The oldest electric locomotive in service leads you to the Valley of Hell
The preparations
As the Wien-Raaber Bahn reached the feet of the Semmering pass and later on, as the pass railway (the world's first-ever mountain railway) was developed, the flourishing, wet, lumber-heavy valleys in the area attracted loads of investors. Neusiedler AG wanted to build a paper mill along the Schwarza river to exploit the dense pinewood forests of the area and therefore the planning of a standard-gauge railway from Südbahn's Payerbach-Reichenau station to Hirschwang (the village at the feet of the Raxalpe, to house the paper mill) and a branch to Prien, both electrified by DC, was started.
World War 1 cancelled these ideas, but the material railway built for the construction, of a gauge of 76 cm and a DC electrification using mine railway locomotives received from the construction of the Karawanken-tunnel between present-day Karinthia and Slovenia, was still available. The company received a concession to operate the material railway on as a regional railway, and the finished construction works on the standard-gauge track, including the boring of the Artzbergtunnel, about 80% ready, were forgotten.
The overhead wire was elevated, freight traffic was started in 1918, supplemented by passenger traffic (mostly tourist trains) from 1926. The railcars and trailers serving the passenger traffic were built by Grazer Waggonfabrik.
Post-WW2 meant the deterioration of both kinds of traffic, so at first passenger, later on freight traffic was discontinued. The civil organization ÖGLB took over the railway, but soon the Ybbstalbahn Bergstrecke, a narrow-gauge mountain railway also taken over by ÖGLB gained priority. The museum railway spent almost thirty years in agony until finally in 1998 the regular museum traffic could start and in 2003 a railcar and trailer, returned from the non-electrified Zillertalbahn, and thoroughly rebuilt, could enter museum duties. After that, the EI, world's oldest functioning electric locomotive, TW1, an original railcar of the line and other vehicles have provided a museum traffic on the line.
Trains run on Sundays in and near the Summer season, twice a year the EI locomotive, in the rest of the time, the TW1 railcar. It is best to get on the first train of the day as they visit the car depot at Hirschwang and the rotary transformer-works at Reichenau where the train crew gives detailed explanations in German, and if requested, in English as well.
Ride the Höllentalbahn when you can!
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