Haiger – Breitscheid railway line

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Haiger-Breitscheid
Route number : 3723
Course book range : 367 (1980)
Route length: 12.3 km
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Maximum slope : 20  ‰
Minimum radius : 300 m
Legend
Route - straight ahead
 from Giessen
Station, station
 0.0 Haiger wedge station
   
 after victories
   
 0.9 Haiger West
   
 to Betzdorf (Sieg)
   
 Aubach
   
 First Hailo
   
 4.5 Flammersbach
   
 Flammersbach Viaduct
   
 6.3 Langenaubach
   
 8.0 Rabenscheid
   
 Aubach
   
 Rabenscheider tunnel (1114 m)
   
 10.9 Medenbach
   
 Instead of Cartonia
   
 12.3 Breitscheid (Dillkr)
   
 K 41
   
 13.1 Westerwald clay industry
Breitscheid terminus in 1997
Haiger train station
Rail bus near Langenaubach
Between Langenaubach and Flammersbach
Flammersbach Viaduct
Rabenscheider tunnel
Medenbach stop
Class 94 in Breitscheid station
Ruin of the level crossing over the siding of the Westerwald clay industry in Breitscheid 2011

The Haiger – Breitscheid railway , also known as the Balkan Express or Aubachtalbahn , was 12.3 kilometers long and ran from Haiger to Breitscheid in the Westerwald . The first section to Rabenscheid was opened on December 15, 1926, the remainder of the railway line not until May 15, 1939.

history

prehistory

The history of the "Balkan Express" begins in the 19th century, when the most important railway that touches the Dill area was built long ago: Since 1862 trains have been running on the Deutz-Gießener Railway from Cologne-Deutz via Betzdorf and Dillenburg to Gießen .

The surrounding communities were from now on connected to the Dill route via branch lines:

In December 1908, the Prussian Minister for Public Works, Paul von Breitenbach , ordered that two branch lines should be built: one from Haiger via Breitscheid to Gusternhain and the other from Stockhausen (near Weilburg / Lahn) to Beilstein ( Ulmtalbahn ). The original plan of a continuous line crossing the Westerwaldquerbahn near Driedorf had already been abandoned. Nevertheless, it was expressly determined that the two terminal stations in Gusternhain and Beilstein should be designed in such a way that a later connection is technically possible at any time. Just a month later, the start of the preparatory work was ordered and the necessary funds were approved in 1912.

construction

first section

The Haiger construction department was set up in April 1914 and work began in May. However , when the First World War broke out , work almost came to a standstill. By then, some structures had already been almost completed, in addition to some bridges, including the reception building of the Breitscheid train station and the Flammersbach train station .

Progress in the construction of the line only came again after the end of the war in 1918. Due to inflation, among other things, not even a third of the originally envisaged line had been completed by spring 1926. At the request of the residents, the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft promised to complete the line at least temporarily to Rabenscheid station by the end of the year, which then happened on December 14, 1926. Individual communities, the district authorities and the Reichsbahn celebrated the inauguration of the railway line with an official ceremony. In the morning at 9:36 a.m., a special train from Dillenburg drove the authorities and some invited guests to Haiger. The continuation of the route initially failed due to lack of money. In addition, it was no longer considered profitable.

second part

Only after Hitler came to power did the Reichsbahn main administration approve the construction of the Rabenscheid – Breitscheid railway in 1934 for reasons of armament policy: The United Steelworks and its operations near Medenbach were to be connected to the railway. Here mainly limestones were quarried and transported by cable car "over the mountains" past Donsbach to Haiger train station . Another reason for the further construction was the development of the natural resources around Breitscheid.

After the financing had also been arranged, the groundbreaking ceremony for the 4.4 kilometer extension took place in the Medenbach district in early March 1936. Between the train stations Rabenscheid and Medenbach, the Rabenscheid Tunnel was built as an elaborate work of art with a length of more than 1100 meters, a remarkably long structure on a branch line. Up to 420 workers were employed in three shifts to build the tunnel. There were plans for a later electrification of the line, so the Rabenscheider tunnel was driven through the mountain in an oval shape, which is also unusual for a branch line .

A good three years later, in the spring of 1939, the work on extending the route to Breitscheid was completed. In contrast to the original planning, the route was not led to Gusternhain and the connection to the Westerwaldquerbahn and Ulmtalbahn near Driedorf was waived. On May 15, 1939, the first train arrived in a provisional makeshift station on the outskirts of Breitscheid. The actual Breitscheid station building in the Schwarzer Weg, which had been completed a quarter of a century ago, was about 1.5 kilometers further. This original Breitscheid station was to be completed at a later date. This did not happen, however, as the Second World War broke out just four months later . The building was sold to a private individual who converted it into his home.

Operation of the entire route

Exactly five years after the opening, on May 15, 1944, the train service between Rabenscheid and Breitscheid was suspended until further notice and without official justification. The so-called "Holzwerke Rabe" were housed in the (bomb-proof) tunnel. At that time, people in the surrounding communities already suspected that this company was not a manufacturer of garden furniture. In reality, aircraft engines were made here.

At the beginning of 1945, as a result of the war, traffic on the rest of the route to Rabenscheid also came to a standstill. This part of the line was repaired again by the spring of 1946 and traffic began. It took much longer to get the tunnel up and running again: it wasn't until February 1949 that traffic was resumed on the rest of the route to Breitscheid.

