Trains and other things: Falkenberg (Elster), Elsterwerda-Biehla, Wünsdorf-Waldstadt, Schönefeld (bei Berlin)

Today I'm heading from Leipzig to BER from where I'm flying back home

Leipzig Hbf in the morning

I'm taking a regional train to Falkenberg (Elster)

Falkenberg (Elster) is one of the largest stations in Brandenburg, connecting lines from 7 different directions.

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The station was destroyed during WW2, this is all that's left

The old station building was accessible both from lower and upper levels

Trains coming from all directions here

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I'm at the upper level now; not many trains here, but here is one

186 360 heading in the direction Leipzig/Halle

Most trains are coming from the Lutherstadt direction and heading south to Czechia or Poland

Another train at the upper level

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372 007, a real Czech train

Here is the train I was waiting for

188 062, CFL Cargo equipped for services between Luxembourg and Poland through Germany

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I have arrived at Elsterwerda-Biehla station

Trains to/from Poland through Horka use this line

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The name Biehla is from the Sorbian language, which is spoken here by some groups, and it means "white"

Historical photos of the station

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The line through Horka was electrified and renovated in 2016, while the complete line, including this station, was modernized in 2019.

Since the end of 2025, there have been Eurocity trains between Leipzig and Wroclaw

EC 135 "Via Regia" on the way to Poland

There are four PKPIC B11mnouz 2nd-class cars and one A9mnouz 1st-class car. No restaurant car

Between Leipzig and the Polish border, the train stops in Ruhland and Hoyerswerda

EC 132 "Saxonia" on the way to Leipzig

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185 516 with a military transport

That's a lot of military vehicles, hope it's ok to publish these photos

Triple of Ludmillas Class 232

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From Elsterwerda-Biehla, I'm walking down to Elsterwerda station which is on the Berlin-Dresden railway

Here, there are other Eurocity trains heading to Czechia

From Elsterwerda, there are Regional trains to Berlin

I will make a short stop at Wünsdorf-Waldstadt

Speaking of the military transport, Wünsdorf-Waldstadt has a long military history

"From 1939 to 1945, during World War II, Wünsdorf served as the largest and most advanced German military headquarters. Underground and overground structures housed three complexes".

"After World War II, the area became the site of a Soviet military base in East Germany known as the "House of Officers" or "Lenin City", the largest outside Russia, accommodating up to 75,000 Soviet men, women, and children with daily trains to Moscow. Soviet troops remained until their withdrawal following the German reunification in August 1994. Since then, the area has returned to civilian use as the Wünsdorf-Waldstadt book and bunker town, founded in 1998. Although much of it lies abandoned, evidence of Soviet occupation remains visible. By late 2019, roughly 1,700 apartments had been converted from the old barracks, with another 700 planned for subsequent years."

(Wikipedia)

I was hoping to see some buildings from the Soviet time or at least the Lenin statue, but almost all the interesting parts were closed behind a fence.