Aabenraa District Jernbaner

Løgumkloster – Aabenraa – Gråsten
Line network of the Apenrader Kreisbahn
Route length:	86 km
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Maximum slope :	20  ‰
Minimum radius :	150 m
Top speed:	30 km / h
Operating points and routes
Legend 54.3 Løgumkloster German Lügumkloster Kleinbahnhof 53.6 Løgumkloster Holmplads German Lügumkloster Holmplatz 49.7 Asset German Assith 48.5 Alslev Kro dt. Alsleben mug 46.1 Gravlund German Graulund 43.6 Øster Terp German Osterterp Branderup – Osterterp railway line to the north security position 41.3 Bedsted German Bedstedt 39.2 Sivkro German Sieverkrug 36.6 Klovtoft German Klautoft 35.1 Hellevad Mølle German Hellewatt Mill 33.8 Hellevad German Hellewatt 32.5 Lønholm German Lönholm 31.2 Egvad German Ekwatt 29.3 Nørre Hostrup German Norder-Hostrup 23.9 Rugbjerg German Rauberg 22.0 Hovslund German Haberslund Kleinbahnhof Fredericia – Flensburg railway line Military railway to the north security position in the direction of Hoptrup 19.2 Øster Løgum German Easter Lugum 16.7 Østermark German Osterfeld 14.3 Genner German Genner 13.6 Knivsbjerg German Knivsberg 11.1 Nørby German Nørby 9.3 Løjtkirkeby German Loitkirkeby 7.6 Barsmark German Barsmark 5.5 Skovby German Schauby 4.6 Stollig German Stollig 3.6 Knappen German Knapp (North Schleswig) State train station – port 0.5 Aabenraa Nørreport German Aabenraa Nordertor from the state train station, from here four-rail track 0.0 0.0 Aabenraa German Aabenraa station to the port, four-rail track from the port 0.7 Aabenraa Sønderport German Aabenraa South Gate up to here four-rail track Skelbæk 3.4 Styrtom dt. Disturbance 5.3 Stubbæk German Stübbek 7.6 Sønder Hostrup German Süder-Hostrup 9.9 Nørballe German Nordballig (North Schleswig) 11.0 Felsted German Feldstedt 12.8 Tumbøl German Tombüll 13.7 Slyngsten German Slyngsten 14.7 Bøgholm German Bögholm 16.4 Skovbølgård German Schobüllgaard 18.5 Varnæs German Warnitz 20.7 Bovrup German Baurup 23.6 Kiding German Kieding 25.9 Grøngrøft German Green Grift 27.0 Fiskbækskov German Fischbekholz 28.4 Fiskbæk German Fischbek 31.5 Gråsten German Gravenstein Kleinbahnhof

The Aabenraa Amts Jernbaner ( German  Apenrader Kreis-Kleinbahn - AaAJ ) was owned by the Danish district Aabenraa Amt . At the time when South Jutland belonged to Prussia, the railway lines were built and operated under the name of Kleinbahnen of the Aabenraa district in the north of the province of Schleswig-Holstein . Its two interconnected routes were meter-gauge railways with a total length of 86 kilometers.

history

Location of the train stations in Aabenraa

Klovtoft (German: Klautoft) small train station

Alslev Kro (German: Alslebenkrug) small train station

Based on the model of the southern neighboring district of Flensburg , which in 1885 opened the Reich's first railway line in the district administration (Kreisbahn), the Aabenraa district set up a railway line to make the district area better accessible to traffic.

Aabenraa – Gravenstein railway line

On February 13, 1899, the narrow-gauge railway was opened from the district town of Aabenraa , where the district station was not far from the state station, to Gravenstein (32 km). This place only got a connection to the state railway (from Sonderburg to Flensburg and Tingleff ) in 1901 . In order to avoid too many expensive engineering structures and to connect as many places as possible, the railway was laid out with extremely curvy curves. As a result, long travel times were inevitable. The railway soon acquired the name “Æ Kringelbåhn”.

