Forest railway Lunz – Langau
| Lunz-Langau | |
|---|---|
| Route length: | 12,170 km |
| Gauge : | 700 mm |
| Maximum slope : | 27 ‰ |
The forest railway Lunz – Langau was a forest railway in Lower Austria between 1920 and 1974 .
history
In the extensive forests north and west of the Ötscher and in the adjacent area of the Dürrenstein there were horse-powered forest railways as early as the 19th century to transport the wood to giants and streams, from where it could be washed into the Ybbs . In Langau-Maierhöfen, the washed wood was caught with a barrier and stored at the sawmill of the Rothschild forest administration located there. When planning the Ybbstalbahn, there were already considerations to build a branch line into the Langau.
After the First World War , the Rothschild forest domain acquired large amounts of field railway material from the so-called material demobilization and built a forest railway to Langau and on to the Saurüsselboden, starting at the Lunz station on the Ybbstalbahn. She overcame a height difference of about 100 m. The track width of the route, which can still be seen in the landscape today, was 700 mm. Diesel-powered light rail locomotives from the First World War were used.
From 1926 an officially approved restricted-public passenger traffic for employees of the domain Gaming and their relatives was carried out between Lunz and Langau. For a planned conversion to the 760 mm gauge of the Ybbstalbahn and the management of direct trains, work began on strengthening the bridges and the superstructure, but the economic crisis of the 1920s thwarted these plans. The Langau - Saurüsselboden section was discontinued at a time that can no longer be precisely traced.
From the 1960s onwards, the volume of freight decreased and operations were foreseeable from around 1970. In August 1974 the railway, which at that time was the last regularly operated forest railway in Austria, brought sawn timber from the Langau sawmill to Lunz am See for the last time. An association of railway friends tried to preserve a section and was able to carry out the first trips from 1978. Due to a lack of support after a change of management in the forest administration and due to still moderate tourist demand in the region, the operation could not be maintained and was stopped in July 1981.
Some vehicles have been preserved in museum collections.
Route
The railway line ran from the reloading point at the Lunz train station to the Ois . The main route Durchlaßstraße (Mariazeller Straße, L6174) - Oisreidl - Gappenau crossed the Ois three times and led along this upper course of the Ybbs , partly using the street, to the sawmill in Langau-Maierhöfen. An extension continued to the Saurüsselboden in Langau at the mouth of the Kleiner Ötscherbach.
business
On normal operating days, there were usually three loaded trains from Langau to Lunz, and more if required. Up to 30 tons of wood were transported per train. In winter, when snow conditions was bias by a second locomotive needed. The wood was transported on so-called trucks , as is typical for forest railways , which were coupled to the freight in pairs. Two simply equipped passenger cars were available for restricted public transport.
See also
literature
Manfred Hohn : Forest railways in Austria . 3. Edition. Verlag Josef Otto Slezak , Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85416-195-6 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dieter Stanfel: Ybbstalbahn, page 5 ff. Bahnmedien.at, Vienna 2014, ISBN 978-3-9503304-4-1 .
- ↑ M. Hohn, p. 41
- ↑ M. Hohn, p. 41
- ^ Kurier, July 10, 1981
- ↑ On the trail of the Lunzer Waldbahn.
- ↑ Waldbahn hike.
- ↑ M. Hohn, p. 39 ff.