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The Erzberg Railway is an Austrian railway in the Land of Styria. It links the Southern Railway at Leoben with the Rudolf Railway at Hieflau, crossing the Präbichl pass. Until 1978 the middle section was worked as a rack railway.

The line (especially the section over the Präbichl pass) was originally built to transport iron ore from the Styrian Erzberg mountains to Leoben-Donawitz and Linz for smelting. Later development of the Präbichl area as a skiing and hiking resort brought tourist traffic. As passenger traffic switched to buses and cars on the road which runs parallel to the line, and ore transport switched to a less technically-challenging (and thus cheaper, though longer) route through Selzthal, the line became less commercially viable in the 1980s. Today only the two outer sections (between Leoben and Trofaiach, and between Eisenerz-Krumpental and Hieflau) are in commercial use, carrying goods traffic. The mountain section is now a heritage railway.

Construction
The line was planned as far back as 1864, when it was one of a list of "important approved projects". The original plan only included the two end sections: from Leoben to Vordernberg (opened on 18 May 1872) and from Hieflau to Eisenerz (opened on 6 January 1873). Following the takeover of the Innerberger Hauptgewerkschaft by the Austrian Alpine Mining Society in 1881, planning and construction of the middle section over the Präbichl pass was started in 1888. The concession was granted on 10 October; construction was completed by the new Eisenerz-Vordenberg Local Railway Company, which was incorporated on 8 May 1889 as a subsidiary of the Austrian Alpine Mining Society.

The first section built was an evaluation section through Vordernberg. The section from Vordernberg to the summit at Präbichl opened on 25 May 1891. At first trains only operated to Glaslbremse, which was as far as the steam locomotives' water supply could take them. Trains could only continue to Präbichl station from June, when a water crane was completed at Glaslbremse. The northern section from Präbichl to Eisenerz went into service on 18 August; the official opening was on 15 September, though at first the railway only carried goods traffic. Passenger service was introduced during the following summer.

The Eisenerz-Vordernberg Local Railway Company was already facing bankruptcy while the line was being built: on 31 October 1893 the line was finally absorbed into the state railway network.

Decline
From 1971 onwards rack railway operations were gradually replaced with a completely adhesion-based service using railbuses and diesel locomotives. Conversion to adhesion operation was set back by an incident on 5 November 1976: a class 2067 shunting engine went out of control, ran downhill unbraked, covering about half the distance from Präbichl to Vordernberg, and finally derailed and fell down an embankment. Conversion to adhesion went ahead in spite of this incident: the Class 2043 locomotives intended for use on ore trains were fitted with additional safety systems (rail brakes and speed governors), forming class 2043.5xx. The last steam train ran on 30 September 1978, the last rack diesel locomotive service in December 1978. In spite of protests by rail enthusiasts the rack rails were removed from entire rack section.

The withdrawal of goods services (predominantly iron ore trains from Erzberg to Leoben) over the Präbichl pass in 1986 marked the end of the line as a continuous route. In 1988 an avalanche displaced the track, and was stated as the reason to suspend operations on the section between Vordernberg Markt and Eisenerz. In 1999 operations were also suspended on the outer northern section between Hieflau and Eisenerz. This section is now only used by iron ore trains carrying ore to Linz or to Leoben Donawitz: although Donawitz is on the Erzberg line, ore trains now take a longer route through Selzthal and over the Schober Pass. Passenger traffic on this northern section was made unviable by the reduction of services on the connecting Rudolf Railway to a minimum, making it highly unlikely that passenger service will be re-introduced.

Passenger services were finally completely withdrawn from the Leoben-Vordernberg Markt section in 2001; this section now only carries minimal goods traffic as far as Trofaiach. In 2005 the Graz/Styria passengers' organisation began campaigning to to re-introduce passenger service between Leoben and Trofaiach, as part of an S-Bahn network covering the Mur and Mürz river valleys.

As a heritage railway
The Erzberg Railway Association was founded in 1975, and has operated the mountain section of the line between Vordernberg Markt and Eisenerz as a heritage railway since 23 June 1990. The association leased the section between Vordernberg Markt and the Voestalpine siding in Krumpental from 1 January 1990, buying it outright on 25 June 2005 (backdated to 1 January). The line operates on weekends from July to mid-September; special excursions are also possible between June and October. Because two of the Präbichl ski-resort's pistes cross the track, no winter service is possible. On 17 July 2010 part of the railway close to Erzberg station was buried by a mudflow, and the section between Eisenerz and Erzberg was closed for the foreseeable future.

On 1 June 2013 ÖBB withdrew from the contract which had allowed the association to use the still ÖBB-owned section of the line between Vordernberg and Vordernberg Markt. As a result the association couldn't move their own trains from their depot at Vordernberg onto their own track. Operations were suspended and only resumed in the 2015 season, following an agreement reached at the end of 2014 whereby the association bought the section from ÖBB Infrastructure. As part of the agreement the purchase price remains confidential.

In 2011 Österreichische Post issued a commemorative stamp on the occasion of the line's 120th anniversary.

Technical details

 * Until 1978, just under 20km of the line was fitted with the Abt rack system.
 * The line has a maximum gradient of 7.1% (1 in 14.08), and is thus the steepest standard-gauge railway operated by adhesion in the EU.
 * The line crosses eight masonry viaducts (up to 32m high and 117m long) and passes through five tunnels.

Rack operation
Class 97, 197 and 297 steam locomotives, and class 2085.01 diesel rack locomotives were used.

Adhesion operation
Specially modified class 2043.5 diesel locomotives came into service after rack operation was abandoned.

Following successful trials of the class 5081 railbuses in 1971, four units were assigned to the Vordernberg area. Two additional examples were purchased when service was extended to the Vordernberg-Eisenerz section. All railbuses were fitted with exhaust brakes (among other modifications), and re-classified as class 5081.5 (5081.560-565). Four of these railbuses are now used by the Erzberg Railway Association.

In 1972 some train services ran outside the summit section, running all the way from Leoben Hbf to Eisenerz; one train per day in each direction ran to Hieflau, using two railbuses coupled together.

Immediately before the end of scheduled services, the section between Vordernberg and Vordernberg Markt was electrified, to allow access by electric regional services from Leoben. Class 4030 multiple-units were adapted for this service: the middle carriage was removed, leaving a two-car unit (powered car and unpowered driving car). This ended an era of electric passenger service between Leoben and Vordernberg, which had been operated by Class 1245 electric locomotives hauling coaches.