Amrum Island Railway
| Amrum Island Railway | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Map of the North Frisian Islands from 1910
with the route network of the island railways | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | approx. 14 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 900 mm ( narrow gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Amrum Island Railway was a narrow-gauge railway with a 900 mm gauge that existed from 1893 to 1939. During this time, despite numerous operational problems, she played a key role in the boom in tourism on the North Sea island of Amrum .
The route network
The maximum extent of the route network was around 14 km, namely the Wittdün - Norddorf (bridge) (12 km) and Wriakhörn – Wittdün Strand (2 km) routes. The main line connected two ports and had a terminal station with a triangular track in Nebel , about halfway .
meaning
The Amrum Island Railway was primarily used to transport tourists to the holiday quarters in Nebel and Norddorf as well as to transport them to Norddorf harbor (Kniephafen), from which it was possible to travel by ship to Hörnum (Sylt) for several decades . The Kniephafen, located in a bay of the Kniepsand , later silted up.
The Wittdüner Strandbahn was used for the daily transfer of bathers to the beach.
history
The port of Wittdün was founded in 1890 to offer accommodation for tourists. At the same time, quarters were established in the other island villages, especially in Norddorf. In 1893, the Wittdün and Amrum corporation carried out a trial run on the Wittdün – Wittdün Strand line for the first time. This route often had to be rerouted due to storm surges in winter. In 1901, rail operations began on the Wittdün – Nebel line . A year later, the railway was operated to Norddorf Hafen and thus almost reached the maximum route network length. The power stations GmbH Dusseldorf took over in 1907 the railway. The plan was to use the island's power supply to operate a tram-like railway. In 1909 the southern route of the Wittdüner Strandbahn was abandoned and a new line was built that branched off to the west and then to the south-west at the lighthouse. The northern branch was also extended to the new Kniephafen, which was moved to the north. In the same year electrical operation began with 700 volts direct current and electric multiple units . In the following year, a fire in the power station ended the electrical operation, so that steam locomotives ran under contact wires. In 1911, HAPAG took over the ailing operation.
In 1918, during the First World War , operations were temporarily suspended. In 1920, the now responsible Amrumer Inselbahn AG dismantled the contact wire; the electric multiple units were used as wagons. The railway came under compulsory administration in 1931 and went to the Wyker steamship shipping company Föhr-Amrum . Its subsidiary Amrumer Inselbahn GmbH was founded. The operational problems increased; Derailments and speed restrictions were frequent.
In 1938 the construction of a paved road from Wittdün to Norddorf was planned. The Amrum island railway was shut down on October 31, 1939 after 46 years of operation, as the lines could only have been repaired with great financial expense. The line was dismantled as early as 1940.
Operations
In the summer there were eight pairs of trains in a few years, as well as additional trips, including many empty trips because of the two ferry ports in Wittdün and Norddorf. Except in the era of the electric multiple units, traffic was carried out with a total of five steam locomotives , each with two axles. There were also three electric multiple units, a total of seven two-axle and two four-axle passenger cars and seven freight cars (O and G cars).
The travel time on the approximately twelve-kilometer main route was - without stopping times - about 55 minutes.
The Amrumer Inselbahn had to struggle with adverse conditions during the entire operating period. These included the poor substructure and silting in the dunes, but above all the lack of financial resources. Numerous derailments and the low speed made the railway a mockery of the Amrum residents and tourists: "It shakes and shakes and doesn't make any headway, that's the Amrum island railway."
traces
In the north you can see the route on the inside of the Risum dike (north of the Norddorfer beach hall). To the south of it, an asphalt footpath runs along the old route through the dunes. At the southern edge of Norddorf you can still see the railway embankment, which is about a meter high and has a curve. Further south the road runs along the route. To the north of Nebel you can also see the embankment, which runs a short distance east of the highway.
In Nebel there was the “Amrumer Bahnhofshotel” until around 2004, which marked the location of the Nebeler Bahnhof.
There are almost no traces of the route to the south. The "Haus Kabelgatt" in Wittdün was a converted engine shed that was used for a variety of other purposes, including a sailing school and guest house. In the spring of 2011 it was demolished to make way for a development with four new buildings. This means that there are no longer any buildings on the island railway.
Although the Inselbahn has not been running on Amrum for a long time, there is a rubber-tyred “locomotive” - a converted Toyota off-road vehicle - with two trailers that is used as the “Amrumer Inselbahn” or “Insel-Paul” for sightseeing tours on Amrum.
literature
- Heinz-H. Schöning: The Amrum Island Railway . Kenning Verlag, Nordhorn 1996, ISBN 3-927587-55-9 .
- Georg Quedens : We fohrn, if ick mien Punsch ut heff - history and stories of the Amrum island railway . Jens Quedens publishing house, Amrum 2001, ISBN 3-924422-66-4 .
- Gerd Wolff: German small and private railways, part 1: Schleswig-Holstein / Hamburg . Zeunert, Gifhorn 1972, ISBN 3-921237-14-9 .
- Hans Wolfgang Rogl: The North Sea Island Railways . 6th edition, alba, Düsseldorf 1996, ISBN 3-87094-230-4 .
- Gerd Wolff: Deutsche Klein- und Privatbahnen, Volume 13: Schleswig-Holstein 2 (western part) . EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-88255-672-8 .