Spiegelau Forest Railway
| Spiegelau Forest Railway | |
|---|---|
| Technical | |
| Line length | 100 km |
| Track gauge | 600 mm (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in) |
| Spiegelau Forest Railway Spiegelauer Waldbahn |
|
|---|---|
| Continent | Europe |
| Country | Germany |
| State | Bavaria |
The Spiegelau Forest Railway (German: Spiegelauer Waldbahn) was a 600 mm (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in) narrow gauge forest railway built for the transportation of logs from the woods around Spiegelau in the Bavarian Forest in southern Germany.
After the opening of the Zwiesel–Grafenau railway in 1890, new possibilities arose for the transportation of logs by rail from the woods around the Großer Rachel, one of the highest hills in the Bavarian Forest. At the suggestion of the senior forestry commission officer, Leythäuser, who was elected in 1890 to the government of the province of Lower Bavaria, forestry staff began to lay a 600 mm (1 ft 11 5⁄8 in) narrow gauge railway from the state railway station at Spiegelau in 1900 under their own steam.
The official authority to build a permanent forest railway was given on 26 August 1908. At that time, a 7 kilometre long section already existed. In November 1909 the official test run took place on the line, now 17.5 km long, in the presence of officials from the Regensburg railway division. Also in 1909 the first two steam locomotives were delivered.
In 1911 the main route reached Mauth, 32 kilometres away. Now a side branch was built towards the Rachel site office. The First World War and the post-war period interrupted further expansion. During the 1920s the network was extended towards Klingenbrunn station and, by 1926, there were 41 kilometres of line and 5 kilometres of sidings.
After the hurricane devastation of 1927, work intensified and a line was built to the forest railway terminus at Finsterau. In the early 1930s the Spiegelau Forest Railway reached its greatest extent with 95 kilometres of permanent way. As new railway sections were now built, old ones were lifted. The last extension of the railway network was as late as 1951 with the construction of a 7 km long stretch to the Scheerhütte by 156 emergency workers. In 1953 the highest point in the network was finally reached at just under 1,000 metres, opening up a 700 hectare area of the forest.
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Wikipedia