Twice during the 1970s, together with my father, I visited what was then called the German Democratic Republic: once by train in the autumn of 1971, and once by car in the spring of 1979. A journey to East Germany was a journey to another world. I remember the sulphurous smell of the brown coal they mined from huge open cast mines to heat the houses and fire the industries. The streets were still paved with cobblestones, street lighting was scarce and the mains power supply was faulty. The people had an old-world politeness reminding one of the 1950s. Everything was a bit tatty, but decent.

When travelling to Leipzig by way of Bebra and Eisenach the West ended when two Reichsbahn Pacifics were put before the train at Bebra. These were Reko class 01 locos hauling the train into the hills to the Eisenach border post where the entire train was locked in a wire cage to enable the Grenzschutz to examine it at leisure, with dogs. This was the down side of the ideal Socialist state. During the 1 or 2 hour delay your visa and luggage were checked and you were able to change your western money for communist currency which was subject to all kinds of restrictions. The access pass for the Leipziger Messe which my father carried used to speed up the procedure considerably. He knew his way out there as he visited the Trade Fair every year. Many Westerners found the uniforms and the procedures rather threatening, but in practice things weren't so bad, if one only played by the rules.

Once in the GDR it quickly became clear that normal people lived there and normal trains ran (which were timed scrupulously!). The main thing one had to be careful with was photographing trains and check whether the subject might have a military significance. Bridges, main stations and restricted areas were a risk to photograph. Once, not far behind the border, I saw a beautiful ex-Prussian class 58 2-8-0 heading what looked like an ordinary goods train standing in a loop line. I had my camera out already when I spotted Russian soldiers looking out of the vans, and flat wagons carrying tanks behind. The camera was in the bag in no time…

The railways and tramways in the former GDR were worn and outdated, but somehow they were kept going to a reasonable degree of reliability. The electric trams in Leipzig rattled uncomfortably because the rails were worn into corrugations, and liable even to derail the tramcars, which were rather like the old ones used at Amsterdam to supplement the rush hour service 10 years earlier. The tickets were free, but for some bureaucratic reason had to be cancelled in hand-operated machines all the same. Steam traction was in general use although the main through trains were hauled electrically. During a trip to Dresden (which in 1971 hadn't yet recovered from the massive WW2 air raids) I made the accompanying photos, mainly from the train.

I didn't see my first Saxon narrow gauge trains until 1979 when we went looking for them by car. In order to do so, one had to have a travel permit for the Dresden area which had to be obtained from the police post on the Messegelände at Leipzig. This wasn't unusual: Eastern bloc citizens were restricted similarly in the West. When we set out, the weather was overcast and gloomy, suiting the crumbling and depressing decor admirably. At Radebeul, a suburb of Dresden on the Western side of the Elbe river, we found the terminus of the 75cm gauge line to Radeburg. There was even a preservation society (Arbeitsgemeinschaft) here, busy with a collection of historic rolling stock stabled out in the open which they used to run an occasional Traditionszug behind a Reko Meyer 0-4-4-0T dating from the 1950s but based on a Saxon State Railway design.

The Arbeitsgemeinschaft had very limited funds and I expect they were great at make and mend. I had a (banned) West German book on German narrow gauge locos with me which proved to be a very rare item over there. So I gave it to them as I could buy another one easily at home. Immediately all doors opened to us: we were shown around in the loco shed, looking at the green liveried Meyer, and later when a regular train was being assembled behind 99-1784-0 for the next timetable run to Radeburg, they talked to the loco crew for a few seconds and we were invited on to the footplate for the short run towards the platform. Where we had to descend on the off side lest anyone spot us! Ordnung muss sein… Finally, they told me where to find Meyer locos in revenue service which was at Oschatz, halfway between Leipzig and Dresden.

The next day I went out on my own, first to Radebeul again and then to Oschatz. At Radebeul I looked at the shunting in the narrow gauge yard, and finally saw the loco being cleaned and put to bed. Then I continued to Oschatz, losing my way in what must have been a restricted area as suddenly I passed between huge walled Soviet Army barracks, with guards in fur hats looking suspiciously at my foreign license plates through the slits of their watch towers. At Oschatz there was the regular goods traffic from the pipe clay plant at Mügeln, using standard gauge vans lumbering hugely on narrow gauge transporters, which were still using the Heberlein wire brake dating from almost a century before. The little Meyers ran like lightning however, although they had to double-head the last stretch up the grade into the Oschatz transfer yard.

At the time I thought that we would soon see the last of East German narrow gauge steam. Who would predict that after 20 years, and 10 years after the wall fell, so much would be saved? At Radebeul there still is a regular steam service and after the Oschatz line was closed, a preservation society took over and now runs an occasional steam train over the line.

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