Mollibahn
Encyclopedia
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: Mecklenburgische Bäderbahn "Molli") short: (MBB) is a narrow-gauge steam-powered railway in Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...
, running on gauge track. It operates between Bad Doberan
Bad Doberan
Bad Doberan is a town in the district of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It was the capital of the former district of Bad Doberan. As of 2010 its population was 11,325.-Geography:...
, Heiligendamm
Heiligendamm
Heiligendamm is a German seaside resort, founded in 1793. The small cluster of structures which still survive are reminders of the glory days of days gone by when this part of the Baltic Sea was one of the playgrounds of Europe's aristocracy. It is the oldest seaside spa in Germany...
and Kühlungsborn
Kühlungsborn
Kühlungsborn is a Seebad town in the Rostock district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the Baltic Sea coast, 11 km northwest of Bad Doberan, and 25 km northwest of Rostock....
West over a total distance of 15.4 km with a running time of 40 minutes. Within Bad Doberan the line runs through the street, and later along a linden tree-lined avenue. Between Heiligendamm and Kühlungsborn the tracks run parallel to the Baltic Sea
Baltic Sea
The Baltic Sea is a brackish mediterranean sea located in Northern Europe, from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from 20°E to 26°E longitude. It is bounded by the Scandinavian Peninsula, the mainland of Europe, and the Danish islands. It drains into the Kattegat by way of the Øresund, the Great Belt and...
beach across fields.
History
The line between Bad Doberan and the seaside resort of Heiligendamm was opened on 9 July 1886, built and operated by the railway enterprise Lenz & Co. in Stettin (today SzczecinSzczecin
Szczecin , is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. It is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland on the Baltic Sea. As of June 2009 the population was 406,427....
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
). On 1 March 1890 the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Mecklenburg-Schwerin
Mecklenburg-Schwerin was a duchy in northern Germany created in 1348, when Albert II of Mecklenburg and his younger brother John were raised to Dukes of Mecklenburg by King Charles IV...
took over the line and integrated it into the Grand-Ducal Mecklenburgian Friedrich Franz railway. The extension of the line to the Baltic Sea resort of Kühlingsborn, which was still called Arendsee at that time, took place on 12 May 1910. Starting from 1920 the line was operated by the Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...
(German Imperial Railway). In 1995 an operator company, consisting of the district of Bad Doberan
Bad Doberan (district)
Bad Doberan is a former district in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It was named after its largest town, Bad Doberan, the German Bad meaning spa. The district surrounded the City of Rostock, bordering the Baltic Sea in the north as well as the former districts of Nordvorpommern, Güstrow and...
as well as the towns of Kühlungsborn and Bad Doberan, took over the enterprise. Today the consortium calls itself the Mecklenburgische Bäderbahn Molli GmbH & Co. KG in Bad Doberan. The railway terminal at Kühlingsborn West houses the Molli-Museum. This railway company is not to be confused with the Mecklenburgische Bäderbahn AG, which opened the Rövershagen Kleinbf - Graal-Müritz line on 1 July 1925, running it until 1949 when the East German Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn of the GDR
The Deutsche Reichsbahn or DR was the operating name of state owned railways in the German Democratic Republic ....
took over the enterprise.
From May 30th, 2007 to June 9th, 2007, the train service was cancelled owing to the G8-summit at Heiligendamm
Heiligendamm
Heiligendamm is a German seaside resort, founded in 1793. The small cluster of structures which still survive are reminders of the glory days of days gone by when this part of the Baltic Sea was one of the playgrounds of Europe's aristocracy. It is the oldest seaside spa in Germany...
. The tracks between Heiligendamm and Bad Doberan were damaged during the summit so that the train services were cancelled two further days.
Mollibus
Rostock
Rostock -Early history:In the 11th century Polabian Slavs founded a settlement at the Warnow river called Roztoc ; the name Rostock is derived from that designation. The Danish king Valdemar I set the town aflame in 1161.Afterwards the place was settled by German traders...
Bus station
Bus station
A bus station is a structure where city or intercity buses stop to pick up and drop off passengers. It is larger than a bus stop, which is usually simply a place on the roadside, where buses can stop...
via Bad Doberan
Bad Doberan
Bad Doberan is a town in the district of Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It was the capital of the former district of Bad Doberan. As of 2010 its population was 11,325.-Geography:...
