Bayreuth Altstadt–Kulmbach railway

Bayreuth Altstadt–Kulmbach
Bayreuth Altstadt station in 1987
Route number:	latest 851, 842
Line number:	5003
Line length:	36.9 km
Track gauge:	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in)
Maximum incline:	2.55%  %
from Bayreuth Hbf 5.3 Bayreuth Altstadt(Bayreuth Hbf - km 0) to Hollfeld Bundesstraße 22 Mistelbach 7.1 Herzoghöhe 9.1 Heinersreuth 11.3 Unterwaiz 13.0 Altenplos 14.6 Aichen Rottelb 16.0 Drossenfeld 17.5 Forest railway branch (1908-1910) 19.1 Neuenreuth (b Thurnau) Reuthbach 24.5 Limmersdorf 24.5 Timber yard branch Aubach 26.3 Thurnau Kirschenallee 30.1 Kasendorf 33.1 Krumme Fohre 37.0 Katschenreuth 2 flood bridges (Red Main) Red Main 37.6 Steinenhausen branch 38.9 Melkendorf (Streckenende) 39.3 Bayernwerk branch (since ca. 1960) from Bamberg 42.2 Kulmbach 304 m to Hof Hbf

The Bayreuth Altstadt–Kulmbach railway was a branch line in the Bavarian province of Upper Franconia in southern Germany. It was also known colloquially as the Thurnauer Bockela (which roughly translates as "Little Thurnau Goat").

On 17 August 1872 the market town of Thurnau applied for the envisaged railway line from Forchheim through Hollfeld to Bayreuth not to be routed to Bayreuth but via Thurnau to Kulmbach, and to extend it via Nordhalben to Eichicht (de) and thus link it with the line to Jena. But after the Forchheim–Plankenfels–Bayreuth railway project went into a concrete planning stage in summer 1877, the towns of Kulmbach and Thurnau modified Thurnau's 1872 proposal in a combined application issued on 18 January 1877. This time it saw the line branching off from a place in the vicinity of Hollfeld from the Forchheim-Bayreuth line and then running via Hollfeld and Thurnau to Kulmbach. The general management of the Royal Bavarian Transport Institution decided on 16 May 1878 to turn these proposals down, however, on operational grounds.

After the individual application from the market town of Thurnau, albeit later combined with Kulmbach, foundered, the rural districts under the Royal District Court of Thurnau sent a petition on 13 October 1880 to King Ludwig II of Bavaria requesting the construction of a railway line from Bayreuth via Thurnau and Weismain. This was to form junctions with the Munich–Hof/Saale and Hochstadt/Main––Eichicht railways. The aim was to link Thurnau to the trunk route from Bohemia to Thuringia, that was to run from Eger via Kirchenlaibach and Bayreuth. Ludwig II turned the application down, because the line was not of sufficiently high priority.

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