Herbesthal train station

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Herbesthal
Herbesthal train station around 1900
Herbesthal train station around 1900
Data
Location in the network Separation station
Platform tracks 7th
opening 1843
Conveyance 1966
location
City / municipality Herbesthal
province Liege Province
region Wallonia
Country Belgium
Coordinates 50 ° 39 ′ 38 "  N , 5 ° 59 ′ 11"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 39 ′ 38 "  N , 5 ° 59 ′ 11"  E
Railway lines
List of train stations in Belgium
i16 i16

The Herbesthal station was the passenger and freight station of the Belgian town Herbesthal that the municipality of Lontzen in the German-speaking Community is part of Belgium. Opened in 1843, the Herbesthal station was the oldest European border station on the border between the Kingdom of Belgium and the Kingdom of Prussia . Until 1920 the station was in Prussia or the German Empire . As a result of the Versailles Treaty , the station , which had been operated by the Prussian State Railways until then, came together with the Eupen-Malmedy area to Belgium in 1920 and was taken over by the Belgian State Railways SNCB . This continued to operate it as a border station, while Aachen Central Station took over this function on the German side . In 1966 the station was shut down and its functions were transferred to the neighboring Welkenraedt station, which was Belgian before 1920 .

history

Construction and operation by the Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft

The first railway plans for the newly formed Kingdom of Belgium in 1830 also included a route to Cologne in order to gain access to the Rhine where Belgian industry could avoid the high Dutch tariffs. Rhenish merchants and industrialists such as David Hansemann and Ludolf Camphausen quickly took up these ideas. The Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , which they founded , received royal approval in 1837 to build a railway connection from Cologne via Aachen to the then Prussian-Belgian border near Herbesthal , at that time a small village on the border with around 300 inhabitants. The originally planned tour via Eupen could not be realized for topographical reasons, so the Rheinische Eisenbahn agreed to build a branch line from Herbesthal to Eupen. The Rhenish Railway agreed with the Belgian State Railways to build a joint transfer station in Herbesthal, in which the necessary passport and customs clearance should also take place.

In Herbesthal, therefore, the first border station in Europe was built, where a railway line crossed an international border. After the line from Cologne to Aachen was inaugurated in 1841, construction was delayed, mainly due to the complex construction of the Ronheider ramp , the large bush tunnel and the viaduct over the Göhl near Hergenrath . On October 15, 1843, the line from Aachen to Herbesthal was inaugurated, and two days later the Belgian section to Verviers . Verviers had a railway connection to Liège since July 1843 . Continuous operations on the entire route from Aachen to Liège began on October 24 of the same year. It soon developed into one of the most important international connections in Western Europe.

Herbesthal station was initially a joint station for the two administrations that jointly operated between Verviers and Ronheide station at the top of the Ronheider ramp. The Rheinische Eisenbahn provided the passenger cars and the train crew, the Belgian State Railways the locomotives. The trains were hauled over the ramp using a rope hoist. However, the rope hoist operation on the ramp soon proved to be expensive and operationally complex, so that it was gradually abandoned by 1854. Herbesthal station was expanded as an operating change station, since then all trains have changed their locomotives here. A few years later, the Welkenraedt station was laid out on the Belgian side, but Herbesthal remained the main border and operational change station. There were only a few hundred meters of open space between the two stations.

The branch line to Eupen, which had already been promised to start operations, was only built by the Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft twenty years later, inspired by the decisive initiative of Eupen Mayor Peter Becker . The Herbesthal – Eupen line was inaugurated on March 1, 1864, and Herbesthal station had been expanded to accommodate the new line. It was probably the first time that it received a depot .

In 1855, at the request of the Aachen post office, the station building had already received a new post office, which Henri-Chapelle had moved to Herbesthal and which had become one of the most important post offices in Europe. In 1890 this was moved to a new building in the immediate vicinity of the train station, which was finally taken over by the Belgian postal administration in 1920. In the 1920s, up to 1,000 mail bags were processed every day and the later use of rail mail cars meant the end of the Herbesthal post office.

Station of the Prussian State Railways

Despite bitter resistance from its President Gustav Mevissen , the Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft was nationalized in 1880, and the Royal Railway Directorate of Cologne (on the left bank of the Rhine) took over operations with effect from April 1st of this year . Herbesthal train station has since been part of the Cologne management.

KED Köln fundamentally renewed Herbesthal station in 1889. The previous system came from the early years of the railway and was no longer able to cope with the increased demands. The station received a new, representative reception building to meet the increased demand. In addition to the facilities for customs, police and passport control as well as waiting rooms for all classes, the building also had a prince's room . The freight yard was also expanded, the depot received two roundhouse and turntables . Two years earlier, the line from Eupen to Raeren , where there was a connection to the Vennbahn .