, Heiligendamm
Heiligendamm
Heiligendamm is a German seaside resort, founded in 1793. The small cluster of structures which still survive are reminders of the glory days of days gone by when this part of the Baltic Sea was one of the playgrounds of Europe's aristocracy. It is the oldest seaside spa in Germany...
and Kühlungsborn
Kühlungsborn
Kühlungsborn is a Seebad town in the Rostock district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. It is situated on the Baltic Sea coast, 11 km northwest of Bad Doberan, and 25 km northwest of Rostock....
to Rerik
Rerik
Rerik is a town in the Rostock district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated on the Baltic Sea coast, 19 km west of Bad Doberan, and 27 km northeast of Wismar. In 1938, Rerik was named after the old Slavic settlement Reric, that was believed to have been situated...
. It is operated by Küstenbus GmbH. Only the buses between Bad Doberan and Kühlungsborn are called Mollibus - not all buses drive the whole route. Some buses operate in the summer also in the morning and evening because of the low demand.
Music
The Mecklenburg duo "De PlattföötDe Plattfööt
De Plattfööt, founded 1979, are a folk music-duo from the German State of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, with the two singer-songwriters and guitar players Peter Wilke and Klaus Lass....
" sing in their cheerful song, "Holiday up`n Molli an de See", about the Mollibahn in Low German
Low German
Low German or Low Saxon is an Ingvaeonic West Germanic language spoken mainly in northern Germany and the eastern part of the Netherlands...
. It was released in 1989 on the AMIGA
AMIGA (label)
AMIGA was a record label for popular music of the VEB Deutsche Schallplatten Berlin in East Germany. In 1994 it became a label of the Bertelsmann Music Group....
LP "Wenn du ok Plattfööt hest" (if you have flat feet
Flat feet
Flat feet is a formal reference to a medical condition in which the arch of the foot collapses, with the entire sole of the foot coming into complete or near-complete contact with the ground...
too). Furthermore, De Plattfööt sing in their song "De Isenbahnboomupundal-dreier" (the Railway-barrier-up-and-down-winder) about a railway crossing guard's everyday life.
Since the 1990s, the Molli has also been one of the main ways of getting to the Zappanale, a festival held every summer dedicated to the music of Frank Zappa
Frank Zappa
Frank Vincent Zappa was an American composer, singer-songwriter, electric guitarist, record producer and film director. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa wrote rock, jazz, orchestral and musique concrète works. He also directed feature-length films and music videos, and designed...
. The site for the past few years has been the Gallopenrennbahn (racecourse
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
) about halfway between Bad Doberan and the coast. It is not very often that fans get to a rock festival
Rock festival
A rock festival, or a rock fest, is a large-scale rock music concert, featuring multiple acts.The first rock festivals were put on in the late 1960s and were important socio-cultural milestones. In the 1980s a minor resurgence of festivals occurred with charity as the goal.Today, they are often...
by steam train.
Stock List
| Number | Name | Builder | Type | Date | Works number | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 99. 2321-0 | Orenstein & Koppel | 99.32 2-8-2 2-8-2 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 2-8-2 represents the wheel arrangement of two leading wheels on one axle , eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and two trailing wheels on one axle... T |
1932 | 12400 | ||
| 99. 2322-8 | Orenstein & Koppel | 99.32 2-8-2T | 1932 | 12401 | ||
| 99. 2323-6 | Orenstein & Koppel | 99.32 2-8-2T | 1932 | 12402 | ||
| 99. 2324-4 | 2008/09 | |||||
| 99. 2331-9 | LKM | 99.33 0-8-0 0-8-0 Under the Whyte notation for the classification of steam locomotives, 0-8-0 represents the wheel arrangement of no leading wheels, eight powered and coupled driving wheels on four axles, and no trailing wheels... T |
1951 | 30011 | ||
| 99. 2332-7 | LKM | 99.33 0-8-0T | 1951 | 30013 | ||
| 199.014-2 | LKM | V 10 C | 1962 | |||
| 199.015-9 | LKM | V 10 C | 1962 | |||
| 199.016-7 | LKM | V 10 C | 1962 | |||
| 199.017-5 | LKM | V 10 C | 1962 |