120 years - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2011 - 90 Euro Cent

The Erzbergbahn, which celebrates its 120th anniversary this year, is a railway line in Styria that connects the Südbahn with the Rudolfsbahn and leads over the 1200 meter high Präbichl. Until 1978, its middle section was operated as a cog railway. Regular transports take place today only as goods traffic between Leoben and Trofaiach and iron ore Krumpental and Hieflau, the mountain route, however, serves as an attractive heritage railway. In its beginnings, the railway line was initially in the form of two lines, from Leoben to Vordernberg and later from Hieflau to iron ore. In 1881 the so-called "Innerberger Hauptgewerkschaft" went into the Austrian Alpine Montangesellschaft and in 1888 planning and construction of the section on the Präbichl began. On October 10, the corresponding concession was granted, the construction was finally carried out by the "Localbahn Eisenerz-Vordernberg". On May 25, 1891, the railway line from Vordernberg could be opened to the pass - however, driving up to half possible, since the water supply for the steam engine was not enough. Only when the water crane at the "Glaslbremse" stop was completed in June of the same year, was it possible to continue to the Präbichl station. On August 18, the northern section to Eisenerz was put into operation; on September 15, 1891, finally, the solemn opening - for the time being, however, only for the freight traffic; Passenger traffic was not started until the following summer. From the year 1971, the gearwheel operation was changed over step by step to a pure adhesion operation with rail buses and diesel locomotives. This undertaking suffered a setback after the locomotive of a train went out of control in November 1976, derailed and crashed over a slope. Nevertheless, the change was driven forward, and on 30 September 1978, the last steam train ride took place. The Erzberg Railway and especially the section on the Präbichl was once built with the primary aim of bringing the iron ore as easy as possible for smelting to Leoben-Donawitz or to Linz. Later, of course, tourist interests were added, as the area around the Präbichl became more and more established as a recreational area. Due to the crowding out of passenger transport on the parallel road and the technically less expensive ore transport over Selzthal, the railway line lost more and more importance from the eighties onwards. Of particular interest is today only the aforementioned museum train, which is rubbed by the "club Erzbergbahn" with loving effort.