Heritage route
Erzbergbahn
Vordernberg → Eisenerz · Austria
Erzbergbahn in pictures
Photographs by their authors, hosted on Wikimedia Commons · tap through for the licence
- Distance
- 20 km
- Fastest time
- 1 h
- Average speed
- 20 km/h
- Top speed
- 40 km/h
- Operator
- Verein Erzbergbahn
- Train
- Heritage diesel · steam
- Countries
- Austria
- In service since
- 1891
- Runs
- select summer weekends (heritage operation)
- Highest point
- 1,204 m
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
The “Semmering of the ore”: a heritage line over the 1,204 m Präbichl pass under the terraced Erzberg, the ochre iron mountain worked for over 1,300 years.
Built in 1891 as an adhesion-and-rack line to carry iron ore off the Erzberg, the Erzbergbahn crosses the 1,204 m Präbichl pass between Vordernberg and Eisenerz. Regular traffic ended in 1988, but volunteers now run heritage diesel and steam trains over the switchbacks and through the Präbichl tunnel each summer, in the shadow of the terraced ochre mountain that has been mined for over 1,300 years.
How this line was checked
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 43 m from it
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
Along the way
- Vordernberg engine shed
- Rötzgraben viaduct
- Switchbacks up to Präbichl
- Präbichl pass tunnel (1,204 m)
- The stepped Erzberg above Eisenerz
Read more on Wikipedia (in DE) ↗
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Wikipedia (JA) ↗
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