Forest railways were an indispensable aid to forestry workers in Austria at the beginning of the 20th century. With them you got the wood from the difficult to reach slopes, which reached a climax just after the Second World War, as the demand for wood was extremely large. In 1974, the last forest railway rolled off the track, ending an era.
Today, the use of the old Reichramiger Waldbahntrasse but anyway much cooler. Because today it is a bike path on which you can drive and experience the Kalkalpen up close. The absolute highlight of the trail are the 17 tunnels, which make this route a very special experience.
Before the forest railway was built, the tree trunks from the Hintergebirge were lifted along the Great Bach (Reichramingbach) to the rake in the Schallau, and they were transported to Reichraming station first by horse and cart, later on a taxiway (60 cm track).
Another (privately built) runway (length approx. 3 km, lane 76 cm) had existed since 1912 along the Weißenbach from the Kreuzeckbach to the Ramingbach, where the trunks were let into the water. In 1916, this runway was extended by 164 m to the Weißenbach camp. In 1918 the army administration began building an extension to the Schallau. In the same year, work was stopped again at the end of the war. Work started again in 1919, and a year later the route (length 9.4 km) including a bridge over the Ramingbach was completed.
At the same time, between 1910 and 1912, the Federal Forests created a project to develop the forests near Brunnbach, but did not implement it. Due to a wind disaster in 1916, there was a large amount of damaged wood in the Hintergebirge, but this could not be processed because of the war. The damage caused by the bark beetle infestation was enormous. Therefore, in 1918, the plans from 1912 were reverted to and by 1922 the section from the Weißenbach junction (kilometer 4.2) over the Maieralm to Brunnbach was built, the following year it was extended to Hanselgraben. Almost no engineering structures were required, with the exception of a short tunnel after the Anzenstückl and two bridges over the Plaissabach on the Brunnalm.
For strategic reasons, the line had to be built in the Bosnian gauge (760 mm), the smallest radius was 40 m. There, however, there was an arch with a radius of only 32 m under the ÖBB bridge. There were evasions in the Schallau, at the Gleisdreieck Weißenbach, at the Wilden Graben, at the Maieralm, at Brunnbach and at the baker's warehouse.
When the Trift on the Großer Bach was stopped in 1936, no more wood came from the Hintergebirge to Reichraming, so the construction of a branch line along the Großer Bach began. Due to the war, this work was stopped again in 1942, but resumed in 1947, and finally the route from the Maieralm to Unterweißwasser or to the Wällerhütte was completed in 1951. This new section led through the gorges of the Großer Bach (11 tunnels), the Black Bach (5 tunnels) and the Haselbach (2 tunnels), and there was a siding shortly after the Klaushütte. At the same time, loading at Reichraming station was rationalized: the loading track on the station forecourt was replaced by a raised ramp track on the south side of the station. This required the installation of a cross between full and narrow gauge. Together with the side tracks, side tracks and sidings, the total length of the track was 40.7 km, plus 19 tunnels (total length 1.922 km) and 41 bridges.
The Reichraming forest railway, which was closed in 1971, was one of the largest and longest in operation in Austria. After they were closed, the tracks were dismantled and forest roads laid on the tracks, the majority of the tunnels and all bridges were widened, two tunnels, however, blocked (the first Kraixen tunnel and the tunnel in front of the Annerlsteg), two others completely removed (the red soil- and the second Kraixen tunnel).