Ybbs Valley Railway

Geschichte

The Ybbs Valley Railway was a narrow-gauge railway of the Austrian Federal Railways with a track gauge of, located in the Lower Austrian Mostviertel.The original route followed the valley of the river Ybbs from Waidhofen an der Ybbs to Kienberg-Gaming, with a branchline to the town of Ybbsitz. A small section from Waidhofen an der Ybbs to Gstadt still operates as Waidhofen City Railway, while the route from Lunz am See to Kienberg-Gaming is currently operated as a heritage railway under the name Ybbsthalbahn-Bergstrecke . Plans are under way to extend the heritage section to the town of Göstling, where tracks of the old railway are still in place.RouteWaidhofen an der Ybbs - Lunz am SeeThe Ybbs Valley Railway starts from the narrow-gauge railway platform opposite the main standard gauge station at Waidhofen am der Ybbs, where the workshops are located. Until the end of freight service transhipment from normal to narrow gauge was done in this station. The railway first serves several halts in the city of Waidhofen, crossing a spectacular viaduct over the town, until it comes to the station at Gstadt at the 6 km mark which is the end of the line since 12 December 2010. This station used to be the junction for the branch line to Ybbsitz.The main route closed since December 2010 then followed the river Ybbs, which it crossed three times. The next large station was Opponitz, the location of the only tunnel of the Ybbs Valley Railway, and then after 25 km Hollenstein an der Ybbs (station Großhollenstein). This section from here gained altitude, as it followed the valley of the upper Ybbs.