Weisswasser – Bad Muskau
Weisswasser – Kromlau

Small, slim and moves beautifully

Whoever thinks that only the ‘big ones’ are the real attractions among the ‘little ones’ is wrong. In the north-east, Saxony has the last operating forestry railroad in Germany. It is different from the other narrow-gauge railroads in Saxony, because its journey through Muskau Heath is not on 29 1/2 inch (750 mm) but 23 1/2 inch (600 mm) tracks. Shortly after it was built in 1895, the 50 miles of the former ‘Count of Arnim’s Narrow-Gauge Railroad’ connected lignite fields, sawmills, paper factories and brickworks. Today the 12.5 miles of tracks go through a charming landscape and make it the longest museum railroad of its kind in Germany. Original railroad locomotives can regularly be seen pulling the nostalgic passenger trains.

Sideline attractions

• glass museum in Weisswasser

• Count Pückler Park in Bad Muskau, a UNESCO world heritage site on both German and Polish territories

• rhododendron park in Kromlau with its uniquely beautiful basalt bridge