Railway repair shop in Leinhausen
The Leinhausen railway repair shop was established in 1874, at that time on the outskirts of Hanover as a railway repair shop, and was closed in 1992. With the expansion of the S-Bahn network in the greater Hanover area on the occasion of the EXPO 2000 in Hanover, a new S-Bahn workshop was built. The factory became the nucleus for the Leinhausen district through its workers' settlement . At times it was one of the largest repair works on the Deutsche Reichsbahn .
history
founding
The first so-called workshop location of the Royal Hanover State Railways , which was supposed to carry out the repair and workshop work for locomotives and wagons on the railway line Berlin-Magdeburg-Hanover-Minden-Cologne, which was under construction, was founded on June 1, 1842 at Schiffgraben, but was established at Construction of the Central Station Hanover (today's Hanover Central Station ) relocated to its north side at Raschplatz, this was the direct forerunner of the repair shop. With the upturn in rail traffic, this repair workshop had to give way to the extension of the tracks at the main train station. The railway administration therefore bought a large area (approx. 63 hectares) outside the Hanover city limits in the boundaries of the villages of Stöcken and Herrenhausen to establish a large repair workshop ( Royal Prussian main workshop in Leinhausen ). The site was north of the railway line and could be directly connected to the line. The Hanover-Langenhagen-Walsrode route, which also runs north-east of the site , was not opened until 1890.
The property offered enough space for the workshops and a housing estate ( Colonie Leinhausen ) for the workers and employees as well as civil servants and their families. 400 apartments were planned. Construction began on June 18, 1874. A locomotive repair hall with 31 stands and a sliding platform was built, a wagon repair hall with 19 stands, as well as the necessary ancillary facilities such as boiler house, foundry, boiler shop. Parts from Hanover's first main train station were used for the spare parts warehouse . On March 31, 1878, operations began in the new buildings with the first workshops relocated from Hanover, initially with 400 employees.
Communal importance
Since the neighboring communities of Stöcken and Herrenhausen, which were dominated by farmers at the time, persistently refused to incorporate the newly founded settlement (due to the high proportion of workers there was fear of "social democratic elements" in the population), the settlement remained an independent estate district for a long time under local law, with the plant manager as the "estate administrator ". Thus, the works manager appointed by the railway administration had an administrative position similar to that of an elected mayor elsewhere in municipalities (e.g. he or his works officials took over civil duties in the "registry office in Leinhausen" and were responsible for social services, the fire brigade and school, which were also carried out by the Railway administration were financed).
In 1895 the "Gutssiedlung" Leinhausen had over 1000 inhabitants and was much too big for this administrative structure, which was intended for farm workers, too small for a village with a handful of inhabitants in sparsely populated, agricultural areas. The railway administration pushed for relief because of the increasing costs for the community tasks and administrative services. The residents, like every citizen entitled to vote in the German Reich, had the right to vote at local level. But since they did not live legally in a municipality, there was no mayor's office and no municipal council and consequently no elections, so this democratic right was worthless for them. The district administration demanded the municipalization of the resulting urbanized settlement. Finally, on October 1, 1928, the area was incorporated into Hanover and developed into the Leinhausen district. The neighboring villages of Herrenhausen and Stöcken had already become districts of Hanover in 1891 and 1907.
The old Leinhausen settlement, consisting of single or group houses, was demolished in 1959. Large areas of residential high-rise buildings for employees of the Federal Railroad will be built on the site in order to counter the extreme housing shortage in Hanover for railroad employees. In 2009 only a few relics of the old Colonie Leinhausen can be seen.
Further development
20th century
With the strong increase in rail traffic, the building systems also had to be constantly expanded, so that up to 1914 buildings were built almost every year or to meet the new requirements, e.g. B. by larger locomotives or heavier assembly parts. In 1881 an express coach repair facility was set up, in 1882 a second locomotive repair hall with 42 stalls. A superstructure material store was also set up. In 1887 the Leinhausen stop was set up on the route to Wunstorf , so that there was a better traffic connection. But there was also a workers' train that ran three times a day from the main train station via Hainholz directly to the factory premises. This connection existed until the 1970s.
In 1881, after a major fire, the first voluntary fire department was founded on the site. In 1887 it officially became the “Voluntary Fire Brigade of the Royal Railway Main Workshop”. It was equipped with a modern steam syringe, which was considered to be the most modern and powerful syringe in Hanover and the whole surrounding area. In 1901 the plant fire brigade was recognized by the district administrator as compulsory community fire brigade for the Colonie Leinhausen. It received the public status similar to a volunteer fire brigade (e.g. fire police rights and public duties).
In 1895 the factory had around 1400 employees and the manor district had around 1000 residents. It is divided into five departments: A) locomotive repair, B) freight and passenger coach repair, C) switch construction and forge, D) boiler forge, E) administration.
The repair shop for passenger coaches was expanded in 1906, the locomotive repairs in 1907 expanded by another 36 stands. A large water tower was built in 1909.
In 1906, a nurses' station was set up by the Hanoverian deaconess mother house Henriettenstift to provide health care for the railway workers .
