Berlin Water Towers5: Niederschöneweide (2)

Pickelhelm top, corrugated steel body, brick base with filigree collar, Schöneweide's most visible water tower presents itself as the S45 pulls into Betriebsbf. Schöneweide.

The tower, built 1906, served a switching yard for the Berlin-Cottbus line that was in active use until 1998. Too industrial, I gather, to have a named architect. Just beyond the tower is a beautiful roundhouse, a wisp of exhaust from a stovepipe.

Today, the switching yard is occupied by "Dampflofreunde Berlin"- which charters journeys on vintage rail.  Inside the fence, beautiful, curtained passenger cars from the 1940s and earlier are lined up in wait.

Beyond the western fence is a swath of mostly disused rail lines, dotted with abandoned buildings, heaps of earth, and stacks of railroad ties.