Marktoberdorf – Lechbruck railway line

Marktoberdorf – Lechbruck
Route number :	5442
Course book section (DB) :	406
Route length:	22.29 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Legend from Biessenhofen 0.00 Marktoberdorf to Füssen 4.17 Rieder 5.20 Reichenbach 5.69 Osterried 7.24 Stötten (a Auerberg) 7.80 Geltach 9.85 to the Nagler peat plant (1920 to 1963) 10.27 Heggen 10.90 Kroppersbach 11.98 Steinbach (Allgäu) 14.63 Freßlesreute 16.40 Horseheads 17.50 Gruberbach 18.62 Sameister 20.50 Gruberbach 22.10 Gruberbach 22.29 Lechbruck

The Marktoberdorf – Lechbruck railway was a 22.29 kilometer branch line in Bavaria . It connected Marktoberdorf with Lechbruck in the Ostallgäu district .

Lechbruck train station around 1908

Prehistory and construction

The route was built to better develop the Ostallgäu around Lechbruck. The line was opened on July 1, 1899 by the Royal Bavarian State Railways . It was planned to build a line from Altenau near Unterammergau via Reuten and Steingaden to Lechbruck, from Lechbruck the line should continue to Füssen . The municipalities of Fronreiten, Urspring and Lauterbach applied to the Bavarian State Ministry for a local railway from Schongau to Lechbruck. On December 10, 1891, the district government recognized the need to continue the Landsberg am Lech – Schongau local railway to Lechbruck on the basis of another petition . Then another variant came into play, namely that from Marktoberdorf to Lechbruck. Only this was finally carried out.

route

The line left Marktoberdorf station in a southerly direction and then described a curve to the east, only to then lead again in a southerly direction. Intermediate stations existed in Rieder, Osterried, Stötten am Auerberg , Heggen, Steinbach, Freßlesreute and Sameister. Roßhaupten was originally just a stop , but was then upgraded to a train station to enable the transport of materials for the construction of the Forggensee dam. Later Roßhaupten was also used to implement the rail-road omnibus . All systems no longer exist today. Furthermore, the Torfwerk Nagler between Stötten and Heggen had a siding . Lechbruck was the terminus and also had a locomotive shed. Numerous smaller bridges were typical of the route.

Rail-road omnibus

A special locomotive was used on this route, the so-called rail-road omnibus . From 1954 to 1958, this connected Augsburg with feet once a day . He drove on the road from Augsburg via Bad Wörishofen to Pforzen . From there it went on by rail via Kaufbeuren and Marktoberdorf to Roßhaupten and finally back on the road to Füssen.

Decommissioning and relics

Former reception building of Steinbach (Allgäu)

Passenger traffic on the Marktoberdorf – Lechbruck section was suspended on May 26, 1963. Freight traffic followed on November 30, 1970. A special feature, however, is that there were service trips between Stötten and Lechbruck until February 23, 1971. These were finally set between Marktoberdorf and Stötten on March 1, 1971. The line was dismantled from February to April 1974. Almost all bridges are still preserved and are now used by today's railway cycle path , which is part of the steam locomotive circuit . Only the exit from Marktoberdorf is no longer recognizable because it has been built over. After that, the route usually leads close to the road. The former station building in Steinbach (Allgäu) and the former locomotive shed in Lechbruck have been preserved.

literature

• Hartmut Klust, “Marktoberdorf – Lechbruck”, GeraNova, Munich

Web links

Commons : Marktoberdorf – Lechbruck railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• The route with pictures on forgotten tracks
• A description of the bike path

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Photo documentation of the Marktoberdorf – Lechbruck railway line on vergessene-bahnen.de, from October 2008, accessed on July 6, 2017.