It would eventually reach the Saxon Vogtland in Pausa and after 35 kilometres it would end in Mehltheuer, where it would connect with the state railway between Leipzig and Hof.

[2] There was only limited damage to the line as a result of the war, but the bridge over the White Elster near Wünschendorf was blown up.

In the 1970s, the D 308/309 service from Berlin to Munich was still scheduled to run over the Weida–Mehltheuer section and in the 1980s during construction work on the main lines to Probstzella and Gutenfürst, a Transitzug (transit train, running non-stop between West Germany and West Berlin), which was not shown in the timetable, still ran over the line.

The 1988/89 timetable listed only a through coach, running each way between Zwickau and Bad Salzungen via Wünschendorf and Gera on Saturdays.

[2] From 1995 to 1999, a pair of InterRegio trains ran betweene Gera and Karlsruhe using the Weida–Mehltheuer section, giving the line a long-distance service for a short time again.

InterRegio trains were occasionally detoured over the Wünschendorf–Werdau section when the Gera–Gößnitz–Glauchau main line, or parts of it, were blocked because of construction work.

Deutsche Bahn submitted a request to the Federal Railway Authority to be permitted to dismantle the tracks on this section (km 28.5 to 31.9) on 18 July 2012.

A Regional-Express service running on the Gera–Zwickau route was introduced in 1998 on the Wünschendorf–Werdau section at four-hour intervals, stopping only at Seelingstädt, Teichwolframsdorf and Werdau West.

Even before the introduction of this Regional-Express service, the timetable on the Zwickau–Werdau–Wünschendorf–Gera route had been thinned, so that the still operating trains were lightly used because of their poor times and lack of stops.

An already prepared and begun project for the repair of sections of the line between the stations of Werdau-West, Langenbernsdorf and Teichwolframsdorf was cancelled and not completed, requiring speed restrictions (in places as low as 10 km/h) and leading to further reductions in railway traffic.

Lack of demand and poor track quality led to the abandonment of Deutsche Bahn's "slowest" Regional-Expresses on 30 May 1999, including all services on this section of line.

This alternative, offered as an interim solution, has promoted the development of the Werdauer Waldeisenbahn and associated tourism in the region.

In 2006, Regionalbahn 103 services ran on the Gera–Mehltheuer route at two hour intervals, stopping at all stations, but in some cases only on request.

Because the service ran from Saxony through Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia to Bavaria, this line was also called the Vier-Länder-Express ("four states express").

The timetable now contains a maximum of ten trains a day, of which some continue through Zeulenroda to Hof and some run to or from Leipzig.

In the course of an ongoing modernisation of the route and the installation of electronic interlockings, crossing loops were only retained in the stations of Loitsch-Hohenleuben and Zeulenroda unt Bf.

From Zeulenroda, it climbs to the heights of the Vogtland and, shortly before Mehltheuer station, it reaches the highest point of the line at 512 metres above sea level.

Nevertheless, the facilities were again too small in the 1920s, since any expansion on the site was almost impossible, and, as a result, a new marshalling yard was built in Zwickau.

The dilapidated wooden entrance building and the platforms are still in place, but while the station sign still existed in 2006,[7] it has now disappeared.

Werdau West is the starting point of the Werdauer Waldbahn, which is operated as a museum railway to Seelingstädt.

With the abandonment of passenger traffic between Werdau and Wünschendorf (Elster), the station was converted into a freight yard on 30 May 1999.

[4] A 2.2 kilometre-long connecting railway was opened from Gauern to the Culmitzsch loading yard on 11 September 1958; this was closed in 1966 Services stopped serving the station on 24 May1998, a year before the end of passenger traffic between Werdau and Wünschendorf (Elster).

Until 1920, it was located in the Grand Duchy and later Free State of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and had the following names: Services stopped serving the station on 24 May 1998, a year before the end of passenger traffic between Werdau and Wünschendorf (Elster).

Services stopped serving the station on 24 May 1998, a year before the end of passenger traffic between Werdau and Wünschendorf (Elster).

Since the end of passenger traffic on the Wünschendorf (Elster)–Weida section on 2 June 1996, trains in Weida station operate towards Gera–Leipzig, Saalfeld and Mehltheuer–Hof.

The river Triebes flows to the west of the station which in this area forms the border between Thuringian and Saxon Vogtland.

In addition to the entrance building, there are also freight sheds, work shops and a track supervisor's office (Bahnmeisterei) on the site.

[15] The halt of Bernsgrün, which was originally in the Principality of the Reuss Elder Line and from 1920 in Thuringia, was located between the Saxon stations of Pausa and Mehltheuer.

The viaduct over the Oschütz valley (Oschütztal) in Weida is the longest and most important bridge construction on the line.

The 185 metre-long and 28 metre-high truss bridge is designed as a pendulum pillar viaduct (Pendelpfeilerviadukt) and is now under heritage protection.