Lokalbahn AG

The Lokalbahn AG company (Lokalbahn Aktien-Gesellschaft), or 'LAG' for short, was a private company based in Munich, Bavaria, whose lines of business was the construction and operation of branch lines (the so-called Lokalbahnen or Sekundärbahnen) in Germany and Austria-Hungary.

The routes were built where tourism, mineral resources, industry, agriculture or forestry could anticipate a significant volume of traffic.

These activities were complemented, at least for a while, with a rack railway, the Schafbergbahn, steamship operations on the Wolfgangsee and horse and motorised transport.

The Ammergaubahn from Murnau to Oberammergau, which was sold to the company, became the first single-phase AC line in Germany.

Apart from its own routes in southern Germany the company owned the majority of shares in the Lausitz Railway Company (Lausitzer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) and had a share in the Salzkammergut Lokalbahn AG and the Central Bank for Railway Stocks.

The latter had, especially over the West Hungarian Lokalbahn-AG, influence on the numerous railway routes in Hungary with a total length of over 700 kilometers, which had been built by the LAG.

After overcoming inflation, things improved again, however the worldwide economic crisis as well as the increasing pressure of competition from road transport services brought the company to the brink of ruin at the beginning of the 1930s.

With the loans from Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft, reductions in capital and write-offs by the states of Bavaria and Württemberg, restoration to profitability was achieved again in 1934, however it only postponed the end.

(The line lies in Lower Silesia north of Görlitz and east of the Neiße, in present-day Poland) Opened: Hansdorf – Priebus, 22.9 km on 1 October 1895.

On 12 November 1905 including 2 railbuses and power station bought and operated by the LAG.

The branch line Bad Aibling-Feilnbach was built by the Actiengesellschaft Elektricitätswerke of Dresden, that had founded the South Germany Electrical Branch Line Company (Süddeutsche Elektrische Lokalbahnen Aktiengesellschaft) or SEL in 1899 as the operating company.

The line was taken over on 20 May 1902 by the Prussian state railways and taken into operation via Dorndorf to Vacha on 7 July 1906 as standard gauge.

Narrow-gauge (1,000 mm (3 ft 3+3⁄8 in)) section opened: Ravensburg–Weingarten, 4.1 km long, 6 January 1888 (P), 15 July 1888 (G).

Opening of the standard gauge for goods traffic: Niederbiegen-Baienfurt–Weingarten on 1 October 1911, of which 1.0 km was three-rail track shared with the tram services.

The LAG acquired a total of 84 tank locomotives from Lokomotivfabrik Krauss & Co., of which 53 machines went into the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1938.