Bedburg – Ameln railway line
| Bedburg – Ameln | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route number (DB) : | 2582 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course book section (DB) : | last 245h (1953) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 13.7 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Track width (until 1912): | 1000 mm ( meter gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Bedburg – Ameln railway is a disused railway line on the left bank of the Rhine in North Rhine-Westphalia . The route was also known as Amelner Johännchen or Amelner Johännsche .
meaning
Built in 1898/99 by the Bergheimer Kreisbahn as a narrow-gauge railway , it was nationalized shortly before the First World War and integrated into the rest of the route network by expanding it to standard gauge. It mainly served the (comparatively small) local traffic, which began to decline after the Second World War , so that in 1953 passenger traffic and in 1966 also goods traffic was discontinued. This made it one of the first state railways in Germany to lose its passenger traffic; Countless other routes followed throughout Germany until the 1990s.
Although it was linked in the west with the Aachen - Jülich - Mönchengladbach line and in the east with the Erftbahn Düsseldorf - Bedburg - Cologne, its potential as a short cross-connection that could be used to create new direct connections was only partially used: the last two years ago After the closure, passenger trains ran from Jülich to Neuss, and direct freight trains from Jülich to Cologne operated from time to time. However, there were never any direct passenger trains from Jülich to Cologne.
It experienced its greatest importance and its greatest volume of traffic during two months in the final phase of the Second World War with numerous military and refugee trains. It has long since been dismantled; However, the route is still almost completely preserved except for a few hundred meters of arable land and is particularly easy to see in aerial photographs.
history
Origin and early years
The line was originally built as a meter- gauge narrow - gauge railway through the Bergheimer Kreisbahn. First, the section of Bedburg was on October 22, 1898 - Kirchherten opened, the extension of Ameln where you in the trains of the standard gauge route Mönchengladbach - Jülich - Stolberg (- Aachen) change or could transship goods, followed on 1 December 1899th
In 1912, the railway line was only with three-rail tracks equipped and later entirely on standard gauge umgespurt . On January 1, 1913, the line was nationalized along with the entire Bergheimer Kreisbahn network. In addition to the proximity to the expanding Rhenish lignite mining district , military considerations may also have played a role, because the war against France that broke out not unexpectedly in 1914, especially the Schlieffen Plan , required a dense network of east-west connections.
The operation took place with steam locomotives . In addition, however, by the 1930s at the latest, accumulator railcars of the Prussian Wittfeld design were used on this route . One of these vehicles, which were rather inconspicuous compared to steam trains, tore up the car of an apparently inattentive Elsdorf architect on a level crossing on the outskirts of Niederembt.
In the years before the Second World War, the line was used by nine pairs of trains on weekdays and eight on Sundays. As after the war, freight traffic is likely to have benefited considerably from the coal transports from the open-cast mines of the lignite mining area east of Bedburg to the sugar factory in Ameln, and at least before the war there were through freight trains Jülich - Ameln - Bedburg - Horrem-Ost (connecting curve) - Freight station Cologne Gereon ( general cargo station ), which from 1938 to 1941 were hauled by class 56.2–8 steam locomotives stationed in Jülich . Continuous passenger trains Jülich - Cologne, however, were never offered.
Refugee route in World War II
When in the final phase of the Second World War the front drew closer and closer from the west in the course of autumn 1944, the population of the acutely threatened areas (especially the district of Aachen and the district of Jülich ), in which rail traffic had already come to a standstill, was moved to to a considerable extent evacuated into the interior of the Reich via the Ameln - Bedburg railway line. Contemporary witnesses reported on this in the first post-war years:
“After the Aldenhoven and Jülich stations could no longer transport refugees due to their proximity to the front 1) , Ameln became a refugee collection point. In the period from September 25th to November 24th, around 65,000 refugees were evacuated from Ameln to central Germany. In addition, 1000 large cattle were loaded into Ameln almost every day. With the rush of people, so did the air raids, which were repeated an average of 5 to 6 times a day. [...]
Most of the refugees came to Ameln on foot. They dragged their last belongings with them in small handcarts or even prams. [...]
If the weather was clear now, the aviation activity soon began. The dreaded Jabos attacked vehicles standing on the streets or in motion with weapons or bombs. Then the German flak , which had been positioned at the station, was deployed . In the station itself there were troop trains almost every day, which were being loaded or unloaded and some were armed with anti-aircraft weapons. Once the planes had made their target, then all hell broke loose: bombs and HE shells of the German defense crashed everywhere. There was a great mess at the station. Refugees were swarming among the soldiers seeking protection, horses racing around wildly and burning vehicles. But where? For them, no place was marked with a Red Cross flag that the airmen might have respected. [...]
