Cuckoo Railway

The Cuckoo Railway, in its early days the Elmstein Valley Railway, is a 12.97 kilometre long branch line in the central Palatine Forest, which runs through the region of Neustadt/Kaiserslautern from Lambrecht to Elmstein. It was built primarily to support the local forestry industry.In 1902 the section to Sattelmühle was opened, initially just as an industrial siding. In 1909 it was extended to Elmstein and upgraded to a fully fledged branch line. Regular passenger services were withdrawn in 1960 - due to the sparse population of the region it had always played a secondary role. This was followed in 1977 by the cessation of goods traffic between Frankeneck and Elmstein. Since 1984 the line has been operated as a heritage railway. Goods trains still run as far as Frankeneck.HistoryBackground (1874–1890)The Elmstein Valley, densely covered in woods and hence sparsely populated, suffered in earlier times from a poor road infrastructure, especially away from the direct route between Neustadt and Kaiserslautern. The valley follows the upper reaches of the Speyerbach river, the most important Palatine tributary of the Rhine. The key resource of the Speyerbach source region has always been its wood. For centuries, cut or split logs were transported by timber rafting down the river, i.e. propelled by the current, and were sold in the almost treeless Anterior Palatinate.