Opladen repair shop

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Location of the repair shop in Leverkusen

The repair shop (AW) Opladen was for over 100 years, between 1903 and 2003, the most important employer in Opladen (now part of Leverkusen ) and in the last decades of its existence the central electric locomotive workshop of the Deutsche Bundesbahn and the Deutsche Bahn AG for the northern half of Germany.

history

Main railway workshop

Werkstättenstraße in Opladen, named after the former "main workshop". The buildings used to belong to the AW, including as a home for single people
Fire department building

At the end of the 19th century, the Royal Railway Directorate (KED) Elberfeld decided to set up its own main workshop for locomotive repairs in its district, as the previously shared capacities of the main workshop in Witten (KED Essen ) were nowhere near sufficient. After several locations had been discarded, in addition to Opladen's favorable location in the rail network, the Opladen city council's offer to make the required space available at low cost was the decisive factor in choosing the Opladen location.

The AW was built between Opladen and Quettingen over a three-year construction period and officially opened on November 1, 1903 as the main railway workshop of the Prussian state railway, initially as a locomotive workshop with around 200 workers. In 1907 a wagon workshop was opened to replace the outdated workshop in Cologne- Deutzerfeld, and from 1908 accumulator railcars were also serviced. At that time the workforce had already grown to over 1,000 people, and by the end of the decade to over 2,000 people; this workforce remained unchanged in the long term, apart from short-term fluctuations, which, however, were between 1,300 and 4,900 employees at times. Opladen was responsible for all repairs to steam locomotives, wagons and equipment for the railway departments in Cologne (on the right bank of the Rhine) and Elberfeld.

The development of the formerly rather rural town of Opladen was significantly shaped by the settlement of the main workshop. The city made an area of ​​approx. 2 hectares (parts of today's Opladener Neustadt) available free of charge for the construction of apartments for the required skilled workers, which enabled the population to more than double in the first decade of the 20th century. The urban infrastructure, such as B. the sewers have been completely modernized due to the requirements of the main workshop. The city also benefited from an economic point of view, e.g. B. through the applicable trade tax.

Although part of the workforce was drafted into the military during the First World War , the demands on the main workshop increased due to the war. In order to be able to maintain the number of staff, women and prisoners of war were also used as workers.

Reichsbahn repair shop

After the founding of the Deutsche Reichsbahn , the plant was renamed in 1922 in Reichsbahn -lungswerk Opladen (RAW Opladen).

Twice - during the Allied occupation of parts of the Rhineland immediately after the First World War and during the French occupation of the Ruhr in 1923 - the RAW Opladen threatened to be cut off from the rest of the Elberfeld Railway Directorate . While this could still be averted in the first case, there was a temporary severely reduced utilization of the RAW in 1923 due to severe obstructions to rail traffic. As a result of this blockade, the plant was initially provisionally, but from 1925 permanently under the responsibility of the Reich Railway Directorate in Cologne .

Entrance of the AW

After the factory had specialized in the maintenance of the P 8 and G 10 locomotive series at the end of the 1930s , and despite a very high workload, the steam locomotive department was closed in 1930 because the dimensions of the RAW were no longer sufficient for the newly emerging standard locomotives . The maintenance of the battery-powered railcars was also given to RAW Limburg in 1932 . The workforce therefore reached a low of around 1,300 during this period. In order to counteract the low utilization, a fixture construction was established in addition to the still well-utilized car workshop, whose task it was to develop and build auxiliary devices for other RAWs. In 1934, the maintenance of railcars , small locomotives , engines and motor vehicles was taken over by RAW Jülich , which significantly increased capacity utilization in the following years; Among other things, Opladen was responsible for the maintenance of all small locomotives in the Essen , Cologne, Trier and Wuppertal (formerly Elberfeld) departments.

During the Second World War , large vehicles and engines for the Wehrmacht were serviced in Opladen . As in the First World War, drafts into the Wehrmacht and the transfer of railway workers to areas close to the front led to a shortage of personnel, which in turn was countered by the deployment of women, prisoners of war and this time also forced labor . Heavy air strikes , especially between December 28, 1944 and March 6, 1945, killed many employees, including numerous slave laborers, and badly damaged the RAW. On April 15, 1945, after the city of Opladen had been handed over to the Allies, the plant was finally placed under American control.

