Walheim train station (b Aachen)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Walheim (near Aachen)
Station building, view from the south
Station building, view from the south
Data
Location in the network Separation station
Design Through station
Platform tracks 2
abbreviation KWAH
opening July 1, 1885
Conveyance December 31, 1961  (passenger transport)
location
City / municipality Aachen
Place / district Walheim
country North Rhine-Westphalia
Country Germany
Coordinates 50 ° 42 '18 "  N , 6 ° 10' 47"  E Coordinates: 50 ° 42 '18 "  N , 6 ° 10' 47"  E
Height ( SO ) 275  m above sea level NN
Railway lines
Railway stations in North Rhine-Westphalia
i16

The train station Walheim (b Aachen) is a train station in Walheim , today part of Aachen , on the Vennbahn and is the end point of the Stolberg – Walheim railway line . The station was opened on July 1, 1885, the highest traffic figures and the greatest expansion were achieved in the years before the First World War .

Passenger traffic was discontinued in the early 1960s, followed by the dismantling of part of the track system. The infrastructure that is still available today is no longer used and is owned by the EVS Euregio Verkehrsschienennetz (EVS). Since 2008 the Verein Eisenbahnfreunde Grenzland eV (EFG) has been trying to maintain the railway line and would like to keep the Walheim station as a starting point for special tourist trips.

location

Walheim train station is located in the southern part of Walheim. The nearest stop to the south was Schmithof , the nearest stop to the north was Hahn . The train station is at a height of 275 meters and is therefore on a downhill section from Lammersdorf at a height of 550 meters to Aachen-Rothe Erde at a height of 186 meters. Schleidener Strasse and Auf der Kier cross the tracks on the station grounds ; Both level crossings are also used by the Vennbahnradweg as a crossing of the tracks, as the cycle path that runs east of the tracks in Walheim runs west of the Vennbahn tracks in the station area.

history

Establishment and commissioning in the 19th century

In the middle of the 19th century, cloth manufacturing was carried out in Walheim , and limestone deposits were discovered, which led to the settlement of the Walheim / Kornelimünster lime kiln plants . Spruce trees were planted in the surrounding forests , which were intended as pit wood for the Aachen district . In the meantime even gunpowder was made. The Vennbahn made it possible to export all these goods. The first construction phase, which led from the Rothe Erde station to Walheim, was opened on July 1, 1885. On the loading dock, the forest resources were loaded, the lime plant got its own railway siding , also one was Feldbahn -connection for the transport of limestone built.

Around four years later, on December 21, 1889, the railway line to Stolberg was opened. Originally, it threaded into the Vennbahn, which at that time was still single-track, at a junction built for this purpose in Hahn. On May 12th, 1894, the Prussian State Railroad received a ministerial decree to allow the Stolberg - Breinig - Walheim line to be threaded independently into the Walheim station. For this purpose, a 1.97-kilometer-long track was put into operation on July 6, 1895, whereby the Walheim - Stolberg and Walheim - Rothe Erde lines ran parallel and independently of each other into the Walheim station and the Hahn junction could be closed. At the same time, the railway facilities in Walheim station were expanded.

Early 20th century

In the course of the industrial revolution in Germany it became increasingly difficult for the rural population of Walheim; to make a living from farming alone. Many residents therefore used the station to get to the surrounding industrial and mining locations of Aachen, Stolberg and Eschweiler . To satisfy this transport need; the Aachener Kleinbahn was brought up to the Walheim station with its own line. At the beginning of the 20th century, the number of passengers and the amount of goods increased. Between 1907 and 1909 the two-track expansion between Walheim and Stolberg took place. In the 1920s, Walheim train station had a covered house platform with electrical lighting.

Decline after World War II

After the Second World War, traffic was initially resumed in the direction of Stolberg; the timetable recorded two pairs of trains a day. From August 1950, eight pairs of trains were used between Aachen-Rothe Erde and Schmithof every day. This brought about an operational peculiarity: Since there was no possibility of moving the steam locomotive in Schmithof , the moving took place in Walheim station, until Schmithof the trains were pushed.