Because the exact departure times of the trains could not be announced, the refugees had no peace of mind to hold out in cover and to wait for possible air raids there. They lived in the constant fear of missing the train's departure, which is why they kept streaming back to the station. [...]
The refugee train usually entered the station in the evening 2) with great difficulty . [...]
It was ordered that every refugee was only allowed to take hand luggage, clothes and linen. But many still took their necessary bedding, utensils and the like with them; They were refused to load furniture. But the station master knew how to help. Despite unpleasant incidents and difficulties, he had a few freight wagons attached to the train , which consisted of express train wagons, and so the indispensable box wagons etc. a. get picked up. Much was saved for the refugees in this way. [...]
Each train carried about 1000 people, but it often happened that the trains were already occupied or did not come to Ameln because of the danger of flying. [...]
Most of the refugee trains had their windows smashed and the walls riddled with holes as a result of gunfire, but every refugee breathed a sigh of relief when they finally came out of the vicinity of the front and the Ameln train station. Most of the trains were routed via Bedburg - Neuss to Central Germany, and this branch line showed how important it was in an emergency, because only a few trains could be dispatched to M. Gladbach.
Due to excessive shelling, it was no longer possible to load refugees from Ameln after November 24th, and there were hardly any refugees to be removed from the Jülich district 3) . [...]
The top station 4) Ameln had other tasks to perform and remained occupied by railway workers until February 24, 1945 5) , one of whom was seriously injured. "
Reconstruction and new links
After the end of the war, the Ameln - Bedburg line of all railway lines in the Jülich district was the first to go back into operation on July 1, 1945. At the beginning of 1946, four pairs of trains ran again as scheduled on weekdays and two on Sundays.
In the 1947/48 winter timetable, most of the five pairs of trains, or two pairs on Sundays, ran from / to Jülich, where a depot had existed since 1908 ; it was home to a considerable number of locomotives and cars.
The winter timetable 1948/49 lists six or four pairs of trains on Sundays, half of which are to / from Jülich, and for the first time a continuous train Jülich - Bergheim (Ameln from 7.22 a.m.). The postal rate book of that timetable year also shows that the afternoon train pair Jülich - Ameln - Bedburg - Ameln carried a mail car on working days, which was loaded and unloaded in Ameln and Niederembt ("Transport of all types of mail in a rail post") .
In the summer of 1949 the offer was increased to seven train pairs, which were now daily; most of them drove from / to Jülich. For the first time, a morning pass from Horrem - Bedburg - Ameln - Bedburg - Horrem - Mödrath appeared without the carriage of checked baggage, which suggests a Wittfeld accumulator railcar. The winter timetable 1949/50 shows no significant changes.
In the 1950 summer timetable, an eighth pair of trains was added on weekday afternoons, and a pair of steam trains in the morning has now been extended to Jülich - Horrem and back via the previously usual Jülich - Ameln - Bedburg route. It took an hour and a quarter from Jülich (February 7th) to Horrem (8:45 am) because it was half an hour in Bedburg. In the opposite direction (only on weekdays: Horrem 02/10 - Jülich 11:28) it was faster, since in Bedburg only the holding time of 10 minutes required for relocation was planned. On connections to or from Cologne this pair of trains was not matched; It would have been more than an hour to wait in Horrem in either direction .
From 1950 onwards, the above-mentioned alleged morning railcar was officially marked as such with the newly introduced symbol "T", and its route now started in Liblar instead of Horrem. On the way, he sometimes had very long stop times at the transfer hubs, which suggests that he only served the local traffic of the individual sections and inadvertently created a continuous connection over a total of 44 kilometers (outward journey) in two and a half hours.
| Liblar West | from | 6.08 |
| Mödrath | on | 6.39 |
| from | 6.52 | |
| Horror | on | 6.58 |
| from | 7.12 | |
| Bergheim (Erft) | on | 7.26 |
| from | 7.27 | |
| Bedburg (Erft) | on | 7.45 |
| from | 8.13 | |
| Ameln | on | 8.40 |
| Ameln | from | 8.49 |
| Bedburg (Erft) | on | 9.15 |
| from | 9.27 | |
| Bergheim (Erft) | on | 9.44 |
| from | 9.46 | |
| Horror | on | 10.01 |
| from | 11/10 | |
| Mödrath | on | 10.17 |
Starting in the summer of 1951, two trains from Jülich continued on weekday mornings via Ameln - Bedburg to Neuss without long stops (Jülich from 4.53 and 6.55 a.m.), on Sundays one from Jülich to Horrem, as before; The daily morning railcar Liblar - Ameln - Mödrath also remained.
