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Austrian Railway Group |  | ||
Rheinbahnle
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| This railway is owned and operated jointly by the Austrians and the Swiss and exists to provide a supply of stone to construct river control flood defences on the Rhein from the confluence of the River Ill to Lake Constance/Bodensee Lake Constance. Of 750mm gauge, the line was built in 1895 and runs for 33 kms from the Kadelberg quarries at Koblach where the stone in the form of both large rocks and crushed material is produced, to the unloading points by the Bodensee. Originally steam worked, it was electrified at 750volts around the second world war, the four overhead wire locos are unusual in that they are dual powered, either from the overhead or by diesel engine. There are also three British built Simplex diesel locos used for shunting at the quarry and at the main depot and workshops at Lustenau and two others by Orenstein & Koppel and Jenbacher. It also has available two of the original steam locos “Liesl” a Maffei of 1921 and “Widnau” a Jung of 1910 for tourist trains. Rolling stock consists of wooden flat wagons for the large rock, steel side tippers, and classic wooden framed ,wooden bodied side tipping wagons, similar to the contractors wagons used in civil engineering works in the days of railway and canal construction in the U.K. There are also coaches for the passenger service. Although it is an industrial railway, it is mentioned here because it has for some years now operated a tourist train, the line being marketed under the title “Rheinbahnle”. Trains operate from the depot at Lustenau where an open air display, “ Rhein-schauen” relates the history of the project. The 2004 timetable showed electric hauled trains most Fri.,Sat.,Sun., May to October with steam on certain Sundays in this period. The website (german) has all the details of the stock, past and present under ‘fuhrpark’, timetable under ‘fahrten’, then year or type of haulage, details of a half day outing including a steamship trip are under “erlebnisfahrten” http://www.rheinschauen.at/index2.php |
All photos : Jim Davidson |
For source information,
their web site (in German)
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Text Jim Davidson
updated 7th October 2004