Achensee Railway

47.388994811.7793317Koordinaten: 47 ° 23 ' 20 " N, 11 ° 46' 46" E

The Achenseebahn is a narrow-gauge cog railway in Austria with a track width of 1000 mm. It runs from Jenbach to Seespitz on the lake and was established in 1889. The route is not electrified and runs regularly traveled exclusively with steam locomotives. Owners and operators is the Achensee Bahn AG, whose capital is 70% in the hands of the riparian communities.

History

1886 requested Consul Theodor Friedrich Freiherr von Dreifuss from Grüneck the village in Upper Bavaria Kreuth the concession for a cog railway and rail links from Jenbach in the Inn Valley to the southern tip of Lake Achen. Despite concerns of Seeanrainer opposite of what was then new-fangled gear train gave Emperor Franz Joseph the First after endorsement by the monastery Fiecht that the Achensee possessed and on operating steamship, on 1 August 1888, the concession for the construction and operation of a narrow-gauge locomotive railways with mixed adhesion - and rack rails operating at 90 years. The handwritten written partly in gold certificate with imperial seal is still intact in the possession of Achenseebahn.

On June 8, 1889, the 6.36 km long route was opened, but already ended some 100 meters earlier than today, at the old station buildings Achenseebahn that still stand today. A siding with 600 mm gauge led to the current station Seespitz and thus the steamboat landing. The Austrian military administration was 1916 umspuren the siding at 1000 mm, the locomotives were not allowed to drive on this section of road. The Achenseebahn was finally able to purchase the track and drive on July 23, 1929, its trains. Length of the route rose to 6.76 km. Since there are a new station building and a new steamboat dock at the new terminus Seespitz / Achensee. After conversion from 1971 to adapt to current needs this facility exists today.

1950 held the TIWAG ( Tyrolean hydropower plants ) the majority of shares. 1979 took over the surrounding communities this. Now the flat route with the help of federal and state has been restored. The communities Eben, Jenbach and Achenkirch are major shareholders since 1991.

2012 breakpoint Maurach Center was put into operation.

Route description

The 7km long route begins in Jenbach, the only Austrian station with three different gauges. Here, the standard gauge ÖBB, 760 mm narrow gauge of the Zillertal Railway and the meter gauge of Achenseebahn meet. The steep section of Jenbach up to Eben is equipped with a ladder rack on the Riggenbach system, since a maximum slope of 160 ‰ must be overcome here. From there it goes again without gear in slope to Seespitz on the shore of Lake Achen, where connection is made to the ships of the Achensee shipping.

Resources

Locomotives

At the opening of Achenseebahn 1889 four wheel - steam locomotives were procured with the wheel arrangement BZT n2. They were given the numbers 1 to 4 and the name Theodore, Herman, George and Carl. Lok 4 was used in the years after the Second World War as a source of spare parts and scrapped in a row. The operation was performed until 2005 with only the remaining three machines, which are considered the oldest rack railway locomotives in Austria. In 2005, a reconstructed from reclaimed old stock parts of other machines and some spare parts Lok 4 was first fueled again. However, it served only as a standing film set and it was missing some important parts in order to place them in their operation can. After the train was 1 on 16 May 2008 severely damaged in a fire in the boiler house in Jenbach, the locomotive was 4 within three months with non-defective parts of the locomotive 1 then prepared for use, so that for the time being still stood three locomotives available. By the end of 2009, the damaged locomotive 1 was then rebuilt and has since become operational again.

Car

On wagons several two-axle passenger cars are available, which were built in 1889 by the carriage and wagon factory, iron and metal foundry John Weitzer in Graz. A train consists normally of a closed and an open summer trolley cars which are to Eben uphill pushed and pulled from there to the Lake. Furthermore, available for internal transport some goods wagons available, a regular freight there are no longer on the Achenseebahn.

Beginning of the rack portion at the depot at the station Jenbach

Train for the ride (1977 )

Lok 2 with single car on the upper track section (1977 )

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