The Pressnitz Valley Railway ( German: ''Preßnitztalbahn'') was a narrow gauge railway line in Saxony, Germany. It used to climb from

Wolkenstein Wolkenstein is a town in the district Erzgebirgskreis, in Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Ore Mountains, on the river Zschopau, 22 km southeast of Chemnitz. The town is situated on a rocky spur near the confluence of Zschopau a ...

on the

standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), International gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge and European gauge in Europe, and SGR in Ea ...

Annaberg-Buchholz–Flöha railway through the valley of river

Preßnitz The Preßnitz ( cs, Přísečnice or ''Přísečný potok'') is a right-hand tributary of the River Zschopau in the state of Saxony in eastern Germany and in the Czech Republic. It rises in the Bohemian Ore Mountains near Horní Halže, north ...

( Czech: ''Přísečnice'') to Jöhstadt on the border with

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...

. It was dismantled in the second half of the 1980s, however the Steinbach - Jöhstadt section was rebuilt as a

museum railway A heritage railway or heritage railroad (US 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) i ...

after the fall of communism in East Germany.

History

Construction started in 1891 and the railway was opened on 1 June 1892. In May 1893 the line was extended to the border with Bohemia. There were several projects to connect the line to Bohemian standard gauge lines, with the aim of enabling the importation of

lignite Lignite, often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible, sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35%, and is considered the lowest rank of coal due to its relatively low heat ...

from the Most Basin. However, the proposed link with border station at

Reitzenhain Reitzenhain is a municipality in the district of Rhein-Lahn, in Rhineland-Palatinate, in western Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country ...

on the Chomutov–Reitzenhain and Reitzenhain–Flöha railway lines was rejected, as well as a plans to build an extension to the

Chomutov–Vejprty/Reitzenhain railway The Chomutov–Reitzenhain railway and its branch to Vejprty is a branch line (Czech: ''regionální dráha'') in the Czech Republic, that was originally built and operated by the Buschtěhrad Railway Company (BEB). It begins in Chomutov (''Komo ...

. From 1911 freight was carried using transporter trailers. The Pressnitz Valley Railway was the last Saxon narrow gauge railway to be closed by the East German government. Passenger services were terminated in 1984; the transportation of freight for the refrigerator factory in Niederschmiedeberg ceased in 1986. The process of gradually dismantling the line took several years, from January 1984 until the summer 1989. Locomotives and wagons were transferred to other Saxon narrow gauge railways or decommissioned.

Preservation

As early as 1988, a society for the preservation of the railway, the ''Interessengemeinschaft Preßnitztalbahn'', was formed in Großrückerswalde. Its aim was to preserve the remaining fragments that were left after dismantling. After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, the club turned into a legal entity and presented a bold plan to rebuild at least part of the former narrow gauge line. Reconstruction began as soon as 1990, with the restoration of the locomotive shed in Jöhstadt. In the following years, the track from Jöhstadt station to Steinbach station was gradually laid and a week-long celebration took place in 2000. The museum railway operates every weekend from May to October, as well as on public holidays ( Easter, May Day, Ascension, Pentecost, German Unity Day) and around Christmas and New Year's Day.

Rügen operations

Since 2008, the operating company ''Eisenbahn-Bau- und Betriebsgesellschaft Pressnitztalbahn'' operates the Rügen narrow-gauge railway (which uses the same 750 mm gauge) and also the standard-gauge

Bergen auf Rügen–Lauterbach Mole railway The Bergen auf Rügen–Lauterbach Mole railway is a single-track branch line on the German island of Rügen in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Route description The line branches off at Bergen auf Rügen station from the Stralsund–Sas ...

References

External links

pressnitztalbahn.de

at stillgelegt.de (German) {{Authority control Railway lines in Saxony Heritage railways in Germany 750 mm gauge railways in Germany Museums in Saxony Transport in the Ore Mountains Wolkenstein