Schafberg Railway

The Schafberg Railway is a metre-gauge cog railway that climbs from the lakeside town of Sankt Wolfgang to the summit of the Schafberg. It was built in the 1890s and rises more than 1,190 metres over a distance of 5.85 kilometres. Italian workers carved the trackbed from the mountainside, building viaducts, stone bridges, rock cuttings and two tunnels. The line was opened in August 1893 and has carried tourists ever since. The railway is famous for its steam locomotives, which still haul wooden coaches up the Abt rack system. New oil-fired steam engines were delivered in the 1990s to keep the tradition alive. Diesel railcars make the trip in under forty minutes, while steam trains take about an hour. The summit station sits beside a hotel built soon after the railway opened, offering visitors a place to rest after the climb. From the summit station a hotel complex provides rooms and facilities for guests. The view from the top reveals up to five lakes of the Salzkammergut. The railway has appeared in films such as The Sound of Music and Christmas with Flicka. Trains run through the municipal territory of St Gilgen in Salzburg before reaching the summit in Upper Austria.