Anschlussbahn-Servicegesellschaft Pressnitztalbahn

Updated: August 2026 – A large share of rail freight doesn’t end at a station but behind a works gate. That’s where the private siding (Anschlussbahn) begins – private track, private operations, its own rules. The Anschlussbahn-Servicegesellschaft Pressnitztalbahn carries this business area in its name. This page explains what’s behind it, how handovers work and where the clear line lies for observers.

What is the Anschlussbahn-Servicegesellschaft Pressnitztalbahn?

The company name consists of three telling parts. Anschlussbahn (private siding) names the business area: rail operations on private track layouts that connect a works or industrial site with the public network. Service indicates that the work is done on behalf of third parties and not sold as transport in the company’s own name. Pressnitztalbahn refers to the Pressnitz valley in the Ore Mountains and the railway tradition rooted there. Today, that tradition is visible above all in the narrow-gauge operation of the Preßnitztalbahn near Jöhstadt.

Together, this gives a clear classification in the freight and works railway sector – one of the few examples in this database where the company name really does deliver what it promises.

How a siding is served

Public network and private siding compared

Feature	Public network	Private siding
Owner	Infrastructure manager	Siding owner, usually an industrial company
Access	for licensed railway undertakings in return for track access charges	only with the owner’s permission
Signalling	Line signals, train protection	mainly shunting movements, running on sight
Speed	Line speed	Walking pace up to a few km/h
Typical vehicles	Main-line locomotives	Shunting locomotives, often radio remote-controlled
Access for visitors	Platforms public	completely off-limits

You’ll find comparable set-ups at the Eisenbahn-Bau- und Betriebsgesellschaft Pressnitztalbahn, at the town of Jöhstadt as the body responsible for the Preßnitztalbahn and at urban industrial railways such as the Industriebahn-Gesellschaft Berlin.

Vehicles in private-siding operations

Works tracks have sharp curves, short usable lengths and low speeds. That calls for vehicles that are manoeuvrable and offer a good view on both sides. Typical representatives of this family of designs are Class 298, modern compact machines such as the Vossloh G 6 and the classic V 60 in its Classes 260, 360 and 364.

This list describes design purposes, not this company’s fleet. Siding operators frequently hire vehicles, and then the vehicle keeper marking names the leasing company, not the operations manager. How to keep the two properly apart is described in the guide Who’s actually running it? Identifying the railway operator.

Safety: this is where spotting ends

Practical advice on how to behave around shunting operations is given in the guide to spotting at a marshalling yard.

Why industry needs tracks at all

A works siding is expensive: it costs space, maintenance and staff. That there are still so many of them has solid reasons – and if you know them, you can tell from the outside what kind of business lies behind a works gate.

The first reason is mass. Bulk goods such as ore, coal, ballast, grain or cement come in quantities for which lorry traffic would be neither economical nor practical. A single freight wagon replaces several road vehicles, and a block train correspondingly many more.

The second reason is dangerous goods. Liquid and gaseous chemical products are preferably moved in tank wagons, because transport and transfer take place in closed systems and the quantities are large. Facilities for this are permanently installed at the track.

The third reason is bulkiness. Steel slabs, coils, pipes, transformers or machine parts often simply don’t fit on the road. For consignments like these, rail is sometimes the only realistic option.

The fourth reason is continuity: works that produce around the clock need a predictable supply. A fixed track with fixed service times is easier to plan than a fluctuating number of road vehicles.

Observation at the works gate	Probable background
Tank wagons at permanently installed filling facilities	Chemical or mineral oil plant
Open wagons under a crane or bunker	Bulk goods, building materials, recycling
Flat wagons with stanchions and coil troughs	Steel-processing industry
Container flats at gantry cranes	Combined transport terminal
Ballast wagons and engineering-train stock	Construction logistics and track building

For you as an observer, that’s good news: even though the works premises themselves are off-limits, you can read very precisely what’s happening there at the interface with the public network. The types of wagon on the exchange siding are the most honest information about an industrial site you can get – and they can be seen from public ground.

Common mix-ups

• Private siding equated with a branch line – a branch line is public network, a private siding isn’t.
• Operations manager confused with siding owner – whoever runs the trains doesn’t have to own the tracks.
• Shunting locomotive taken as a company vehicle – in private-siding operations, hired locomotives are the rule.
• Trip working mistaken for a freight train – trip workings are short, slow and end after a few kilometres.
• Works tracks assumed to be disused – rusty rails only mean that nothing has run recently.

Conclusion

Private sidings are the invisible part of freight traffic: without them no wagon reaches its loading point, and yet you hardly ever get to see them. That’s exactly what makes the interface with the public network so interesting – and it’s exactly there, at the publicly accessible exchange station, that the area where you’re allowed to be also ends.