I thought I was share our experience - and give some useful tips.
GETTING THERE BY RAIL : Eurail Rail pass app does not show any trains to Hallstat at all. Using the OBB site, I found a train to Ebensee then rail replacement bus from there to Hallstat. However, the train conductor said not to get off in Ebensee - but go 6 more stops to Bad Goisern. However, we actually stopped just before Bad Goiserin, and everyone got off, and they did indeed have a bus waiting, and no one checked our pass on the bus - which was about 20 minutes to Hallstat. One benefit of the rail replacement bus, is that it does not end up on the other side of the lake, making a ferry necessary. It drops you off right in the main "bus station" of Hallstat just yards from the actual lake.
GETTING OUT BY RAIL : Getting out of here is now a new headache. The very nice lady in the tourist office gave me the website www.ooevv.at which shows the schedule of bus/train trips out of Hallstatt. One problem is that it mixes up regular busses with the rail replacement busses. But I noticed that some of the bus icons have what looks like a bus next to a train with an arrow, which I am willing to bet means that those are rail replacement buses.
MONEY : Its extremely annoying but it seems virtually every hotel and restaurant requires cash payments. None are willing to take credit cards. I was here 7 years ago, and it was not like that then. I guess they want to avoid the credit card fees. I would be willing to pay 2% more to pay with credit because I get some cash back benefits, and don't have to pay hefty ATM fees. [A year ago, I paid between $218-$257 for 200 eu from bank machines).
VIEWS : The iconic view is to walk through the town completely, and pass through and arch, and continue another 100 m, and there is a convenient place to get that shot that you have seen on calendars and book covers. There are also several patches up to a parking lot at the bottom of the triple level waterfall, which affords a great overview of the city.
CARS IN PEDESTRIAN ZONES : the roads are essentially no drive zones full of tourists with suitcases, baby carriages, and people with umbrellas avoiding the rain. There is a 2 foot wide sidewalk of sorts in most but not all places but its too narrow for two people to walk side by side. Suddenly a car came down the road at about 30 mph, and did not seem to care that people with suitcases and sprained feet are not able to jump out of the way of a speeding car as fast as they may like. I was reminded of that scene in No Time to Die of people running and screaming as the car barrels down the road. We averted a disaster by seconds, but an hour later, the inevitable happened, and a car hit a pedestrian.
RESTAURANTS : There are very few restaurants open now. We were recommended to Bräugasthof (hotel/restaurant) on the Main Street, and it was pretty decent and not outrageously expensive. We had to pay all cash, but there was no service fee (we paid 3.90 a head in Vienna the day before for cover charge).
I did have one of the worst restaurant experiences in my years of travel in EU in a place called Simple 169, where you had to pay in cash in advance. They would not allow us to sit 3 at a table, so two sat, and I stood up the whole time. Eventually I found a distant table available, and ate a slice of overpriced thin pizza. Then another table opened up next to our group and I moved to that one - which caused some angry arguments with the owner over changing tables more than once.
PEOPLE : Despite that one experience, the host of our hotel and the lady in the TI office, were some of the nicest people I have met in Austria, so its a place of extremes.
SECOND THOUGHTS : If the normal train service was operating, I would have stayed in Bad Ischl and commuted down. At night in the rain, there is nothing to do and nothing to see.