Geislinger Steige — Mühltalfelsen Viewpoint

Mühltalfelsen is a rock ledge with a table and benches on the Erlebnispfad Geislinger Steige, the waymarked history trail along the ramp, about 560 m (1,840 ft) above sea level. The double track runs just below it, about 18 m (59 ft) from the ledge, on the stretch where the line climbs from Geislingen (Steige) in the north-west toward Amstetten in the south-east; a DB kilometre post for km 65 stands on the line directly below. Trains are side-on from here, moving left to right or right to left along the slope of the Rohrach valley. Heavy freight trains are the reason to come: some still need a pusher on the 22.5 per mille grade, and Wikipedia records class 185 electric locomotives doing that job as of 2023. Regional-Express line 5 (Stuttgart–Lake Constance) also uses the Steige.

The ledge is part of the rock that was partly blasted away in the 19th century to make room for the line, and it looks out over the wooded Rohrach valley, the side valley the railway follows to climb out of the Fils valley onto the Swabian Jura. Mixed deciduous forest covers the slopes; Geislingen an der Steige lies out of sight below to the north-west, and Amstetten station, at the top of the ramp, is about 3 km (1.9 mi) away on foot according to the trail signpost.

The Geislinger Steige was built between 1847 and 1850 by some 3,000 workers under the engineers Michael Knoll and Karl von Etzel, and opened on June 29, 1850. It climbs 112 m (367 ft) over 5.706 km (3.55 mi) between Geislingen (Steige) and Amstetten, at up to 22.5 per mille and with curves as tight as 278 m (912 ft) radius. It is often called the first railway crossing of a mountain range in continental Europe, although the Schiefe Ebene in Upper Franconia, opened earlier, disputes that title. The Deutsche Reichsbahn electrified the line on May 30, 1933. Since December 2022 the new Wendlingen–Ulm high-speed line has taken over most long-distance passenger traffic, leaving the historic ramp mainly to regional trains and freight.

A main line where pushing heavy freight uphill is still routine 175 years after opening: Wikipedia records class 185 locomotives as pushers in 2023, running uncoupled at up to 60 km/h or coupled at up to 70 km/h. The ledge itself is part of the rock the 1850 builders had to blast away.