In 1914 the factory had around 3,200 employees. Until now, only tank locomotives were looked after, a tender workshop was set up in 1917 so that it was also possible to examine locomotives with tenders. During the First World War , however, the plant was also used for purposes other than railroading, such as grenades and ammunition . Hospital trains were equipped in the wagon workshop .
After the end of the First World War, the factory had around 5800 employees thanks to those returning from the war. This is the highest number of employees ever achieved in the history of the plant. The plant was thus by far the largest plant of the Deutsche Reichsbahn founded in 1921 .
60 to 65 locomotives were repaired every month, 2000 freight and passenger wagons per year, 600 new points were built and 600 overhauled. Assembly line production was introduced in 1925, so the plant was mainly limited to maintaining the Prussian P 8 . In 1928, 3718 workers and 284 civil servants were still employed, so that the plant was still the largest repair shop on the Reichsbahn.
The so-called " Schienenzeppelin ", designed by the engineer Franz Kruckenberg , was built and maintained in Leinhausen over a period of several years.
In 1929, the repair of railcars, especially the former Prussian accumulator railcars .
Due to the global economic crisis and the associated decrease in transport volume, the need for workshop capacities and employees is also decreasing. On July 29, 1931, locomotive repairs were abandoned; the last locomotive to be completed was the 38 3187. On April 1, 1933, 2016 employees were still employed. 145 railcars, 3359 passenger cars and 360 freight cars will be examined this year.
In 1935, the plant took on repairs for rail vehicles (trucks for transporting general cargo and buses).
In 1941 the repair shop in Leinhausen became the state railway repair shop in Hanover. Locomotive and tender repairs, especially the DR class 50 and class 91.3 , will also be resumed.
On October 19, 1943, the plant was almost completely destroyed in a bomb attack. For a while it was planned to give up the plant entirely and to build a new locomotive repair shop in Seelze.
After the situation had largely normalized again, the tasks were rearranged. In the future, the railcars were maintained in the AW Limburg , the turnout production went to the AW Witten .
post war period
When the Deutsche Bundesbahn was founded as the successor to the Deutsche Reichsbahn AG, the plant had around 3,100 employees in 1950 and was now known as the Hanover Railway Repair Shop. After the Munich-Freimann repair shop , it was the second largest of the DB.
In 1952 the class 50 was handed over to the AW Bremen and the class 91.3 to the AW Jülich, in 1953 the last locomotive was examined and the locomotive repairs were again abandoned. The signal production moved into the locomotive repair hall.
It played an important role in the reconstruction of the Deutsche Bundesbahn's fleet of cars after the Second World War , as some of the passenger car series characteristic of the post-war period were built and in some cases also developed. These included the conversion wagons , the three-axle variant from 1953 to 1958 and the four-axle variant from 1958 to 1960. 1962 to 1965 the production of the n-cars took place .
In addition, mainly freight cars were maintained until 1963. After 1963, the renovation and maintenance of the railway company cars was concentrated here. Motor vehicle entertainment was relocated to Bremen in 1959.
As a result, the need for workshop capacities decreased dramatically. There were many reasons for this development. The elimination of steam traction reduced the maintenance effort for locomotives to a fraction of the previous maintenance effort. The replacement of the rolling stock, which had been makeshiftly repaired after the Second World War, and which was partially supplemented by the reconditioning of 50-year-old rolling stock, with brand-new, modern and therefore low-maintenance car designs significantly reduced the workload between 1960 and 1970. The decline in typical mass transports by z. B. Elimination of coal as an energy source or elimination of mineral oil transports (replacement by pipelines), the general increase in the load capacity of the wagons used, the relocation of transport to the road, general progress in rationalization through mechanization, extensive elimination of reprocessing measures for old vehicles and the takeover of Maintenance tasks by the industry made it necessary to significantly reduce the railway's own workshop capacity. All repair shops were affected by this development; the Leinhausen repair shop was no exception. In 1965 there were still 1725 employees, in 1970 the number of employees fell to around 750. Large parts of the area were no longer used.
Between around 1965 and 1975, the Deutsche Bundesbahn, in coordination with the other European railway administrations, prepared its rolling stock for the planned introduction of the automatic coupling throughout Europe in 1981 ("AK" project). To this end, considerable structural modifications had to be made to all of the wagons in use in order to be able to absorb the pressure forces introduced into the car substructure via the new coupling in the middle instead of the buffers on the sides. In addition, simple and, above all, quick assembly options were required for the heavy and bulky new coupling pocket. The workshop capacities no longer required for other maintenance tasks were used for this purpose. In addition, generous workshop capacities (halls with siding) were made available all over Germany (including in Leinhausen) in order to be able to carry out the actual conversion of the prepared vehicles for the entire fleet in a very short time (a few months). In 1975 the entire program was suspended across Europe, later canceled entirely; For the assembly capacities that were now idle nationwide, no tasks were foreseeable and they were subsequently dismantled, also in Leinhausen.
Rapid mending was relocated to Seelze in 1967.
