It then heads west to Schierke station (688 m), where until 1963, there was a siding to Knaupsholz granite quarry at about the half-way point.

After a tight left hand bend before the Eckerloch Bridge and another right-hander, the line reaches Goetheweg station (956 m), which is now only used as a locomotive depot.

A resubmission in 1895 succeeded, however, and, on 30 May 1896, the construction permit was issued once Prince Otto of Stolberg-Wernigerode had allocated the requisite land.

Initially services to the Brocken only ran between 30 April to 15 October; during the winter trains terminated at Schierke station.

At the end of the Second World War significant damage occurred to the track, mainly through bombs and artillery shells, in the course of fighting in the Harz, which had been declared a fortress.

Up to that time the trains transported coal, oil and building materials up the mountain for the East German Border Troops and Soviet soldiers who were stationed there.

Passengers services on the Brocken Railway continued to run from Drei Annen Hohne to Schierke; usually only two pairs of passenger train pairs ran each day;[2] however they could be used with only a special pass, because Schierke lay in the border zone with West Germany.