Jünkerath station

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Jünkerath
Jünkerath station
Jünkerath station
Data
Operating point type railway station
Location in the network earlier separation station
Design Through station
Platform tracks 3
abbreviation KJU
IBNR 8003135
Price range 5
opening November 1870
Profile on Bahnhof.de Juenkerath
Architectural data
Architectural style historicism
location
City / municipality Jünkerath
country Rhineland-Palatinate
Country Germany
Coordinates 50 ° 20 ′ 41 ″  N , 6 ° 34 ′ 51 ″  E Coordinates: 50 ° 20 ′ 41 ″  N , 6 ° 34 ′ 51 ″  E
DE-NHN 429  m
Railway lines
Railway stations in Rhineland-Palatinate
i18

The Jünkerath train station is located on the Eifel circuit in Jünkerath in Rhineland-Palatinate . It was once an important junction station, but has lost this importance due to closings and is only used as a stop between Cologne and Gerolstein.

history

For topographical, socio-economic and political reasons, the Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft decided late to build a railway line through the Eifel . The focus was on connecting the cities of Trier and Cologne . Construction of the line began in November 1867 and Jünkerath and Gerolstein were reached almost exactly three years later . The subsequent rapid construction of the line to Trier was due to the Franco-German War , as the railway company expected possible military transports. The connection to Trier was already passable on June 15, 1871. At that time, the Eifel route showed its strategic and military importance for the first time. The station was built on the district of Glaadt , on which the Jünkerather Hütte has stood since 1687 . Today's Jünkerath community came into being around 60 years after the station opened.

Its importance increased at the beginning of the 20th century with the construction of the branches of the Middle Ahr Valley Railway and the Vennquerbahn in Jünkerath . Jünkerath then developed into an important hub station in the Eifel, alongside the nearby Gerolsteiner train station. Both the freight train and passenger train traffic grew rapidly, which is why the Jünkerath station was constantly being expanded. There were a total of four signal boxes and a dedicated depot on the site . It was particularly important because of its connection to Belgium . Therefore, it now also served as an important marshalling yard for train formation .

Jünkerath played an important role, particularly during the First World War , as the station was in a strategically important position for trains to the western front. It is estimated that up to 50,000 soldiers, 3,000 horses and 1,000 tons of material were transported on the Ahr Valley Railway alone . It was important to keep the stay in the station as short as possible so that the station had to prove to be correspondingly efficient. In 1918, up to 1,000 soldiers a day were finally sent to Belgium with food.

The Jünkerath train station was also affected by the French occupation of the Rhineland in 1923. The railway officials resigned and took part in the uprisings in the Ruhr area . The French did not leave Jünkerath until 1925.

Before and during the Second World War , the station was again of great importance due to its strategically favorable location near the Westwall construction. Once again, there was a boom in the station due to the large number of goods and people being transported towards the Belgian border. In 1939, over 850 railway workers were employed in the station's departments. When the station was bombed during an air raid in 1944, a train carrying Soviet prisoners of war was also hit. The station was not only affected by enemy attacks: on September 12, 1944, a V1 that got out of control and crashed damaged the station. But even after that, the station was not spared from air raids. In February 1945, the German Wehrmacht finally took over the station and controlled the blasting of bridges and tunnels in the region from here.

After the war, the station area looked like a field of rubble. In July 1945 workers were asked to report to their offices in order to be able to participate in the reconstruction of the station. The blasted material was enough for the reconstruction of three signal boxes, because attempts were made to reuse as much building material as possible. Since there were no locomotives in the station, the rubble wagons had to be pushed by hand. The switches , tracks and signal systems were also salvaged and extensively repaired.

In 1948, the station was reopened as a marshalling and hub yard and, from 1949, the train service to Belgium began. From 1950 the station regained its former importance in freight and passenger traffic. However, it decreased again from the mid-1950s. In 1959, the railway organized their depots new and ordered the Bw Jünkerath the Bw Gerolstein as a branch to.

The structural change in the region resulted in the end of passenger traffic on the Vennquerbahn on May 26, 1963; almost exactly ten years later, on June 3, 1973, passenger traffic on the Middle Ahr Valley Railway to Dümpelfeld ended. On February 1, 1979, the Jünkerath office was closed. From this point in time, the tracks in the station area and on the branch lines were dismantled. In 1982 the line to Hillesheim was closed. Jünkerath retained its importance as a marshalling yard for train formations until the 1990s. In 2003 the line to Losheimergraben was shut down, which had been maintained for strategic reasons to connect the Elsenborn military training area . The final end for the marshalling yard came in 2004.

