Within roughly one year, all of the line's core features had been completed, enabling the railway to be opened for the first time on 1 August 1893. From end to end, the line stretches 5.85km (3.65 miles), between the lakeside station at St Wolfgang Schafbergbahnhof and the summit station of Schafbergspitze, covering a difference in altitude of 1,220 metres (4,024 ft) between these two locations. The Schafberg Railway is a cog railway, using the Abt system with a rail gauge of .