Rattling railroad track

Brennberger narrow-gauge railway

The tenants had to sell the coal. Since Brennberg was far away from the main highways, the price of coal was initially higher because of the transport by horse-drawn carriages.

On August 20, 1847, the railway between Sopron and Wiener Neustadt was opened. The tenant Henrik Drasche delivered the coal to Ágfalva with his own horses, but the delivery by carriage resulted in losses. In addition, he decided to expand a more modern rail transport.

The 7.2 km long and 790 mm narrow-gauge railway between the stations of Brennberg and Ágfalva was built between 1868 and 1869, at the beginning it was only set up for horse pulling.

The valley of Rák – stream [Rák-patak] was bridged by a 222 m long column construction, built in the middle of a 27 m high stone base. Then the train ran away in a 120 m long tunnel, than after a 500 m long steep slope followed by a milder slope. The train arrived in a vertical position next to the tracks of the Ágfalva train station.

The railway was partially switched to steam operation in 1875, then to full steam operation in 1879.

Nowadays, only the lake beside the long grassy embankment reminds us of the mine railway, here and there the basalt path is still showing the places of the railway sleepers and at the Ágfalva station the exit route to Loipersbach traces the embankment at that time. Formerly there was a high loading point of the narrow-gauge mine railway between the station and the municipality, at the point of the basalt road the normal-gauge railway swung in the direction of the Brennberg coal mine... Lovas Gyula railway historian

The standard gauge railway from Brennberg

The tenants of Brennbergi Kőszénbánya Rt. started the construction of the new, standardized gauge railway in 1882. 16 kg / linear meter of rail were moved to the place of the old rail, and when the railroad was modernized, arch corrections were also made.

The designers of the new route bridged the 77 m long ascent with a two-kilometre serpentine. A large dam was built over the valley of the Rák – stream [Rák-patak], which led under the brook.

At the Brennberg station, two loading tracks were built for standard-track coal wagons for shunting and loading. The railway was built further to the Soproner shaft. The length of the new line was 7930 meters between Ágfalva and Brennberg and 830 meters between Brennberg and the Sopron shaft.

In 1932, when the Duna – Száva – Adria railway company was dissolved, the Hungarian MÁV took over management of the line. In 1952 the mine was closed.

The railway department of the Ministry of Transport ordered the dismantling of the track between Ágfalva and Brennberg and the track of the station of Brennberg from June 15, 1952. On July 12, 1966, sorted MÁV out the route.

Today, only the dams and the circumcisions of these railroads remain for us, because in 1952, when the mining operations ceased, the heavier pieces of technical equipment were removed and the railroad was also dismantled. (The mine railway in Brennberg, in the yearbook: Vasúthistória évkönyv, Budapest, 2000, p.217) Lovas Gyula railway historian