Gail Valley Railway

Arnoldstein − Kötschach-Mauthen
5022-036 in the Kötschach-Mauthen train station. (October 2016)
Route number :	451 01
Course book route (ÖBB) :	670
Route length:	61.714 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Power system :	Arnoldstein – Hermagor 15 kV 16.7 Hz  ~
Maximum slope :	17  ‰
Top speed:	80 km / h
Legend Crown Prince Rudolf Railway 0.000 Arnoldstein 567  m above sea level A. Branch from the Rudolfsbahn 1.542 Sidings (company Euro Nova Industriepark) 1,597 Sidings (company Euro Nova Industriepark) A2 south motorway 2.717 Sidings (company Asphalt & Beton GmbH NFG OHG) Gail 8,850 Nötsch 559  m above sea level A. 12,400 Emmersdorf 13,240 Emmersdorf in the Gailtal 563  m above sea level A. 16,462 St. Stefan-Vorderberg 561  m above sea level A. 22.245 Görtschach -Förolach 570  m above sea level A. 25,496 Pressegger See 572  m above sea level A. 27.869 Vellach-Khünburg 590  m above sea level A. 30.686 Hermagor train control station 590  m above sea level A. 31.021 Infrastructure border Gailtalbahn Betriebs GmbH 33.3 ehem. siding (company Jenul GmbH) 34,543 Postran (PV until December 10, 2016) 583  m above sea level A. 36,580 Watschig (PV until December 10, 2016) 591  m above sea level A. 38.292 Tröpolach (PV until December 10, 2016) 595  m above sea level A. 40.829 Rattendorf -Jenig (PV until Dec. 10, 2016) 602  m above sea level A. 42.730 Waidegg (PV until December 10, 2016) 605  m above sea level A. 46.702 Kirchbach im Gailtal (PV until December 10, 2016) 622  m above sea level A. 49.020 Reisach (PV until December 10, 2016) 626  m above sea level A. 51.915 Gundersheim im Gailtal (PV until December 10, 2016) 637  m above sea level A. 55.140 Dellach im Gailtal (PV until December 10, 2016) 655  m above sea level A. 57.274 St. Daniel (Primary until December 10, 2016) 666  m above sea level A. 61.714 Kötschach - Mauthen (PV until December 10, 2016) 710  m above sea level A.

The Gailtalbahn is a single-track electrified railway line of the ÖBB , which branches off in Arnoldstein from the Rudolfsbahn Villach – Italy and runs through the Gailtal via Hermagor to Kötschach-Mauthen . Passenger traffic in the Hermagor – Kötschach-Mauthen section was discontinued at the end of 2016. The railway line is nicknamed " Sasaka Express" among locals .

Opening of Arnoldstein-Hermagor

The Gailtalbahn was built on the initiative of the Arnoldstein manufacturer Felix von Mottony. The license was granted on June 11, 1893. In 1894, 2,500 ordinary shares at 100 guilders were issued for the building, 1,500 priority shares at 100 guilders. The state of Carinthia took over 1,000 of these shares. In addition, 3,500 priority bonds at 100 florins and 1,000 at 1,000 florins with 4 percent interest were issued. The total capital was accordingly 800,000 guilders. After the currency reform of 1925, the nominal value was converted to five shillings in 1926.

No problems worth mentioning occurred during construction, the first section from Arnoldstein to Hermagor was opened on August 11, 1894. On this day, 310 people took part in the journey on the first train, which crossed the 60 m long bridge over the Gail, the largest structure on the Gail Valley Railway.

Extension to Kötschach-Mauthen

After the Gail Valley Railway played an important role in supplying the Plöcken Pass in the Carnic Alps during the First World War , it was only extended during this period. On December 13, 1915, the Austro-Hungarian Army Railway Hermagor - Kötschach - Mauthen, built mainly by around 6,000 prisoners of war, went into operation. After the army railway had become impassable due to the effects of the war, this section was converted into a regular railway line at the end of the war. The opening of goods traffic to Dellach and passenger traffic to Kötschach-Mauthen took place on February 1, 1918. It was not until June 1, 1918 that the entire route to Kötschach-Mauthen was opened for all traffic.

