Mountain route
Schneebergbahn
Puchberg → Hochschneeberg · Austria
- Distance
- 10 km
- Fastest time
- 40 min
- Average speed
- 15 km/h
- Top speed
- 25 km/h
- Operator
- NÖVOG
- Train
- Salamander cog railcar · steam
- Countries
- Austria
- In service since
- 1897
- Runs
- up to 8 return trips daily (late Apr–early Nov)
- Highest point
- 1,795 m
Figures are published values, not live data · corrections log
Austria’s highest railway: the red Salamander cog train grinds 1,200 vertical metres from Puchberg to the Hochschneeberg terminus at 1,795 m, the Alps’ balcony over the Vienna basin.
Opened in 1897, the Schneebergbahn is the highest railway in Austria and one of the last steam-worked rack lines in the country. Its diesel Salamander railcars (and, on special days, the original 1890s steam locomotives) climb from Puchberg through the Baumgartner and Hengsthütte halts to the Hochschneeberg station at 1,795 m. From the terminus a short walk reaches the Fischerhütte below the 2,076 m summit, the nearest high Alp to Vienna.
How this line was checked
- Line drawn from OpenStreetMap relation 1331904 — the same nodes OpenStreetMap holds for this railway, thinned to within under 25 m of them
- Checked against OpenStreetMap: the whole line lies on real track, a median 4 m from it
- Checked against the running timetable via ÖBB Scotty: our line sits 0.1 km from the shape of NÖSBB (Zug-Nr. 10900)
- Wikipedia has an article for this line
Along the way
- Puchberg valley station
- Baumgartner refreshment halt
- Rack climb through mountain pine
- Hochschneeberg station (1,795 m)
- Kaiserstein & Fischerhütte views
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