Waldkappel station

Waldkappel
Data
Operating point type	railway station
Design	Wedge station
Platform tracks	0
abbreviation	FWP
opening	May 15, 1879
Conveyance	1993
location
City / municipality	Waldkappel
country	Hesse
Country	Germany
Coordinates	51 ° 9 '0 " N , 9 ° 52' 53" E Coordinates: 51 ° 9 '0 " N , 9 ° 52' 53" E
Railway lines
	Leinefelde – Treysa (km 62.3); Kassel – Waldkappel (km 49.83);
Railway stations in Hessen

BW

Remnants of the bridge to Kassel that used to cross Bahnhofstrasse and was demolished in 2011. On the right in the background you can see the entrance to the access road to the station area (photographed in March 2016)

The Waldkappel station was a Keilbahnhof in the north Hessian town of Waldkappel . It is closed today and is no longer used for traffic purposes.

history

original reception building

Waldkappel station was opened on May 15, 1879 as a station on the Niederhone – Treysa railway line. Exactly one year later, this was extended to include the Silberhausen Trennungsbahnhof - Eschwege section, making the route between Leinefelde and Treysa completely passable. On December 1, 1879, the Bettenhausen – Waldkappel railway followed , making Waldkappel a wedge station. This route was extended on March 15, 1880 to Kassel main station. Since the Leinefelde – Treysa line was part of the Kanonenbahn , there was also military freight traffic through Waldkappel.

During the Second World War , an air raid on Waldkappel on March 31, 1945, exploded an ammunition train on the station premises; the original station building was destroyed and the area around the station was badly damaged. 17 people lost their lives in the process.

Since rail operations should be resumed as soon as possible after the end of the war, the almost 400-meter-long crater created by the explosion was filled. A bypass track allowed operations from Eschwege to Kassel as early as June 1945. The remaining tracks were relocated a few weeks later so that full operation was possible again. As a replacement for the completely destroyed reception building , a wooden barrack was built, which was only replaced by a new building in 1957. The destroyed signal box was rebuilt. At the end of the 1950s , the destroyed engine shed was demolished and the turntable removed.

After the construction of the inner-German border , the Leinefelde – Treysa line was interrupted and passenger numbers fell on this line. In the 1970s , the section of the line in Hesse was shut down in sections. First, on May 26, 1974, passenger traffic between Malsfeld and Waldkappel was terminated, as was goods traffic between Spangenberg and Waldkappel. Thus Waldkappel was no longer a separation station , but only a simple stop and alternative for the trains from Eschwege to Kassel. Freight cars were parked on the tracks in the direction of Spangenberg. The last regular passenger train in Waldkappel ran from Kassel to Eschwege on May 31, 1985; then the tracks were dismantled to a through track, a loading track and a pull-out track. A weekly freight train ran between Eschwege West and Waldkappel until December 31, 1991. At the turn of the year 1991/1992 all rail traffic ended and in 1993 the station was finally closed. The station building has been empty and neglected since then. After 2010, the eastern station apron was converted into a solar park.

In 2011, the railway bridge west of the train station across Waldkappeler Bahnhofstrasse was removed and the area was then used for a municipal building yard. The railway bridge on the line in the direction of Treysa over Hindenburgstrasse is a listed building.

With the construction of the federal motorway 44 , both railway lines were cut.

View from Bahnhofstrasse to the closed access route to the station area in March 2016

State today

Image wanted

The Waldkappeler Bahnhof itself is no longer served by buses today. The “Wehrgasse”, “Kirche” and “Wehrfeld” stops are located in the center of the village and are served by the NVV bus line 200. The line runs almost exactly the section Eschwege - Hessisch Lichtenau parallel to the disused railway line. In Wehretal - Reichensachsen and Eschwege there is a connection to regional trains in the direction of Göttingen and Bebra , in Hessisch Lichtenau to the tram in the direction of Kassel and connection with buses to Spangenberg and Melsungen . The Hessisch Lichtenau – Kassel section of the former railway line is now part of the Kassel tram network .

View of the former reception building from the direction of the access road (March 2016)

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ 70 years ago an ammunition train exploded in Waldkappel , HNA from March 31, 2015, accessed November 11, 2016

[1] 70 years ago an ammunition train exploded in Waldkappel , HNA from March 31, 2015, accessed November 11, 2016