Gotha – Graefenroda railway line

Gotha-Graefenroda
Route number :	6697
Course book section (DB) :	572
Route length:	36 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	C4
Minimum radius :	150 m
Top speed:	50 km / h
Legend from Halle (Saale) Hbf from Leinefelde 0.000 Gotha (transition to the Thuringian Forest Railway ) 307.44 m according to Bebra 0.804 Infrastructure border DB Netz - ZossenRail 6.351 Emleben 350.95 m 6.842 Line shut down from the Emleben exit 9.279 Petriroda 368.65 m von Friedrichroda (1896–1947) 13.016 Georgenthal 374.63 m Apple Town after Tambach-Dietharz (1892–1969) 17.311 Ohrdruf 380.21 m 20.881 Luisenthal 422.22 m Ohra 25.248 Crawinkel 483.37 m Gisseltal Viaduct 29.697 Frankenhain 470.49 m Gräfenrodaer Stadtviadukt, road to Gehlberg 33.910 Graefenroda place 400.64 m Wild Gera Infrastructure border ZossenRail - DB Netz from Ritschenhausen 35.697 Graefenroda 380.58 m to Neudietendorf

The Gotha – Graefenroda line is a branch line in Thuringia . In Gotha it branches off the Halle – Bebra railway and leads via Ohrdruf and Crawinkel to Graefenroda , where it joins the Neudietendorf – Ritschenhausen railway .

The route is called the Ohratalbahn , although the railway only runs between Ohrdruf and Luisenthal next to the Ohra River .

history

The first section from Gotha to Ohrdruf was opened on May 8, 1876. The main reason for the construction was the desire of the Ohrdrufer for the railway as well as the demand of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to be able to comfortably reach all official cities in the duchy.

The owner was initially the Gotha-Ohrdrufer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft , whose main shareholders were the domain administration of the Duchy of Gotha and the city of Ohrdruf. The city of Gotha and the railway contractor Herrmann Bachstein were also involved. Bachstein's executive planner is the "Railway Construction and Operations Director and Kgl. Württemberg master builder “Alfred Philippi. The company was run by the Thuringian Railway Company until 1882 , then by the Prussian State Railway .

When the Erfurt – Schweinfurt railway was completed in 1883, the people of Ohrdruf wanted to connect to this side. Since the entire area of ​​the Ohratalbahn belonged to Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, long negotiations between the states, which were otherwise often necessary in Thuringia, were spared and construction to Graefenroda could be continued. On November 1, 1892, the second half of the Ohratal Railway from Ohrdruf to Gräfenroda was opened to traffic. In the meantime, the Prussian state had become the owner of the Gotha-Ohrdrufer Bahn on April 1, 1889.

Regional train with class 641 in Graefenroda (2006)

From the 1970s the route was used by rail buses, which were popularly known as blood blisters because of their red paintwork . After 1990 it was checked whether the line should be closed. Finally, traffic between Crawinkel and Graefenroda was temporarily suspended in the second half of the 1990s and the route was extensively renovated. After the renovation, trains ran there again every hour to Crawinkel and on to Gräfenroda every two hours. The crossings took place alternately in Ohrdruf and in Georgenthal. Until 2011, vehicles from the 641 series were used almost exclusively . Since 2014, trips between Gotha and Emleben have always taken place on a Saturday and Sunday at the end of October. These are organized by Hirzbergbahn eV with a class 772 multiple unit for the annual model railway exhibition in the Emleben community center.

Since 2000, Deutsche Bahn has renewed the track's superstructure in sections. The Crawinkel – Gräfenroda section, which had been closed since June 29, 1998 due to a deteriorating superstructure, was completely renovated with state funds for around € 10–11 million (including new level crossing technology) and put back into operation on December 15, 2002. Three years later, on November 11, 2005, a new, barrier-free stopping point was inaugurated in Frankenhain, which is a little closer to the town. It replaced the old one, which was in need of renovation due to a lack of infrastructure (platform edge, etc.). The costs for this amounted to around € 265,000, with the state contributing € 195,000 in funding.

The Thuringian Ministry of Transport announced in October 2010 that the state's own local transport service company (NVS) would no longer tender the operation of the 36-kilometer connection from the following year and would therefore discontinue the Gräfenroda – Ohrdruf – Gotha regional train line in December 2011. Since then, the Ohratalbahn (IG) interest group has been fighting to maintain passenger traffic on the route. According to the IG, if the route were closed, tourism and the economy would have serious disadvantages. The IG also sees further passenger potential through the establishment of new stops (e.g. Ohrdruf business park, Tobiashammer Ohrdruf). The main point of criticism of the state transport ministry is the existing parallel bus service. In the local transport plan, a permanent guarantee of the line's existence was only promised in the event that bus traffic along the line was canceled. In 2003 the state had expressed its interest in upgrading the line to 80 km / h, the continuous hourly service between Gotha and Graefenroda and the connection of individual trains to Arnstadt during rush hour.

