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My mate and I went on a hike on Saturday to Germany’s probably most famous tiniest hamlet. Well, not even hamlet, much smaller. It’s a farm (087) and a closed train station (088, 096-102). Okay, and four other houses. But that’s it. Durlesbach is known from the old folk song „Auf de schwäbsche Eisebahne“, literally “On the Swabian Railway”. According to the German Wikipedia article the German Folk Song Archive counts about 100 variants on the lyrics with up to 27 verses. The song enumerates a few stations and the most common version is about a farmer who ties his goat to the back of a train in order to save the freight costs. Alternatively, he’s used to that from previous ox cart trips where the goat just follows along. Of course, the goat doesn’t make it and the angry farmer throws the disembodied goat head at the conductor.

The weather was perfect. Sunny and clouds alternating, lower twenty-something degrees Celcius. Very beautiful. We took the train to Aulendorf and started our hike.

The level railway crossing in 051-054 is always closed and only opened on demand. I didn’t even know that this kind existed. But it’s really quiet there. We pressed the lever to call the train dispatcher who then opened the barriers for us. A few seconds later we told him that we successfully reached the other side and he closed them again. We were confused at first because the sign said only for authorized personnel and we were just two random hikers. But we gave it a shot and the dispatcher was super nice, no worries at all.

The river is always the Schussen. 092-094 is the creek Durlesbach, entering the Schussen, though. The Durlesbach station is now privately owned, unfortunately. However, it’s nicely kept in shape and there’s a cool monument with a historic steam engine, two wagons and four bronze figures reenacting the scene where the farmer is about to tie his goat, being observed by his wife and the conductor.

You can get all sorts of drinks in exchange for a donation at the display. These proceeds are used for the upkeep. I had an ACE juice which was absolutely delicious. A few hundred meters after we continued, I thought that I really should have bought a second one. It was just too good.

In Mochenwagen, we took the train back to Aulendorf. The Mochenwangen replacement service (we luckily didn’t have to take it, in fact, no idea when it is really in place) is 800 meters away from the train station. That fucking nuts.

We then changed trains to Ulm, just because that one arrived two minutes after we reached Aulendorf. But we spontaneously exited early in Biberach because we had some time to kill for the actual train to Stuttgart. The train station underpass there has some really beautiful graffiti. Shortly after, my second camera battery was flattened, too.

Going home worked out amazingly. When I switched again in Geislingen, my connecting train was already waiting on the other platform. 15 seconds before scheduled departure, the doors closed. One second to departure, we took off. That’s very rare nowadays and it was kind of magical to witness this first hand looking at the station clock.

Sorry for the many photos. I was busy sifting through them and only kept about 20%. Still too many, I know. Enjoy, nevertheless: https://lyse.isobeef.org/2026-10-03-wanderung-von-aulendorf-ueber-durlesbach-nach-mochenwangen/

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