!!!Schmalspurbahnen

Narrow Gauge Railways, railways with a gauge below the normal gauge 
(1,435 mm); one such example was the first Austrian railway, the 
horse-drawn railway line Budweis- Linz (1832, 1836 to Gmunden), with a 
gauge of 1,106 mm. Narrow rights of way, lighter substructures 
and carriages as well as the ability to pass narrow bends, all 
features characteristic of narrow gauge railways, made it possible to 
open up narrow valleys quickly and at minimum cost. Narrow gauge 
railways were tram-like and only served small areas. In 1878/79 (when 
Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia) military railway lines had to be 
built quickly. Their tracks and carriages fitted a gauge of 
760 mm. From 1889 (1st part of the Steyrtalbahn railway) local 
railway services in the pre-Alpine and Alpine valleys were set up. 
Modelled on the electric railway service Moedling- Hinterbruehl 
(1883-1885, discontinued in 1932), local railway services in and 
around Innsbruck as well as in Upper Austria were also built in the 
1,000 mm gauge from 1891 on.

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Important 760 mm railways: Mariazeller Bahn (1898-1907, line similar 
to the Semmeringbahn railway, electrified in 1911), Murtalbahn (1894), 
Pinzgauer Bahn (1898), Zillertalbahn (1900-1902); the last 760 mm 
railway was opened in 1930 and ran between Birkfeld and Ratten. From 
1957 the following narrow gauge railways were gradually discontinued: 
Salzkammergut-Lokalbahn, the two Carinthian lines (Gurk Valley, 
Vellachtal valley), the Steyrtalbahn, the Bregenzerwaldbahn and the 
railways in the northern Waldviertel region (now only excursion trips 
from Heidenreichstein). All the remaining track sections are still in 
use as museum pieces.

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The tram in Linz and the former electric local railway service to 
St. Florian (historic railway line) were built with the rare 
gauge of 900 mm. The latest narrow gauge railway in Austria is 
the Hoehenbahn Reisseck in Carinthia (alt. 2,240 m), the only one 
with a gauge of 600 mm. To avoid re-loading, some narrow gauge 
railway lines can be adapted for standard-gauge wagons with trolleys 
or dollies.

!Literature
W. Krobot et al., Schmalspurig durch Oesterreich, 
%%sup 4/%1991; A. Christopher, G. Mackinger and P. Wegenstein, 
Privatbahnen in Oesterreich. Strecken - Fahrzeuge - Betrieb, 1997; 
J. O. Slezak, Von Salzburg nach Bad Ischl. Geschichte der 
Salzkammergut-Lokalbahn, 1997; C. Hager and P. Wegenstein, 
Steyrtalbahn, 1998; G. Breitfuss, Die Pinzgauer Lokalbahn, 1998.


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