You can still cover most of the network behind a steam locomotive and here they tend to be more ancient

You can still cover most of the network behind a steam locomotive, and here they tend to be more ancient. However, a ride on a diminutive diesel railcar is necessary to reach the isolated junction with the Harzquerbahn at Eisfelder Talm?.With German reunification in 1993, and the merger of the two State railway systems which followed, many feared for the survival of the narrow-gauge steam railways. Much of it was ripped up in 1946 and shipped east for Russian war reparations. But the value of the railway to the region’s economy was soon recognised by the government in Berlin. The rest of the Harz system had carried on regardless during the Communist era. Having been modernised only in the Fifties with new steam locomotives, there was no question of replacing them with diesels. A little further east lies the sleepy town of Gernrode, home to another arm of the HSB, known as the Selketalbahn.

There are fewer passengers on this quiet backwater, but the line continues to perform an important rural transport function for tourists and locals alike, with its branches to Harzgerode and Hasselfelde.This is one part of the network that suffered in Communist hands. Indeed, the Brocken line was so close to the East-West border that, after the Wall went up in August 1961, ordinary East Germans were denied its pleasures; the mountain became host to a Soviet listening post.Following the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, the Brocken was made accessible once again, and regular passenger trains recommenced in 1992. In any case there is always the restaurant, museum and gift shop to explore.Despite being only a few miles east of Bad Harzburg, the opening of the area to tourism is a fairly recent phenomenon, thanks to its location on the “wrong” side of the former Iron Curtain. Besides being great fun for tourists, they provide an essential public transport lifeline in a part of Germany that still seems rooted in the 20th, if not 19th, century.Most spectacular is the Brocken line. Starting from Drei Annen Hohne (curiously named after three ladies named Anne), it winds around the mountain to gain height before (nearly) reaching the summit.

Here you may be treated to magnificent views, or if you have my luck, a thick mist. Say what you like about the discredited Communist government of East Germany: at least they kept the steam trains running, and mostly on time.
The Harz Mountains may not be as well known as the Black Forest, but it has scenery and quaint towns, and boasts northern Germany’s highest mountain, Brocken. Despite economies which have seen some services replaced by diesel railcars, most journeys are still hauled by powerful steam locomotives. It is also home to the country’s largest network of narrow-gauge railways: the Harzer Schmalspurbahnen (HSB), more than 130km long. Both Wagner on Mount Rigi and Brahms in the Bernese Oberland heard the sound of an alphorn, which they incorporated in compositions – Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde and Brahms’ 3rd Symphony..

WHERE CAN I GET MORE INFORMATION? Austrian National Tourist Office (020-7629 0461, ). French Government Tourist Office (09068 244 123, ). German National Tourist Office (020-7317 0908, ). Italian State Tourist Board (020-7408 1254, ). Another called him”the fish on the counter that has been there a day too long”.Even if Blair feels reinvigorated now, and ready for that full parliamentary term that he promised to serve, even though he will undoubtedly face yet another Conservative leader at Prime Minister’s Questions, his time is fast running out.Additional reporting by Steve Bloomfield.

Martin Salter, re-elected as MP for Reading West, reflected that Labour could, like Harold Macmillan’s in 1959, have said, “You’ve never had it so good”, but for the war.”If it hadn’t been for Iraq we could have run a Supermac election, run almost exclusively on the economy and public services. There was a third Labour landslide there for the taking,” he said.Peter Bradley, a loyalist who lost his seat in The Wrekin, Somerset, attributed defeat partly to Iraq “But I’ve been a supporter of Tony Blair’s I supported the Iraq war,” he said. “Sometimes, you just hit choppy waters.”Frank Dobson, the former health secretary, who weathered an 11 per cent swing to the Liberal Democrats in his Holborn seat, said: “A lot of people said, ‘I can’t vote for you because of the war and while Tony Blair is leader.’ I didn’t encounter a single person who said, ‘I’m really keen to vote Labour so that we can farm out more of the health service or hand more schools to various private concerns.’”Comments from other MPs were more succinct – “He’s a dead man walking”, said one. The new Parliamentary Labour Party is different from the one that dispersed last month. More than a fifth of the old lot have gone, retired, like Jack Cunningham and Estelle Morris, or unseated.Among Thursday night’s casualties there was a disproportionate number of Blairite loyalists, such as the three defeated ministers Melanie Johnson, Christopher Leslie and Stephen Twigg.Many of those who have returned have experienced a cold blast of hostility from former Labour voters, directed personally at Blair and his decision to take the country to war.