Ammergau Railway

Ammergau Railway
Ammergau Railway
Overview
Native name	Ammergaubahn
Status	Operational
Owner	Deutsche Bahn
Line number	5451
Locale	Bavaria
Termini	Murnau; Oberammergau;
Stations	11
Service
Type	Heavy rail, Passenger rail; Regional rail
Route number	963
Operator(s)	DB Regio
History
Opened	5 April 1900
Technical
Line length	23.671 km (14.708 mi)
Track gauge	1,435 mm (4 ft 8+1⁄2 in) standard gauge

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The Ammergau Railway or Ammergaubahn (sometimes called the Ammertalbahn or "Ammer Valley Railway", originally the Lokalbahn Murnau–Oberammergau) is a single-tracked, electrified railway line in Bavaria in southern Germany. It runs from Murnau to Oberammergau, its latter stages following the valley of the river Ammer from which it derives its name. This stub line to Oberammergau branches off at Murnau from the Munich–Garmisch-Partenkirchen main line.

Operations and history

This 23.671 km long route was completed on 1 May 1900 under a Bavarian concession granted on 24 January 1897 to the Lokalbahn AG (LAG).^[1] On 1 January 1905 it was electrified, becoming the first railway in Germany to run on single-phase AC power. Originally the line was electrified with 5.5 kV, 16 Hz AC. With effect from 1 August 1938 the LAG was transferred to the Deutsche Reichsbahn. But it was not until 1954/55 that the power system was converted to the usual 15 kV, 16²/₃ Hz by the Deutsche Bundesbahn, and four of the five DRG Class E 69 electric locomotives modified accordingly.

As cars increased in popularity, the Ammergau Railway was affected just as badly as other branch lines in the railway network. Goods traffic dwindled to virtually nothing and the number of passengers fell steadily to between 500 and 1,000 per day. As a result, a vast amount of infrastructure has been removed.

In 1999 there were negotiations with the passenger union Pro Bahn and DB Regio Bayern AG. Pro Bahn demanded inter alia a new crossing place at Altenau (Bay) and the retention of the second track at Oberammergau. That would have enabled journey times to be reduced by about 10 minutes. But the cost of about 4 million marks was too high and the project was put on ice.

Modernisation

In recent times the route has been extensively modernised. However all infrastructure no longer needed for scheduled services fell victim to this process, which resulted in major criticism of Deutsche Bahn by Pro Bahn and others. For example, since the renovation in autumn 2005 there has only been one track at the terminus in Oberammergau; the rest of the area has been built on to provide a bus station and other facilities. As a result, the terminus was downgraded from a station to a halt. The stations at Grafenaschau and Unterammergau were likewise downgraded to stops, since when trains cannot be caught from either location. As a direct result of these rationalisation measures, specials can no longer run during the day to Oberammergau, because there is no longer anywhere for them to cross. The only remaining crossing place—at Bad Kohlgrub—is needed for scheduled services. Here the regular trains cross hourly. Furthermore, locomotives can no longer run around at the terminus in Oberammergau; only push-pull trains or multiple units can use the single track there.

In the area of Bad Kohlgrub, 10 kilometres of 80-year-old track was replaced; the new rails were continuously welded. The route was also equipped in 2005 with the GSM-R digital train radio system. Since 28 November 2008 the line has also be controlled from the electronic signal box at Garmisch-Partenkirchen. This means that the Fahrdienstleiter post at Bad Kohlgrub can be saved.

One curiosity is the request stop at Jägerhaus, where trains pass through at night without stopping for safety reasons because the stop has no platform lighting.

Operational stock

Once the original Class 169 locomotives had retired in the early 1980s due to their advanced state of obsolescence, they were replaced by Class 141 locomotives. The rolling stock, however, remained the same: the so-called Silberlings being employed (two coaches per train). A few years ago the locomotive-hauled trains were finally replaced by Class 425 and 426 multiples (two sets being required for scheduled services), the last Class 141-hauled push-pull trains working the line in autumn 2004.

References

^ Horst-Werner Dumjahn: Handbuch der deutschen Eisenbahnstrecken; Eröffnungsdaten 1835-1935. Nachdruck nach Vorlage Reichsbahn 1935; Dumjahn, Mainz 1984, ISBN 3-921426-29-4

Sources

Ralf Roman Rossberg: Die Lokalbahn Murnau–Oberammergau. Frankh’sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1970, ISBN 3-440-03731-2
Ralf Roman Rossberg: Die Lokalbahn Murnau–Oberammergau. In: Eisenbahn-Kurier. Nr. 215/Jahrgang 24/1990. EK-Verlag GmbH, ISSN 0170-5288, S. 46–48.
Bernd Mühlstraßer: Die Baureihe E 69: Die bayerischen Localbahn-Elloks und die Strecke Murnau–Oberammergau. EK-Verlag GmbH, Freiburg 2005, ISBN 3-88255-169-0
Peter Blath: Die Lokalbahn Murnau - Oberammergau im Buch:

"Schienenverkehr im Werdenfelser Land" Sutton-Verlag Erfurt 2005 ISBN 3-89702-886-7

External links

Information about the line at www.mittenwaldbahn.de
1944 timetable
There is a relevant English-language forum at Railways of Germany

[1] Horst-Werner Dumjahn: Handbuch der deutschen Eisenbahnstrecken; Eröffnungsdaten 1835-1935. Nachdruck nach Vorlage Reichsbahn 1935; Dumjahn, Mainz 1984, ISBN 3-921426-29-4

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