The Bavarian Forest Railways
A little-known (and probably little-modelled) area which would make an excellent theme for short branch line layouts is the Bavarian Forest or Bayerischer Wald. A brief outline: The Bavarian Forest has a network of branch lines, most of which are still operating. They are some of the steeper and more winding branch lines in Bavaria and pass through a charming landscape of wooded hills and steep-sided valleys with mountain streams and rushing rivers. The region is a major tourist area, but relatively little known outside Germany. The Deggendorf-Zwiesel-Bayerisch Eisenstein line is a picturesque single track main line crossing the border into the Czech Republic. For many years it was of course closed at the imposing granite border station of Bayerisch Eisenstein by the Iron Curtain. Branch lines in the area with dates when they were fully opened: Gotteszell-Viechtach (the Regentalbahn – 1890) Zwiesel-Grafenau (1890) Deggendorf-Metten (1891) Kötzting-Lam (1892) Passau-Freyung (1892) Passau-Hauzenberg (the Hauzenberg Bockerl – 1904) Straubing-Miltach (1905) Erlau-Wegscheid (rack railway – 1912) Deggendorf-Kalteneck (1914) Zwiesel-Bodenmais (1928) Logging was a major industry in the Bavarian Forest and wood and granite were the two main goods transported by the railways there. But it has always been famous for glass-making and glass was the most valuable commodity. The first railway to be built was the Zwiesel-Grafenau line and from 1908 the 600mm narrow gauge Spiegelau Forest Railway (Spiegelauer Waldbahn) was opened to link sawmills to the network. In those days logs were loaded onto trains almost everywhere in the Forest. In the 1950s they were hauled with chains and pulleys from the far side of bolster or stake wagons up a ramp formed of other logs. A similar technique could have been used in the early 1900s using horses and ropes. Typical rolling stock e.g. on the Hauzenberg line included Class D VII engines in 1905 hauling mixed trains Later BB II Malletts, purpose-designed for this area, hauled goods trains. Class D Xs, GtL 4/4 goods engines and the classic branch line engines, the D XIs, were also used. In the roundhouses at Plattling in 1902 the following engines were stabled: B V, B VI, C IV, D I, D IV and D XI. In 1914 there were five B X, twenty C IV, five D IV, eight D XI, seven Pt 2/3 and one each of D I and D IX. Of these it seems that the C IV, B X and Pt 2/3 were used on main lines. There is a recent book on the Hauzenberg Bockerl as well as the standard Bufe references “Nebenbahnen zwischen Arber und Hallertau” and “Nebenbahnen im Passauer Land” which cover the north and south of the region respectively.

Hauling logs still seems to be a source of revenue for DB in Bavaria. Last May I changed trains at Marktredwitz and saw a whole string of stake cars loaded with what looked like pine logs being shuffled around by a diesel shunter. Unfortunately I don't know enough about the DB bestiary to say what type it was.

This is a interesting area around 1910. Forest usage was restricted until the early 1900's. The Glasshuetten owned their own forest regions to produce the supply of wood to burn. The supply of Potash from this wood was limited and Potash was shipped in from Bohemia or other parts of Bavaria. This shipping of Potash would provide an interesting feature at the Bohemian border of Bayerisch Eisenstein. Other items listed for the area are Forestry products, Cattle and Linen. Would the Cattle be shipped on train or butchered locally? What Lokomotives would by operating on the Platting-Bayerisch Eisenstien line? The Eisenstein station has a large round house for service and storage. Were the Loko stationed at Platting and stored at Eisenstein but serviced at Platting? How was coal handled at Eisentstein? Paul

Paul, Eisenstein is a massive granite station with loco sheds and turntable as you've spotted plus large accommodation blocks for the railway workers. You can see some of my photos of it on Jürgen Pepke's site at http://www.kbaystb.de/kbaystb-kbaystb/kbaystb-bahnhoefe/kbaystb-bahnhoefe_ebelsbach-eysoelden/kbaystb-bahnhoefe-bayrisch-eisenstein/kbaystb-bahnhoefe-bayrisch-eisenstein.html. I have also posted other photos of stations in the Forest on Jürgen's excellent site. I guess the main line to Eisenstein would have had the C IV, B X and Pt 2/3 engines I mentioned above. Good quality quartz was obtainable locally. Cattle wagons were used by the K.Bay.Sts.B. and Trix/Märklin have modelled a couple: the high sided ones. If I can find any more details I will let you know. If you're really interested it would be worth getting Bufe's books which are easily obtainable on the Internet. I can thoroughly recommend a holiday in the area. You can travel to many areas of the Forest by rail still and also get to Passau and Regensburg by train quite easily and cheaply too. Great for walking and railway trips!

Interestingly I have been doing some research on the area also! Try this for the localbahn museum: http://www.localbahnverein.de/ This for town info on Bayerisch Eisenstein: http://www.bayerisch-eisenstein.de/english/frame_ort.html And this for making the trip accross the border: http://www.boehmerwaldcourier.de/index.html Cheers, JC.

The Station at Bayerische Eisenstein is quite large. It is atypical to have such a large station at the endstation. The Ringlokshuppan appears to store 9 locomotives. Was this an overnight storage location for early morning trains or was this a full service depot? Was Eissenstein used to store locomotives for the Zweisel-grafenau branch line? There are a number of buildings between the lokshuppen and the Bahnhof. What were these buildings? How did the boarder crossing operate? Were there seperate shunt engines, boarder guards and tarrif inspectors?

The Station at Bayerische Eisenstein is quite large. It is atypical to have such a large station at the endstation. Surely it is two stations built as one? The construction of a station on a border crossing may have been the subject of great national pride when built despite the fact that the line is no longer the most prestigious?

The actual Border was in the center of the main station building and would have had full Customs and Grenze (Border formalaties). Did anything actually happen after all the pomp of the offical reopening of the station and the Border? David

David, Yes, the DB invested in renewing the platforms and tracks. However apart from a few specials, there was no regular through traffic at least during the 1990s - that may have changed now. AFAIK the Czech side of the line has been electrified, but not the German side. Although there is virtually no goods traffic, passenger traffic has increased. Attractions include the novelty of a border station with the border running through the middle, the Bavarian State Railway museum and the historical displays of life at the station in the Cold War. See the post on Bayerisch Eisenstein for more details of the station.

Zwiesel is an interesting location: In Epoch II, according to the train schedules, more passenger traffic stopped at Zwiesel than continued to Eisenstein. Did this traffic continue directly to Grafenau or did the lokomotive return to Plattling? A larger amount of Timber was removed from the Forest and brought to Speigelau on the Ziesel-Grafenau branch line. Did these get switched at Zweisel or continue as assembled in Spiegelay towards their destination. Zwiesel does not appear to have a turntable. Was this always true? Today there are huge glassworks near the station tracks, but their are no sidings towards the factories. Did these tracks exist and get removed?