Early shutdown of passenger traffic
After this phase of reconstruction, which, however, never reached the pre-war level, the summer timetable in 1952 brought a restriction for the first time: an early morning train pair was omitted on Sundays, so that eight train pairs were on the way on weekdays and six on Sundays. Of these, four ran from / to Jülich on weekdays, five on Saturdays and three on Sundays. Apart from the missing Sunday early train couple, the scope of the offer remained unchanged until the closure of passenger traffic on May 17, 1953. From now on, rail buses from / to Jülich served as a replacement .
The unrestricted timetable was in effect until May 17, 1953, including the two following direct rush hour trains (which only run in this direction), which stopped at all stops en route:
| Jülich | from | 4.55 | 6.56 | |
| Ameln | from | 5.13 | 7.14 | |
| Bedburg | on | 5.39 | 7.40 | |
| from | 5.41 | 7.43 | ||
| Grevenbroich | on | 6:00 am | 8.02 | |
| from | 6.02 | 8.03 | ||
| Neuss | on | 6.26 | 8.25 | |
| Connecting trains: | ||||
| Neuss | from | 6.41 | 8.40 | |
| Düsseldorf main station | on | 6.57 | 8.54 | |
| Jülich | from | 5.07 | 6.13 | 7.23 | ||
| Ameln | from | 5.26 | 6.35 | 7.45 | ||
| Mönchengladbach | on | 6.16 | 7.32 | 8.31 | ||
| Connecting trains: | ||||||
| Mönchengladbach | from | 6.22 | 7.57 | 8.58 | ||
| Neuss | on | 6.44 | 8.22 | 9.23 | ||
| Düsseldorf main station | on | 7.05 | 8.43 | 9.42 | ||
These two tables contain all train connections in the direction of Düsseldorf that started in Jülich between 4.30 and 8.30 a.m. The second direct train in particular offered a considerable time advantage compared to the journey via Mönchengladbach; with him a 30-40 minute shorter travel time to Neuss was possible. From the fact that the two direct trains happened to run almost exactly two hours apart, it cannot be concluded that there was already a regular schedule back then. The opposite was the case - apart from these two trains, the departure times were spread out over the day without exact regularities, which at the time was common for all rail traffic outside the S-Bahn networks in Hamburg and Berlin.
Decline and cessation of freight traffic
Freight traffic initially remained after the cessation of passenger traffic, but was soon up for grabs because its scope was too modest. In 1951, for example, there was only one freight train running between Bedburg and Ameln, the wagons of which had a total of only 10 axles and thus a gross weight of 60 tons plus 100 tons of the steam locomotive, but a net load of only 7 tons. Apparently there were mainly empty wagons and a wagon loaded with light goods. (For comparison: On the same day, six freight trains with a total of 2,433 tonnes of net load drove on the Jülich - Ameln - Hochneukirch route alone.) Consequently, the German Federal Railroad tried to shut down the route completely, but this encountered resistance. In 1959, local politics achieved that the state transport minister obliged the DB to operate for another two years. In the more recent literature (from 2010) one finds statements such as:
“An analysis showed a freight volume of 0.4 tons of general cargo and 35.7 tons of truckloads daily. Only the lignite transport to Ameln was 150 tons per day. These quantities were too small for the railway, so that the line was discontinued in 1961 despite numerous and vehement protests to the summer schedule and finally closed in 1963. "
However, official information from the Federal Railway Directorate (BD) in Cologne contradicts this, citing November 1, 1966 as the date of the final closure. In the semi-annual freight train formation regulations of the BD Cologne, the following pairs of trains are included in the edition of September 25, 1966 on page 128 (so-called transfer trains for the local area):
- "Üb 15254 / Üb 15256 Bedburg (Erft) - Kirchherten - Bedburg, service trips, stop in Niederembt u. Kirchtroisdorf as required "
According to the systematics of this directory, there is not just one, but two pairs of trains running at different times, both of which only run when there is a need, which can rarely have been the case. However, the BD Cologne will not have drawn up timetables in 1966 for a route that had been closed years earlier. The short stretch between Ameln and Kirchherten was apparently no longer used regularly at this time. What is remarkable in this context is that the same directory on page 106 contains the following local goods train :
- "Ng 9555 Niederaußem - Rommerskirchen - Ameln, coal for the Ameln sugar factory"
This also only ran when necessary; Obviously it concerns the already cited coal transports to Ameln with 150 tons on a daily average. Since the demand of a sugar factory fluctuates strongly over the course of the year, irregularly running trains with significantly higher loads can be assumed - 300 tons, for example, would correspond to 11 two-axle self-unloading wagons of the widespread type Fcs 090 . This train did not take the direct route via Bedburg, but the detour via Hochneukirch, since at the end of September 1966 the Ameln - Kirchherten section may already have been closed to operations, even if it was not officially closed. In any case, November 1, 1966 appears to be the most plausible date for the closure of the entire plant.
