The Heidenau–Kurort Altenberg railway, also known in German as the Müglitztalbahn ("Müglitz Valley Railway") is a German railway in Saxony. Branching off the Elbe Valley Railway, it connects the town of Heidenau near Dresden with the towns of Glashütte and Altenberg in the Ore Mountains, where it terminates. The total length is 38 km, with a total incline of 634 meters.Müglitztalbahn official web site (in German) The scenic track follows primarily the Müglitz river, passing the towns of Dohna, Glashütte and Geising.
The railway was initially a narrow gauge railway, which was opened on 17 November 1890. Between 1935 and 1938, the tracks were graded and converted to standard gauge.
Passenger transport services are operated on behalf of Verkehrsverbund Oberelbe by Städtebahn Sachsen since 12 December 2010 following a retendering of the transport services. The rail infrastructure is operated by DB Netz, the stations are run by DB Station&Service.
History In the middle of the 19th century, an industrial boom, supported by small and medium-sized enterprises, began in the Müglitz valley, which coincided with the beginning of the manufacture of watches in Glashütte (1845). In addition, a number of smaller production facilities in the wood and paper industry were built after Friedrich Gottlob Keller invented a method for making paper from wood pulp in 1843. Along the Müglitz numerous small paper and paper industries were established, including large paper factories such as the Peschelmühle near Burkhardswalde and the Pappenfabrik Glashütte (1886). Also metalworking plants such as the Schlottwitz machine factory and iron foundry in Glashütte (1874). The upturn in the industrial economy was closely linked to the growing industries in the Dresden Basin, which depended on supplies from the surrounding area. The transport systems were not able to cope with the increased requirements (access to raw materials, transport of finished products), so that between 1846 and 1864, the Müglitz valley road was extended and rebuilt.
In the medium term, however, the valley road was hardly able to cope with ever-increasing quantities of goods, especially as the demand for cheap lignite rose for the operation of steam boilers. Since horse-drawn carts were unable to match the capacity, speed and costs of the railway, manufacturers, merchants, trade associations and representatives of the cities demanded the construction of a railway line from 1865. It would connect the municipalities in the Müglitz valley to the Dresden–Bodenbach line and the lignite deposits of the North Bohemian Basin via the Ore Mountains. In December 1887, the Saxon Landtag (parliament) agreed to the construction of the railway, as the competitiveness of the companies in the valley diminished markedly in the 1880s due to poor accessibility. Plans, which provided, among other things, for lines via Lockwitz–Kreischa–Schlottwitz or Pirna–Zehista–Liebstadt–Schlottwitz could not be realised and the factories in the lower Müitz valley were not connected. The permit was therefore given for the construction of a complete valley railway from Mügeln bei Pirna (now a district of Heidenau) to Geising. It was designed as a 750 mm gauge railway to make it easier to follow the curves of the valley and to provide numerous connections. A continuation to Bohemia did not occur because the transit traffic was considered to be insufficient and would have been difficult to finance the technically complex route through Bohemia that would have been required by the steep descent following the crossing of the Ore Mountains.
The narrow-gauge railway from 1890 to 1939
After two years of construction, with up to 1100 workers per month, the line was put into operation on 17 November 1890. It was 36.1 km long and overcame a difference in height of 470 m. The narrow and winding valley made considerable demands on the route selection. Of the total length, 86% was uphill (31 km) and 40% was in curvy sections (14.5 km). The Geising Viaduct was at 65 m long, the longest of the 57 bridges built. For the time being, Altenberg did not have a connection to the railway, as there was insufficient finance and no suitable locomotives available for the steep Geising–Altenberg section. Geising station was officially given the double name of "Geising-Altenberg", although the hill town hardly gained any benefit, since it was about 3 km away from and 160 metres in altitude above Geising. Despite this small "flaw", the railway was greeted by the valley inhabitants with festivals, fireworks and gun salutes. The first timetable provided for four daily train pairs; the travel time for the entire route was 150 minutes, a one-way trip in second class cost 2.30 Marks.
The total of 3.6 million Marks spent on the railway contributed significantly to the economic boom of the neighbouring communities. As early as 1895, 14 industrial plants were connected by branches. In addition to the finished products, lignite, wood pulp, straw, paper, wood and bricks have been transported. From the 1920s, ice blocks were carried in winter from the Große Galgenteich lake near Altenberg to the Dresden cold stores. Passenger traffic was also significant. Numerous hikers took advantage of the railway to travel from Dresden and the Dresden Basin into the Ore Mountain area, which developed into a summer resort. The snow safety of the upper levels has also given the railway significant winter sport traffic since the turn of the century. As a result, it developed into one of the most economic routes in the Saxonian narrow-gauge railway network. Because of the heavy freight traffic, there were even proposals in 1914 for the operational separation of goods and passenger traffic on the Mügeln–Weesenstein section by the construction of a second railway. However, these plans were not implemented due to the post-war economic crisis. Instead, the extension of the line to Altenberg became the focus of interest. The town repeatedly proposed an extension of the railway. Various plans would have seen a continuation from Geising via Altenberg to Moldava, Hermsdorf, Kipsdorf or Frauenstein.
