Steyr Valley Railway, Heritage narrow-gauge railway in Steyr-Land District, Austria

The Steyr Valley Railway (Steyrtalbahn) is a 760 mm narrow-gauge line in Upper Austria, originally running from Garsten through Grünburg and Molln to Klaus, with a branch from Pergern to Bad Hall. Only the Steyr to Grünburg section survives, run as a museum railway by the Austrian Society for Railway History (ÖGEG) since 1985. Steam locomotives pull dark wooden passenger cars, as in the photograph of locomotive 699.103 crossing a dark metal truss bridge among trees.

The Steyrtalbahn AG was founded in 1888 after Josef Ritter von Wenusch received the concession, and the Garsten–Grünburg line opened on 19 August 1889. The Agonitz extension followed in 1890, the Pergern–Bad Hall branch in 1891, and the Klaus extension in 1909, bringing the network to 55 km. The Austrian Federal Railways took over in 1931, and the ÖGEG has run the Steyr–Grünburg section as a museum railway since 1985.

The heritage line is run by the Austrian Society for Railway History (ÖGEG), which took over the Steyr–Grünburg section and has operated it with steam locomotives since 1985. The carriages are dark wooden types hauled by black steam engines such as locomotive 699.103, whose red number plate is visible on the smokestack end. Museum trains run on Saturdays and Sundays from early June to late September, with special trains at other times.

Museum trains run on Saturdays and Sundays from the start of June to the end of September, with special trains at other times. The preserved section runs from Steyr to Grünburg; the rest of the former route has been dismantled and largely turned into a bicycle path.

The 760 mm gauge was first used in what is now Austria on this line, after proving itself in Bosnia; the k.u.k. military then prescribed it for nearly all later narrow-gauge builds. The locomotives Krauss supplied for the 1889 opening are regarded as the forerunners of the U class.