Vehicle use

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  Regional train with 2043 in Kötschach-Mauthen, mail is still being loaded on the adjacent track. (1991)

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  Class 5047 railcars in Hermagor (2004)

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  Class 5022 railcars in the former Kötschach-Mauthen terminus (2011)

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  5022 on the way at the foot of the Dobratsch

Train control

In 1993 the Gailtalbahn was equipped with a train control operation by the ÖBB . The train control station was the Hermagor station, from where the train operations were controlled on the entire route.

After the completion of the modernization and electrification of the line, train control operations on the Arnoldstein - Hermagor line were given up in December 2019. The stations Nötsch and Hermagor received a new ESTW . The route is controlled remotely from the large shunting yard in Villach Süd.

100th anniversary

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Austrian Post on June 17, 1994 a special stamp designed by Hannes Margreiter and Gerhart Schmirl with a face value of 5.50 eastern. Schilling (approx. 0.40 euros) was launched.

Railcars and push-pull trains

From July 26, 2007 to May 6, 2019, vehicles of the 5022 series were mostly used on the Gailtalbahn , and individual courses were run with push-pull trains with the 2016 series .

Closure and future Hermagor-Kötschach-Mauthen

The last passenger train on December 10, 2016

Kötschach-Mauthen station with "Postkastl"

On December 11, 2016, the line between Hermagor and Kötschach-Mauthen was closed after 101 years of operation.

Hundreds of Gailtalers came to the Kötschach-Mauthen train station for the last journey on Saturday evening, December 10, 2016, and the train was also said goodbye to several stops.

The original plan was to completely demolish the abandoned route and sell the area. Through the use of the Gailtalbahn Association, founded in 2016, it was possible to refrain from demolition and continue to use the route as a possible transport route in the event of a disaster. The route was therefore also integrated into the disaster control program of the state of Carinthia.

The Gailtalbahn Association then founded the Gailtalbahn Betriebs GmbH and signed a license agreement with the State of Carinthia for at least 15 years. This contract provides for a touristic re-use of the route in order to keep it from deterioration and to use it permanently. At the beginning of 2020 the route with the " Gailtal-Draisine " will be used between May and October. However, there was already a controversy with parts of the population in advance because the Gailtal is being marketed as a slow food region , but glyphosate is to be used to operate the draisine on the railway line to keep it weed-free.

Furthermore, the Gailtalbahn Betriebs GmbH is striving to convert it into a connecting railway with limited public transport in order to be able to reactivate freight traffic on the route and to be able to run special trains. The connecting railway procedure was successfully completed in August 2019.

As a long-term goal, the association hopes for innovative regular rail operations.

The Gailtalbahn Betriebs GmbH currently owns two operational former ÖBB X 626 including several sidecars as well as a shunting locomotive of the series ÖBB 2060 and a control car 6546. The fleet also includes some former construction train wagons and a center entry wagon.

Electrification and S-Bahn to Hermagor

Information board in Hermagor

The remaining half, the 31 km section between Arnoldstein and Hermagor, was electrified by 2019. In addition, the section from Villach to Hermagor was upgraded to the S4 . During the electrification work, operations were suspended from July 9, 2018 to November 11, 2018 and from May 6, 2019 to December 14, 2019. On December 15, 2019, the Gailtalbahn between Arnoldstein and Hermagor started electrical operation. In the course of the renovation work, the previous Görtschach-Förolach station was also reduced to a stop and thus lost track 2. Due to the cramped space situation and the station building close to track 2, the minimum distance to the building would have been undershot if track 2 had been electrified.

