The Bregenz Forest Railway (, known colloquially as the ''Wälderbahn'' or ''Wälderbähnle''), is an

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

narrow gauge railway A narrow-gauge railway (narrow-gauge railroad in the US) is a railway with a track gauge (distance between the rails) narrower than . Most narrow-gauge railways are between and . Since narrow-gauge railways are usually built with Minimum railw ...

with a

track gauge In rail transport, track gauge is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have Wheelset (rail transport), wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many different track gauges ...

of , the so-called

Bosnian gauge Bosnian-gauge railways are railways with track gauge of . These were found extensively in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire as a standardised form of narrow gauge. The name is also used for lines of the same gauge outside Bosnia, for example in ...

. It runs through the state of

Vorarlberg Vorarlberg ( ; ; , , or ) is the westernmost States of Austria, state () of Austria. It has the second-smallest geographical area after Vienna and, although it also has the second-smallest population, it is the state with the second-highest popu ...

and from 1902 to 1983 linked

Bregenz Bregenz (; ) is the capital of Vorarlberg, the westernmost states of Austria, state of Austria. The city lies on the east and southeast shores of Lake Constance, the third-largest freshwater lake in Central Europe, between Switzerland in the wes ...

Lake Constance Lake Constance (, ) refers to three bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein (). These ...

with Bezau in the

Bregenz Forest The Bregenzerwald (, ) is one of the main regions in the States of Austria, state of Vorarlberg (Austria). It overlaps, but is not coterminous with, the Bregenz Forest Mountains, which belong to a mountain range, range of the Northern Limestone A ...

on a railway line. Today only a section is still worked as a

heritage railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (U.S. usage) is a railway operated as living history to re-create or preserve railway scenes of the past. Heritage railways are often old railway lines preserved in a state depicting a period (or periods) ...

. The remaining line has been closed and largely lifted.

Heritage railway

In 1985 the Bregenz Forest Railway Society (''Verein Bregenzerwaldbahn-Museumsbahn'') was founded in order to at least preserve sections of the line and to operate it as a heritage railway. The original vehicles had, however, all been transported away, which is why operations began in 1987 only with the help of rolling stock procured from other lines, including a regauged trailer car from the

Stubai Valley Railway The Stubaitalbahn (Stubai Valley Railway) is an long narrow gauge interurban tram from Innsbruck to Fulpmes in Tyrol, Austria. In the city of Innsbruck, it uses the local tramway tracks. At the Stubaital station, the branch line-rated part beg ...

. The line was opened from Bezau as far as Schwarzenberg station. The first powered vehicle was a lorry converted to a railbus. Several small diesel locomotives and other wagons from the Stubai Valley Railway were procured the following year and a further section of line to the Bersbuch station was reactivated. The first steam locomotive at the museum railway arrived in the early 1990s - the former 798.101 "Nicki S." - on loan when it had become superfluous as a result of the closure of the Jagst Valley Railway. In 1993, the U.25 was renovated to become the first operational steam locomotive - a "Class U" - from the original Bregenz Forest Railway. In 2001 it was followed by a second steam engine, the Uh. The passenger coaches required were built on the chassis of goods wagons. The

1999 Pentecost flood The 1999 Pentecost flood () was a 100-year flood around the Pentecost season in 1999 that mostly affected Bavaria, Vorarlberg and Tirol. It was caused by heavy rainfall coinciding with the regular Alpine meltwater. By late May, the annual spring ...

destroyed the Sporenegg bridge and it was rebuilt in June 2000. The

2005 European floods The 2005 European floods hit mainly Romania, Switzerland, Austria and Germany, as well as several other countries in Central Europe and Eastern Europe during August 2005. The disaster came at a time when Portugal was suffering from intense forest ...

caused further damage to the trackbed, and flooding of Bezau station. This was repaired within a few weeks. Today the museum railway services operate on the remaining section of line from Bezau to Schwarzenberg. An extension to Andelsbuch, or even beyond that to Egg, was considered. However, in October 2004, the line had to be shortened by (and a new Schwarzenberg terminus built), because the line between Schwarzenberg and Bersbuch was given up in favour of a road expansion project. Furthermore, the Railway Society had to forfeit land at the Bezau station for the building of a supermarket. As a replacement for the locomotive shed, a new vehicle and workshop hall was built and, in place of a set of points, a sector table was built at the end of the line in order to make optimum use of the remaining space.

Literature

* Markus Rabanser, Martin Hebenstreit: ''Die Bregenzerwaldbahn''. Hecht-Verlag, 1989, * Krobot, Slezak, Sternhart: ''Schmalspurig durch Österreich''. 4th ed., Verlag Slezak, 1991, * Lothar Beer: ''Eine Bahn im Rhythmus der Zeit - Die Geschichte der Bregenzerwald-Museumsbahn''. Hecht-Verlag, 2007, * Norbert Fink: ''Die Bregenzerwaldbahn 1902-1983'' illustrated book, Sutton Verla
comments and press release accessible online

External links

Website of the Bregenz Forest Railway

Comprehensive documentation from 2009/2010 on the 30th anniversary of its closure.

Situation in 2009 based on 6 sections of line
1976 video

References

{{Coord, 47, 22, 55, N, 9, 53, 45, E, type:landmark_region:AT-8, display=title Heritage railways in Austria Museums in Vorarlberg History of Vorarlberg 760 mm gauge railways in Austria Transport in Vorarlberg