The government did not support these projects because of high construction costs and the low revenues expected. The 1914 proposal for an extension to Altenberg failed at the beginning of the First World War, but was then started as an emergency project in 1919. Within four years the 5.5 km-long roundabout line from Geising via the Geisingberg to Altenberg was opened on 10 November 1923. Large sections of the railway line were destroyed during a devastating flood on 8 July 1927.
Conversion to standard gauge
Because of the steadily increasing transport demand after the Great Depression, Deutsche Reichsbahn decided to rebuild the line as standard gauge in 1934. This project was implemented between 1935 and December 1938. The Heidenau-Lauenstein section was completely redesigned; on the rest of the section to Altenberg, only the radius of the curve was enlarged. As a result, the line was approximately 3 km shorter.
With the commencement of services on the standard gauge track in 1938, the number of road and track crossings and thus the danger of accidents were markedly reduced despite the increasing road traffic, but the Niederschlottwitz–Glashütte section was not accessible until April 1939. The flood risk also declined due to the raising of the line, although not on all sections of the line. However, the creation of a profitable basis for freight transport and improvements in passenger services were more important. For Deutsche Reichsbahn, the railway was the "new gateway to the eastern Ore Mountains", which made the Altenberg winter sport region "a sports ground at the gates of the national capital". The travel time for passenger services was shortened significantly, Altenberg was approximately 70 minutes from Dresden, about 160 minutes from Leipzig and about 180 minutes from Berlin.
During the Second World War
The outbreak of the Second World War strongly restricted tourism. Because of the lack of coal, only three to five pairs of passenger trains operated every day, but the number of railcars from regions affected by air warfare was increasing. At the end of the Second World War there were fighting in the Müglitz Valley between Soviet and German troops. In April 1945, the railway installations in Glashütte, Bärenhecke-Johnsbach and Altenberg were damaged by strafing. In the last days of the war in May 1945 further damage occurred during air raids on Altenberg and Glashütte. Parts of the 10th SS Panzer Division Frundsberg used the Müglitz Valley as a retreat to northern Bohemia and planned the demolition of the Weesenstein tunnel. The derailment of a military train at Bärenstein on 7 May, as well as the rapid Soviet advance, prevented the planned destruction of the operationally important railway.
After the Second World War
Although the Müglitz Valley Railway survived the Second World War largely intact apart from isolated damage in some railway stations, the enterprise was difficult in the early post-war years. On the other hand, there was an acute shortage of rollingstock as on all other lines. Class 84 locomotives were used for the transport of uranium in the Western Ore Mountains and passenger cars of the "Altenberg" class were used for express services. On the other hand, the track of the line had been built between 1935 and 1938 out of reused materials due to the scarcity of raw materials, and the material shortage of the immediate post-war years made the urgently necessary renewal difficult. From 1949/50, it was possible to speak of an initial normalisation of traffic, which included, among other things, the reinstatement of the first winter sports traffic. In the passenger and freight transport sector of the early 1950s, the operations of the uranium ore mining operation of the SDAG Wismut company near Bärenhecke played an important role between 1948 and 1954. All in all, rail traffic reached considerable proportions again. In the mid-1960s, at least 14 plants were connected to nine freight lines, including metal, chemical and paper processing companies in Dohna (VEB Druckguss Heidenau and VEB Chemiewerke Dohna). In passenger transport, it was used by hikers as well as increasingly by commuters to the Dresden Basin.
Since the beginning of the 1960s, Deutsche Reichsbahn has been trying to increase the transport performance and profitability of the railways by the use of railcars, double-deck wagons and diesel locomotives. While the operation of the former succeeded only to a limited extent, the diesel traction increasingly took over operations from the mid-1960s onwards with the class 110. This locomotive class took over operations on the Müglitz Valley Railway from 1967. At the same time, there were considerations of abandoning operations, in particular freight, on part or even all of the line. This was an issue particularly after the flooding in October 1966 of Geising station with a wave carrying sludge and gravel, which had escaped after the failure of the drainage system of VEB Zinnerz Altenberg. In addition, the railway was affected by increased the competition from private cars. This, however, was probably the reason for a shift in transport services to the already heavily used streets, especially in the winter months on the Dresden–Altenberg and Heidenau–Altenberg routes. Nevertheless, freight traffic declined in the following decades and focused on the section between Heidenau and Köttewitz. The route was maintained as a route for excursion traffic. In the winter months numerous special trains were used, connecting Altenberg directly with Dresden, Cottbus, Halle (Saale), Leipzig, Riesa and Hoyerswerda.