Qualla: Molli Railway

Molli Railway: Introduction

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Schiwago, CC BY-SA 3.0. Mollistrasse in Bad Doberan is an ordinary small-town street - shopfronts, awnings, cars at the kerb, people crossing where they like - except that a full-size steam locomotive comes down the middle of it several times a day. The rails are grooved, set flush into the paving like a tramway, so there is nothing to look at until the whistle goes and a coal-fired locomotive eases between the parked cars, trailing steam past the first-floor windows. Nobody moves the cars. The train is not a preserved curiosity brought out on Sundays: it is scheduled public transport, and it has been running through this street since 1886.

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Image: Schiwago | CC BY-SA 3.0

Molli Railway: Grooved Rails and Shop Awnings

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Ingo2802 at German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0. The gauge is 900 millimetres, a width that is unusual in Germany and is precisely why the street section works - a metre-gauge or standard-gauge train simply could not thread this space. The line runs 15.43 kilometres from Bad Doberan to Kuhlungsborn West, taking about forty minu...

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Image: Ingo2802 at German Wikipedia | CC BY-SA 3.0

Molli Railway: A Licence from the Grand Duke

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Muehlie, CC BY-SA 3.0. On 19 June 1886 Frederick Francis III, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg, granted a licence for a narrow-gauge line from Doberan station to Heiligendamm, and the 6.61-kilometre route opened three weeks later, on 9 July. It was built by a private railway contractor from Stettin, now Szcze...

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Image: Muehlie | CC BY-SA 3.0

Molli Railway: Why the Freight Stopped

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit An-d, CC BY-SA 3.0. Goods traffic began with the 1910 extension and the trains started running all year. It never really worked. Everything arriving on the standard-gauge Wismar-Rostock line had to be physically transhipped onto narrow-gauge wagons, which was slow and expensive, and the usual dodge ...

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Image: An-d | CC BY-SA 3.0

Molli Railway: The Locomotives

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit The original uploader was Softeis at German Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0. Three engines built by the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1932 - larger, faster and more powerful than anything the line had run before - still do the work today, numbered 99 2321 to 2323. Three more came from the Wismut industrial railways in 1961; of those, 99 2331 survives as the rese...

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Image: The original uploader was Softeis at German Wikipedia. | CC BY-SA 3.0

Molli Railway: Winter, Buses and Frank Zappa

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit AlterWolf49, CC BY-SA 3.0. Demand collapses out of season, so in winter half the trains are cancelled and replaced by the Mollibus, route 121, which runs from Rostock through Bad Doberan and Heiligendamm to Kuhlungsborn and on to Rerik. In 2009 the railway carried 546,415 passengers. Local ownership arrive...

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Image: AlterWolf49 | CC BY-SA 3.0