The Untersteinach–Stadtsteinach railway is a

branch line A branch line is a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Branch lines may serve one or more industries, or a city or town not located ...

in the

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 ...

n province of

Upper Franconia Upper Franconia (, ) is a (administrative 'Regierungs''region 'bezirk'' of the state of Bavaria, southern Germany. It forms part of the historically significant region of Franconia, the others being Middle Franconia and Lower Franconia, wh ...

in southern Germany. It links the former district town of

Stadtsteinach Stadtsteinach is a town in the district of Kulmbach, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated in the Franconian Forest, 8 km northeast of Kulmbach. It is known for its proximity to mountains, fields and nature reserves. Town divisions Stadtstein ...

with the main line from Bamberg to Hof. Untersteinach KU Bahnhof

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

, single-tracked ''

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 ...

'' is 4.8 km long and was opened for goods traffic on 26 November 1913 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 ...

. For almost 30 years it was used to transport goods, mainly ballast for the construction of railways. Not until the lack of fuel in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

brought buses to a halt was a passenger service offered on 19 July 1943 using a coach attached to the goods train. This was provided at the instigation (and risk) of the town authorities until 13 April 1945 and thus never appeared in the German railway timetable. There were no intermediate stations on the line. After the war the Nuremberg railway division laid on three pairs of passenger trains daily on workdays from 16 January 1947. In summer 1949 Sunday passenger services were introduced (two pairs) which ran to and from

Kulmbach Kulmbach () is the capital of the district of Kulmbach in Bavaria in Germany. The town, once a stronghold of the Principality of Bayreuth, is renowned for its University of Life Sciences, a branch of the University of Bayreuth, the massive Plasse ...

. As economic conditions improved, passengers turned back to the buses and also to private vehicles, so that in the 1956 summer timetable only two pairs of trains ran on workdays. Even these disappeared on 30 September 1956. Since then the railway has become purely a goods line once more.

References

*Wolfgang Bleiweis, Ekkehard Martin, Stefan Winkler: ''Fränkische Nebenbahnen einst und jetzt – Oberfranken.'' Egglham und München 1986

External links

Goods train photos on 10 September 2005 on the line
{{DEFAULTSORT:Untersteinach-Stadtsteinach railway Branch lines in Bavaria Buildings and structures in Kulmbach (district)