page_title: Lokalbahn AG
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Lokalbahn AG / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Bond of the Localbahn-AG, issued 12. March 1891 Deutsch: Schuldverschreibung über 1000 Mark der Localbahn-AG vom 12. März 1891
context_page_description: The Lokalbahn AG company, or 'LAG' for short, was a private company based in Munich, Bavaria, whose lines of business was the construction and operation of branch lines in Germany and Austria-Hungary. It existed from 1887 to 1938.
context_section_description: The company was founded on 9 February 1887 by the Lokomotivfabrik Krauss & Co. and the Lechner & Krüzner Branch Line Construction and Operating Company (Lokalbahnbau- und Betriebsunternehmung Lechner & Krüzner). Krauss brought with them the narrow gauge Feldabahn in Saxony-Weimar, which had been built in 1879/80, into the new company.
  The LAG rapidly grew into an important transportation organisation. From 1889 to 1891 alone their routes grew to a length of 430 kilometres. However this did not constitute a single network. The routes were built where tourism, mineral resources, industry, agriculture or forestry could anticipate a significant volume of traffic. The LAG had no preference for a particular system. There were steam and electrical operations, standard gauge and narrow gauge and both separate routes as well as the co-use of roads. These activities were complemented, at least for a while, with a rack railway, the Schafbergbahn, steamship operations on the Wolfgangsee and horse and motorised transport.
  The LAG proved to be extremely progressive with its introduction of electrical train operations. The Württemberg railway line from Meckenbeuren to Tettnang was the first electrically operated standard gauge railway in Germany (the planning of which Oskar von Miller, amongst others, took part). The Ammergaubahn from Murnau to Oberammergau, which was sold to the company, became the first single-phase AC line in Germany.
  Apart from its own routes in southern Germany the company owned the majority of shares in the Lausitz Railway Company (Lausitzer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft) and had a share in the Salzkammergut Lokalbahn AG and the Central Bank for Railway Stocks. The latter had, especially over the West Hungarian Lokalbahn-AG, influence on the numerous railway routes in Hungary with a total length of over 700 kilometers, which had been built by the LAG.
  During the First World War and the years following, the company had to combat major difficulties. The loss of the Hungarian routes hit their accounts especially hard. After overcoming inflation, things improved again, however the worldwide economic crisis as well as the increasing pressure of competition from road transport services brought the company to the brink of ruin at the beginning of the 1930s.
  With the loans from Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft, reductions in capital and write-offs by the states of Bavaria and Württemberg, restoration to profitability was achieved again in 1934, however it only postponed the end. With effect from 1 August 1938 the entire assets transferred to the Deutsches Reich under a Reich law.
caption: Bond of the Localbahn-AG, issued 12. March 1891
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