Wutach Valley Railway

The Wutach Valley Railway or German: Wutachtalbahn is one of the most unusual and impressive stretches of railway in Germany. It links the town of Waldshut-Tiengen, on the High Rhine Railway and the border of Baden-Württemberg and Switzerland, with Immendingen on the Black Forest Railway. Because of the twisting route of its central section, it is popularly known as the Sauschwänzlebahn.

The line was planned in the 1860s, though construction was not completed until the 1890s, and its purpose was at least partly strategic, to allow a means for moving military supplies around the south of the Black Forest; the German Empire having seized Alsace and Lorraine from the French in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71, a revenge attack in this area from the French or a preemptive strike to prevent one were key issues in German military thinking at the time. The normal commercial route along the Rhine passed into Swiss territory so could not be used for military purposes.