early Zugspitzbahn vehicles, Germany

A Tallok seen in the 1970s.

The metre-gauge 19 km cogwheel railway called the Bayerische Zugspitz-Bergbahn or BZB up to the summit of Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze, was built between 1928 and 1930 and opened in three stages. The first was the 3.2 km (2.0 mile) long centre section between Grainau and the Eibsee which went into operation on 19 February 1929. On 19 December 1929 it was followed by the 7.5 km (4.7 mile) long section between Garmisch and Grainau, including the important connection to the Deutsche Reichsbahn (nowadays Deutsche Bahn). On 8 July 1930 the last 7.9 km (4.9 mile) long section between the Eibsee and the – now closed – summit station of Schneefernerhaus was opened, including the final 4,466-metre (14,652-ft) long Zugspitze Tunnel.

In 1987 the route of the railway in the summit area was changed and the 975-metre (3,199 ft) long "Rosi Tunnel" opened, named after skier Rosi Mittermaier who was the Tunnelpatin (tunnel patroness) at the time. The tunnel branches from the 1930-built Zugspitze Tunnel about three-quarters of the way along it, and runs to the somewhat lower Zugspitzplatt plateau at 2,588 metres (8,491 ft). Here, below the Sonn-Alpin Restaurant is the new Glacier Station (Gletscher-Bahnhof) in the middle of the ski area. The overall length of the Zugspitzbahn was accordingly extended from 18.6 km to its current 19 km (11.8 miles). For five years, both termini were worked in parallel, but since November 1992 the old route to the Schneefernerhaus has no longer been routinely worked.

The Zugspitzbahn begins in Garmisch at an altitude of 705 metres (2,313 ft). Here the BZB runs its own terminal station which is operationally entirely separate from the standard gauge station of the Deutsche Bahn AG and is still just called Garmisch, whereas the DB station bears the name of Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

As far as Grainau the railway runs as an adhesion line. Of this section, the first 3 kilometres (1.9 miles) run parallel to the Ausserfernbahn, built in 1913. The mountain section begins in Grainau station and is equipped with a Riggenbach rack system, and is 11.5 km (7.1 miles) long.

In the old days there was a change of engine in Grainau between the valley loco (Tallok) and the mountain loco (Berglok); today the railcars work the entire line. The railway climbs steeply uphill from Grainau, passes Eibsee station and finally arrives at the halt of Riffelriss. Immediately after the halt is the entrance to the Zugspitze Tunnel, which together with the Rosi Tunnel takes trains to the current terminus at Zugspitzplatt.  It operates on 1.5 kV DC from overhead.  More pics here