The basis for this railway junction was the Bavarian-Austrian state treaty of 21 June 1851. On the Bohemian side, the Pilsen–Priesen(–Komotau) railway company built the missing section from
Neuern to
Eisenstein station and opened it on 20 October 1877. On the German side, after the Bavarian
Ostbahn was nationalised on 10 May 1875, the line was completed by the
Royal Bavarian State Railways and the last section from Ludwigsthal to Eisenstein was opened to railway traffic on 15 November 1877. Not until just before the completion of the railway lines, did the two railway administrations agree, on 17 May 1877, details of the very large station building and extensive track system needed for the transfer of goods and passengers. This required the local terrain to be filled with over 250,000 m3 of earth and levelled off. The station building was built with its centre section exactly on the border. On either side was an adjoining wing belonging to the respective railway company. The waiting room was designed in a way that was very representative of the style of that era. In the first class waiting room is the largest surviving planked ceiling of its type - a so-called "Cologne ceiling" (
Kölner Decke). The station was completed in 1878. On its southern side, west of the track network, that had 9 tracks to begin with and later 11, is the
roundhouse with its
turntable. Today it houses the Bavarian Localbahn (=branch line) Museum in which the
Bavarian Localbahn Society stables more than 20 vehicles from the
Lokalbahn era. The railway line was conceived as the shortest link between
Prague and
Munich, but because of the steep inclines and tight curves, especially on the Bohemian side, it never attained its intended importance. There was no cross-border traffic until 2006, even after the forced annexation of the
Sudetenland into the
German Reich in 1938. Only around the turn of the 20th century, in 1900, did through coaches run along the route for a few years from Munich to Prague. Through goods traffic restricted itself to the region. == Iron Curtain ==