Extension to Bad Gottleuba and operation until decommissioning

The town of Gottleuba (Bad Gottleuba from 1936) pushed for the railway line to be extended at an early stage. From 1880, various plans for the construction of a railway across the Eastern Ore Mountains to the North Bohemian coal basin were again discussed in the Saxon state parliament. In some cases, the extension of the Gottleuba Valley railway beyond Berggießhübel was under discussion, while in others, completely new routes were discussed, e.g. in the Seidewitz Valley and via the town of Liebstadt. In the end, the state parliament only recommended an extension of the railway to Gottleuba for economic reasons. The preparatory work for the almost 2.7-kilometre-long line began in 1898, with the actual construction starting in the summer of 1904 and the ceremonial opening on 1 July 1905. The construction costs of the extension totalled around 585,000 marks. The new terminus station in Gottleuba was designed in such a way that it would have been possible to extend the line in the direction of Bohemia.

In addition to freight transport, the line also became increasingly important for passenger transport due to excursionists, commuters and patients at the spa facilities in Berggießhübel and Bad Gottleuba. In the 1930s, up to six pairs of passenger trains travelled daily, with a journey time of around 45 minutes between Pirna and Bad Gottleuba. Typical locomotives used were class 86 and 91.3 steam locomotives.

From 1940, further stops were added on Rottwerndorfer Straße (Pirna Ost) and from 1950 also on Dresdner Straße (Pirna Solidarität).

In the years following the Second World War, increasing car and bus traffic developed into serious competition. In the Pirna urban area, bus lines ran parallel to the railway with more frequent services, more stops and cheaper prices, so that passengers switched from the train to the bus. In the 1950s, the railway carried an average of between 400 and 650 passengers a day. From 1960 onwards, various economic analyses were carried out which recommended the closure of passenger transport for the entire route, as bus transport was more cost-effective. The gradual changeover to diesel locomotives, particularly of the 106 and 110 series, did nothing to change this.

In addition, the line was increasingly used for freight transport. The Königstein uranium mine (Leupoldishain), which opened in 1967, could not be connected directly to the Elbe Valley railway for topographical reasons. The mined ore was therefore transported by cable car to the loading point at Rottwerndorf railway station and reloaded onto the Gottleuba Valley Railway. This railway already handled a busy freight traffic between Pirna and Neundorf for numerous industrial connections. Now up to seven ore trains per day were added. A further increase in freight traffic occurred from 1965 due to the transport of building materials for the construction of the Gottleuba dam. For these reasons, passenger transport was discontinued in August 1970. At the beginning of the 1990s, occasional special trips with rail buses (class 171/172) took place again.

Der Güterverkehr reduzierte sich nach Fertigstellung der Talsperre Gottleuba (1974) und der Umstellung der Uranförderung in Königstein auf ein Laugungsverfahren (1983) deutlich, sodass er 1976/77 zwischen Neundorf und Bad Gottleuba ebenfalls eingestellt und die Strecke kurz darauf rückgebaut wurde. Im noch verbliebenen Streckenabschnitt reduzierte sich das Frachtaufkommen durch die wirtschaftlichen Umbrüche und Betriebsschließungen infolge der Deutschen Einheit nach 1990 ebenfalls drastisch. Deshalb wurde auch hier der Güterverkehr Anfang 1997 eingestellt. Nach fast 117 Jahren endete damit der Eisenbahnverkehr im Gottleubatal. Die noch vorhandenen Gleise wurden 2002 abgebaut. Verschiedene Brückenbauwerke und Bahngebäude, darunter die Stations- und Bahnhofsgebäude in Pirna Süd, Rottwerndorf, Langenhennersdorf, Berggießhübel und Bad Gottleuba blieben als Zeugnisse der Eisenbahngeschichte bis heute erhalten.