Passenger traffic between Aachen and Schmithof ceased on May 29, 1960; From this point onwards, Walheim was only the end point of the route from Stolberg for passenger traffic. Two and a half years later, on December 31, 1962, these services were also discontinued. After the Second World War, the connection for the Walheim lime works was also taken out of service.

Due to the freight traffic between Stolberg and Eupen, which also included military trains and shipments with excess loading gauge, the Walheim station continued to operate. In the 1980s, the station still had six tracks at its widest point, some of which were used to park abandoned freight cars that were waiting to be scrapped.

Efforts to reactivate

Today's rail network in the German-Belgian border region near Aachen

The Eisenbahnfreunde Grenzland are planning to run a museum between the Falkenbach Viaduct and the German-Belgian border, where you can get on and off in Walheim. The vehicles required for this are already parked in the vicinity of the signal box; this area of ​​the station was provided with video surveillance . Some of the restoration work on the vehicles is also taking place in the Walheim train station.

Since 2009, takes place annually station festival in the station Walheim instead. The interior of the signal box, the rail vehicles of the Eisenbahnfreunde Grenzland and other associations or companies as well as historical road vehicles and exhibits from the history of the Vennbahn and the Aachen region can be viewed . In addition, trolley or driver's cab rides are offered on one of the two station tracks. A program and visits have also been offered on the Open Monument Day since 2010 .

In 2012, a Deutz OMZ 177 light rail locomotive with a gauge of 600 mm was set up as a monument locomotive opposite the signal box . In September 2015, the locomotive was given to the Rommerskirchen-Oekoven field railway museum and transferred there on October 8, 2015.

In the long term, regular passenger traffic can also be resumed in Walheim: As part of a possible single-track connection between Stolberg and Eupen , an Aachen-Walheim stop is in preliminary planning. In this case, the Schleidener Strasse level crossing is to be provided with an automatic barrier system; In addition, a separate level crossing is planned for the Vennbahnradweg. The financial resources for this construction project are provided by the city of Aachen, the Federal Republic of Germany and the EVS, one third each . The construction work originally planned for 2016 had not yet taken place by autumn 2019.

  • Walheim station in the 21st century

  • The shape signals in the station area are still preserved today

  • Part of the track system has been redesigned into a park through which the Vennbahn cycle path runs

  • View towards Raeren with vehicles of the Eisenbahnfreunde Grenzland

  • View from the signal box towards the reception building

  • Barrier post 14 on Schleidener Strasse

Infrastructure

Reception building

Lettering "Walheim bei Aachen" on the reception building

The station buildings of the stations along the Vennbahn were built according to the same scheme, only the size was varied. The Walheim station building was assigned to building class III and thus received two upper floors and four window axes. On the northeast side there was an extension, which, like the main building, was made of brick . This extension was demolished in the mid-1980s. On the southwest side there is a goods shed with a loading ramp, which is still preserved today. The associated dead-end track, which ended at a buffer stop directly on the house platform, has meanwhile been dismantled. The station building, which is currently in poor condition, is owned by the city of Aachen and is used by a carnival club and a rifle brotherhood .

Signal box

The signal box Wf with a conversion car of the Eisenbahnfreunde Grenzland

The Wf dispatcher interlocking in Walheim, which is southwest of the reception building at the Auf der Kier level crossing , is a functional Jüdel- type mechanical interlocking . It was completed and put into operation in 1890, five years after the station opened. The two-storey building, made of bricks and partly planked with sheet metal, has a rectangular floor plan, with the long side parallel to the tracks and the corners beveled in the direction of the tracks. It has a cellar room, a tensioning room where the wires leading to signals and points are held taut by means of tension weights, and an upper floor with a lever bench and seven windows that were used by the dispatchers to observe the traffic. The tensioning room was illuminated by two windows that were closed at the time of the Deutsche Bundesbahn . The dispatcher floor can be reached via an external staircase that, typical for the time the signal box was built, begins on the side facing the tracks and ends at the rear of the building. In October 2008, the renovation of the signal box began by the Eisenbahnfreunde Grenzland; since 2009 it has been supplied with electricity again.

