The Reisseck Mountain Railway () was a

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 600 mm, that started at the

top station A top station or upper stationFor example, se''Chairlift Blausee (upper station)''at www.outdooractive.com. Retrieved 15 May 2019. is usually the highest station of an aerial lift, a funicular, a T-bar lift or a rack railway. The lowest station is ...

of Schoberboden on the Reisseck Funicular Railway in

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 ...

. It was closed in 2014.

History

industrial railway An industrial railway is a type of railway (usually private) that is not available for public transportation and is used exclusively to serve a particular industrial, logistics, or military site. In regions of the world influenced by British r ...

was required for the construction of the Reißeck-Kreuzeck Power Station. The line opened on 1 July 1953. Because, following the completion of the construction work, the line had to be kept going for maintenance reasons, it was decided to open the railway to tourists as well. The Reisseck Mountain Railway Company (''Reißeck-Höhenbahngesellschaft mbH'') was founded in 1969, although public services did not begin until 16 September 1965.

Route

Together with the Reisseck Funicular the Reisseck Mountain Railway links Schoberboden with the Seenplateau ("Lake Plateau"). The line was 3,359 metres long, of which 2,130 metres ran through a tunnel. The terminus for passenger services was at the hotel of ''Berghotel Reißeck'' at (). That meant the lines was the highest railway in Austria open to the public and one of the highest in Europe without a rack section. One train could carry 68 passengers.

Rolling stock

Until 1983 self-built coaches with 36 seats were used for passenger services. They had a compartment at the end of the coach for the

conductor Conductor or conduction may refer to: Biology and medicine * Bone conduction, the conduction of sound to the inner ear * Conduction aphasia, a language disorder Mathematics * Conductor (ring theory) * Conductor of an abelian variety * Cond ...

. In 1983, two driving coaches were supplied by Knotz, each with a length of 10 metres and fitted for 14 seats and 20 standing places.

Branches

Shortly before the terminus at the Seenplateau a 250-metre-long industrial, cable railway branched off. This was divided into two adhesion sections to the Hochalmsee and the Radlsee, most of which ran in a roughly 3-kilometre-long tunnel and was only authorised for goods transported for

Verbund Verbund AG, formerly known as Verbundgesellschaft or Österreichische Elektrizitätswirtschafts-AG, is Austria's largest electricity provider. Verbund covers around 40 percent of electricity demands in Austria and generates 90 percent thereof fro ...

. These lines terminated at about 2,400 m.

Closure

On 1 August 2014 heavy rain washed away parts of the trackbed of the mountain railway. On 9 August an emergency service was opened using a temporary halt. On 7 September 2014 the operation of the railway, which was intended to be replaced by busses, was finally ended. The conversion of the tunnel into a road for the use of busses to the lakes required the dismantling of the trackage as well as the water pipe running through the tunnel to Reißeck I Power Station. Because this work could not initially be carried out due to delays in the construction of Reißeck II Power Station, tourist services ended for the foreseeable future at the Schoberboden.''Reißeck als Sackgasse für Touristen'', report at ORF Online dated 16 August 2015
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Gallery

Reißeck-Höhenbahn - Gleisunterspülung1.JPG, Section of washed away trackbed Reißeck-Höhenbahn - Gleisunterspülung2.JPG, Section of washed away trackbed Reißeck-Höhenbahn - Gleisunterspülung3.JPG, Section of washed away trackbed

References

External links

Reisseck mountain lines
* Bilder der Reißeck-Höhenbahn i

an

retrieved 16 August 2015 {{Coord, 46, 54, 12.5, N, 13, 20, 1, E, type:landmark_region:AT-2, display=header Railway lines in Austria Reisseck Group