Ybbs Valley Railway

The railway first serves several halts in the city of Waidhofen, crossing a spectacular viaduct over the town, until it comes to the station at the Pestalozistraße at the 3 Kilometer mark which is the end of the line since 12 December 2020.

At Kienberg-Gaming it connected to the standard gauge Erlauf Valley Railway, now closed as far as the district capital, Scheibbs.

A 700 mm (2 ft 3+9⁄16 in) gauge forestry railway up the valley of the Ois river terminated at Lunz am See station until it closed in the 1970s.

The alignment follows a steep wooded mountain saddle-back up to the summit of the Pfaffenschlag, at which first the stop, Gaming, is reached.

The scenery opens up here to offer a beautiful panorama view over the region and the Kartause Gaming, after which the railway enters a steep rocky section in dense forest, and runs through many deep cuttings.

In this section are the two landmarks of the "mountain line", two steel trestle viaducts, a bridge type otherwise only used in Austria on the Stubaitalbahn.

The tracks run through several deep rock cuttings, and in particularly steep area solid retaining walls are used.

In the 1880s representatives of the Ybbstal again looked at building a secondary line, however only in 1893 did negotiations with the government Ministries begin.

Today trains run only 5,5 km from the mainstation Waidhofen an der Ybbs (ÖBB) to Gstadt, called "City-railway" .

The heavily graded section of the Ybbs Valley Railwayknown as the "Bergstrecke", with a length of 17.5 kilometers, connected the upper Ybbstal around Lunz am See and Göstling an der Ybbs with the Erlauftal, where it connected to the standard gauge line to the town of Scheibbs.

The NÖLB leased this section from ÖBB and commenced operation as a museum railway in 1990 under the name "Ötscherland Express".