The Passau–Erlau–Hauzenberg railway is a single-tracked branch line in the Regensburg railway division with a branch to Erlau–Obernzell(–Wegscheid), which was partially operated as rack railway using the Strub rack system.
Dates
Completion of the Kräutelstein bridge from the Innstadt over the Danube: 1903
Opening of the Passau–Hauzenberg line: 25 November 1904
Opening of the Erlau–Obernzell line: 15 May 1909
Opening of the Obernzell–Wegscheid line: 1 December 1912
Closure of the Obernzell-Wegscheid line: 28 January 1965, dismantled in spring 1975. On 24 November 2007 the Bavarian Regional Railway rented the Passau–Hauzenberg railway and the Erlau-Obernzell section, and announced that they would be opened again.
The granite route
The originally planned course for this railway was quite different. In 1895 the intention was for a line that branched off the Freyung railway at Fischhaus and ran via Büchlberg and Hauzenberg to Wegscheid. This would have entailed a long detour and a climb of 130 metres. Because the costs would have been too high, a link between Wegscheid and Hauzenberg was not essential, the present-day route was proposed. Approval for its construction was issued on 30 June 1900.
The Passau–Erlau–Hauzenberg railway
Between Passau Hauptbahnhof and the suburb of Voglau the railway shares its tracks with Wels–Passau railway. Due to the restricted amount of space the railway branches shortly before Maximilians bridge (a railway bridge over the Inn) with into a backshunt (Spitzkehre, see table photo) at the 1.0 km marker. From there it runs along the Inn on the edge of the village of Innstadt over the Rosenau until just before the border with Austria at Achleiten. It was here between 1900 and 1903 that the Kräutelstein bridge was built over the Danube by the firms of Hellinger and MAN. From now on railway passengers could enjoy the full splendour of the Danube to their left as they travelled through Löwmühle (formerly a halt) to Erlau. From here the line climbed uphill alongside the Erlau river to Hauzenberg. The station at Erlau was only provided with one platform, which was not helpful for the subsequent crossing of trains from Wegscheid and Hauzenberg. Just as difficult was the working service. The railway reached Schaibing station through a 34 m long tunnel, but the village of Schaibing was a long way off and the station and this acted mainly as a loading and unloading site for goods from and to the surrounding villages. The line continued up the Erlau valley as far as Kaindlmühle and from here it followed the Staffelbach stream to Oberdiendorf. However the village was on the hill, the station in the valley, and goods were transported to the station using a cable car. The railway then ran through the woods via Knödlsöd (former halt at 23.5 km), past Freiflächen, to Hauzenberg. On 18 April 1904 the first train ran from Passau to Erlau. Hauzenberg lies at a height of 177.7 m above the Passau Hauptbahnhof, so inclines of 1:50 from Erlau and 1:40 from Kaindlmühle had to be overcome. The climb to the Kräutelstein bridge was also steep.
The Erlau–Obernzell–Wegscheid railway
The Erlau–Obernzell railway ran picturesquely along the Danube until it swung away into the mountains towards Wegscheid at Obernzell (300 m above NN) over the viaduct (demolished in 1982). From there it entered the rack railway section between 5.67 and 9.48 km from the start, running uphill to Untergriesbach (542,7m above NN), on through curves with radii as little as 200 m, and on inclines of up to 25 per mille on the adhesion section to Withterwasser (535,0 m ü. NN) in order to overcome the height difference. Next came another rack section (70 per mille) from 17.29 to 19.67 km before it reached Wegscheid (574,2 m above NN). For this railway, special steam locomotives were built, even during the planning and construction stages, by the firm of Krauss in Munich. These were Class PtzL 3/4 locomotives, passenger tank engines with a rack railway system, three of the four axles being driven, with the works numbers 4101–4003, 8033. Later they were taken over by the Deutsche Reichsbahn and operated as numbers 97 101 to 104 from Bw Passau. The first loco was delivered in 1912, two more quickly followed but the fourth was not supplied until 1923. The running speed on adhesion sections of the line was just 30 km/h, and on the rack railway sections 12 km/h.