Tanvald–Harrachov rack railway

The route

The Zubačka, as Czechs call it, is a standard-gauge line of about 12.7 km that climbs from Tanvald into the Jizera Mountains and runs on to Harrachov near the Polish border. Its original section from Tanvald to Kořenov opened on 30 June 1902 and gains 235 m, with gradients up to 58 per mille, the steepest on the Czech network. It is the only rack railway in the country and one of the last standard-gauge rack lines still in use in Europe.

The line was built in 1899–1902 to join the Austrian railway from Liberec and Tanvald with the Prussian line from Jelenia Góra, so it crossed an imperial border at Kořenov. On the steepest stretches it uses the Abt system, with two toothed rack strips between the rails. Five tunnels and several large bridges carry it through the narrow valleys, including the 940 m Polubný tunnel. After 1945 the Prussian side became Polish, and in 1958 a border exchange gave Czechoslovakia the land around today's Harrachov station.

The Tanvald–Kořenov section was declared a cultural monument in 1992. In 2025 the infrastructure manager Správa železnic renewed the rack section with new rack switches, steel sleepers, drainage and work in the Polubný tunnel, part-funded by the EU. Trains returned on 1 November 2025, and the old rack locomotives still come out for heritage runs.

What to watch for

1. Entering the rack

   Just past the steel bridge over the Desná at Tanvald, trains must slow to 5 km/h to enter the first rack section. On the Abt system, two toothed strips lie between the rails, offset so that a locomotive's cog wheels always have a tooth engaged. The rack is still in place, and the heritage rack locomotives use it on their special runs.

2. Black Desná viaduct

   After Desná station the line crosses the Black Desná and the main road on a five-arch stone viaduct, 71 m long and about 13.6 m high. It marks the start of the second rack section. The masonry dates from the original 1902 construction, when this was an Austrian line climbing towards the Prussian border.

3. The 58 per mille climb

   Just after Dolní Polubný comes the steepest stretch on the Czech network: 193 m at 58 per mille, meaning a rise of 58 m for every kilometre. Above it the grade stays near 55 per mille. Watch how the valley floor drops away to the side as the train works uphill through the spruce forest.

4. Polubný tunnel

   At 940 m, the Polubný tunnel is the longest on the line and among the longest single-track tunnels in Czechia. It was part of the 2025 renewal. When the train comes out into daylight, the hardest part of the climb is over and Kořenov, the old border station, is just ahead.

5. Over the Jizera

   Between Kořenov and Harrachov the line crosses the Jizera river on a bridge about 26 m high, the tallest on the route. This last stretch was originally part of the Prussian railway; the land around Harrachov station only became Czechoslovak in a 1958 exchange of territory with Poland.

What you will see

The film starts at Tanvald and soon crosses the Desná river on a steel bridge, where the first rack section begins and trains slow right down to enter it. The track climbs through the short Žďárský tunnel and along the wooded side of the valley to Desná, where the White and Black Desná streams meet.

Beyond Desná the line crosses the White Desná on an iron bridge, then the Black Desná on a five-arch stone viaduct. The steepest 193 m of the whole line, at 58 per mille, starts just after Dolní Polubný, and the gradient stays near 55 per mille for a long way above it. The climb ends in the 940 m Polubný tunnel, the longest on the line.

After the tunnel the train reaches Kořenov, the old border station at the top of the rack section. From here it runs across the Jizera valley on a tall bridge and through the Harrachov tunnel to Harrachov station at Mýtiny, the end of the film. The line continues across the border to Szklarska Poręba in Poland.

Station by station

1. TanvaldA town of about 5,900 at the meeting of the Kamenice and Desná rivers, 455 m up in the Jizera Mountains. Lines from Prague and Liberec end here, and the climb to Harrachov begins just beyond the station.
2. DesnáA town of about 3,000 where the White and Black Desná streams join. Four stations and stops serve its territory, and the railway crosses the White Desná on an iron bridge just after this station.
3. KořenovThe top of the rack section and once a border station between Austria-Hungary and Prussia. The old station building now holds a small museum of the rack railway, with a period dispatcher's office.
4. HarrachovA ski and glassmaking town on the Mumlava, known for its Čerťák ski-flying hill. Its station stands in Mýtiny, the former Strickerhäuser, which came to Czechoslovakia in a 1958 border exchange with Poland.

Riding it for real

České dráhy runs the regional trains between Tanvald, Kořenov and Harrachov with Stadler railcars, and through trains continue across the border to Szklarska Poręba. In winter the morning trains fill with cross-country skiers bound for the Jizera Mountains trails; in summer cyclists use them. The heritage company Železniční společnost Tanvald runs trips with historic rack locomotives on selected days, and Kořenov station has a small museum of the line.

Check České dráhy and the Liberec Region's IDOL transport system for current timetables and fares, and the Zubačka heritage society for special trains.

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