Drachenfelsbahn is a small cog wheel driven mountain railway running from Königwinter by the river Rhein up to the mountain Drachenfels, not far away from the city of Bonn. The line is metre gauge and equipped with a cog wheel third rail according to the system Riggenbach. The whole line is 1,52 kilometers long with a maximum incline of 20% and it rises up to 289 metres above sea level. The trains are elctrified with 750 V DC from an overhead catenary wire. Drachenfelsbahn has five electric motor wagouns, four of which were built by Waggonfabrik Rastatt 1955-1960. A fifth similar wagon was built by the Drachenfelsbahn itself in 1979. The waggons have a driver's cab at both ends, but doors only on one side as all the stations (three) have their platforms on the same side.
Picture from Königswinter 18.4.2026 by Ilkka Siissalo.

On a hot day the only air condition is to keep one of the doors open.
Picture from Königswinter 18.4.2026 by Ilkka Siissalo.

The station hall and garage at the lower end of the line at Königswinter.
Picture from Königswinter 18.4.2026 by Ilkka Siissalo.

Drachenfelsbahn was opened in July 1883 and it operated with steam locomotives until 1953. This was the railway's steam locomotive no.2.
Picture by Wikipedia user Murgatroyd49 from Königswinter station 24.9.2014. Published under the CC BY-SA 4.0 Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license.