Initially, a route south of the current one was planned to connect towns in the Ore Mountains to the railway network.

When these plans were abandoned, a railway through the Flöha valley via Olbernhau to Chomutov (German: Komotau; then in the Austrian Empire and from 1867 in Austria-Hungary, now in the Czech Republic) was considered.

After the Buschtěhrader Eisenbahn (Buštěhrad Railway) and the town of Chomutov expressed their preference for a line via Marienberg, this route was given priority.

The Saxon government approved of the concession with the condition that the line was to be built using private, non-government funds.

The Chemnitz-Komotauer Eisenbahngesellschaft (Chemnitz-Chomutov Railway Company) was formed on 15 August 1871 with the aims of constructing and operating the line.

Because of financial losses, the Chemnitz-Komotauer Eisenbahngesellschaft had to sell the line to the Saxon state after only one year of operation.

On 4 December 1876 it was transferred into the ownership of the Royal Saxon State Railways who operated the line from then on.

In July 1890, the Saxon Finance Ministry examined the situation in the Flöha valley and presented its own project in the autumn of 1891 which only provided only for a branch line from Olbernhau to Neuhausen, but in standard gauge.

Scheduled passenger operations with four daily pairs of trains on the Pockau-Lengefeld–Neuhausen route commenced on 1 October 1895.

On 3 May 1927, the branch line from Olbernhau-Grünthal to Deutschneudorf (Schweinitztalbahn, Schweinitz Valley Railway) was opened.

Passenger services operated until 9 June 2001, after which the route was closed due to the poor state of the tracks.

[2] Due to the low population density in the catchment area of the section of line, ZVMS is not expected to commission passenger services to Neuhausen.

[3] From 6 February to 6 May 2014, DB RegioNetz Infrastruktur GmbH, the current owner of the infrastructure, sought expressions of interest from companies willing to take over the Olbernhau-Grünthal-Neuhausen section as a railway infrastructure company in order to continue to operate public transport at their own risk.

Until about 1945, the innkeeper of the nearby hotel handled ticket sales and general freight as an agent.

A gradual reduction of the installations began immediately after the Second World War, when track 4 was dismantled to provide reparations.

Today, the facilities at Olbernhau station consist of two mainline tracks with platforms and a siding.

The long-standing, unused roundhouse of 1875, which was last used by the branch with responsibility for the station locomotive and track maintenance, was demolished in 2007.

The first reduction of the facilities occurred in 1943, when a track connection with two sets of points was dismantled in favour of military projects.

Name history: From 1927 and 1969, Olbernhau-Grünthal was the starting point of the Schweinitz Valley Railway (Schweinitztalbahn) to Deutschneudorf.

In March 1966, the remaining set of points and the loading track were removed and the former station was redesignated from a stop (Haltestelle) to a halt (Haltepunkt).

After the demolition of the buildings in the middle of the 1990s, a small wooden hut was set up as a passenger shelter.

Name history: Since the closure of the section between Olbernhau-Grünthal and Neuhausen in 2001, the station has been without regular passenger services.

In Seiffen, too, there was originally a loading track connected at both ends, which was mainly used by the forestry industry.

In 1898 the station reached its greatest extent, which now comprised eight tracks with eleven single slip and two double sets of points.

To this end, main track 1 had been extended over the Flöha, where a two-track unloading yard was built for building materials.