Cuckoo Railway

Lambrecht (Pfalz)–Elmstein railway
Overview
Native name	Kuckucksbähnel
Locale	Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
Line number	3432
Technical
Line length	12.970 km (8.059 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8 1⁄2 in) standard gauge
Maximum incline	1.4%
Route number	279c (1949–1960) 12670 (since 1984)
Route map from Mannheim 0.0 Lambrecht (Pfalz) 173 m Sommerbergstraße 0.4 Bergstraße to Saarbrücken 1.2 Bundesstraße 39 1.8 Frankeneck 173 m 2.0 siding 2.2 siding Mühlbach 3.3 Esthal (formerly Sattelmühle) 180 m 3.4 Feldweg 3.8 Speyerbach 5.6 Spangenbergstraße 5.6 Speyerbach 5.6 Erfenstein 185 m 5.7 Speyerbach 7.4 Breitenstein 195 m 7.5 Totenkopfstraße 7.6 Breitenstein 7.6 Argenbach 7.9 Forstweg 8.7 Speyerbach 8.8 8.8 Speyerbach 8.9 Helmbach 9.1 Speyerbach 9.2 Helmbach 220 m 7.9 Kreisstraße 51 9.4 Speyerbach 11.0 Speyerbach 11,5 Speyerbach 11.6 Forstweg 11.7 Speyerbach 11.9 Forstweg 12.0 Speyerbach 12.3 Mühlstraße 12.6 Bahnhofstraße 13.0 Elmstein 225 m Source: German railway atlas

The Cuckoo Railway (German: Kuckucksbähnel, literally "Little Cuckoo Railway"), in its early days the Elmstein Valley Railway (Elmsteiner Talbahn), is a 12.97 kilometre long branch line in the central Palatine Forest, which runs through the region of Neustadt/Kaiserslautern from Lambrecht to Elmstein. It was built primarily to support the local forestry industry.

In 1902 the section to Sattelmühle was opened, initially just as an industrial siding. In 1909 it was extended to Elmstein and upgraded to a fully fledged branch line. Regular passenger services were withdrawn in 1960 - due to the sparse population of the region it had always played a secondary role. This was followed in 1977 by the cessation of goods traffic between Frankeneck and Elmstein. Since 1984 the line has been operated as a heritage railway. Goods trains still run as far as Frankeneck.

The Elmstein Valley, densely covered in woods and hence sparsely populated, suffered in earlier times from a poor road infrastructure, especially away from the direct route between Neustadt and Kaiserslautern. The valley follows the upper reaches of the Speyerbach river, the most important Palatine tributary of the Rhine. The key resource of the Speyerbach source region has always been its wood. For centuries, cut or split logs were transported by timber rafting down the river, i.e. propelled by the current, and were sold in the almost treeless Anterior Palatinate.

As early as March 1874 entrepreneurs from the villages of Frankeneck and Neidenfels complained that transporting goods to Lambrecht station by road would be very expensive. For this reason, they launched a petition to the Palatine Railways, which aimed at the establishment of a halt and loading point, exclusively for goods traffic, between the stations of Weidenthal and Lambrecht. This was to be built in Frankeneck immediately next to the confluence of the Hochspeyerbach and the Speyerbach. The hope was that, using this planned operating point on the Palatine Ludwig Railway, would save on transportation costs. These efforts were initially unsuccessful. However, at the end of 1881, the Palatine Ludwig Railway Company built a stackyard at Lambrecht railway station.