The Wendelstein Rack Railway (german: Wendelsteinbahn), sometimes just referred to as the Wendelstein Railway, is an electrically-driven

metre gauge Metre-gauge railways are narrow-gauge railways with track gauge of or 1 metre. The metre gauge is used in around of tracks around the world. It was used by European colonial powers, such as the French, British and German Empires. In Europe, la ...

rack railway (with several adhesion sections) that runs up the Wendelstein in the Upper Bavarian

Limestone Alps The Limestone Alps (german: Kalkalpen) are a mountain ranges system of the Alps in Central Europe. They are of economic importance, including as a watershed source of drinking water. They have many accessible dripstone and ice caves. Geography ...

. Together with the

Wendelstein Cable Car The Wendelstein Cable Car (''Wendelstein-Seilbahn'') is a long cable car (US: aerial tramway) running from the village of Bayrischzell Osterhofen to Mount Wendelstein in the Bavarian Alps The Bavarian Alps (german: Bayerische Alpen) is a co ...

(''Wendelstein-Seilbahn'') it is operated by the ''Wendelsteinbahn GmbH''. The

mountain railway A mountain railway is a railway that operates in a mountainous region. It may operate through the mountains by following mountain valleys and tunneling beneath mountain passes, or it may climb a mountain to provide transport to and from the sum ...

climbs through a total height of . The Wendelstein Railway is one of only four working rack railways in Germany, the others being the Bavarian Zugspitze Railway, the

Drachenfels Railway The Drachenfels Railway (german: Drachenfelsbahn) is a rack railway line in the North Rhine-Westphalia region of Germany. The line runs from Königswinter, on the east bank of the Rhine, to the summit of the Drachenfels mountain at an altitude of ...

and the

Stuttgart Rack Railway The Stuttgart Rack Railway (German: ''Zahnradbahn Stuttgart'') is an electric rack railway in Stuttgart, Germany. It is the only urban rack railway in Germany, and one of only four rack railways operating in Germany, along with the Bavarian ...

. It is also the second-highest railway in Germany, after the Zugspitze Railway, but the highest when considering only open-air railways.

Conception

The construction of the Wendelstein Railway was the vision of

privy councillor A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

(''Geheimer Kommerzienrat''),

Dr. Doctor is an academic title that originates from the Latin word of the same spelling and meaning. The word is originally an agentive noun of the Latin verb 'to teach'. It has been used as an academic title in Europe since the 13th century, w ...

h.c.

Otto von Steinbeis Otto is a masculine German given name and a surname. It originates as an Old High German short form (variants ''Audo'', ''Odo'', ''Udo'') of Germanic names beginning in ''aud-'', an element meaning "wealth, prosperity". The name is recorded fro ...

, an industrialist, who was involved in forestry and agriculture in the alpine foreland as well as logging in

Bosnia Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...

on a grand scale and built, in parallel with that, an extensive light railway ('' Kleinbahn'') network. In 1908 he published his plans and on 4 February 1910 Prince-Regent Luitpold signed the

concession Concession may refer to: General * Concession (contract) (sometimes called a concession agreement), a contractual right to carry on a certain kind of business or activity in an area, such as to explore or develop its natural resources or to opera ...

deed for the construction of the Wendelstein Rack Railway. The original long route, running from Brannenburg over the eastern flank of the mountain, has seven tunnels, eight galleries and twelve bridges. In order to keep services running even in winter a route along the steep rock faces of the

Wildalpjoch Wildalpjoch is a mountain of Bavaria, Germany. Mountains of Bavaria Mountains of the Alps {{Bavaria-geo-stub ...

and the Soin was chosen instead of the cheaper and easier route on the slopes of the Mitteralm and Reindleralm alpine meadows.

Construction

Construction began on 29 March 1910 after a certain amount of opposition and various difficulties had been overcome. The cost of construction came to about three million gold marks, which was entirely borne by von Steinbeis. Over the two years that the line took to build, around 800 workers were employed, predominantly from

Bosnia and Hercegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and He ...

and Italy. The task was demanding. For the so-called ''Hohe Mauer'' ("High Wall") alone, a long, high embankment was built just before the mountain station, requiring of rock to be removed. A total of of explosive were used. The first train worked the line on 12 May 1912 and, on 25 May, the railways was formally opened. The Wendelstein Rack Railway is thus the oldest, working rack railway in Bavaria.The first rack railway in Bavaria was the industrial railway to the paper factory in Kinsau am Lech built in 1906; It was closed however during the 1920s. The oldest still working rack railway in Germany is the Drachenfels Railway which opened on 13 July 1883.

Operation

The full journey on the original route took 75 minutes. In 1961, as a result of the growth in private car ownership, the section between Brannenburg station and the present valley station in the village of Waching was sacrificed because it crossed the federal road. At the same time the railway lost its connexion to the Deutsche Bundesbahn network. As a result, the length of the line was reduced to and journey times to 55 minutes. In the years that followed it became clear that the line could not be operated profitably. As a result, in 1970, the

was erected running from Bayrischzell-Osterhofen to the Wendelstein summit, with the intent that it would replace the rack railway in due course. The attraction of the rack railway for tourism was however recognised and it was kept going. In 1987, with help from the Free State of Bavaria, the local parishes, the district of Rosenheim and the parent company of Lechwerke, the line was modernised at a cost of 17 million deutschmarks. On conclusion of the work in 1991 the capacity of the line increased by almost 100%. Journey times were reduced to 25 minutes uphill and 35 minutes downhill, thanks to two modern double railcars. The trains are able to operate every half an hour. Today 20 employees work on the rack railway, but it is still reliant on

equalization payments Equalization payments are cash payments made in some federal systems of government from the federal government to subnational governments with the objective of offsetting differences in available revenue or in the cost of providing services. Many fe ...

Gallery

Wendelsteinbahn Lok 2 und 3 in Bergstation.jpg, Lok 2 und 3 in mountain station File:Wendelsteinbahn_aipl.jpg, Two trains crossing in Aipl station File:Wendelsteinbahn 02.jpg, Mitteralm halt (Mitteralm stop) File:Wendelsteinbahn 04.jpg, On the Hohe Mauer File:Wendelsteinbahn 03.jpg, Wendelsteinhaus mountain station File:Wendelsteinbahn 07.jpg, Between the final two tunnels

References and footnotes

External links

* * * {{Authority control Rack railways in Germany Metre gauge railways in Germany Branch lines in Bavaria Buildings and structures in Miesbach (district) Rosenheim (district) Railway lines opened in 1912 1912 establishments in Germany