching in the GDR all those years ago. Molli is Germany's only 900mm gauge passenger railway (otherwise a brown coal works gauge) and links Bad Doberan on the DB AG branch from Rostock to Wismar with the delightful holiday resorts of Heiligendamm and Bad Kühlungsborn. Even in Reichsbahn days there was little or no freight and now Molli serves only the hordes of holiday makers who fill the resorts. DB has also taken the axe to Bad Doberan station in a big way and reduced it to one long platform with a crossing loop. See photo! Molli is also unique in that it possesses Germany's only brand-new 900mm gauge 2-8-2 which was built in 2009 by the DB AG works in Meiningen to 1932 drawings by Orenstein & Koppel. Sadly, she was not on duty on Sunday. Her three sisters are therefore a mere 77 years older! Everything on and around Molli is beautifully kept and clean - if you have the chance pay the line a visit! One more unique feature of the line is the bit that has always fascinated me - street running along Goethestraße in Bad Doberan. Fantastic!

Here's the link for Molli: http://www.molli-bahn.de/

And the Meiningen works site: http://www.dampflokwerk.de/geschichte.htm

 

Edited August 20, 2014 by rekoboy

[D9020 Nimbus]

Is Graal-Muritz still open, then? It was covered in Continental Modeller 20 years ago, when it appeared to be likely to close at any time.

[rekoboy]

The rail link to Graal-Müritz is still open with fairly frequent Regionalbahnen to Rostock Hbf. The station in Graal-Müritz has been moved about 500m and the terminus is now seriously basic - just a modern concrete platform and DB AG blue signage! The original station building is still there, has been restored and contains a bar and restaurant. I have to admit that we did not use DB AG standard gauge trains at all on this trip - as with work visits to Germany we flew to Hamburg and hired a car to drive to Meck-Pomm. A sad revelation!

Here is the link to arrivals/departures at Graal-Müritz on the DB AG website.....

http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/bhftafel.exe/dn?ld=96241&country=DEU&rt=1&input=Graal-M%FCritz%238012583&boardType=dep&time=09:00%2B60&productsFilter=11111&&&date=22.08.14&&selectDate=&maxJourneys=&start=yes

 

And here is a photo of the 'improved' terminus...

 

Edited August 21, 2014 by rekoboy

[Mallarddriver]

Hello rekoboy,

 

thanks for sharing these beautiful pics with us.

I hope that I´ll get there one day to see this very special train.

 

If you fancy trains running straight through a town there are others.

For example the Oleftalbahn in the Eifel.

 

The run through Olef starts in 1:28.

 

 

Kind regards

Soeren

[Bill Jamieson]

I've put a few of my monochrome Molli shots from DDR days on Fotocommunity (there are also pictures of Rasender Roland on Ruegen on this link) :-

 

http://www.fotocommunity.de/meine-community/fotos/dr-schmal-ostsee/809332

 

Bill

[rekoboy]

Here are a couple more photos which I forgot to add last time. There's another picture of the 'mainline' section of Bad Doberan station and a further pic of street running in Bad Doberan.

[Ron Ron Ron]

Sorry for digging up an old 5 year old topic.

 

Four of us.....Mrs Ron and I, plus another couple we were holidaying with....had a very pleasant day on the Molli and visiting Kühlungsborn, last week.

 

We took ourselves off on the day trip during a Baltic cruise, when our cruise liner stopped at Warnemünde (Nr Rostock) for the day.

 

The Molli is well worth a visit and the full length journey from Bad Doberan to the Kühlungsborn West terminus takes 45 minutes.

Trains run hourly during most of the day during the summer and are timed to connect with the hourly DB local service stop at Bad Doberan, running between Rostock and Wismar.

 

 

[Captain Kernow]

I've only recently 'found' this line on YouTube and agree that it's utterly fantastic. It's high on my wish list of lines to visit in Germany.

 

[Ron Ron Ron]

On 19/07/2019 at 09:47, Captain Kernow said:

I've only recently 'found' this line on YouTube and agree that it's utterly fantastic. It's high on my wish list of lines to visit in Germany.

 

 

You'll be impressed how they run steam engines without leaving trails of oil and muck everywhere.

Very clean.

 

We took the same couple on the Watercress Line, the night before setting sail.  They said they enjoyed the Molli more.

 

 

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