From the mid-1890s, the newly introduced luxury trains Ostend-Wien-Express and Nord-Express stopped at Herbesthal for border clearance. In addition, a large number of normal express trains ran between northern France and Belgium and the Rhineland to Berlin. The station was also very important for freight traffic, even if part of the German-Belgian freight traffic was handled by avoiding the Ronheider ramp on the route from Aachen Templerbend through the Gemmenich tunnel to Welkenraedt.

The First World War and the consequences

With the outbreak of the First World War , civil border traffic ended and the Prussian state railways also took over operations in occupied Belgium. Herbesthal became a transit station and the main military station for supplies to the occupied territory and the western front . At the same time, thousands of wounded from the combat areas were stranded here, and received medical care and food. In addition, more than 70,000 Belgian forced laborers were routed through the Herbesthal train station. Towards the end of the First World War, the station fell into the hands of looters who were returning to Germany. The congestion of the station and the entire route to Liège by military traffic in 1915 led to the construction of today's Montzen route, which was completed in 1917 .

The Versailles Treaty now led to the separation of the Eupen and Malmedy districts from the German Empire and their annexation as Ostbelgien to the Kingdom of Belgium. The Belgian State Railways took over the route to the new border south of the bush tunnel. Herbesthal station remained an important border station until 1940, but now on the Belgian side, even if a few passenger trains continued to serve the Astenet and Hergenrath stations between Herbesthal and the new border. The traffic recovered increasingly in the 1920s, with the Ostend-Cologne-Pullman-Express a third luxury train was added to the Nord-Express and Ostend-Wien-Express - in Herbesthal, however, it only stopped in the direction of Cologne. Herbesthal also lost some of its functions, so the locomotive change between SNCB and the Deutsche Reichsbahn, which had been in service since 1920 as the successor to the Prussian State Railways, mostly took place in Aachen.

During the Second World War , Belgium was again occupied by German troops in May 1940. Herbesthal station became a German border station again and the Reichsbahn took over operations until the advance of the Allies in late summer 1944.

After 1945

After 1945, the SNCB used the station again as a border station. In contrast to the pre-war period, there was no longer any local traffic in the direction of Aachen. The locomotive change was basically carried out again in Herbesthal, it was not until 1947 that it took place again for individual trains in Aachen. The railway depot of the station thereby gained in importance. Before the war, mainly freight and passenger locomotives were stationed, but Herbesthal now also had the heavy Pacifics of the NMBS / SNCB series 1 in stock, at that time the most powerful express steam locomotives in Belgium. In the 1950s, Herbesthal station was again one of the most important border stations in Western Europe. Trains like the Nord-Express and the Tauern-Express changed their locomotives here. When the Trans-Europ-Express trains started operating in 1957, Herbesthal became the station for the first TEE trains, and the staff of the depot took over the German and French railcars on the Belgian sections.

At the end of the 1950s, the Deutsche Bundesbahn and the SNCB began planning to electrify the line between Liège and Cologne. Aachen Central Station was ultimately chosen as the system change station between the German alternating current and the Belgian direct current system. Since through coaches were changed on many international trains in Aachen anyway , changing locomotives did not require any additional time. Due to the construction work started in 1961, some of the long-distance trains were diverted via the Montzen route and thus lost their stop in Herbesthal. Before that, on March 28, 1959, passenger traffic between Herbesthal and Raeren had been stopped, and the station lost its function as a transfer station.

The SNCB still needed a border station on their side of the border. After the official language border between the municipalities of Herbesthal and Welkenraedt was drawn in the course of the Flemish-Walloon language dispute in 1962, the Welkenraedt station, located in the French-speaking area, became the new border station for political reasons . Herbesthal railway station lost all functions when electrical operations went into operation on May 22, 1966 and was officially closed on August 7, 1966. The railway depot had previously been closed on the day electrical operations began.

Plants and structures

Entrance building and passenger station

The station building erected in 1889 initially only had a roofed house platform. With the increasing demand, two covered island platforms were built. Tracks 1 to 5 on the house platform and these island platforms were used for traffic on the route from Aachen to Liège, while another platform with tracks 12 and 13 on the southern edge of the station area served local traffic to Eupen and Raeren. After the closure, the platforms were soon demolished, while the station building was empty for years. It was finally demolished in 1983 despite local protests. Only a few foundation walls and steps are visible. As part of an exhibition in the summer of 2014, the municipality of Lontzen remembered the history of the station on the area of ​​the former reception building.

The freight station west of the passenger station continued to operate as part of the Welkenraedt station after it was closed. In the 1980s, operations ceased there too, and the buildings last used for goods handling fell into disrepair. In 2012, the Lontzen community decided to renovate the existing buildings and use them as a youth club, among other things.

