Rügensche Kleinbahn
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The Rügensche Kleinbahn, nicknamed Rasender Roland (≈"Rushing Roland"), is the steam-powered narrow gauge railway that runs from Putbus by way of Binz and Baabe to Göhren on the island of Rügen off the Baltic Coast in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. There is an interchange with the island's Deutsche Bahn mainline network. The Kleinbahn is one of the island's main attractions. It serves several holiday destinations, mainly the bathing resorts for which Rügen is famous.
The railway is still kept running regularly today along its stretch of 24.1 km of track with historic steam locomotives and coaches, some of which are almost a hundred years old. The engine whistle belongs even today to the usual background sounds of southeastern Rügen. Unlike the Deutsche Bahn national system which uses standard gauge, Rasender Roland uses the narrow gauge of 750 mm (2 ft 51⁄2 in).
The first stretch of the line that was opened, running from Putbus to Binz and still in service today, began operations in 1895. The operator, Rügensche Kleinbahn-Aktiengesellschaft (RüKB), extended its network by 1899 to 97.3 km. One part went from Altefähr railway station, opposite Stralsund, by way of Putbus to Göhren. The other part led from Altenkirchen, near Cape Arkona, by way of the Wittower Fähre to Bergen; however, the ferry there that joined two stretches of line on separate lobes of Rügen normally only carried goods waggons, and passengers had to transfer on foot. Only in the 1960s were most of the lines abandoned.
Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, in 1940, the Pommersche Landesbahnen (Pomeranian State Railways) also took over the Rügensche Kleinbahn-Aktiengesellschaft. From 1949, Rasender Roland belonged to the East German state railway, and on 1 January 1996 it came under the care of the newly founded Rügenschen Kleinbahn GmbH & Co.
[edit] Accident
On 14 August 2005, there was an accident at Binz station due to a wrongly set turnout which resulted in one train striking another, waiting, train. According to police, 30 people were injured in the mishap.
[edit] Music
The North German duo De Plattfööt sing in their cheerful song "Up'n rasenden Roland", which appeared in 1985 on the AMIGA LP "Songs ut Meckelbörg", about the Rügensche Kleinbahn in Low German. Another of their songs - "De Isenbahnboomupundaldreier" - is about a railway crossing guard's everyday life.
