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The Schneeberg Railway (german: Schneebergbahn) is one of three
rack railway A rack railway (also rack-and-pinion railway, cog railway, or cogwheel railway) is a steep grade railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with ...
s in Austria still operating, and runs from the small town of
Puchberg am Schneeberg Puchberg am Schneeberg is a town in the south-eastern part of Lower Austria with approximately 2650 inhabitants. It is situated about 80 Kilometres from Vienna. The highest point of Puchberg is the Schneeberg with 2076 m, the highest mountain of ...
in
Lower Austria Lower Austria (german: Niederösterreich; Austro-Bavarian: ''Niedaöstareich'', ''Niedaestareich'') is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Since 1986, the capital of Lower Austria has been Sankt P ...
up to a plateau beneath the Schneeberg summit. At , the Schneeberg is the highest mountain in Lower Austria. The other two working cog railways in Austria are the
Schafberg Railway The Schafberg Railway (german: Schafbergbahn) is a metre gauge cog railway in Upper Austria and Salzburg leading from Sankt Wolfgang im Salzkammergut up to the Schafberg (1,783 m). With a total length of 5.85 km it gains about 1,200 m in he ...
(opened in 1893) and the
Achensee Railway The Achensee Railway (german: Achenseebahn, ) is a long metre gauge railway running between Jenbach () and Seespitz () on Achensee, Lake Achen in state of Tyrol, Tyrol (Austria). Within its length it rises some in height, with the steeper sect ...
(opened in 1889).


History

The line is long and has a
rail gauge In rail transport, track gauge (in American English, alternatively track gage) is the distance between the two rails of a railway track. All vehicles on a rail network must have wheelsets that are compatible with the track gauge. Since many d ...
of , and uses the
Abt rack system A rack railway (also rack-and-pinion railway, cog railway, or cogwheel railway) is a steep grade railway with a toothed rack rail, usually between the running rails. The trains are fitted with one or more cog wheels or pinions that mesh with ...
to overcome a height difference of . With the emergence of tourism in the second half of the 19th century, the region experienced a growing number of city dwellers looking for destinations close to Vienna. The area of the
Vienna Hausberge Vienna's Hausberge (german: Wiener Hausberge) are the mountains of Raxalpe, Schneeberg and Hohe Wand in the south of the state of Lower Austria. These mountains may be reached from Vienna in about an hour and are therefore a popular recreation ar ...
("Viennese Local Mountains"), the Schneeberg and Rax region, soon emerged as a favourite summer resort of
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
's wealthy residents and lovers of the countryside. The Schneeberg Railway began its operation in 1897. Designed by Leo Arnoldi, it was built between 1895 and 1897 in two sections: a regular, connecting railroad from
Wiener Neustadt Wiener Neustadt (; ; Central Bavarian: ''Weana Neistod'') is a city located south of Vienna, in the state of Lower Austria, in northeast Austria. It is a self-governed city and the seat of the district administration of Wiener Neustadt-Land Distr ...
to Puchberg; and the cog railway from Puchberg to the mountain plateau.


Ownership

Originally operated by the Arnoldi company, whose majority shareholder was the
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
bank house Landau, the operation was taken over in 1899 by the AG der Eisenbahn Wien–Aspang (EWA) (Vienna-Aspang Rail Company), due to economic problems. From 1937 it was operated by the BBÖ (''Bundesbahn Österreich''): the Federal Railway of Austria; the predecessor of today's
ÖBB The Austrian Federal Railways (german: Österreichische Bundesbahnen, formally (lit. "Austrian Federal Railways Holding Stock Company") and formerly the or ''BBÖ''), now commonly known as ÖBB, is the national railway company ...
: Austrian Federal Railways), which was an independent commercial company after 1923. After 1940 the railway was fully nationalized, a situation lasting until 1990, when the ÖBB announced it was unable to maintain the existing level of service. Therefore an independent operating company, the ''Niederösterreichische Schneebergbahn GmbH'' (Lower Austrian Schneeberg Railway Company Ltd.) was founded in 1996, with a 50% shareholding owned by the federal
state State may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * ''State Magazine'', a monthly magazine published by the U.S. Department of State * ''The State'' (newspaper), a daily newspaper in Columbia, South Carolina, United States * ''Our S ...
of Lower Austria, and the other 50% held by the ÖBB. Although it was originally operated with
steam locomotive A steam locomotive is a locomotive that provides the force to move itself and other vehicles by means of the expansion of steam. It is fuelled by burning combustible material (usually coal, oil or, rarely, wood) to heat water in the locomot ...
s, modern
diesel locomotive A diesel locomotive is a type of railway locomotive in which the prime mover is a diesel engine. Several types of diesel locomotives have been developed, differing mainly in the means by which mechanical power is conveyed to the driving whee ...
s have also been in operation since 1999. These came from Hunslet-Barclay, Kilmarnock, Scotland.


Austrian rack railways no longer operating

(Operating dates for passenger traffic in brackets) *
Erzberg Railway , photo=HochtorOedsteinGroup FromS HoherZinken.jpg , photo_caption=Hochtor - Ödstein Group (Gesäuse) (from right to left) as seen from Hoher Zinken in the south , country= Austria , subdivision1_type=States , subdivision1= , parent= Northe ...
(1872-1978). The last rack-railway engine was in use until 1978, when the route was electrified and converted into an
adhesion railway An adhesion railway relies on adhesion traction to move the train. Adhesion traction is the friction between the drive wheels and the steel rail. The term "adhesion railway" is used only when it is necessary to distinguish adhesion railways from ...
. In 1980, despite public protest and a petition, the rack was completely removed. After 1988, there were no more ore trains to the furnaces of
Vordernberg Vordernberg is a municipality in the district of Leoben in the Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation ...
and Donawitz and the route was decommissioned. The Zahnradbahn Verein (Cog Railway Society) has operated a heritage train on the Erzberg Railway since 1990, and in 2003 the Verein Erzbergbahn (Erzbergbahn Society) bought the tracks, stations and rolling stock from the ÖBB and continues to operate it as a tourist and heritage adhesion railway on a voluntary basis. * Gaisberg Railway (1892-1928) in
Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...
; replaced by the Gaisberg Parkway (Gaisbergstraße). * Kahlenberg Railway (1873-1921) in Vienna. Austria's first cog railway was built between 1872-1873 for the 1873 World's Fair. Due to
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, electrification, which had been planned since 1912, could not be completed. The lack of coal and sufficient passengers after the war led to its closure.


See also

*
List of highest railways in Europe This is a list of highest passenger railways in operation in Europe. It only includes non-cable railways whose culminating point is over 1,200 metres above sea level. Most of them are located in the Alps, where two railways, the Jungfrau and Gorne ...


External links


www.schneebergbahn.at


* {{Authority control Metre gauge railways in Austria Mountain railways Railway lines opened in 1897 Rack railways in Austria 1897 establishments in Austria