Salzwedel - Badel

Just after the 'Salzwedeler Kleinbahn GmbH' had build a narrow gauge railroad from Salzwedel to Diesdorf a new company was grounded in 1901. The 'Salzwedeler Kleinbahn-Gesellschaft Südost GmbH' built a narrow gauge track from Salzwedel to the southeast. The railways shared their starting point at station Salzwedel-Neustadt (later: Kleinbahnhof), just across the street from the state railway station. The track to firstly Winterfeld and later Badel split off at station Altpervertor.
In 1921 both railway companies merged into the Salzwedeler Kleinbahnen GmbH. With time the weak trackbed and reloading of freight from narrow gauge to normal gauge wagons at Wintersfeld became problematic so in 1926 the track was changed to standard gauge. The endpoint was changed from Wintersfeld to Badel to make a direct connection from Salzwedel to Kalbe.
The chemical works drew a lot of freight traffic. To accommodate this a new bridge was build over the Jeetze in 1951 to connect the Kleinbahn with the state railway and a shunting yard was constructed at Krinau. Passenger trains to Kalbe now also used this new connection, running through station Altstadt in stead of Altpervertor.
Passenger trains between Salzwedel and Kalbe disappeared in 1980, freight traffic held on longer as the line was closed down bit by bit.
(Sources: de.wikipedia.org, article from the Volksstimme on Dampflokfreunde Salzwedel website)

15-05-07 Part 3 of railhiking expedition in the Altmark (Germany)
This is the continuation of my trek from Oebisfelde to Salzwedel. The pictures below are not in chronological order so don't be surprised by sudden changes in weather. The rainy pictures were made on a Tuesday morning, the sunny pictures on a Thursday evening and a Friday morning when I had a bit of leftover time on my way home.