Driver’s Eye View (Austria) - Mixnitz to Sankt Erhard - Industrial Narrow Gauge Railway

The local train, Mixnitz-Sankt Erhard AG or Breitenauerbahn is located in Austria’s South Eastern state of Styria. Today the km long 760 mm gauge line serves the Magnesite Deposits in Breitenau am Hochlantsch. The route starts from the storage warehouses and transhipment sidings adjacent to the ÖBB station of Mixnitz - Bärenschützklamm from where the line follows the course of the Breitenauer Bach a tributary of the Mur (River). The line is never far from the pretty river as it makes its way through the steep sided, wooded valley to the loading facility near Breitenau. Crocodile style (steeple cab) 800 Volt DC Bo’Bo overhead electric locomotives handle trains on the main line these days with a tiny two-axle electric locomotive assisting with shunting operations a Mixnitz. The first passenger train on the original 10.7 km long railway ran in 1913 between Mixnitz and Sankt Erhard, although the primary purpose of the line was for the transportation of materials from the Magnesite Plant near