Dannemarie – Pfetterhouse railway line

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Dannemarie – Pfetterhouse
Route number (SNCF) : 133,000
Route length: 20.117 km
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope : 16  ‰
Minimum radius : 300 m
Legend
Route - straight ahead
 from Mulhouse
Station, station
464.92
0.00
Dannemarie (Dammerkirch) ⊙
   
 to Belfort
   
 0.97 Shutdown limit
   
 2.80 Altenach ⊙
   
 4.85 Mertzen (Merzen) ⊙
   
 8.37 Frisians ⊙
   
 9.35 Largitzenbach
   
 12.15 Seppois-le-Bas (Lower Sept) ⊙
   
 14.12 Largue
   
 16.89 D 24
   
 17.22 Pfetterhouse (Pfetterhausen) ⊙
   
20.12
13.50
France / Switzerland
   
 12.10 Connection to the Bonfol landfill
Station, station
 10.89 Bonfol (Pumpfel) ⊙
Route - straight ahead
 to Porrentruy

The Dannemarie – Pfetterhouse railway line , also called Largtalbahn ( French: Ligne de la vallée de la Largue ), was a French railway line in Alsace , from Dannemarie to Pfetterhouse . In Pfetterhouse it was linked to the Porrentruy – Bonfol railway line opened in 1901 . The 20.1 km long railway line was put into operation in 1910 and closed in 1971.

Route

The route begins at Dannemarie station on the Paris – Mulhouse line . There it branches off west of the train station in a southerly direction. It follows the Larg (Largue) on the eastern bank. The Altenach stop was at km 2.8 . The train continues in a south-easterly direction and reached Mertzen station at 4.8 km . After another 3.6 km, the Friesen train station was at 8.4 km .

Still on the eastern bank of the Larg, it reached the Seppois-le-Bas station at km 12.1 . Now the Larg has been crossed and the route realigns itself in a south-westerly direction. After a left turn, the Pfetterhouse station was reached at km 17.2. After a right turn, the border to Switzerland was reached, which followed the route for a few hundred meters. The railway line crossed the border at km 20.1.

history

Planning, construction and commissioning

The first efforts to build a railway line in the Largtal go back to the 1870s. After the Altkirch – Ferrette (Illtalbahn) railway was opened in 1892, a “committee for the construction of a railway through the Largthal” was founded. On November 15, 1899, the MPs beat Dr. Ricklin and Baron von Reinach presented the construction of the Largtalbahn in the district assembly. After the Porrentruy – Bonfol (RPB) railway went into operation on July 15, 1901, the desire for a railway from Dammerkirch (Dannemarie) to Pfetterhausen (Pfetterhouse) increased. In 1902 the investigations into the routing began, in 1903 the district assembly in Colmar decided in favor of a connection with the Swiss route.

In 1904 the Reichseisenbahnen approved the project for the Alsatian line Dammerkirch – Pfetterhausen. The total cost in 1905 was estimated at 5.575 million marks. In the same year the Ministry of Railways of Alsace-Lorraine presented the RPB with plans for the border railway from Pfetterhausen to Bonfol. On May 7, 1906, the "State Treaty between Switzerland and the German Empire regarding a railway connection between Pfetterhausen and Bonfol" was signed. As early as December 6, 1905, the German Emperor Wilhelm II had signed the decree on the construction of a railway line from Dammerkirch to Pfetterhausen and on to the Swiss border.

The first survey work dates back to 1903 when the route was examined. The tender for the construction work took place on March 23, 1907, the contract was awarded to Heydt & Mansart. The expropriation of the land for the stretch near Pfetterhausen dragged on until November 1907. A large part of the workforce were foreign workers from Italy. The winter of 1907/1908 was very cold, which brought the construction work, which had already started in some places, to a standstill. In June 1908, despite a landslide near Mansbach , the construction train was already running to Niedersept . The construction work on the German part of the Grenzbahn was awarded on November 16, 1908. On August 28, 1909, the track from Dammerkirch to Pfetterhausen was completed. At the end of 1909, 15 km of track had already been laid; 40 kg / m of rail profiles were used. The stations were also under construction at the end of 1909. On September 27, 1910, the line to Pfetterhausen was approved.

The inauguration of the Dannemarie – Pfetterhausen line took place on September 29, 1910, in the presence of the President of the Reichseisenbahnen Alsace-Lorraine (ELB). In each station there was a solemn greeting by the mayor. The first passenger train ran on the route on October 1st, and the previous stagecoach services were discontinued. The inauguration of the Grenzbahn took place on October 27, 1910, and despite the defects in the upper construction, it went into operation on November 1.

Further development during the first half of the 20th century

In 1911, five pairs of trains ran daily from Dammerkirch to Pfetterhausen. In 1911 four pairs of trains ran on the Grenzbahn. On July 31, 1914, the ELB ceased operations on the border railway due to the outbreak of the First World War . The passenger train schedule was suspended on the entire network of the Reichseisenbahnen Alsace-Lorraine on August 3rd. On 26./27. August 1914, the two dammerkirch viaducts were destroyed, after which the Largtalbahn was no longer accessible from the Alsatian railway network. After the end of the war, the route was transferred to the Réseau ferroviaire d'Alsace-Lorraine (AL). The line was reopened on July 14, 1919, with up to six pairs of trains running daily.

Border barrier on the route between Bonfol and Pfetterhouse during the First World War

In 1933 a bus connection was opened by “Cars Citroen” from Mulhouse via Dannemarie to Pfetterhouse. In May of the same year, the AL considered replacing the passenger trains on the Largtalbahn with bus routes. On February 25, 1935, a law came into force for "coordination" between the railways and the road transport companies. At the beginning of 1936, the AL assured the maintenance of goods traffic, the law could be applied to passenger traffic, which would have meant a switch to bus operation. In 1937, 204 kilometers of railway lines in Alsace were to be shut down based on the "Coordination" law; the Largtalbahn was also examined. The members of the Conseil Général came to the conclusion that the Largtalbahn was an important international railway line and that passenger traffic had to become more attractive. On January 1, 1938, the AL became the Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF).