Since then, the railway facilities have been significantly reduced and the station building has been neglected. In the years 2011 to 2016 there were extensive modernization measures in the station, which were carried out as part of a program between Deutsche Bahn , the state of Rhineland-Palatinate and the special purpose associations of local rail passenger transport, which will run until 2019; a total of 100 million euros will be made available for all stations to be renovated.

Station building and grounds

The station building has been a listed building since 1978. The main building consists essentially of red quarry stone and has a separate outbuilding. The building represents the former importance of Jünkerath as a railway junction and an important location for the iron industry in the Eifel. It also fits in with the uniform style of the station buildings built along the Eifel route. Those magnificent “castles” were financed by the money that France had to pay to Germany as war debt after the Franco-Prussian War .

Since the Jünkerath station was initially only built as a station for the Jünkerather Hütte, the track systems including the locomotive shed looked oversized for the remote location of the station, especially at the beginning of construction. As early as 1871, the hut received its own siding at the station. Due to its steadily increasing economic and traffic-related importance, the station was expanded several times in the following period. At the beginning of the 20th century, the station had four signal boxes.

During the modernization measures from 2011 to 2016, a new underpass, new seating, new clocks and new information showcases were created. In addition, the platforms were raised to 76 centimeters to enable barrier-free access. In addition, the entire station was marked as a non-smoking area.

A passenger survey was carried out as part of the measures. The survey found that 95 percent of passengers only use the trains from Monday to Friday. Around half of them commute to work. 54 people said they came on foot, 94 people with cars and 32 people with buses. 260 people spoke out in favor of expanding the park & ​​ride facilities in the station. Therefore, new parking spaces were created during the renovation on the station grounds. That cost around 569,000 euros, of which the Jünkerath community itself paid around 149,000 euros.

During the renovation work, care was always taken not to obstruct train traffic. The timetable has been changed for this purpose. The renovation cost a total of six million euros, of which Deutsche Bahn took over 3.2 million, the state 1.3 million and the municipality of Jünkerath 514,000 euros.

Jünkerath Railway Museum

The Jünkerath Railway Museum is located near the train station. The museum was established in 1991 in a no longer used building of the vocational school. The railway museum mainly exhibits exhibits such as tickets and equipment from train attendants and the trains themselves.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eifel line Cologne-Trier - AG Railway history - The Nims-Sauertalbahn. In: nims-sauertal-bahn.de. Ag Railway History, accessed April 22, 2016 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k story. (No longer available online.) In: eisenbahnmuseum-juenkerath.de. Archived from the original on April 25, 2016 ; Retrieved April 25, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Stretch. (No longer available online.) In: eisenbahnmuseum-juenkerath.de. Archived from the original on April 25, 2016 ; Retrieved April 25, 2016 .
  4. ^ Jünkerath station is being renewed. In: welt.de . July 7, 2015, accessed April 25, 2016 .
  5. ^ Rail: Jünkerath station is being renewed. In: Focus Online . July 7, 2015, accessed April 25, 2016 .
  6. ↑ List of monuments of the General Directorate for Cultural Heritage, Rhineland-Palatinate; 2011.
  7. ^ Vulkaneifel District Administration, Department 1 - Municipal and Law; 2008.
  8. ↑ Father Josef Böffgen: Well town Gerolstein old and new pictures. European Library, 1978
  9. ^ Renovation in Jünkerath: Rejuvenation for the old train station. In: ksta.de. Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger, April 25, 2016, accessed April 25, 2016 .
  10. ^ A b Step by step to the new Jünkerath station. In: volksfreund.de. December 14, 2014, accessed April 25, 2016 .
  11. ↑ Jünkerath local community. In: juenkerath.de. Jünkerath community, accessed on April 26, 2016 .
  12. ↑ premises. (No longer available online.) In: eisenbahnmuseum-juenkerath.de. Archived from the original on April 25, 2016 ; Retrieved April 25, 2016 .
  13. ↑ https://www.eisenbahnmuseum-juenkerath.de/