Jöhstadt station (Saxony GER)

Some news from the narrow gauge paradise Saxony.

The pressnitz valley railway started in the year 1990 from the southern terminus of the former Wolkenstein-Jöhstadt line. Unfortunately the charity was only able to use the steam shed in Jöhstadt, because the socialist government built a massive "Plattenbau" (Panel building) on the former site of the Station in 1989. The station building was also lucky to survive and is currently owned by the volunteers.

After having started extending the provisional platform with new sidings in Jöhstadt in the year 2015, the local group was able to relay the rail on 200 m on the south side of the station in july 2018 . It won't be connected until the big house, which is already owned by the group, gets demolished. Due to the domographical situation in the area, the losses of the flats wouldn't spark housing Problems (there are too many empty homes in the scenic area of saxony).

All links are unfortunately in German, but you can solve the problem with the help of Google translator, which translates whole websites into English

Here you find pictures of the first step of the project in 2015.
https://www.pressnitztalbahn.de/mus...ahnhof-johstadt-erste-neue-weichen-2013-2015/
And here from the effort of this year. In addition to track laying, they had to build a new level crossing and 2 new switches.
https://www.pressnitztalbahn.de/bildergalerien/arbeitseinsatz-auf-nach-sueden/

The ones who are curious how Jöhstadt station looked like before the railway closed and changed afterward in time should look at the pictures of the coming thread.
https://www.bimmelbahn-forum.de/ind...bahnhof-jöhstadt-im-wandel-der-zeit/&pageNo=1

The new station will look similarly to the old one once it is finished (but will only have 4 tracks). It will mark an end to the effort to extend the line southwards.

Cheers

 

Excellent news. It's a lovely line and will be improved by having a proper station at Jöhstadt.

 

IIRC the line shown to the left of the shed actually descends at quite a steep gradient hence the attraction of photographing trains on the climb up into the station area.

 

One I visited in Christmas week, 2009. If travelling by rail, you need to get the bus from Annaberg-Buchholz but it is well worth the extra hassle. I found it easier to get off the bus at the middle station (Schmalzgrube) where the bus stop is right next to the station. Probably my favourite Saxon NG line (and I've been on nearly all of them) and one I am very keen to go back to (maybe I will be allowed when the kids are older). So good to see that they are still pushing on and making progress.

Do you think they'll ever extend it the other way back towards Wolkenstein?

 

As far as I've heard from the society, their current plan is to finish Jöhstadt station, which will take at least 10 years.
The other direction got completely rid of their trackwork and of nearly all their bridges(there were a lot of them) and became a cycle way (the SED(socialist Party) was keen to hinder any attempts to rebuild the railway and therefore they were even using helicopters to remove the bridges from inacessable places)
They might continue one day 1 or 2 stations further towards Wolkenstein, but more can't be done for a society (Dream: the state saxony would pay for the whole rebuild).
The current work is already quite a huge burden for this group in the remote area.

Follow their facebook page or if you need more detailed information then contact them
https://www.facebook.com/pressnitztalbahn

Cheers

 

Thanks, actually I do follow them on Facebook already but as everything is in German and my German is hopeless (only learnt it for 2 years at school, ending 30 years ago! And continued with French instead, which with hindsight was a mistake, German would have been much more useful), so it's not always easy to work out what they're up to. I have to say though, of all the Saxon NG lines (and I think I've visited all of them over the years), this is my favourite. It's much more of a 'heritage railway' that those of us in the UK would recognise than most of the others, as well as which there is some seriously impressive engineering on the line (a brand new bridge deck was alongside the line ready for lifting in, during my visit), a decent modern loco shed as well as the quaint historic one, and with the exception of the odd vehicle which seemed to have just arrived, all of the rolling stock is in clean, well restored and working condition, and the older coaches in particular are lovely.
To get right back into Wolkenstein would also involve a dual-gauge section sharing with DB, so it would be a big ask. I hadn't realised that the destruction of the line had been quite so thorough. I'm quite happy that they're extending back to the original Jöhstadt station though, and like you say, they could always start looking the other way in a few years' time once that is done. I am definitely up for a repeat visit & I'd recommend the line to anyone.

 

Hi Folks,

if you've got problems with a website written in a unknown language, just simply use Google translator, which is able to translate a whole page very quickly.
The coming link to thread (please klick on "weiter zu Teil X") of stillgelegt.de shows you the heavy destruction done by the socialists (Pictures are quite old, but the situation hasn't changed yet significantly): http://www.stillgelegt.de/press01/press01-1.htm

Cheers

 

Hi Folks,

if you've got problems with a website written in a unknown language, just simply use Google translator, which is able to translate a whole page very quickly.
The coming link to thread (please klick on "weiter zu Teil X") of stillgelegt.de shows you the heavy destruction done by the socialists (Pictures are quite old, but the situation hasn't changed yet significantly): http://www.stillgelegt.de/press01/press01-1.htm

Cheers