On September 2, 1939, the border railway was closed again because of the outbreak of the Second World War . Trains continued to run from Dannemarie to Pfetterhouse. In the summer of 1940 the bridge on the road from Courtavon to Pfetterhouse over the border railway was destroyed. In July 1940, the damage to the Largtalbahn was repaired by the German occupying army. On July 22, 1940, rail operations from Dannemarie to Pfetterhouse were resumed. With the collapse of the La Croix tunnel on the Delémont – Delle railway line , the border railway was temporarily reopened (on March 27, 1943). After the tunnel was passable again, the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR) decided not to continue traffic. The reason given by the DR was the dilapidated condition of the bridges; on August 11, 1943, the DR moved operations to the road to renew the railway overpass in Seppois-le-Bas. On January 6, 1944, this was handed over to the company. From May 1944, bombing made operations more difficult. From November 19, 1944 - the liberation of Pfetterhouse - until January 16, 1945, operations on the Largtalbahn were suspended. Scheduled operations could only be resumed on March 6th, and in the meantime only individual freight trains were running. The border railway was reopened on October 2, 1945, and up to two trains ran on the route every day.

Decline and shutdown

The Chemins de fer du Jura (CJ), which operated the Porrentruy – Bonfol line , wanted to effect the provisional cessation of passenger traffic on the border railway on December 21, 1945. From February 15, 1946, freight trains only ran when required on the section from Pfetterhouse to Bonfol. In January 1952, the SNCF made it clear that they wanted to stop passenger and freight traffic on the Largtalbahn. However, this required the approval of Switzerland, which was stipulated in the State Treaty of 1906. The cost recovery rate for passenger transport was put at ten percent.

Until the 1960s, passenger trains ran in steam traction; From 1958, X 3700 railcars were used on Saturdays . The border traffic with the CJ accounted for the majority of the wagonloads of the Largtalbahn. On November 14, 1953, the CJ freight train and a SNCF steam locomotive collided at km 18.72. The CJ's shunting tractor was badly damaged. The Ile-Napoléon depot was responsible for the traction of passenger trains; that of the freight trains Mulhouse-Nord, and later Belfort. Steam locomotives were used for traction of the freight trains until 1957, after which diesel locomotives of the Y 51100 series were used. From the beginning of the sixties, dismantling measures took place in Mertzen, Friesen, Seppois-le-Bas and Pfetterhouse.

From 1962 onwards, the CJ considered closing the Grenzbahn (Bonfol – Pfetterhouse). In 1965, the SNCF made another attempt to shut down the Dannemarie – Pfetterhouse line and with it the border railway. On the Nyon – Crassier (NC) railway line, traffic had already ceased in 1962, but the SNCF still had to approve the closure. As a result, it was decided on July 24, 1965 to shut down the NC and cease passenger traffic on the Largtalbahn. The French Ministry of Transport authorized the SNCF to suspend passenger traffic on September 28 of the same year; on October 30, the last Autorail operated on the Largtalbahn. From May 29, 1969, operations were further simplified by the “Règlement des lignes à voie unique à trafic restreints”.

The French Ministry of Transport ordered the closure of the Largtalbahn for goods traffic on July 31, 1969. The State Treaty of 1906 was repealed on November 3, 1969. On January 4, 1970 the Largtalbahn was shut down; the Swiss route was dismantled to km 12.1. The BB 63212 locomotive pulled the last train on January 4, 1970. It was not until November 3, 1971 that the "Décret officiel de déclassement" took place. The tracks were then dismantled, 2000 tons of steel and 29,000 sleepers were brought to Dannemarie. The stations and the railway area were sold to the municipalities and private individuals.

Current condition

Dannemarie station was dismantled and no longer has any side tracks. Most of the route has been preserved; it is used today as a cycle path. Most of the engineering structures and all the station buildings have been preserved. The railway line was built over in the Pfetterhouse area.

literature

  • Christian Ammann, André Dubail: Porrentruy-Bonfol-Alsace . The history of the Jurassic-Alsatian railway line Porrentruy - Bonfol - Pfetterhouse - Dannemarie. Les Éditions du Cabri, 1983, ISBN 2-903310-33-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See C. Ammann, p. 86.
  2. ↑ See C. Ammann, p. 11.
  3. ↑ a b c See C. Ammann, p. 14.
  4. ↑ a b See C. Ammann, p. 16.
  5. ↑ a b c See C. Ammann, p. 19.
  6. ↑ a b See C. Ammann, p. 21.
  7. ↑ a b See C. Ammann, p. 23.
  8. ↑ See C. Ammann, p. 25.
  9. ↑ See C. Ammann, p. 29.
  10. ↑ See C. Ammann, p. 36.
  11. ↑ See C. Ammann, p. 41.
  12. ↑ See C. Ammann, p. 45.
  13. ↑ a b See C. Ammann, p. 51.
  14. ↑ a b c See C. Ammann, p. 53.
  15. ↑ a b See C. Ammann, p. 57.
  16. ↑ a b See C. Ammann, p. 59.
  17. ↑ See C. Ammann, p. 63.
  18. ↑ See C. Ammann, p. 65.
  19. ↑ See C. Ammann, p. 67.
  20. ↑ a b c See C. Ammann, p. 69.
  21. ↑ a b c d See C. Ammann, p. 73.
  22. ↑ a b c See C. Ammann, p. 75.
  23. ↑ Piste de la Largue on af3v.org