Conclusion
The purely local traffic between Ameln and Bedburg was ultimately too little to keep the line alive, but as part of a regional direct connection (Aachen -) Jülich - Cologne it would certainly have had a chance of lasting existence, similar to today's Euregiobahn Aachen - Eschweiler Tal - Düren, which also offers slower local development parallel to the fast main line, but runs through to the larger junction stations in the region without having to change trains. In 1953, on the one hand, the technical possibilities were still lacking (light and high-speed railcars that could have changed direction in Bedburg within a few minutes), and on the other hand, the time was more geared towards the expansion of car traffic and was not yet ripe for such concepts, even if the public demanded the resumption of passenger traffic between Ameln and Bedburg in 1959.
On the contrary, even 14 years after the shutdown of goods traffic, the Ameln route end point was completely cut off from rail passenger traffic and in 1984 also from rail freight traffic, and the other end point Bedburg also had to accept the suspension of passenger traffic on the route to Düren in 1995 . This was largely due to the growing Hambach opencast mine , while otherwise the trend had already reversed and branch lines that had been disused nationwide were reactivated. In 1995, Sunday operations on the Erftbahn from Bedburg to Horrem (- Cologne) were resumed and, not far from Ameln, the Jülich - Linnich line was reactivated in 2002 .
Route description
Track plans from the year after the shutdown of passenger traffic show that the track systems of the subway stations were quite manageable. After the final closure in 1966, the entire line was dismantled. However, its course can still be seen today in the form of field and farm roads.
Bedburg railway station
Bedburg railway station was put into operation on the Düren – Neuss railway line in 1869 , which is why it had its original distance of 21.2 kilometers. In 1897 the Bedburg – Horrem line was added and in 1898 the Amelner Johännchen between Bedburg and Ameln started operations. Bedburg station was at 0.22 km of this route. The traffic to Ameln was stopped on May 17, 1953.
Today it is hard to imagine how big the train station in Bedburg used to be. Because of the Hambach opencast mine, the Düren - Bedburg section was closed in 1995 and then dismantled. The gravel still lying on the former routes is reminiscent of the extensive track systems. Bedburg had two signal boxes (Bnf and Bsf). Bsf was decommissioned in 1995 with the closure of the section to Düren and demolished after a fire. Bnf took over the operation of the remaining points and signals until it went out of operation with the commissioning of the electronic interlocking in 2007.
The route to Ameln went south and passed through Kirdorf first , and continued west.
Niederembt stop
The operating time of the Niederembt stop for passenger traffic was from October 22nd, 1898 to May 17th, 1953. Niederembt was at the kilometer point 3.82 and had a loading track, which was no longer needed after the cessation of freight traffic on November 1st, 1966. The reception building and the restaurant still exist today and are privately owned.
The route now runs as a dirt road to the south, just before Niederembt, turning in a tight curve to the east and reaching the former Niederembt railway station, the eastern part of which is plowed under for about 150 meters and is no longer recognizable. The rest of the route to Bedburg runs almost continuously over field and farm roads, which bear the street name "Im Emgrund" in the district of Kirdorf from the bridge over the Autobahn 61 . Remarkably, the route ran through Kirdorf without its own stopping point. Finally, the former railway section flows in a narrow curve to the north into the formerly quite extensive station area of Bedburg.
Kirchtroisdorf stop
The Kirchtroisdorf stop was opened for passenger traffic at km 6.74 on October 22, 1898 and closed on May 17, 1953. Kirchtroisdorf had a loading track with a turnout in the direction of Ameln and, until 1954, a crossing track . The loading track was no longer used after the cessation of freight traffic on November 1, 1966.
