Silesian Mountain Railway

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Silesian Mountain Railway (Polish: Śląska Kolej Górska, German Schlesische Gebirgsbahn) is a railway line in south-west Poland. It leads from Görlitz/Zgorzelec on the Lusatian Neisse via Jelenia Góra to Wałbrzych in Lower Silesia. The railway was one of the first German electrified lines. Before the Second World War it used to transport vast amounts of Silesian hard coal to Saxony and Brandenburg.

First plans for connection of Görlitz with Waldenburg (Wałbrzych) via Hirschberg (Jelenia Góra) and further to Glatz (Kłodzko) appeared in 1853. Prussia intended to build a direct railway link from Berlin to Vienna, that would bypass Saxony. However Austrian Empire did not favor a construction major railway line running parallel to its border.

As the industrialization of Germany progressed, the original plan was reconsidered several years later. On 24th September 1862 Prussian parliament approved construction of railway line from Görlitz to Waldenburg with a branch line to Kohlfurt (Węgliniec). The line was built stepwise, the last section was opened on 16th August 1867. First section was electrified already in 1915. Due to the First World War the electrification was not finished until 1923.