English: The Rübeland Railway used to terminate just behind the camera, but has now been cut back to Elbingerode. Ex-DR 171 003-7 brings three coaches still in Deutsche Reichsbahn green into the terminus from Blankenburg. In former times, the line also served the large foundry and oven manufacturing business, VEB Gießerei und Ofenbau Königshütte, just short of the terminus. Locomotives on this line ran under a 25kV 50hz system, rather than the 16.66hz system in the rest of Germany owing to the very steep adhesion gradients. Perhaps 1:15 at maximum. Thus this line was completely separate from the rest of the DR network for locomotion, but obviously wagons could be exchanged on the same gauge at Blankenburg for onward transport by diesel.

Koenigshuette lies at 343m above sea level,but the line climbs sharply from Blankenburg (199m) to the highest point at Hornberg (505M) in not many miles. The line is now goods only from May 1999, with the Fels Netz GmbH Rübeland operating the limestone trains. 10 out of the original 15 class 171 locomotives are in operation.However, the electricity was turned off in May 2005: diesel locomotives were being used on this branch by the Osthavelländische Eisenbahn AG (OHE) and this accounted for two thirds of the traffic on the line, making Railion's use of electric locomotives uneconomic... Only at the end of 2008 was the power turned back on.

In pre-war times, the line extended beyond the terminus here to Tanne, where the line connected with the Harzquerbahn narrow gauge railway.