We visited Austria whilst on holiday in Bavaria in June and travelled on the Achenseebahn cog railway from Jenbach.I was also able to photograph a steam departure on the Zillertalbahn line whose terminus is also Jenbach.Thanks to that venerable international railway traveller Cliff Jones for the inspiration to visit the area.

The final steam railway we visited on our tour is tucked away in the far south east corner of Saxony almost on the border with the Czech Republic and Poland.It runs from the town of Zittau to Kurort Jonsdorf and Kurort Oybin.

This 750mm gauge line runs from Radebeul Ost on the outskirts of Dresden to Radeberg.The line is not particularly well advertised even though it runs daily steam services with Class V11K locomotives.On high days and holidays they use the really old locomotives.The trains are operated by BVO the same company that operates the Fichteltalbahn.

A few pictures of Dresden Station and in Dresden on a short train trip there. Dresden was virtually obliterated during the second world war and the soviet occupation meant very little restoration was done until the wall came down 18years ago. Like many former East German towns and cities Dresden has undergone a total transformation and is well worth a visit.

Another 750mm gauge line in the former DDR this time running from Johstadt near the Czech border to Steinbach. THe line is very pictureresque and the old Saxon Meyer Locomotives well worth seeing.

Chemnitz-Hilbersdorf was the site of one of Germany's largest marshalling yards and now houses the Sachsisches Eisenbahn Museum.The huge site consists of two large half roundhouses together with 20 metre turntables each with space for r6 locomotives.On the day we visited we were the only visitors and were left to wander round.Nobody spoke any english and there was no english translations available so information is a bit scarce.

Our next port of call was the Fichtelbergbahn narrow gauge railway in saxony which runs from Cranzahl to Oberwiesenthal in the Upper Ore mountains near the Czech border.The line was built in 1897 and the trains run daily throughout the year along the 17km line which serves the ski and health resort of Oberwiesenthal situated at the foot of the Fichtelberg Mountain 1214 metres above sea level.

After visiting Quedlinburg by train we once again made our way to Drei Annen Hohne to ride the Brockenbahn up the Brocken mountain in the Harz National Park.

On April 20th 2007 my wife and I set off on a three week trip to Germany.Our aim was to visit the narrow gauge steam railways of East Germany.Our first visit was to the metre gauge HSB system in the Harz mountains an area we previously visited in 2005.Since we last visited the Selketalbahn line has been extended from Gernrode to Quedlinburg a town well worth seeing for it's many beautifully restored buildings and which as been declared a World Heritage site.

I have recently returned from the Black Forest in Germany where I visited the famous Piggies Tail steam railway which runs from Blumberg to Weizen. So called because the railway twists and turns over a series of spectacular viaducts and through several tunnels one of which is constructed in a 360 degree circle!The former military line is 25kms long although the towns it joins are only 10kms apart as the crow flies.