Aabenraa – Lügumkloster railway line

The 54 km long northern route to Lügumkloster , opened on May 8, 1901, was extremely winding. They tried to connect as many places as possible to this one line. It led from Aabenraa to the “Nordertor” stop, which was even closer to the state train station than the Kleinbahnhof, initially over the hilly landscape of the Loit peninsula , past the Knivsberg , crossed the main Hamburg – Fredericia line in Haberslund near Osterlügum and swung further to the southwest in a relatively straight east-west direction to Lügumkloster. Here the Holmplatz stop was at the eastern end of the village, while the end point north of the station of the short branch line of the state railway was remote from the town in the south of the area.

Lock position north

During the construction of the north security position, several branch lines were laid from the northern route to the fortification wall. Only during this time was there a connection to the Hadersleben circular railway via these routes, including the Branderup – Osterterp railway line , which was no longer used after construction was discontinued.

traffic

In Lügumkloster, Haberslund and Gravenstein there were transfer options to the full-gauge state railway, as the small stations were in the direct vicinity of the state stations. In Aabenraa, the Nordertor stop was closer to the state train station than the small train station.

In 1911 six pairs of trains ran daily to Gravenstein, four on the northern route, plus one pair of trains from Aabenraa to Haberslund. 296,778 people and 52,688 t of goods were transported.

Eleven two-axle tram locomotives were used , there were also 23 passenger cars, four post / baggage cars and 70 freight cars, and additional freight cars were procured for the fortress construction. Only a few vehicles could be sold to Haderslev Amts Jernbaner after the closure , most of them were scrapped.

Danish time

These routes, some of which were extremely uneconomical, did not allow the Apenrader Kreisbahn a long service life after a few successful years before the First World War , as soon as the competition from the road became stronger. Another problem was that there were no civil connections to the Haderslebener Kreisbahn and other neighboring routes. After renovations during the First World War were not carried out, the administration of the Aabenraa office, which had become the legal successor of the district after the transfer to Denmark , decided to close the two lines, which took place in 1926.

Replacement route after the shutdown

Replacement was only created on the western section from Lügumkloster to Hellewatt . There, the Danish State Railways built a standard gauge railway on the old route . This was built as an extension of the old branch line from Bredebro ( Marschenbahn ) to Lügumkloster and took the direct route east of Hellewatt to Rothenkrug on the main line Hamburg – Fredericia , where the trains could continue to Aabenraa. This, including the old Bredebro-Lügumkloster route, was abandoned in 1936 and has the sad reputation of being the shortest-lived railway in Denmark's history.

Preserved structures

Most of the station buildings have been preserved, some of which can still be recognized as such. In the vicinity of the Knapp station in the parish of Loit northeast of Aabenraa, a viaduct over the country road has been very well preserved. In this area, the embankment still exists as a cycling and hiking trail. Parts of the railway embankment west of the highway to Flensburg can also be seen well south of the city.

literature

• Birger Wilcke: Æ Kringelbahn. 1982, (DJK 44), ISBN 87-87050-23-4
• LH Hansen: Aabenraa Amts Jernbaner 1899–1926. 1982, ISBN 87-981352-0-1
• Gerd Wolff: German small and private railways . Schleswig Holstein 2 (western part). tape 13 . EK-Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 2012, ISBN 978-3-88255-672-8 , p. 347-349 .

Web links

Commons : Aabenraa Amts Jernbaner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Photo of a locomotive during the construction of the fortifications. Archived from the original on June 21, 2015 ; accessed on August 21, 2018 . 
• Historical summary. Sønderjyske sogne. Retrieved August 21, 2018 (Danish). 
• Æ Kleinbahn i Aabenraa Amt. In: Dengang.dk. May 3, 2010, accessed on August 21, 2018 (Danish). 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Station names according to: NAVNE PAA SOGNE, KOMMUNER OG TRAFIKSTEDER I NORTH OG MELLEMSLESVIG. (No longer available online.) April 23, 1919, archived from the original on January 19, 2017 ; accessed on August 21, 2018 (Danish). 
2. ↑ Connecting railways security position north. Archived from the original on January 30, 2016 ; accessed on August 21, 2018 .