St. Arnold train station
The former Neuenkirchen Land railway station was on the Duisburg – Quakenbrück railway in the Neuenkirchen municipality in the Steinfurt district . On May 15, 1931, the station was renamed St. Arnold Station . The station was used for passenger traffic until September 28, 1984. In 1999 the freight traffic was stopped and the railway line closed.
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The former station building has been sold and is privately owned. A cycle path ( RadBahn Münsterland ) has been built on the railway line, with track systems for handcar operation being preserved in the area of the station .
location
The Rheinische Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft opened the Duisburg – Quakenbrück railway line for passenger traffic on July 1, 1879, during its North Sea connection from Duisburg Hbf to Quakenbrück . Trains crossed Neuenkirchen for the first time on it, but there was no rail connection at the beginning.
history
With the opening of the Neuenkirchen Land railway station in 1890, the community received direct access to the railway network for the first time. However, the train station was about 4 km south of the main town in a lonely heath and wasteland on Emsdettener Strasse, so the stop was initially relatively insignificant for the community.
Growing importance
The train station is located in the middle of the Münsterländer gravel sand train , which stretches from Beckum via Münster to Neuenkirchen and contains a significant amount of groundwater. In 1894, the first waterworks in Neuenkirchen was built here, directly west of the stop. The city of Rheine has operated the waterworks since then and uses it to supply its population. As can be seen on a map from 1895, the waterworks already had a rail connection at that time.
In 1915, the military administration built a 31-36 hectare military camp southeast of the railway station, also with a rail connection. Initially used as a reprisals and prison camp, from 1916 as an ammunition store. In 1917, a 77-85 hectare ammunition store was opened to the north-west of the railway station, with a main line connection with two access tracks and a three-track transfer station. After the end of the First World War, both camps were used for ammunition dismantling until the end of 1931. In 1935, all use was stopped and most of the warehouses and track systems were dismantled.
St. Arnold industrial park
Parts of the former military camp to the southwest are used as an industrial area. An expansion planned since 2014 has been delayed because the ordnance disposal service had to examine the area and the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe classified parts of it as a ground monument. The expansion is expected to be available in 2018.
St. Arnold
Already in 1924 the Steyler missionaries had acquired land near the train station for the construction of a mission house with boarding school (today: Arnold-Janssen-Gymnasium) (directly south of the smaller military camp). In September 1929 school began in the St. Arnold Mission House, named after the patron saint of the order's founder, Arnold Janssen .
The name St. Arnold became more and more popular and since 1905 there was also the Neuenkirchen train station in the center of Neuenkirchen on the Ochtrup – Rheine railway line . Because there were always confusions, the renaming of the station "Neuenkirchen-Land" was applied for. After this application was granted in 1930, the name was changed on May 15, 1931 and the station has since been called Bahnhof St. Arnold .
The National Socialists disliked the name and on April 26, 1939 they applied for the name to be changed to "Neuenkirchen-Clemenshafen", but with the beginning of the Second World War this application was not pursued any further. Also in 1949 there was an application to rename the station back to "Neuenkirchen-Land". However, this application was rejected by the municipal council with a majority.
With the end of the Second World War, many displaced persons and refugees came to the Neuenkirchen community. They received residential building space north of the St. Arnold train station. The settlement of St. Arnold was created , which today is the largest part of the community of Neuenkirchen outside the main town. To the north-east of the train station, businesses were settled with rail connections.
Decline
For a long time in the 1960s, old, disused steam locomotives stood on the sidings southeast of the station, but they were later scrapped and completely disposed of.
The decline in the number of passengers in 1984 led to the fact that passenger traffic was suspended on September 28th. Freight traffic still existed in some cases until the beginning of the 1990s. Sections of the route already served as parking spaces for freight wagons that were no longer needed. The railway line was kept ready for a few years as a reserve line for possible reactivation, but gradually the dismantling of rail sections began and thorns and bushes overgrown the route in large parts.
Münsterland cycle track
After a few years of planning, the construction of a cycle path on the former railway line began on December 16, 2008, which is now called the RadBahn Münsterland . The RadBahn Münsterland from Rheine to Steinfurt has been open since autumn 2011. The continuation to the destination Coesfeld was completed at the end of 2012. In the area of the former St. Arnold railway station, two tracks with a switch have been preserved on which a hand-lever trolley can be operated. Since 2013 there has been an annual draisine championship organized by the ECN (Eisenbahn-Club Nordwest-Münsterland eV).
Individual evidence
- ^ "Improper use" turntable-foren.de (April 26, 2008)
- ↑ Free travel for RadBahn Münsterland. Westfälische Nachrichten , November 11, 2011, accessed on November 12, 2011 .
- ↑ Barriers, signs, trolleys: Railway Club presents ideas for Schlossallee Münstersche Zeitung (April 8, 2009)
- ↑ ecn-online homepage of the Railway Club Northwest-Münsterland
Web links
- Description of the St. Arnold operating site in the NRWbahnarchiv by André Joost
- Disused railway lines
- Citizens and council information on the Neuenkirchen community website
Coordinates: 52 ° 12 ′ 29 ″ N , 7 ° 24 ′ 9 ″ E