Meisenheim (Glan) station

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Meisenheim (Glan)
Meisenheim train station retouched.jpg
Entrance building of the station
Data
Design Through station
opening October 27, 1896
Conveyance March 1, 1993
location
City / municipality Meisenheim
country Rhineland-Palatinate
Country Germany
Coordinates 49 ° 42 '34 "  N , 7 ° 39' 58"  E Coordinates: 49 ° 42 '34 "  N , 7 ° 39' 58"  E
Railway lines
Railway stations in Rhineland-Palatinate
i16 i16 i18

The Meisenheim (Glan) station was the station of the city of Meisenheim . It was opened in 1896 and was located on the entire length of the Glantalbahn Homburg (Saar) - Bad Münster , which was opened in 1904 . Parts of the station complex, whose address is Bismarckplatz 1 , - including the architecturally appealing reception building - are under monument protection.

location

The train station is in a central location in the small town, through which the Glantalbahn meanders in an S-shape. The Glan-Blies-Weg is located on the route of the now dismantled second track of the railway line .

history

First initiatives (1850–1865)

Meisenheim station, view from the track side, as in 1989

Although a railway line along the Glan as a connection between the Saar area and the region around Bingen would have been obvious from a geographical perspective, small states prevented a corresponding construction for a long time in the 19th century. The first efforts aimed at a railway connection to the north-western Palatinate go back to 1856. In the course of the construction of the Rhein-Nahe-Bahn , an initiative aimed to set up a route via Meisenheim, Lauterecken, Altenglan and Kusel to St. Wendel and Neunkirchen. The efforts did not prevail, however, because Prussia wanted such a railway line primarily within its own territory. In the middle and lower Glan valley between Altenglan and Staudernheim, the border between Bavaria and Prussia was very irregular, which was also detrimental to the construction of the railway.

In 1860 a committee was formed called the Notabeln des Glan and Lauter valleys. It campaigned for a railway line that branches off from the Palatinate Ludwig Railway in Kaiserslautern , then runs through the Lauter and lower Glantal valleys and should meet the Rhine-Nahe Railway in Staudernheim, which was completed in the same year . Prussia kept a low profile because it feared that the nearby route could become less important as a result. However, the project received support from Hessen-Homburg , who wanted its exclave Meisenheim to be connected to the rail network. Hesse's privy councilor Christian Bansa also advocated the planned rail connection at the Prussian Foreign Ministry in 1861 and argued that there was greater demand for this than a route along the Alsenz that was also planned .

However, Prussia was only willing to support the Palatinate Northern Railways, founded in 1866, in the construction of the Alsenz Valley Railway , which went into operation in 1870 and whose northern end point is the Prussian Bad Münster. Both Bavaria and Prussia were unwilling to guarantee the interest rate for the route, which was calculated in 1873 for a total of around 3.6 million guilders.

Plans for a strategic railway and opening of the Lauterecken – Staudernheim section

On September 7, 1871, a committee met in the Meisenheim to discuss the plans drawn up by engineers for such a route. The route worked out at that time, however, differed in places from the route actually implemented later, so the train station was to be built on site at a different location. The said committee finally issued a memorandum on January 27 of the following year, in which both the economic and the military importance of a railway line along the Glan was highlighted. Initially, the project failed due to different ideas about the interest rate guarantee between Prussia and Bavaria, whose territory the route should touch.

In 1891 Bavaria and Prussia signed a state treaty that provided that the planned route from Lauterecken to Staudernheim should be built and operated by the Palatinate Northern Railways company. During the construction work it was necessary to relocate the river bed of the Glan in order to be able to lay the track for the railway.

The Lauterecken- Odernheim section was opened at the end of October 1896 as a direct continuation of the Lauter Valley Railway. At that time, Meisenheim station had 9 switches, a head ramp and a side ramp, a passing track, a large goods shed and several side tracks that were 297 meters long. There was also a railway maintenance office north of the station. Between Lauterecken and Odernheim, Meisenheim was also the only train station where train crossings were possible. On July 1, 1897, the line was tied through to Staudernheim on the Nahe Valley Railway .

At the same time, Bavaria revised its negative attitude towards a strategic railway line along the entire Glan, as German relations with France had meanwhile deteriorated. The strategic track should Homburg from under shared the Landstuhl-Kusel railway on the section Glan-Münchweiler-Altenglan and run from Lautertal from coming distance from Lauterecken to Bad Munster, with the progression from Odernheim on the right bank of the Nahe should orient . At the same time, it was planned to double-track the existing Lauterecken – Odernheim line. The Glantalbahn was finally opened on May 1, 1904 on a continuous length; Meisenheim was one of a total of 26 en route stations along this new railway line.