The electrification has called many critics on the scene, according to which this is supposed to be a political "alibi action" shortly before the state elections of the former Green Regional Councilor Rolf Holub . Holub had decided to operate all railway lines in Carinthia purely electrically by 2021, which led to the premature discontinuation of the Rosentalbahn , the upper Gailtalbahn and the Wolfsberg - Bad St.Leonhard section of the Lavanttalbahn , although the transport service contract still had traffic on all routes until at least 2023. The justification of the policy was that the entire route Arnoldstein - Kötschach-Mauthen was no longer listed in the "target network plan 2025+" of the ÖBB Infra and thus the suspension of the entire route was in the room. However, a complete suspension could have been averted by a corresponding long-term transport service contract between the state of Carinthia and the ÖBB with a corresponding service order on the route, which was concealed.

Critical voices and recognized traffic planners also accuse the state of Carinthia and ÖBB Infra for not exploiting the potential of the Gailtalbahn, despite investments of over 61 million euros, and for not taking into account important improvements to the route. For example, there are no adjustments to the winding route. The reduction in travel time should be around 6 minutes after all work has been completed, with around 1.5 minutes being achieved through the elimination of slow driving at some level crossings and the remaining 4.5 minutes reduction in travel time achieved by the new electric vehicles with their higher acceleration and braking deceleration becomes.

Freight traffic to Hermagor must continue to be run with a diesel locomotive, since in Hermagor only the two platform tracks 1 and 2 receive a contact wire, but not tracks 3 and 5 and the connecting line of the Hasslacher sawmill. The steel truss bridge over the Gail near Arnoldstein, built in 1895, was restored in 2014, but had to give way to a new building in 2019. It was only after the project planning was completed that it was discovered that the old bridge with a span of 61.60 m long and 5 m wide could not support an overhead line due to its low cross members.

As part of the electrification, the 124-year-old bridge structure over the Gail near Arnoldstein was replaced at the end of August 2019 . The old bridge structure, which weighs around 150 tons, was excavated in one piece using a 750-tonne crawler crane. Then the new steel truss bridge weighing around 235 tons with a span of 50 m length and 7 m width was lifted into the newly built abutments.

Electric operation with railcars of the type ÖBB 4744 and 4746 began with the 2019/2020 timetable change .

Web links

Commons : Gailtalbahn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Gailtalbahn at Openrailwaymap
• Timetable 1944/45 - route 452k
• Gail Valley Railway Association

Individual evidence

1. ^ Andreas Knipping: Railways in the First World War , EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2004, ISBN 3-88255-691-9 , p. 114
2. ↑ https://inf Infrastruktur.oebb.at/de/informationen-und-mehr/baprojekte-und-anrainer-information/baumasshaben-kaernten/dokument?daten=Arnoldstein+-+Hermagor
3. ↑ "Everything new" at the Gailtalbahn orf.at, May 6, 2019, accessed May 6, 2019.
4. ↑ CLUB Gail Valley railway - Gail Valley Bahnbetriebs GmbH. Retrieved March 18, 2019 . 
5. ↑ VEREIN Gailtalbahn - Gailtal Draisine. Retrieved March 18, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Protests against the use of glyphosate in Gailtal on ORF from June 10, 2020, accessed on June 10, 2020
7. ↑ Our goals. Gailtalbahn Association, accessed on August 4, 2017 . 
8. ↑ Province of Carinthia: 60 million euros by 2023: Carinthia's rail future is on the rails
9. ↑ The last run of the Gailtalbahn orf.at, December 11, 2016, accessed December 11, 2016.
10. ↑ https://inf Infrastruktur.oebb.at/de/informationen-und-mehr/baprojekte-und-anrainer-information/baumasshaben-kaernten/dokument?daten=Arnoldstein+-+Hermagor
11. ^ ÖBB electrify the Gailtalbahn
12. ↑ The Gailtalbahn will be closed from July
13. ^ ÖBB electrify the Gailtalbahn
14. ↑ New era for electrified Gailtalbahn orf.at, December 14, 2019, accessed December 15, 2019.
15. ↑ 124-year-old Gailbrücke has to give way on ORF from August 29, 2019, accessed on August 29, 2019
16. ↑ ÖBB build new bridge over the Gail near Arnoldstein on ÖBB press information from August 13, 2019 accessed on September 27, 2019
17. ↑ Carinthia timetable change. Retrieved November 27, 2019 .