70 years anniversary - 11th September 1951  - one of the most famous mass escapes to the west
From Czech wikipedia:
The Train of Freedom is the popular designation of the Czechoslovak state railways train No. 3717 from Cheb to Aš (western Bohemia on West Germany borders), which on 11. September 1951 to the place of the stop quickly passed town Aš to the German city of Selb. 

It is one of the most famous mass escapes to the west, but most of the 110 passengers got abroad quite unexpectedly, 77 of them then returned to Czechoslovakia (most of them were pupils of the gymnasium in Cheb and patients from spa Františkovy Lázně).
The successful action of several opponents of the regime caused worldwide resonance and led the communist authorities to begin building an impenetrable iron curtain. There has also been uprooting of tracks at many unused border crossings to prevent a similar incident.
In Selb, the train was met by a number of reporters and journalists.
World press wrote about it a lot but Czechoslovak of course suffered under the supression of communist regime. In response, the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia organized trials of the people involved in the incident and other also groups collaborating in anti-state activities. While some made it to foreign magazines and newspapers, their relatives in Czechoslovakia ended up quietly in court and later in prison. For a partial loss (albeit not bloody), several dozen people went to prison, some of them were, of course, bloody beaten there. 

 

Train in german Selb

Most of those who returned to Czechoslovakia were forced to undergo interrogations by the communist secret police  STB, and the dust of something suspicious was forever stuck on them. Many of them then had difficulties both at school and at work, the communists simply did not believe that they gave the true reasons for their return, especially when they had previously come into contact with the American intelligence service, the CIA, at the station in Selb, which was tasked with conducting operations around the world on behalf of the United States.

  
Documents from 1951 - written by Czechoslovak army border troops

In 1951, the western borders of Czechoslovakia were already closely guarded, and the communist authorities probably believed that they had managed to reduce the flight of people to the west to an absolute minimum. The mass penetration of more than a hundred people at once must have been a tremendous shock to the government. The western public and the western media were similarly surprised. The difference was, of course, in the evaluation of the event.

The train passed through the border on a disused track, which was blocked only by a wooden barrier. Most of the passengers found themselves in the West unexpectedly, therefore 77 people out of a total of 110 returned immediately back. In emigration, almost only the organizers of the escape with their families remained.
11. September 1951 gave birth to the term "iron curtain".

The train set then came from Germany back only after a month - 11.10.1951.

 The Czech town Aš is situated almost at the border, the train had if very near to Germany.

"11th September 1951 railway station in German Selb. I am in the middle standing on rails. We ended in Selb though we originally wanted to make a trip to Aš."

Titles from Czechoslovak newspapers in 1953 - organizers of gangster kidnapping of train condemned

The organizers fled with their families, and two of them received an American symbolic offer: a company producing children's trains offered them a place in their factory in New Jersey.

Anyhow, though this description of the event might seem fairly simple, the organizers made detailed preparation of it. They had also to threathen one member of the crew with gun and had co-operators in the wagons so that nobody would use the separate breaks there to stop the train. In that case the trains would leave the rails most probably... It went through the railwaystation in Czech town Aš in unexpected velocity instead of stopping there. Though nobody was injured it was anyhow extremely risky.

You can read about this event also in English Wikipedia.

               Thanks for reading                              Margaret