The Wendelstein Rack Railway

On the Wendelstein, the oldest carriages are the spare ones. The rack railway's everyday trains are two railcars of 1990, and when one of them goes into the workshop the service is run with passenger cars built for the line's opening in 1912. In May 2022 the railway explained why it had just bought a new locomotive: the 1990 railcars could no longer get spare parts, and while they were fitted with new electric drives the new engine and the original carriages would carry the passengers. Lok 5, a 700 kW machine built in Switzerland, now pushes the 1912 cars up the mountain to the timetable. From 19 October 2026, with a railcar's overhaul brought forward, they are standing in again.

The line climbs 1,217 metres in 7.6 kilometres, from Brannenburg in the Inn valley to a station at 1,723 metres, just below the summit. A toothed rack between the rails takes it up gradients of as much as 23.7 per cent, through forest, past two request stops on the pastures, and along the cliffs of the north face through seven tunnels and eight galleries. The operator calls it Germany's oldest high-mountain railway, and it opened in May 1912.

From May to mid-November a train goes up every hour from 09:00 to 15:00, and the ride takes about 25 minutes. There are no seat reservations. Brannenburg is an hour from Munich on the regional train, and the valley station a half-hour walk from there.

The valley station stands at 508 metres on the edge of Brannenburg, with a free car park and the line's depot just above it. The train starts on ordinary rails through the forest, picks up the rack at Gembachau, and climbs through woods and over small bridges to Aipl, at 980 metres, where it passes the train coming down. Above Mitteralm, at 1,200 metres, the line leaves the pastures and the hardest stretch begins: the builders took it along the steep north faces of the Wildalpjoch and the Soin, the most difficult of the possible routes, to keep it clear of rockfall and avalanches. Tunnels, galleries and walls follow one another to the Hohe Mauer, a stone embankment 127 metres long and 17 metres high, and two tunnels through the rock below the church bring the train into the summit station. The Wendelsteinhaus inn is a few steps away.

Built in two years

Otto von Steinbeis, an industrialist from Baden who had built narrow-gauge forest railways in Bosnia, chose his adopted village of Brannenburg as the starting point, and Prince Regent Luitpold signed the concession on 4 February 1910. Some 800 workers, most of them from Bosnia, built the line in two years, and it opened on 25 May 1912. Steinbeis wanted it electric, although the valley had no electricity at all, so he built a hydroelectric plant in 1910. The trains coming down brake by generating current, which is fed back for the trains going up. The plant also lit Brannenburg and Flintsbach, and the railway company still supplies electricity to about 5,000 customers.

The 1912 trains

The railway opened with three electric rack locomotives from the Maschinenfabrik Esslingen and Brown Boveri, and carriages by MAN of Nuremberg, with wooden benches and luggage nets. A fourth locomotive followed in 1935. Until the railcars arrived in 1991 these trains ran the whole service. Locomotive 1 is now in the Lokwelt museum at Freilassing, locomotive 4 has been out of use since a motor failure in 2019, and locomotives 2 and 3 still work, on special trains such as the full-moon evening runs.

In 1961 the line was cut back from Brannenburg's main-line station to the present valley station, 2.3 kilometres short, because it crossed the main road on the level. When the cable car from Bayrischzell opened in 1970 it was meant in time to replace the rack railway, which did not pay its way. Instead the line was modernised between 1987 and 1991, and two double railcars built by Siemens and SLM, named Otto von Steinbeis and Prinzregent Luitpold, cut the climb to 25 minutes.

The newest machine on the mountain is Lok 5, built by Stadler in Switzerland, delivered in October 2021 and put into service on 12 May 2022, 110 years after the first train. On the way up it pushes the carriages ahead of it, driven by remote control from the platform of the leading car, and it is the reason the 1912 cars can still stand in for a railcar on the timetable.

The rack railway runs almost all year, with a break for maintenance before Christmas. Trains climb on the hour and take about 25 minutes up and 30 down; on busy days extra trains run every half hour. Seats cannot be reserved, and at Aipl and Mitteralm trains pick up only when there are seats free.

Times below are from the Wendelsteinbahn's summer timetable 2026 and winter timetable 2026/27, read in October 2026. The line also posts a timetable for each day, from about 08:30, at wendelsteinbahn.de (opens in a new tab).

Summer: daily, 1 May to 15 November 2026

The 17:00 down runs from 1 June to 30 September only.

Winter: 23 December 2026 to 30 April 2027

Trains go up at 10:00, 12:00 and 14:00 every day, and also at 09:00, 11:00 and 13:00 at weekends and on holidays; the 09:00 runs only when the ski runs are open, and so do the 11:00 and 13:00 on weekdays. The last train down leaves the summit at 16:00. There is no service from 16 November to 22 December 2026.

Getting to Brannenburg

The RB 54 of the Bayerische Regiobahn runs hourly from München Hbf to Brannenburg in about an hour, and on to Kufstein. In the timetable from 13 December 2026, the 08:43 from Munich reaches Brannenburg at 09:41, in time to walk up for the 10:00, and the 17:19 from Brannenburg is back in Munich at 18:18. Bus 337 links the station and the valley station hourly, except on Sundays and holidays.

Tickets are sold at the valley station. From 1 May 2026 to 30 April 2027 a return to the summit costs €49 for adults and €24 for children aged 6 to 17, a single €31, and a family return €111. Anyone arriving on a Bayern-Ticket, a Guten-Tag-Ticket or an MVV ticket valid that day pays €40 for the return; the discount does not apply to the Deutschlandticket. Dogs cost €7.

To ride up in the 1912 carriages, the Nostalgie-Express runs on the first Friday of each month from May to October 2027, up at 09:50 and down at 13:30, for €8 on top of the return fare. The full-moon trains, with the old locomotives, an evening buffet at the Wendelsteinhaus and music, cost €105. Both are booked in the operator's online shop.

Interrail and Eurail passes cover the train to Brannenburg but not the rack railway. Interrail's table of German operators includes regional trains (RB) run by DB "and all other Regional carriers", so the Bayerische Regiobahn's RB 54 from Munich is covered. The Wendelsteinbahn is a private mountain railway and is not on the list, so the fare up the mountain has to be paid in full. The same is true of the Deutschlandticket: it covers the RB 54 but not the rack railway, and it does not earn the discount given to day-ticket holders.

For this journey a pass is not worth buying. A Bayern-Ticket covers the return trip from Munich, from €29 for one traveller, and it also takes €9 off the rack railway's return fare.

Pass conditions checked against Interrail's railway-companies page, last updated 21 October 2026. Conditions change with each season, and the pass issuer's page is the one that binds.

The rack railway is a half-day on its own, and a full day with the summit, the church and the cave. Brannenburg is at the foot of the line. The summit platform is beside the top station. The cable car to Bayrischzell makes a round trip of it, and Kufstein is a short ride further on the same regional train.

The ride takes under half an hour, so the mountain is an easy day out from Munich or Rosenheim. The Wendelsteinhaus at the top no longer takes overnight guests, so the one place to sleep on the mountain is the Alpine Club hut at the Mitteralm request stop. In the valley, the villages below the Wendelstein have inns with views over the Inn.

The places below keep their own websites and take direct bookings.

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