The Berliner Sunday 13 May 2012

21 years ago the curtain came down on one of the most difficult and yet smoothly and consistently delivered trains in the history of European railways.

The British Military Train was born in the wreckage of defeated and broken Germany, and spent its life on the front line of the Cold War. It was operated in a unique and highly politicised partnership between British Army railway operators and the two state railways of the divided Germany.

There had been nothing like it before, and it is unthinkable that we will ever see the like of it again. It ran without fuss, with a very British understatement of the political minefield surrounding it.

From 11 to 13 May 2012 we acknowledge and celebrate the calm professionalism of railway people, civilian and military, British and German, who did the job, day in day out, without triggering a Third World War.  

Pacific express steam loco 03 1010 from the 1940s and a vintage East German Reichsbahn diesel typical of the later years of the British Military Train will head The Berliner 2012, a train of 1960s carriages, including a dining car, from Berlin to Hannover and back.

Proceeds from events on board The Berliner 2012 will go to Royal British Legion in Berlin.

The dining car will serve a typical Royal Corps of Transport menu and wine list.

During the journey there will be a break at the old border station at Helmstedt for a visit to the Border Museum.

The British Military Train was a Cold War icon. From 1945 it was the main transit route for soldiers preserving the peace in West Berlin. It was taken out of service in 1990 when the wall fell, and made just one final farewell trip in 1991.