Brandleite Tunnel
Western portal seen from Oberhof station | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Line | Neudietendorf–Ritschenhausen railway |
| Location | between Gehlberg and Oberhof, Thuringia |
| Coordinates | Western Portal: 50°41′5″N 10°42′42″E / 50.68472°N 10.71167°E Eastern Portal: 50°41′15″N 10°45′16″E / 50.68750°N 10.75444°E |
| Operation | |
| Work begun | 28 May 1881 |
| Opened | 1 August 1884 |
| Rebuilt | 2004/2005 |
| Operator | DB Netz |
| Technical | |
| Length | 3039 m |
| No. of tracks | double throughout |
| Track gauge | 1435 mm |
| Electrified | no |
| Tunnel clearance | 5.85 m ... 6.05 m |
| Width | 8.20 m ... 9.00 m |
Brandleite Tunnel is a single-bore, double-tracked railway tunnel between the stations of Gehlberg (598 m a.s.l.) and Oberhof (639 m a.s.l.) in Thuringia. It leads the Neudietendorf–Ritschenhausen railway beneath the Brandleite massif, a part of the ridge of the Thuringian Forest that reaches a height of 897 m a.s.l. in this area. The tunnel is mostly straight, only at the Oberhof end the tracks curve slightly towards the south. With a length of 3,039 m (9,970 ft) it is the longest railway tunnel in Thuringia, and was the longest in the network of Deutsche Reichsbahn in the GDR. The maximum rock cover amounts to 237 m (778 ft).