The Neusorg–Fichtelberg railway was a German branch line northern

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

. It linked the town of Fichtelberg in the Upper Franconian county of

Bayreuth Bayreuth ( or ; High Franconian German, Upper Franconian: Bareid, ) is a Town#Germany, town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town's roots date back to 11 ...

with Neusorg station in the Upper Palatine county of

Tirschenreuth Tirschenreuth (; Northern Bavarian: ''Dirschnrad'', ''Diascharad'') is the capital city of the district of Tirschenreuth (district), Tirschenreuth. It is located in the northeast of Bavaria, very close to the Czech-Bavarian border. Geography Tirs ...

on the main line from Nuremberg to Cheb. This

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 in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ...

, single-track ''

Lokalbahn A ''Lokalbahn'' or ''Localbahn'' ("local line", plural: -en) is a secondary railway line worked by local trains serving rural areas, typically in Austria and the south German states of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg. ''Lokalbahnen'' appeared at t ...

'' ('local line') was 14.7 km long and was opened on 20 December 1890 by the

Royal Bavarian State Railways The Royal Bavarian State Railways (''Königliche Bayerische Staats-Eisenbahnen'' or ''K.Bay.Sts.B.'') was the state railway company for the Kingdom of Bavaria. It was founded in 1844. The organisation grew into the second largest of the German ...

. The line ran in a northwesterly direction along the valley of the Fichtelnaab river up into the

Fichtel Mountains The Fichtel Mountains (, ; ) is a mountain range in Germany and the Czech Republic. They extend from the valley of the Red Main River in northeastern Bavaria to the Karlovy Vary Region in western Czech Republic. The Fichtel Mountains contain an ...

. Passing through Ebnath and

Brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

it reached its terminus, the climatic health resort of Fichtelberg at a height of 720 m above sea level, where, for centuries, there had been a mining industry. The town was the highest terminal station of all branch lines in the Fichtel Mountains. During the early decades no more than three pairs of trains ran daily on workdays fuhren, in 1939 there were four and in 1957 even as many as eight. On Sundays the number of trains rose from three to six over the course of the years. As the

Deutsche Bundesbahn Deutsche Bundesbahn (, ) or DB () was formed as the state railway of the newly established West Germany (FRG) on 7 September 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG). The DB remained the state railway of West Germany u ...

(DB) increasingly withdrew itself from the area, services reduced from 1975 to just one train, which left in the morning during the week from Fichtelberg to Kirchenlaibach and returned from

Schirnding Schirnding is a municipality in the district of Wunsiedel in Bavaria in Germany. Schirnding station is a border station on the Nuremberg–Cheb railway The Nuremberg–Cheb railway is a 151 km long, non-electrified main line, mainly in t ...

in the evening. The rest of the time a DB bus was laid on. On 30 May 1976 passenger services on the railway stopped completely. Goods traffic continued until 30 September 1984, and an industrial siding on the other side of Brand was worked until the end of the year.

Sources

* Gerald Hoch, Andreas Kuhfahl: ''Nebenbahnen in der Oberpfalz.'' Neustadt bei Coburg 2000 * Wolfgang Bleiweis, Ekkehard Martin, Stefan Winkler: ''Fränkische Nebenbahnen einst und jetzt – Oberfranken.'' Egglham und München 1986 {{DEFAULTSORT:Neusorg-Fichtelberg railway Branch lines in Bavaria Fichtel Mountains

See also

Sources