Barrier post

At the north-eastern end of the station, on the north side of the tracks, there is barrier post 14. The post has an almost square floor plan, is clad with quarry stone up to half its height and can be reached via an outside staircase. The exact date of construction is not known; the building was erected towards the end of the time of the Prussian State Railways or at the beginning of the time of the Deutsche Reichsbahn . From 2011 to 2012 the barrier post was renovated; The roof was repaired, the plastered part of the facade was repainted and new windows were installed.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Lutz-Henning Meyer: 150 years of railways in the Rhineland. J. P. Bachem Verlag, Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-7616-0961-2 .
  2. ↑ Abbreviations of the operating points on michaeldittrich.de , accessed on March 25, 2015.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Hans Schweers, Henning Wall: Railways around Aachen. 150 years of the international route Cologne - Aachen - Antwerp , Schweers + Wall, Aachen 1993, ISBN 3-921679-91-5 .
  4. ↑ a b The EVS route network. EVS Euregio Verkehrsschienennetz , January 2018, accessed on October 7, 2019.
  5. ↑ a b Eisenbahnfreunde Grenzland - Nostalgic special trips between Stolberg and Eupen. ( Memento from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Website of Eisenbahnfreunde Grenzland, accessed on March 13, 2015.
  6. ↑ Traffic Office of the Eastern Cantons (ed.): The Vennbahn: Then and now. Brochure, Eupen 1991, p. 26.
  7. ↑ Roland Keller: 1889 to 1920: The railway operations of the KPEV (Länderbahnzeit) on eisenbahn-stolberg.de , accessed on August 14, 2010.
  8. ^ Roland Keller: 1920 to 1949: The railway operations of the Deutsche Reichsbahn on eisenbahn-stolberg.de , accessed on April 8, 2015.
  9. ↑ Roland Keller: 1976 to 1994 The operation of the Deutsche Bundesbahn until it was dissolved by the railway reform on eisenbahn-stolberg.de , accessed on April 8, 2015.
  10. ^ Notices and information boards from Eisenbahnfreunde Grenzland in the area of ​​Walheim station, viewed in April 2015.
  11. ↑ News archive 2009 - Review of the station festival October 3rd, 2009. Railway friends Grenzland website , October 6, 2009, accessed April 8, 2015.
  12. ^ News archive 2010 - The station festival 2010. Website of the Eisenbahnfreunde Grenzland , July 17th 2010, accessed on April 8th 2015.
  13. ↑ News archive 2011 - Bahnhofsfest 2011 . Railway friends Grenzland website , July 8, 2011, accessed April 8, 2015.
  14. ↑ News archive 2010 - Open Monument Day. Railway friends Grenzland website , accessed April 8, 2015.
  15. ↑ Rail vehicles. Railway friends Grenzland website , accessed April 8, 2015.
  16. ↑ Günther Sander: Two roundabouts should regulate traffic . In: Aachener Zeitung . March 24, 2015 ( aachener-zeitung.de [accessed October 7, 2019]).
  17. ↑ a b News archive 2008 - What will the Walheim museum train station offer? Railway friends Grenzland website, October 22, 2008, accessed April 8, 2015.
  18. ^ First Walheimer KG 1973 e. V. Website of the Carnival Association, accessed on March 25, 2015.
  19. ↑ St. Sebastianus Schützenbruderschaft Walheim 1661 e. V. ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) on Grenzlandschuetzen aachen.de , accessed on March 25, 2015.
  20. ^ Entry on signal box Wf in the Walheim train station in the database " KuLaDig " of the Rhineland Regional Association
  21. ↑ News archive 2009 - Light at the level crossing on the Kier. Website of Eisenbahnfreunde Grenzland, November 7, 2009, accessed April 8, 2015.
  22. ↑ News archive 2012. Website of Eisenbahnfreunde Grenzland , accessed on March 25, 2015.