In 1992 the actual repair shop was finally closed. Only smaller parts of the company work on the site. As a result, there were considerations to completely clear the factory premises and use it for residential construction.
As part of the expansion of Hanover's light rail network and the resulting need for additional modern workshop capacity for light rail vehicles, part of the site was sold in 1994 and used for the construction of an ultra-modern light rail workshop for ÜSTRA . The nearby tram line to the Volkswagen plant in Hanover -Stöcken made it easy to connect to the tram network and the site was given a direct track connection to the ÜSTRA network. In 1998 ÜSTRA's newly built Leinhausen depot started operations.
Maintenance and repairs of rail vehicles took place on the site for around 130 years without interruption until 2008. Some buildings of the old factory architecture worth preserving have been placed under monument protection and are waiting for a long-term convincing usage concept. There are two large workshops for the maintenance of S-Bahn and trams of the ÜSTRA on the site.
tasks
In the course of its more than 130-year history, the plant had experienced numerous reorganizations and relocations of tasks. The labor-intensive maintenance of steam locomotives, which is characteristic of a large repair shop, was given up relatively early (1953) in favor of specialized plants in the area (e.g. in Braunschweig and Göttingen). Towards the end of their existence, these plants were organizationally assigned to the Leinhausen repair shop.
In addition to the production of 4-axle express train wagons ("Schürzenwagen") before the Second World War and 3- and 4-axle passenger wagons (so-called "Umbauwagen" and " Silberlinge " for local transport) after the end of the war based on the material (steel girders, axle parts, bogies etc.) disused wagons, freight wagons and locomotives were also serviced. In addition, switch construction and maintenance, track construction, reconditioning of mechanical signal systems, barrier systems and mechanical interlocking systems, material reconditioning (e.g. of superstructure materials such as sleepers and small iron), maintenance and repair of electric vehicles for luggage transport ("electric carts") ) as well as other industrial trucks (e.g. forklifts and pallet trucks for general cargo transport), reprocessing of lead-acid batteries , as well as central stockpiling of consumables, wear parts, raw materials and semi-finished products for the tasks located on the site.
The central reconditioning of wear parts such as brake hoses and the cast of axle plain bearing shells and brake shoes were also located in the factory.
Today, a modern maintenance workshop for S-Bahn cars in the Hanover region and one for the maintenance of ÜSTRA light rail cars have been built on a part of the site.
Designations
In the course of its eventful history, the plant has had many names. The naming was always subject to two influences: for the employees, the plant was always in "Leinhausen", the actually independent location of "their" plant. Nationwide, it was considered to be the main repair work of the Reichsbahn or Bundesbahn directorate in Hanover and therefore had "Hanover" in its name.
In addition, the name sequence reflects the changes in the understanding of the facility and its organization from the handcrafted “workshop” to the officially coined terms “inspection” and “office” to the industrially organized “factory”. The sequence of names is therefore a revealing indication of the development of the railway organization in Germany.
Some designations that the work carried or under which the work can be found in documents and literature:
- Royal Prussian main workshop in Leinhausen (1878)
- Main railway workshop in Hanover
- Royal Main Railway Workshop Hanover (1887)
- Royal Railway Workshop Inspection in Leinhausen (1908)
- Royal Railway Workshop Office in Leinhausen (1911)
- Main workshop in Leinhausen (1920)
- Hanover Railway Works
- Leinhausen Railway Works (1922)
- Railway repair shop in Leinhausen (EAW Leinhausen, 1925)
- Reichsbahn repair shop in Leinhausen ( RAW Leinhausen , 1932)
- Reichsbahn repair shop Hanover ( RAW Hanover , from April 1, 1940)
- Railway repair shop Hanover (1949)
- Federal Railroad Repair Shop Hanover (1951)
- Federal railway repair shop Hanover-Leinhausen
- Repair shop in Leinhausen
- Repair shop Hanover ( AW Hanover )
- Hanover plant
- S-Bahn workshop in Hannover Leinhausen
literature
- Sigurd Werner et al. : 100 years of the Bundesbahnausbesserungswerk Hannover , Bundesbahnausbesserungswerk Hannover (commemorative publication for the 100th anniversary, various contributions from different authors), with illustrations by Friedrich Kurbadt , Hannover: Bundesbahn -lungswerk Hannover, 1978
- Regulations on the painting and the designation of freight wagons, Appendix 6, workshop number , Deutsche Reichsbahn AG, 1928.
- Dieter Höltge: From the railway workshop to the repair shop . In: Eisenbahnfreunde Hannover: Die Eisenbahn in Hannover , Zimmer, Eppstein im Taunus, 1969, pp. 39–50.
Web links
- Conrad von Meding: Investor wants to build apartments in a railway settlement , in: HAZ from November 12, 2010
- Conrad von Meding: Uli Stein took photos in the old railway repair shop in Hanover , HAZ from March 20, 2011
Individual evidence
Sigurd Werner (editor): 100 years of the Hanover repair shop . Festschrift, Bundesbahn repair shop Hanover 1978
- ↑ p. 11
Coordinates: 52 ° 24 ′ 4.7 " N , 9 ° 40 ′ 37.5" E