Hof – Bad Steben railway line

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Hof Hbf – Bad Steben
Route number (DB) : 5021
Course book section (DB) : 857
Route length: 26.993 km
Gauge : 1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Top speed: 60 km / h
Legend
Route - straight ahead
 from Bamberg
Station, station
 0.000 Hof Hbf 495 m
   
 to Leipzig Bayer Bf
Bridge (medium)
 Bundesstrasse 2 , Bundesstrasse 173
Station, station
 2.250 Hof-Neuhof
Road bridge
 Federal Highway 173
   
 Initially the Neuhof spinning mill
   
 4.500 Vogelherd
   
 Industrial connection
   
 Instead of gas storage
Stop, stop
 6.810 Köditz (formerly Bf) 517 m
Road bridge
 Federal motorway 9
Stop, stop
 11.051 Stegenwaldhaus (formerly Bf) 591 m
Stop, stop
 13,076 Rothenbürg
   
 Basalt factory and brickworks (Anst)
   
 from Münchberg
Station, station
 15,432 Selbitz
Bridge (medium)
 Federal Highway 173
   
 from Schwarzenbach am Wald
Stop, stop
 18,750 Naila (formerly Bf) 509 m
Stop, stop
 20.500 Upperblade spur
   
 Selbitz
Stop, stop
 22,930 Marxgrün (formerly Bf)
   
 after Triptis
   
 Initially hard stone works Störrle
Stop, stop
 24.229 Höllenthal
Stop ... - end of the route
 26,993 Bad Steben (formerly Bf) 562 m
Swell:

The Hof – Bad Steben railway is a branch line in Bavaria . It leads from Hof through the Franconian Forest to the Bavarian State Spa Bad Steben . The railway line was opened in two sections between 1887 and 1898 and is operated by passenger trains.

history

The Hof – Bad Steben railway line was built by the Bavarian State Railways . The legal basis for the construction was the Bavarian Local Railway Act of April 21, 1884. The line was the fourth railway line in Bavaria that was built according to the then new law. Six years after the opening of the section to Marxgrün, an interest group was formed that advocated a possible continuation of the railway line from Bad Steben to Geroldsgrün and a connection to the Kronach – Nordhalben railway line . However, only the expansion to Bad Steben was approved. In the following years three more branch lines were opened that branched off from the Hof – Bad Steben line. On January 11, 1914, the Bayrischer Hof hotel in Bad Steben held a briefing about the renewed expansion of the line to Geroldsgrün with the municipalities of Thierbach , Geroldsgrün, Dürrenwaid and Bad Steben. Bad Steben in particular hoped for advantages for the health resort. However, because of the First World War, the project was discontinued. Only then was a new interest group founded in 1928, in which the communities Dürrenwaid, Geroldsgrün, Lichtenberg , Steinbach , Thierbach, Heinersberg and Wolfersgrün as well as the cities of Hof and Kronach and the Hof transport association were involved. Unlike before the First World War, this community envisaged a different route via the municipality of Bobengrün , further via Steinbach, Geroldsgrün with a connection in Dürrenwaid on the Kronach – Nordhalben railway line. This community of interests was not supported by the community of Bad Steben and von Langenbach , who also wanted a connection to the railway line. The route under discussion was already determined in 1923 by the Nuremberg Railway Directorate based on the local conditions.

The need for a new route at Marxgrün was justified from an economic point of view by the local companies and by the winter conditions, which did not allow truck traffic. The line was welcomed by the operators of the marble quarry in Bobengrün, because the transport of the Marxgrüner marble blocks to the next train station in Marxgrün took around an hour each time, which required 14 oxen. The company AW Faber (today Faber-Castell ) had strong competition from Nuremberg with better transport connections, three other companies from the area around Dürrenwaid complained about the poor transport connections and the large and costly detour of the transport to the east. The paper mill re in Blankenstein had been bring along the wood in a roundabout way from the Franconian Forest. On August 23, 1931, there was a meeting of people on the gymnasium in Geroldsgrün demanding that this railway line be built. However, the Reich Ministry of Transport finally rejected the construction of this route, as overcoming the watershed between Saale and Main near Gerlas, west of Bobengrün, would have been too costly and a large number of similar rail projects were finally rejected due to the global economic crisis. In 1994, freight traffic was stopped on the route. Passenger trains continue to run.

Construction work in Selbitz in August 2012

In the period from August 20 to September 12, 2012, the Selbitz – Bad Steben section was operated by rail replacement services. The reason was the renovation of the Selbitz station, where the two previous platforms were removed and replaced by a handicapped-accessible central platform with the entry height of the Agilis railcars used.

route length change date
Hof Hbf – Marxgrün 22.97 km opening June 1, 1887
Marxgrün – Bad Steben 4.06 km opening June 1, 1898
Hof – Bad Steben 27.03 km Suspension of freight traffic 1994

Route description and stations

Hof Hauptbahnhof

The branch line to Bad Steben branches off from the Saxon-Franconian Magistrale at Hof Central Station . Immediately after the historic signal box 8, it goes steeply uphill to the Hof-Neuhof train station in the Hof district of the same name . This station is remote-controlled from the signal box at the main station and is equipped with light signals . Many of the formerly existing sidings for factories and warehouses can still be found there.