In April 2011 the district council of the district of Gotha called for a two-year moratorium "to prove a significant increase in the number of passengers". In addition, the district council spoke out in favor of stopping parallel bus traffic as far as possible and had the transfer of school traffic to the Ohratalbahn checked. In 2011, it was decided to cease passenger traffic on the entire route by December 2011. This decision was justified with the decrease in the number of passengers from 700 passengers a day in 2004 to 450 passengers a day in 2010. The 3.5 million euros freed up as a result are to be used for other purposes in local public transport. The connection of the places is to be realized by optimizing the regional bus offer. The last trip finally took place on December 10, 2011. As a result, there is no longer any scheduled local rail transport between Gotha and Graefenroda .

Freight train in Ohrdruf station (2012)

In August / September 2013, DB Netz AG renewed the superstructure of the Gotha – Emleben section for the last time. On September 18, 2013, following the conclusion of the procedure in accordance with Section 11 of the General Railway Act - Surrender and decommissioning of railway infrastructure facilities - the ZossenRail operating company took over the management.

At the beginning of March 2017, the entire route including all railway infrastructure facilities (e.g. reception building and electrical systems) from DB Station & Service and DB Netz became the property of the ZossenRail operating company.

The most important connection today is a tank farm in Emleben, which is served by tank car block trains. However, Emleben and neighboring Gotha are no longer tariff stations. Up until 2007, freight wagons were sporadically delivered to the Otto dispatch warehouse in the Ohrdruf business park . So far there has been no traffic on the branching, approximately two-kilometer-long industrial trunk line. A tank wagon unloading station for liquid gas was dismantled. For almost 100 years, troops and material were loaded for the large military training area at the Ohrdruf station, until 2013 wood was occasionally loaded there. Due to the closure of the Plaue – Ilmenau line in 2012/2013, refuse bins on the Ilmenau – Großkorbetha pendulum were reloaded at the Graefenroda station.

On March 4, 2020, the Emleben – Gräfenroda section was shut down due to a lack of economic efficiency, but will not be de-dedicated.

Route description

The line begins at Gotha station , where it branches off from the Thuringian Railway in a south-westerly direction . It initially runs in a double curve next to the Gotha-Süd industrial area, which was created after 1990, then over an "open field" and under the A 4 to Emleben , where its first train station is located. From Emleben the route continues in a southerly direction via Petriroda to Georgenthal . Georgenthal used to be a railway junction. From here the Friedrichrodaer Bahn branched off to the northwest and the Georgenthal – Tambach-Dietharz railway line to the southwest . In 2013, Georgenthal is the only non- barrier-free station on the route, where the two covered double platforms from 1895 and the platform tunnel must still be used.

From Georgenthal the route runs in a wide curve to the east. After an industrial park, the route turns south and reaches the Ohrdruf train station on the western edge of the city. Then follows the route of the Ohra and runs to Luisenthal ; thus the Thuringian Forest is reached. There the direction of the route changes again to the east and the Ohra is crossed. After Crawinkel , the route reaches its apex and continues to meander to Frankenhain in the south. From here it falls sharply down into the Wild Gera valley . This is followed by a 320 ° bend around the Gräfenrodaer Kirchholz to artificially decrease the height, and with another 300 ° bend , the valley floor with the Gräfenroda Ort stop is reached. After another 2 km, the Ohratal Railway joins the Neudietendorf – Ritschenhausen railway line from the south-west .

The Gräfenroda station was not only important as the end point of the Ohratal Railway, the 20 ‰ ascent to the Thuringian Forest begins here, and pushing locomotives were used in the steam locomotive era . In 2006, the station with its main tracks and the stub track of the Ohratalbahn was converted to make it barrier-free .

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  Luisenthal stop (2018)

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  Frankenhain stop (2018)

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  Ohrdruf train station

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  Gräfenroda Ort stop

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  Graefenroda station

Web links

Commons : Ohratalbahn  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Route data on klauserbeck.de
• Archive of the end of the Ohratalbahn at crawinkler-runde.de
• Route and operating points on the OpenRailwayMap

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ISR-Viewer on deutschebahn.com
2. ↑ ^{a b} Terms of use for service facilities of ZossenRail Betriebsgesellschaft mbH (ZRB) for the Gotha-Emleben railway line. Special part (NBS-BT). (PDF) ZossenRail Betriebsgesellschaft mbH, January 1, 2015, accessed on June 15, 2020 . 
3. ^ "Free Word" of October 26, 2010, page 2
4. ^ TA report of November 16, 2010
5. ↑ Homepage of the IG Ohratalbahn  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
6. ↑ Local transport plan of the state of Thuringia from 2008 (PDF; 6.0 MB)
7. ↑ Regional transport plan of the State of Thuringia 2003 (PDF file; 7.0 MB).
8. ↑ District council wants to fight for the Ohratalbahn. Thuringian General, April 9, 2011.
9. ^ Thuringian Ministry for Building, Regional Development and Transport: Sensible use of funds in local passenger transport. Press release of October 20, 2011, published by the press officer, accessed on October 24, 2011.
10. ↑ Axel Eger: Last trip for the Ohratalbahn in Gotha. thueringer-allgemeine.de, December 12, 2011, accessed on March 24, 2013 . 
11. ^ Thuringia: State government is committed to the Ohratal Railway. Locomotive report , June 15, 2020, accessed on June 15, 2020 .