Further development (1914-2000)

Especially after the Second World War , the Glantalbahn increasingly lost its importance. The local railway maintenance office, which for decades was responsible for the section of the Glantalbahn between Odenbach and Staudernheim or Bad Münster am Stein, was dissolved around 1960. In 1963, for example, the second track between Meisenheim and Odernheim was dismantled. The Altenglan – Meisenheim section was also gradually dismantled to one track in the 1960s. After the Homburg – Glan-Münchweiler section and the Altenglan – Lauterecken-Grumbach section in 1985 had already lost passenger traffic, the line between Glan-Münchweiler and Odernheim was officially downgraded to a branch line on September 29, 1985.

Battery powered railcar DB 515 547 in Meisenheim shortly before passenger traffic between Lauterecken-Grumbach and Staudernheim ceased in 1986

Passenger traffic between Lauterecken-Grumbach and Staudernheim was stopped on May 30, 1986. The last train arrived late at 6:15 p.m. at the station. On site, many people had arrived at the platform on the occasion of the hiring. The train departed four minutes later. Recently, only the transport of schoolchildren had played a larger role in passenger transport. The platforms had been renewed just a few years earlier.

In addition to Lauterecken-Grumbach and Odernheim, Meisenheim was only one of three remaining freight tariff points along the route section. Since Meisenheim was operated from Lauterecken and Odernheim from Staudernheim, the Meisenheim – Odernheim section was henceforth without regular traffic; However, military reasons prevented the tracks from being dismantled due to the Cold War . With the abandonment of the Odernheim freight tariff point in 1988, there was no longer any operation along the Glantalbahn north of Meisenheim. After Meisenheim was abandoned as the last tariff point in the section in 1993, the line between Lauterecken and Staudernheim was officially closed on July 1, 1996.

Opening of the draisine route (since 2000)

In the meantime, an expert opinion was drawn up which came to the conclusion that reactivating the lower Glantla Railway section Lauterecken – Staudernheim would make economic sense. A realization of this project failed for financial reasons. In order to prevent a final shutdown including the dismantling of the line , students from the Technical University of Kaiserslautern had plans to set up a railroad handrail on the Glantalbahn between Altenglan and Staudernheim . Among the supporters of this project was the then Kuseler district administrator Winfried Hirschberger , who finally managed to realize it in 2000. Meisenheim station has been a draisine station on the Glan route since 2000.

Buildings

The station building, the goods shed and other ancillary buildings are under monument protection. In addition, the former signal box is still there.

Meisenheim station, view from the street, as in 1989

Just like the other station buildings along the lower Glantalbahn, the architectural style of the one in Meisenheim was typical for the society of the Palatinate Northern Railways . It has Gothic and Romantic style elements and has two floors and an attic. The side facing the city is asymmetrical in structure. The stairwell is modeled on a tower; its originally had a colored pattern with slate slabs. After the station building was destroyed in World War II, the tower top was made simpler, this time pyramid-shaped. In addition, the framework was slated. The web side, however, is kept symmetrical. There is a two-part stepped gable.

At the time of its opening in 1896, Meisenheim was equipped with a crank mechanism as a command post in front of the reception building. As part of the expansion during the construction of the strategic Glantalbahn in 1904, the station then received two "Bruchsal G" type signal boxes. Later, one of the signal boxes was converted into a dispatcher signal box and the command post was moved there. After the route was converted to simplified train operation (VZB) in the summer of 1986, the signal boxes were out of order. The crank mechanism and the lever bank of one of the signal boxes were taken over by the DGEG .

In the course of the start of the draisine operation, two railroad cars were set up on the station tracks, one of which serves as a baggage and the other as a toilet car.

traffic

passenger traffic

At the time the line was opened, five trains ran from and four to Kaiserslautern; there was also a couple who drove exclusively between Odernheim and Lauterecken. With the continuous opening of the Glantalbahn in 1904, three pairs of trains ran between Homburg and Bad Münster; At the same time, the continuous connections to Kaiserslautern ended. In 1905, a total of 24,636 tickets were sold at Meisenheim station. By the outbreak of the First World War , the number of train pairs increased to eleven, but after the war it fell significantly. By the end of the 1930s, the supply increased again, only to collapse again afterwards.