This year, the line was extended by around 800 meters beyond the Breitscheid temporary station to the Westerwälder Thonindustrie company , which finally got its long-awaited rail connection. The cable car that led from there to Niederdresselnorf station on the Betzdorf – Haiger line was shut down.

Decline

The fate that the line experienced in the decades after the war is comparable to that of numerous branch lines in the Deutsche Bundesbahn network . Due to the increasing competition on the road, the route lost more and more importance, so that from 1969 the number of trains continued to decrease. From summer 1979, only three pairs of passenger trains ran between Haiger and Breitscheid on weekdays.

In 1977 the large viaduct near Flammersbach was renovated from the ground up for a million marks , but passenger trains were stopped on May 31, 1980 . Freight traffic remained on the route for another 17 years. The main customer was the Hailo company in Flammersbach, which handled an average of 38 wagons a day until the end. Several companies in Breitscheid, at the Medenbacher and Rabenscheider train stations also had wagonloads every now and then, so that two pairs of freight trains usually ran on the route every day. Although there was still a need for the rail connection from the neighboring companies, all traffic was stopped by the DB on September 30, 1997. Up to this day there were numerous special trips on the route, some with steam locomotives .

In 2004, the section between Langenaubach and the tunnel portal was cut free again for television recordings at the Rabenscheider Tunnel. The TV broadcaster ProSieben shot a report there about "treasure hunters" who were looking for parts of the so-called V2 rocket that was supposedly produced in the tunnel during the Second World War.

In the area of ​​the Breitscheid community, the tracks were dismantled in 2006, in the Haiger area (up to the Rabenscheider tunnel) in 2011.

Route description

The Haiger – Breitscheid railway line has the character of a low mountain range railway. From Haiger to the Breitscheid terminus, the distance increases by 204 meters to 12.3 km. Haiger and Breitscheid are only six kilometers apart as the crow flies. With the exception of the stations, the incline of the track is consistently 1:50, the smallest track radii are 300 meters.

From the Haiger train station (270 meters above sea ​​level ), which is located on the double-track electrified main line Gießen – Siegen , the railway line is initially run together with the Betzdorf – Haiger line for just under one kilometer to the Haiger-West stop. Here it branches off to the left from the route to Betzdorf. After a few hundred meters, there is a 180-degree curve to the right, where the Aubach and Landesstraße 3044 are crossed on bridges. A 180-degree left-hand arch is directly connected to the right-hand arch, which leads through incisions and over dams. After a short straight stretch through an incision, there is another right-hand bend, in which the Hailo factory connection branches off to the left.

At 4.5 km, the Flammersbach stop (now part of Haiger) is reached. Behind the stop there is a long left curve and the railway crosses the valley basin on a mighty seven-arched viaduct. Directly behind the viaduct there is a deep cut and after the subsequent right-hand bend, a high dam. After another right-hand bend, the Langenaubach train station follows at km 6.3 (now also a district of Haiger).

The railway line now runs above Langenaubach along the western slope of the Aubach Valley to Rabenscheid train station at 8.0 km. This station, which is on the outskirts of Langenaubach, was the end point of the line until 1939. The place that gave the train station its name, however, is over four kilometers from the train station at 550 meters above sea level on the Westerwald plateau. Rabenscheid is now part of the Breitscheid community. Immediately after the Rabenscheid train station , the Aubach is crossed in a left curve. Immediately afterwards follows the 1114 meter long Rabenscheider tunnel, which penetrates the ridge between Aubachtal and Medenbachtal.

After the subsequent right-hand curve, you will reach the Medenbach stop . The place is two kilometers down the valley and also belongs to the municipality of Breitscheid. Along the edge of the plateau in a south-westerly direction, the railway reaches the final station Breitscheid (480 meters above sea level) at km 12.1. The almost one kilometer long siding of the Breitscheider Schamottefabrik follows as an extension beyond the station .

Vehicle use

Special steam trip 1993

From the opening until the early 1960s, the company was almost exclusively by steam locomotives of the series 55 and 93 of Bw Dillenburg overcome. Every now and then a 94 , also from Dillenburg, reached the Westerwald. In the 1950s, the 50 series was added more and more and replaced the older series.

The first rail buses ( VT 95 , later VT 98 ) were used from 1954, completely displacing locomotive-hauled passenger trains by the early 1970s. From the 1960s, more and more diesel locomotives of the V 100 family took on services in freight transport . A V 160 or V 200 was rarely used there.

literature

Siding of the Westerwald clay industry in Breitscheid 1994
Condition of the system in 2011
  • Uli Horch: “Balkan Express” is running out of breath. 1980 the passenger traffic between Haiger and Breitscheid ends . In: Dill newspaper.
  • Uli Horch: Stories about the Balkan Express. About the railroad and mining between Haiger and Breitscheid . Mining friends Glückauf Constanze Langenaubach / Donsbach, Haiger 1993.
  • Willi Merzhäuser, Hansjürgen Wenzel: Railways in the Westerwald. Between Sieg and Lahn . EK-Verlag, Freiburg 1996, ISBN 3-88255-579-3 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ - "Balkan-Express" never reaches Driedorf ; Wetzlarer Neue Zeitung (Dill-Post) from December 30, 2011
  2. ↑ Remainder of a broken web link, therefore no publication date.