Engelhof station

Infrastructure of the horse-drawn railway

The station yards usually consisted of the station building, which served as a supervisory and residential building with offices and flats for the railway staff, stables, which had to accommodate from 28 to more than 100 draught horses depending on the requirements on the various sections of line, oat and hay stores and smithies. Larger stations, such as Lest or Urfahr, also had wagon repair workshops consisting of saddleries and wainwright's shops. Each station had a railway inn run by tenants, which was primarily intended for railway staff. The railway staff included the drivers, servants and coachmen. It was only with the introduction of the originally unplanned passenger services that the stations were adapted to the volume of passengers.

The Engelhof station, established in 1836, was located at kilometre 65.3 at the highest point of the southern line at 471 metres above sea level above Gmunden. From here, the transports assembled in Engelhof, travelled north on schedule at five o'clock in the morning to meet up with the southbound train departing from Maxlhaid at the same time in Lambach at midday. Engelhof and Maxlhaid were the two stations on the Gmunden line that were not built for railway operations, but were set up in adapted manor houses (Seeauhof, Engelbauer). The plans for the stable buildings have been preserved.

After the line from Lambach became a steam-powered wing of the new Empress Elisabeth Railway in 1859, rolling stock operation was introduced here.

The standard-gauge carriages were placed on narrow-gauge bogies (Rollböcke). In 1903, the entire line was converted to standard gauge. This station of the Traunseebahn (local railway Gmunden - Vorchdorf), which is operated by the Stern und Hafferl company, was in operation until 1996, making it the oldest operating station in the world.