In 1965, two pairs of express trains were set up between Zweibrücken and Mainz, which ran on the Glantalbahn and stopped in Meisenheim. The initiator of this connection was the then mayor of Zweibrücken, Oskar Munzinger , who at the time was also in the state parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate and wanted to have his two workplaces connected. This is why these trains were popularly known as the " Munzinger Express ". Due to the lack of a connection between Odernheim and Bad Münster, these trains had to go to Staudernheim, turn their heads there and then use the Nahe Valley Railway eastwards. In 1967 there was another couple between Homburg and Gau Algesheim. From 1970 these connections were officially only local express trains before they were completely discontinued in 1979.

Freight transport

In contrast to many other train stations along the Glantalbahn , Meisenheim was not a very large freight tariff point, but it was the most important between Lauterecken-Grumbach and Odernheim. The increase resulted mainly from agricultural products and fuels. The Bonnet brewery had had beer wagons since 1897, and another customer was the Riedelbach and Stoffregen company located near the train station .

In 1905 a total of 19,867.03 tons of goods were received or dispatched at the station. Around 1920, the Bad Münster-Lauterecken-Grumbach section was operated from the freight station in Ebernburg on the Alsenz Valley Railway , which ran south of Lauterecken as a through freight train to Homburg. In the 1970s in particular, freight traffic fell significantly: while 9824 tons were received in Meisenheim in 1972 and 2100 were dispatched, the freight volume had fallen ten years later to 6557 and 1135 tons respectively. With the closure of the Odernheim freight tariff point , Meisenheim was the last tariff point north of Lauterecken before it was also given up on February 28, 1993.

literature

  • Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways on Glan and Lauter . Self-published, Waldmohr 1996, ISBN 3-9804919-0-0 .
  • Fritz Engbarth: From the Ludwig Railway to the Integral Timed Timetable - 160 Years of the Railway in the Palatinate . 2008 ( online (PDF; 4.1 MB) [accessed December 1, 2012]).
  • Wolfgang Fiegenbaum, Wolfgang Klee: Farewell to the rails. Disused railway lines from 1980-1990 . Transpress Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-71073-0 .
  • Christian Schüler-Beigang (arrangement): Kreis Kusel (=  cultural monuments in Rhineland-Palatinate. Monument topography Federal Republic of Germany . Volume 16 ). Wernersche Verlagsgesellschaft, Worms 1999, ISBN 3-88462-163-7 .

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b General Directorate for Cultural Heritage Rhineland-Palatinate (Ed.): Informational directory of cultural monuments - Bad Kreuznach district. Mainz 2020, p. 78 (PDF; 8.1 MB).
  2. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 7th ff .
  3. ↑ Heinz Sturm: The Palatinate Railways (=  publications of the Palatinate Society for the Advancement of Science . Volume 53 ). pro MESSAGE, Ludwigshafen am Rhein 2005, ISBN 3-934845-26-6 , p. 234 .
  4. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 17th f .
  5. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 19 .
  6. ^ A b Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 20 .
  7. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 35 .
  8. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 20th f .
  9. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 21st f .
  10. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 54 .
  11. ^ A b Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 60 .
  12. ^ A b c Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 64 .
  13. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 154 .
  14. ↑ Wolfgang Fiegenbaum, Wolfgang Klee: Farewell to the rail. Disused railway lines from 1980-1990 . 1997, p. 418 .
  15. ↑ Wolfgang Fiegenbaum, Wolfgang Klee: Farewell to the rail. Disused railway lines from 1980-1990 . 1997, p. 420 .
  16. ↑ Fritz Engbarth: From the Ludwig Railway to the Integral Timed Timetable - 160 Years of the Railway in the Palatinate . 2007, p. 101 .
  17. ↑ Wolfgang Fiegenbaum, Wolfgang Klee: Farewell to the rail. Disused railway lines from 1980-1990 . 1997, p. 420 f .
  18. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 102 f .
  19. ^ Announcement in DGEG-Nachrichten No. 76, 1987
  20. ^ Eisenbahn-tunnelportale.de: Line 3281: Meisenheimer Tunnel . Retrieved January 15, 2013 .
  21. ^ A b Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 36 .
  22. ↑ Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 49 .
  23. ^ A b Hans-Joachim Emich, Rolf Becker: The railways to Glan and Lauter . 1996, p. 121 .