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War, an exhibition was installed on the area of ​​the former Herbesthal train station in spring 2014, on which, in addition to original announcements from the German Empire, texts from the liberal Vervierser Zeitung, maps, food stamps, etc., there were also three railway wagons from that time, which have been specially restored and positioned on the old tracks. This exhibition could be viewed until November 2014 and was sponsored by the communities of Lontzen , Kelmis , Welkenraedt and Plombieres as well as the Autonomous University in the German-speaking Community and other partners. For the future it is planned to emphasize the outlines of the old station more clearly and to rebuild the old mail sorting center.

Depot

The Herbesthal depot emerged from the first locomotive treatment systems of the Rheinische Eisenbahn, which they needed after the introduction of locomotive operations via the Ronheider ramp. It was extensively expanded by the Prussian state railroad in 1889 and received two roundhouse sheds with turntables. KED Cologne mainly housed passenger and freight locomotives. In 1920, shortly before the handover to Belgium, locomotives of the P 8 , T 9 and T 3 series were stationed. The SNCB took over the depot as a depot and closed its own smaller workshop in Welkenraedt. As a result of the provisions of the Compiègne armistice , Belgium received many Prussian locomotives, so these continued to provide a large part of the stock in Herbesthal. Among other things, the Belgian series 81 (Prussian G 8.1), 93 (Prussian T 9.3) and 97 (Prussian T 14) were stationed in Herbesthal, as well as the NMBS / SNCB series 7 and the NMBS / SNCB series 29 . Most of the express trains were hauled by locomotives from the Liège and Brussels depots.

After the Second World War, the depot gained in importance as it now also took over the covering of the express trains. Herbesthal used the heavy class 1 Pacifics until 1955. Thereafter, the locomotives of the 29 series, which were acquired after the war, took over the express trains, while part of the services in freight transport continued to be taken over by the former Prussian series 81 and 97 machines. NMBS / SNCB stationed the diesel locomotives acquired from the mid-1950s in Liège and Montzen, so that Herbesthal remained a pure steam depot until it was closed in 1966 .

literature

  • Hans Schweers, Henning Wall: Railways around Aachen. 150 years of the international route Cologne - Aachen - Antwerp . Schweers and Wall, Aachen 1993, ISBN 3-921679-91-5 .
  • Leo Kever: The heyday of the Herbesthal train station in: Grenzecho from November 24th 2010.
  • Reinhard Dauber / Klaus Winands: The former German-Belgian border station at Herbesthal. An example of representative railway architecture in the late 19th century (German / French / Indian ), in: Maisons d'hier et d'aujourd'hui / De Woonstede door de eeuwen heen, No. 65, 1985, p. 40– 61.

Web links

Commons : Bahnhof Herbesthal  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans Schweers, Henning Wall: Railways around Aachen. 150 years of the international route Cologne - Aachen - Antwerp . Schweers and Wall, Aachen 1993, p. 8
  2. ^ Hans Schweers, Henning Wall: Railways around Aachen. 150 years of the international route Cologne - Aachen - Antwerp . Schweers and Wall, Aachen 1993, p. 38
  3. ^ Hans Schweers, Henning Wall: Railways around Aachen. 150 years of the international route Cologne - Aachen - Antwerp . Schweers and Wall, Aachen 1993, p. 33
  4. ^ Hans Schweers, Henning Wall: Railways around Aachen. 150 years of the international route Cologne - Aachen - Antwerp . Schweers and Wall, Aachen 1993, p. 34
  5. ^ A b Hans Schweers, Henning Wall: Railways around Aachen. 150 years of the international route Cologne - Aachen - Antwerp . Schweers and Wall, Aachen 1993, p. 194
  6. ^ Hans Schweers, Henning Wall: Railways around Aachen. 150 years of the international route Cologne - Aachen - Antwerp . Schweers and Wall, Aachen 1993, p. 46
  7. ^ A b Hans Schweers, Henning Wall: Railways around Aachen. 150 years of the international route Cologne - Aachen - Antwerp . Schweers and Wall, Aachen 1993, p. 176
  8. ^ Hans Schweers, Henning Wall: Railways around Aachen. 150 years of the international route Cologne - Aachen - Antwerp . Schweers and Wall, Aachen 1993, p. 195
  9. ^ BRF-Nachrichten: Herbesthal station exhibits 100 year old wagons. July 25, 2013
  10. ↑ ostbelgiendirekt.be The fascinating history of the Herbesthal train station comes to life again. 3rd February 2013
  11. ^ BRF-Nachrichten: Lontzen: Herbesthal station area is being renovated. November 27, 2012
  12. ↑ Restoration of three original railway wagons from the time of the First World War ( Memento from October 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ Oliver Krickel: Lontzen: Commemorative events for the 1st World War in Grenzecho on February 25, 2014
  14. ^ Memories of World War I at Herbesthal train station and in the White House in Grenzecho from July 31, 2014