Buttstädt – Rastenberg railway line

Buttstädt – Rastenberg
Route length:	5.46 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Minimum radius :	200 m
Legend from Straussfurt 0.00 Buttstädt after Großheringen from Weimar 3.35 Hardisleben Connection of the Rastenberg potash plant 5.46 Rastenberg

The Buttstädt – Rastenberg railway line (popularly called purposes after the operating company ) was a single-track, non-electrified branch line in Thuringia . The 5.46 km long route connected Buttstädt on the Straussfurt – Großheringen railway line with Rastenberg . On the 1910 opened branch line in 1968, the traffic was stopped.

history

Rastenberg had already had a rail connection with the narrow-gauge Weimar – Rastenberg railway since 1887 , but after 1900 a potash mine at Billroda , the “Rastenberg Union” potash mine , was opened. This should get its own standard-gauge connecting railway, with this Hermann Bachstein hoped an improvement of the deficit operating results of the narrow-gauge railway. In 1909, Bachstein was granted the concession to build a standard-gauge branch line from Buttstädt to Rastenberg. The Weimar-Rastenberger Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft was still named as the concession holder, but Bachstein had already bought the company in 1898.

The 5.46 km route was easy, so the construction could be completed very quickly. From Hardisleben, the already existing narrow-gauge line was used with a three-rail track . Passenger traffic began on October 1, 1910, and goods had been transported since May 30, 1910. In connection with the opening of the line, the Mannstädt – Buttstädt section of the narrow-gauge railway was shut down and dismantled in the same year, as the new standard-gauge station in Buttstädt was on the same site as the previous narrow-gauge station.

The hope of profitable operation was not fulfilled, so in the summer of 1923 the Buttelstädt – Rastenberg section of the narrow-gauge railway was closed, so that the three-rail track to Rastenberg was no longer used. Until October 1923, the central administration for secondary railways Herrmann Bachstein took over the management, then it was transferred to the Thüringische Eisenbahn-AG . Already at the beginning of the 1930s the railway line was to be shut down, as the main transport customer ceased to exist after the potash mine was closed. Therefore, the Rastenberg-Hardisleben Railway Association was founded in 1931 , which from then on operated the railway line. As a result, the term "purposes" for the railway was popularly used. Nevertheless, the operating company had to stop passenger traffic on January 1, 1933, and the line may even be shut down .

In 1948 passenger traffic was resumed. The line was taken over by the Deutsche Reichsbahn in 1949 . On May 26, 1968 the traffic was stopped and the line was then dismantled.

literature

• Günter Fromm, Harald Rockstuhl: The Laura - Kleinbahn in Weimar and Sömmerdaer Land - The Buchenwaldbahn , Verlag Rockstuhl, Bad Langensalza 3rd edition 2006, ISBN 3-937135-44-8

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Günter Fromm, Harald Rockstuhl: The Laura - Kleinbahn in the Weimar and Sömmerdaer Land - The Buchenwaldbahn , p. 45
2. ↑ Günter Fromm, Harald Rockstuhl: The Laura - Kleinbahn in Weimar and Sömmerdaer Land - The Buchenwaldbahn , p. 49
3. ↑ So: Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (ed.): Official Gazette of the Reichsbahndirektion Mainz of January 28, 1933, No. 4. Announcement No. 41, p. 17.