At Pentecost it was finally like before.

Large train station in Königstein: where otherwise only unspectacular diesel railcars make their way to Frankfurt every half hour, all friends of old technology got their money's worth on these two days.

A folk festival all about the railway with a steam locomotive from 1943 as the guest of honour, always surrounded and photographed hundreds of times.

The traditional festival at the terminus of the Frankfurt-Königsteiner railway had not taken place for three years due to the corona pandemic.

No wonder that the Frankfurt Historical Railway Association, which organizes the steam locomotive trips, breathed a sigh of relief.

Allowed to drive again with old locomotives and wagons.

And earn money again: a return trip from Königstein to Frankfurt-Höchst on a historic train cost 20 euros,

Manfred Koehler

Head of department of the Rhein-Main editorial team of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

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This is income that the club urgently needs.

Because the corona virus has also affected the museum railways, of which there are half a dozen in the Rhine-Main area alone.

They are dependent on the commitment of volunteer railway enthusiasts, but also on the money that comes in through special trips or entrance fees.

"The costs continue," says Wilfried Staub from the historic railway in Frankfurt.

A lease has to be paid regularly for their depot near the Frankfurt Osthafen, and the vehicle fleet also needs to be maintained.

Deutsche Bahn hardly takes any rent

Above all, the due main inspection, as it were the TÜV for the club's own steam locomotive, had brought the club into considerable difficulties: Despite the commitment of the members in dismantling and then reassembling the many parts, a six-figure sum has to be paid for this, for example for repairs that can only be carried out by professionals workshops can do.

Thanks to an appeal, the money has now almost been raised, not least thanks to the generous donation of a reader of the FAZ, who contacted the association after an article in January about the pending general inspection.

So the prospects are now good that the steam locomotive from 1943 will soon be on the road again.

For use on the Pentecost weekend, a steam locomotive had to be borrowed from a friendly club in Thuringia.

The railway friends in Darmstadt-Kranichstein have also felt the effects of Corona.

“Bad,” answers Stephan Heldmann from the board of directors of the Bahnwelt Darmstadt-Kranichstein sponsoring association when asked how the pandemic got through.

The railway enthusiasts in the southern Hessian city make their living less from running the train and more from entering the museum, which has been created over the past few decades on the site of a former railway depot.

Although the museum, with its impressive collection of vehicles, was open throughout, explains Heldmann, there were far fewer visitors than usual. On Ascension Day, there were invitations to a larger festival for the first time, and the traditional steam locomotive festival was to be held again in September .

After all:

According to Heldmann, Deutsche Bahn hardly charged any rent for the area it still owned for six months, and the city of Darmstadt increased its regular subsidy, and the association also benefited from state corona aid.

Now they are drawing hope again in Darmstadt and are pushing ahead with the plans to offer their own trips again with the historic locomotives from their own stock.