The Gottlaubatal railway: prehistory, railway construction to Berggießhübel and first years of operation

In the course of industrialisation, a dense railway network developed in Saxony between the larger cities and in the direction of neighbouring states following the construction of the first German long-distance railway between Dresden and Leipzig (1839). Pirna gained access to the railway as early as 1848/51 with the construction of the Elbe Valley Railway between Dresden and Bohemia. By 1880, the railway network in Saxony had grown to over 2,300 kilometres. Increasingly, smaller communities, such as the small towns of Berggießhübel and Gottleuba in the hinterland of Pirna, also demanded a railway connection ‘to the big wide world’.

The demand for the construction of a railway in the Gottleuba Valley was high. The intensive sandstone quarrying and iron ore mining in Berggießhübel put a strain on the road and railway network. Between Rottwerndorf and Pirna alone, up to 200 horse-drawn carts carrying loads of sandstone travelled daily before the railway was built. Added to this was the high demand from Saxon industry for cheap Bohemian lignite, which could only be brought to Saxony via the winding and therefore circuitous and expensive Elbe Valley railway.

From 1859, private investors developed various plans to build a railway through the Gottleuba Valley and over the ridge of the Eastern Ore Mountains to northern Bohemia. The weakening economic situation following the economic crisis of 1873 (‘Gründerkrach’) prevented realisation. In this situation, the state took over the planning. In 1878, the Saxon state parliament decided to build a railway line from Pirna to Berggießhübel. The continuation of the line to Gottleuba was not realised due to weak freight traffic and the difficult route through the town of Berggießhübel.

Construction of the almost 15 kilometre long single-track line began in May 1879 and was completed by the summer of 1880. The construction costs totalled around 760,000 marks. The line was officially opened on 19 July 1880. Initially, railway operations were characterised by intensive freight traffic. Around 1900, there were 17 sidings and branch tracks along the line, primarily from companies in the sandstone, wood, glass, paper and metal processing industries. In 1889, the railway line transported a good 100,000 tonnes of freight, mainly sandstone. In addition to Pirna and Berggießhübel, there were passenger stops in Pirna Süd (Zehistaer Straße), Rottwerndorf, Neundorf and Langenhennersdorf. The railway was increasingly used by commuters and day trippers. In the 1894 summer timetable, six pairs of trains ran, with a journey time of around one hour. The locomotives used in the early years were small and light steam locomotives, mainly of the VII TS, VII T and IIIb T types. The first two class VII TS locomotives used on the Gottleuba Valley railway were named ‘Berggießhübel’ and ‘Rottwerndorf’.