Großpostwitz – Löbau railway line
| Junction Großpostwitz – Löbau (Sachs) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route number : | 6584; sä. GL | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course book section (DB) : | 233 (1997) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 18.576 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 29 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 180 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top speed: | 50 km / h | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Großpostwitz – Löbau railway line was a branch line in the Lusatian highlands in Saxony . It began in Großpostwitz and led through the Cunewald valley to Löbau . In 1998 the line was closed.
history
Prehistory and construction
Großpostwitz – Obercunewalde
Demand for a railway was early on in the Cunewalder Valley, and the first corresponding petition from the Cunewalde community dates back to 1865. But it was only after the construction of the Bautzen – Schandau line between 1875 and 1877 that the prerequisites for the construction of a railway line to Cunewalde existed. A railway committee now vehemently called for a branch line to the Cunewald valley. But only the "Secondary Railway Ordinance" issued in 1878 brings the project within reach. However, a decade would pass before the decision was taken to build the Großpostwitz – Cunewalde secondary railway on February 5, 1889.
Finally, a standard-gauge route was planned, which began in Großpostwitz on the Bautzen – Bad Schandau railway line and led in the Cunewalder Valley to Obercunewalde. The later envisaged continuation to Löbau was obviously the decisive factor in the fact that the project was not carried out in a narrow-gauge manner - as was common at the time.
On July 20, 1889, the construction of the line began, which cut ahead very quickly. Apart from the two bridges over the Spree and the Cunewalder Wasser , no major engineering structures were to be built. At Cunewalde, an eight meter deep incision had to be made through a ridge. On September 15, 1890, the Großpostwitz – Obercunewalde line was opened with a ceremony.
Obercunewalde – Löbau
From 1897, the town of Löbau in particular, but also the potential neighboring communities, were interested in continuing the route to Löbau. In 1909 the planned route was marked out. However, construction did not start quickly for the time being. Ultimately, the beginning of the First World War in 1914 stopped all such work.
Only after the war did it become possible to start building the line. On December 16, 1918, the new building office in Löbau was established. A little later - on January 13, 1919 - the construction of the line, declared as emergency work, began. However, the construction work was delayed several times, on the one hand due to the hesitant provision of the necessary building site by the owners, as well as the onset of hyperinflation at the beginning of the 1920s . In 1923 the planum and most of the bridges were completed. The introduction of the track into Löbau station caused considerable problems, as four lines had already flowed from the west there.
Construction was only continued in September 1926 with a loan from the Reich Finance Administration. On October 7, 1928, the connection was opened as one of the last new lines to be built in Saxony.
business
The route met expectations, even if the establishment of new industries on the route largely failed to occur due to the limited space in the Cunewald Valley.
In the passenger train service, continuous trains ran later between Bautzen and Löbau, so that a change in Großpostwitz was no longer necessary. In the early 1980s, the route was served by a total of six pairs of trains.
Shutdown
Only after the political turnaround in eastern Germany in 1990 did the route's importance for travel and freight traffic decrease to a minimum. On December 21, 1995, the freight traffic was stopped with the last service at the Oelsa tank farm.
The end of tourist traffic came with the derailment of a passenger train in the Cunewalde entry point on December 22nd, 1996. From then on, train crossings were no longer possible there. Passenger trains ran later until June 1, 1997, then the passenger train traffic was canceled by the responsible Free State of Saxony .
On August 15, 1998 the line was closed, but not initially dismantled. On March 18, 1999, the Ostsächsische Eisenbahnfreunde eV association in Löbau submitted a purchase application for the route in order to set up a museum there. This was ultimately refused, also because part of the route at Löbau had meanwhile been sacrificed for the construction of the local bypass ( federal highway 178 ).
The tracks were dismantled in 2008. A cycle path has been set up on the former track . It begins in the local area of Halbendorf (direct connection to the federal highway 96 ). On July 20, 2015, the last construction phase to Löbau was approved.
Vehicle use
The Kgl. Saxon. State Railways procured the tried and tested small, two-axle secondary railroad locomotives of type VII TS for the route . The Deutsche Reichsbahn later also used the former Prussian T 9.3 (91 series) on the line.
From around 1970, the diesel locomotives of the DR class 110 (DB 201) could be seen in front of all trains. The last passenger trains in 1997 consisted of a class 202 locomotive and two four-axle side gang cars of the Bom type.
literature
- Hans von Polenz: Railways in the Bautzener Land ; Ostsächsische Eisenbahnfreunde eV, Löbau 2006; ISBN 3-00-018243-8
