The Amberg–Lauterhofen railway, also known in the local dialect as the Lauterhöfer Bockl or Lauterhof Goat, was a 28 kilometre long branch line in the state of Bavaria in southern Germany and primarily linked Amberg with two communities which at that time came under the district council of Neumarkt.

The route initially ran for a short way parallel to the Nuremberg–Schwandorf railway, crossed the River Vils and turned westwards at Drahthammer station whilst still within the Amberg town limits.

Crossing the heathland of the Köferinger Heide it entered the landscape of the Franconian Jura where it climbed up quite steep inclines into the Lauterach valley, which it then followed upstream to Markt Kastl, dominated by an impressive monastery (Klosterburg).

At the terminal station of Lauterhofen a quarry provided additional custom on top of the usual freight from an otherwise heavily agricultural region.

This development could not even be prevented by the use of early railbuses, that had been in service since the 1930s, and which were replaced in the 1950s by the Class VT 98s.