After Kirchherten there is the first 250 meter long gap (fields) until the route follows the road 277. From the roundabout at the north entrance of Kirchtroisdorf, it runs along Kreisstraße 37, where the train station was on the “An der Spring” street. At the eastern exit of Kirchtroisdorf, the railway line leaves the route that runs parallel to the street.
Kirchherten station
Kirchherten station had the same operating period as all stations on this route. Kirchherten was at the kilometer point 9.25 and had a loading siding with a point in the direction of Ameln. In 1954, the station also had a crossing track on both sides that could be used for shunting and also led to a combined head and side ramp. The loading track was no longer used after it was discontinued in freight traffic on November 1, 1966.
To the west of the village of Kirchherten, the railway line is also marked by an approximately 800-meter-long row of trees, in the south of the village there is a street called “Am Bahndamm” at the level of the former train station. After passing through the village of Kirchherten and crossing the Zaunstraße, 200 meters run in an arch again with a row of trees along the Pützer Bach to the southeast.
Ameln train station
The Ameln train station was located in the northern part of the village on Bahnstraße at route kilometer 22.8 and existed from 1881 to July 14, 1980. After the closure, the station building was demolished. Although Ameln is smaller than Titz , the Ameln train station gained greater importance through the former local sugar factory owned by Pfeifer & Langen .
The route threaded from Ameln to the north and then turned east after a few hundred meters in the direction of Kirchherten.
literature
- Volker Schüler, Manfred Coenen, Karl Pokschewinski: Bergheimer Kreisbahnen 1896-1912. Railways for the industrialization of Erftland , dbh-Verlag, 2001
Web links
- Historical photos from Niederembt train station at Wisoveg.de (pages by Heinrich Klein)
- Description of route 2582 in the NRWbahnarchiv by André Joost
- Course book from 1944
Individual evidence
- ↑ DB Netze - Infrastructure Register
- ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
- ↑ Gerd Wolff: Deutsche Klein- und Privatbahnen, Volume 4: North Rhine-Westphalia, southern part, EK-Verlag Freiburg, 1997, ISBN 3-88255-660-9 , page 105
- ↑ "Car was cut in half - from the railway accident on the Amelner route", text and photos of an article in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger from 3rd / 4th April. August 1972. Retrieved November 8, 2015 .
- ↑ Timetable 1938, in: Gerd Wolff: Deutsche Klein- und Privatbahnen, Volume 4: North Rhine-Westphalia, southern part, EK-Verlag Freiburg, 1997, ISBN 3-88255-660-9 , page 107
- ^ German course book summer 1939, reprint by Ritzau KG, Pürgen, 5th edition. 1981, Table 224c
- ↑ Eisenbahn-Amateur-Klub Jülich eV (ed.): Jülich, die old Eisenbahner-Stadt , 2nd edition, Jülich 1986, page 238
- ↑ Die Front an Rur und Inde , collected and compiled by Josef Rahier 1950, Verlag Josef Fischer, Jülich, 4th edition 2012, ISBN 978-3-87227-085-6
- ↑ Eisenbahn-Amateur-Klub Jülich eV (Ed.): Jülich, die old Eisenbahner-Stadt , 2nd edition, Jülich 1986, page 59
- ↑ Eisenbahn-Amateur-Klub Jülich eV (Ed.): Jülich, die old Eisenbahner-Stadt , 2nd edition, Jülich 1986, page 71
- ↑ Route load map of the Cologne Railway Directorate No. 15 for Thursday, March 15, 1951, archive of the Railway Amateur Club Jülich eV
- ↑ a b “Freight traffic rolls on!”, Scan of a newspaper article from the Bedburg city archive, Kölnische Rundschau from July 25, 1959. Retrieved on November 8, 2015 .
- ↑ Article on Amelner Johännchen in: Elsdorfer Geschichte , Yearbook of the Elsdorf History Association, Volume 5, 2012, Medienbüro Kreuznach 2012.
- ↑ Google Books Bahnhof Kirchherten in Uwe Depcik: Zeitsprge Bedburg , Sutton Verlag, Erfurt 2011, p. 72
- ↑ "Bundesbahndirektion Köln" - BD map Cologne, edition A, color (with disused lines from 1945), cartography and printing: Central transport line - map office - November 1984.