Part 1: St. Pölten and the Pielach valley
A trip on the Mariazellerbahn is a journey through all kinds of typical Austrian landscape. Starting at St. Pölten [map], the capital of Lower Austria, the train enters the first pair of tunnels within the the area of St. Pölten's main station, which lead into the "Alpenbahnhof" ("alpine station"). This is the center of operation and home of the legendary 1099s, the world's oldest electric locomotives still in daily use on the line they were originally built for.
We leave the outskirts of the town, and for the next few kilometres the tracks run through hilly countryside. The next important stop is Obergrafendorf [map], the largest station along the route.
While the branch line leaves Obergrafendorf with a sharp right hand bend - which explains it's nickname "Krumpe", that means something like "the bent one" in Austrian dialect - the following mainline section to Klangen includes the longest stretch of straight track. It was often used for testing purposes with all types of Austrian narrow gauge rolling stock.
After Hofstetten-Grünau [map] the railway gets closer to the river Pielach, the landscape changes into a more typical pre-alpine hillside valley, narrowing kilometre after kilometre and promising the spectacular views to come. Small villages are found along the way and alternate with bigger places like Rabenstein [map] or Kirchberg an der Pielach, once places of some importance, as can still be recognized today by the rich amount of historic buildings. Medieval castle ruins at Rabenstein and Weissenburg and a lot of historic churches make this region a place worth a visit for the historically interested visitor, while providing remarkable stops for tourists on a rambling trip.
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After Rabenstein we cross the Pielach on a steel girder bridge and pass the small station of Steinschal, today mainly a private halt for the near Steinschalerhof hotel****, while the village of Tradigist, the name it had for years before, is situated some kilometres away in an adjacent valley.
At Kirchberg an der Pielach [map], it's possible to visit a model layout of the Mariazellerbahn's mountain section in 1:87 (H0e). There you can follow the train as it runs through a spectacular mountain landscape that is very close to the prototype. This is possibly the best way to understand the route which can be a bit confusing when watching from inside a train. The layout is situated opposite the railway station and it's open on Saturdays and by request.
We leave Kirchberg, the valley narrows, so that just few space remains for the road and the narrow gauge trackbed to negotiate the embankment above the river. First major tunnels appear to bypass sharp bends of the Pielach. After passing the villages of Schwarzenbach [map], and running through the narrow valley of the Nattersbach to Frankenfels [map] with it's stalactite cave "Nixhöhle", at last the train reaches the once busy station of Laubenbachmühle. [map]
During the few years of steam traction it was common practice to change engines there, because the stronger Mh and Mv-classes were needed to pull the trains over the increasing gradient up to Winterbach and over the mountainous route. Today, some of the daily services terminate here. For the historic steam trains, it's necessary to take on water here for the following trip.