The Kořenov (Grünthal) railway station is situated on the railway connecting the towns of Tanvald – Kořenov – Harrachov. The original railway was constructed between 1900 and 1902 and it included rack railway sections, several tunnels, bridges, and the Kořenov railway station premises with a locomotive shed. This served as a terminal station of the Liberec – Jablonec – Tanvald (RGTE) rack railway in the Tanvald – Kořenov section, connecting the Jablonec and Liberec regions with coal basins located in Silesia.
Stretching along less than 7 kilometers, the railway bridges the height difference of 235 meters.
In Kořenov it joined the Prussian State Railway (KPEV) and continued as far as the town of Jelenia Góra (Hirchsberg); today, the Czech Railway line ends in the town of Harrachov. The Kořenov railway station compound consists of the main station building, a waterworks building, a turntable, a depot (no. 806), workshops, and former customs officers’ quarters (no. 803).
The locomotive depot was constructed in 1903, according to the plans for the Liberec – Jablonec – Tanvald railway and the Imperial Prussian Railways by architect Eduard Krammer. From 1945 the shed served for the purposes of the Czechoslovak State Railways until 1987 when the roof collapsed under the onslaught of snow and the building was left to fall into disrepair. Masonry tops were partially restored and project documentation was designed for the shed renovation and roofing construction. In 2015 a local group of enthusiasts managed to raise finance for the project called “The Rack Railway – Unique And Living Cultural Heritage Of The Jizera Mountains And The Giant Mountains” with the help of a grant provided by Iceland, Lichtenstein, and Norway.
The renovation works included new roofing, stone masonry rehabilitation, and a gate replica. Today the former locomotive shed serves as a depot housing operational historical cog locomotives, a repair workshop, and a museum collection of historical railway vehicles. In 2016 the shed building received the Patrimonium pro futuro award by the National Heritage Institute. Three years later, the Kořenov shed ranked second in the Karel Hubáček competition, the Liberec Region Building, in the “Civil and Industrial Building” category. The railway station building, waterworks building with a well, engine shed, turntable, scale, and gauge are listed as cultural heritage.