Federal railway repair shop

Track access to the AWs and the track construction yard. In the background the halls of the AW.

After the Second World War and the beginning of the reconstruction, the company continued to operate under the name of the Federal Railroad Improvement Works Opladen, initially with an essentially unchanged area of ​​responsibility. In the 1950s, several diesel locomotive series such as V 20 and V 36 were added to the maintenance inventory. The supervised motor vehicles included u. a. Buses and articulated buses and road rollers including Kaelble -Zugmaschinen.

As part of a fundamental restructuring of the repair shops decided in 1955, the maintenance of electric multiple units started in Opladen in 1957 and that of electric locomotives (electric locomotives) in 1959 . The maintenance and repair of new electric locomotives should become the exclusive area of ​​responsibility of the AW in the following years. To this end, the plant was rebuilt until 1963. In addition to the AW München-Freimann , which up until then was responsible for the maintenance of all electric locomotives and electric multiple units in Germany, Opladen became the second E-Lok-AW of the Deutsche Bundesbahn and responsible for the increasing number of new locomotives in northern Germany. In the Freimann AW, all of the old electric vehicles of the German Federal Railroad and new vehicles were inspected and maintained. The AW Freimann was closed in 1995.

With the growing electrification of the railway lines in northern Germany, the number of electric locomotives supported in Opladen rose continuously. When the maintenance of freight wagons was given up in 1960 and the maintenance of passenger coaches in 1961, facilities for the maintenance of around 1,500 electric locomotives were already planned in Opladen; around 1980, around 3,000 electric locomotives were looked after. Highlights of the later years of the AW were the acceptance of the first ICE 1 trains between 1989 and 1993 and the maintenance of the three-phase electric locomotives of the 120 series , which were newly introduced in the 1980s .

Decline and closure

Sign indicating the closure

Due to the rail reform and the dissolution of the works division of Deutsche Bahn AG in early 1998, the AW was assigned to DB Cargo . This meant that Opladen was only responsible for freight train electric locomotives and, after German reunification, was in increasing competition with factories in the new federal states .

After the closure of the AW was announced on June 26, 2001 by the board of directors of Deutsche Bahn , protests from the workforce up to and including hunger strikes broke out . At the end of 2001, the company put the plant out for sale across Europe. The Bombardier company expressed interest, but ultimately withdrew its offer. According to a media report, only a few employees were on site in mid-October 2003. Some ongoing projects have been canceled.

The plant was finally closed on December 31, 2003.

Future of the site

Together with a large part of the also fallow former track area at the Opladen train station, a new urban district has been under construction on the former site of the repair shop under the name "neue bahnstadt: opladen" since 2010, including the campus of the "Faculty of Applied Sciences" of the Technical University Cologne is housed. Parts of the site and the buildings are to be used as a climbing hall, a craft center and a cultural repair shop . Due to the limited financial resources of the public sector, the local press estimated a time frame of 20 years for the project. At the end of 2015, large parts of the site on the eastern side were completed.

Others

Locomotive scrapping near the former AW

Track construction yard

Directly next to the AW Opladen was also the Opladen track construction yard . In contrast to the actual AW, the corresponding lettering was also clearly visible to travelers on the Cologne – Wuppertal route. Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 31.8 ″  N , 7 ° 0 ′ 49.6 ″  E

Recycling company

There has been a scrap shop near the former AW site for decades , today Bender Recycling GmbH, which scraps many decommissioned locomotives.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ We feel ripped off . In: Die Zeit , No. 27, June 26, 2003.
  2. ↑ Report by the railway company wants to close the Opladen plant . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , Issue 8–9 / 2003, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 338.
  3. ↑ message Endzeitstimmung in Opladen . In: Eisenbahn-Revue International , issue 12/2003, ISSN  1421-2811 , p. 527.
  4. ↑ Lord Mayor Ernst Küchler: Rapid changes for the city . In: Westdeutsche Zeitung , December 28, 2007.
  5. ^ Neue Bahnstadt Ost: Expansion continues , Gundhild Tillmanns, Rheinische Post, October 29, 2015
  6. ^ Labeled hall of the track construction yard as of March 13, 2010

Web links

Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 50.4 "  N , 7 ° 0 ′ 45.3"  E