In 1885, two months after the completion of the Franconian Forest Railway, a 7.6 kilometre long Sekundärbahn branch was opened that ran from the Upper Franconian town of Ludwigsstadt to the south Thuringian village of Lehesten.

A state treaty between the Kingdom of Bavaria und the Duchy of Saxe-Meiningen was required, however, to establish the line; this was signed on 16 June 1884.

The brunt of the cost (0.515 million marks) was borne by Saxe-Meiningen, the construction and operation of the branch line was carried out by the Royal Bavarian State Railways.

The line branched off the Franconian Forest Railway south of the Trogenbach bridge heading eastwards and followed the rivers Loquitz and Aue.

Until the early 1960s there was still goods traffic to a stone quarry siding at kilometre marker 2.8.