After Hof-Neuhof the route continues to climb and passes the abandoned stop in the Vogelherd district of Hof, then it goes downhill to the municipality of Köditz . This station had simplified branch line signals, which were omitted with the conversion to the current operating philosophy as well as the siding. After Köditz it goes uphill again to the former stop in Stegenwaldhaus, where the route reaches its highest point. There used to be a train station here with crossing tracks, signals and sidings for the local stone industry, but these were dismantled. The route leads past the Rothenbürg stop, down into the Selbitztal valley to the abandoned siding of the Jahreiß stone works. The Nordbayerische Steinwerke IG Jahreiß KG operated a quarry near the railway line, which served the company's own basalt works , as well as a clay slate pit and a brick factory not far from it. The in-house traffic was handled with a field railway with a 600 mm gauge . At the end of the 1970s, operations were shut down and the last track material was removed in 1999. After another kilometer, the railway line reaches Selbitz .

Train crossing in Selbitz - in the background on the left exit signals in the direction of Hof, on the right the former railway line to Helmbrechts

The station in Selbitz is the only crossing station still in use for the trains on the route, which has been operated at approximately hourly intervals since December 9, 2007 (alternating 53-67 minute intervals). It is about halfway between Hof and Bad Steben and until 2007 was equipped with wing or shape signals and a mechanical signal box. After the route has been converted to technically supported train control , the train crossings are handled without (multi-aspect) signals with fallback switches . Instead of the entry signals, trapezoid panels are set up. The consent to exit is indicated by a blue flashing light, but this is not a signal in the sense of the signal order . The branch line from the upper Selbitztal from Schauenstein , Helmbrechts and Münchberg used to flow there (an old stone bridge and the spacious area of ​​the train station remind of this). At the end of the village in the direction of Naila , the line crossed federal highway 173 with a level crossing until the end of the 20th century . With the construction of a bypass for the federal road, this crossing has lost its importance.

The route to Selbitz runs largely flat with a slight drop until you reach Naila train station . There a branch branched off to Schwarzenbach am Wald . The narrow cut for the branch line can still be seen in the station entrance from the direction of Selbitz. The Nailaer Bahnhof accommodated the railway maintenance office for the route and its branches. From Naila the route follows the Selbitztal until the end of its first construction phase in Marxgrün . After the Naila train station, the route passes the pond in the Frosch Green Park. On Sundays in summer there are often interesting encounters between the “big” railway and the “small” Froschgrün park railway, a public garden railway that circles the pond.

Marxgrün, former station building

The railway line reaches the Oberklingensporn demand stop at the LIBA machine factory in Selbitztal and leaves a sewage treatment plant on the left. Immediately after the Selbitz Bridge, the Naila – Bad Steben state road is crossed with a level crossing. Marxgrün station follows. The first section of the line, opened in 1887, ends in the Marxgrün district of Naila. On the large area of ​​the train station there is only one stop with a bus shelter. The reception building with signal box extension has been sold and is being converted into a holiday home. The two railroad workers' houses are rented out, all track systems except for the main track have been dismantled. Opposite the station building is the idyllic two-tier engine shed with an extension for the workshop and water storage. The locomotive shed has been in disrepair for years. From 1901 the Höllentalbahn to Thuringia branched off from the railway line to Bad Steben in Marxgrün .

Bad Steben terminus

The Höllentalbahn followed the Selbitztal, while the route to Bad Steben climbs steeply and flows into the valley of the Stebenbach. On the left you can see the remains of the Störrle hard stone works, to which two sidings still led until 2007, but which were removed in the course of the demolition of the old works. Shortly after the Höllental stop, the route reaches the Stebenbach and follows it through the car-free valley to the end point, the train station of the Bavarian state spa Bad Steben .

service

Period KBS
since 1992 857
1970-1992 837
before 1970 425q
420f
around 1948 419p
around 1944 418m

The entire railway line is served every hour. The train takes 44 minutes for the 27-kilometer route. This corresponds to an average cruising speed of almost 37 km / h. The highest speed permitted on the railway line is 60 km / h.

Vehicle use

Train crossing in Selbitz: 614, 798 in winter

The following locomotives and trains were used on the route :

From December 1992 on, operations on the line were mainly ensured with railcars of the DB class 628 , but there were also occasional vehicles of the class 610 (school train in the 2007 timetable), 612 (school train in the timetable years 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009 as well as sporadic services in the morning and evening, also occasionally on the road as an alternative) and 614 (until around 2006) used.

Railcar VT 650.725 of the Agilis in Bad Steben

Since the acquisition by the company agilis on 12 June 2011, only operate diesel railcar of the type Stadler Regio-Shuttle RS1 on the track.

literature

  • Siegfried Bufe: Railway in Upper Franconia. Bufe-Fachbuch-Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-922138-13-6 .
  • Deutsche Reichsbahn, Horst-Werner Dumjahn: The German railways in their development 1835-1935. Reichsdruckerei, Berlin 1935. (Reprint: with foreword by Horst-Werner Dumjahn: Dumjahn Verlag, Mainz 1984, ISBN 3-921426-29-4 )
  • Andreas Kuhfahl, Wolfram Alteneder: The branch lines of the BD Nuremberg. Verlag C. Kersting, Bonn 1986, ISBN 3-925250-02-6 .
  • Ralf Roman Rossberg : Border over German rails. Eisenbahn-Kurier Verlag, Freiburg im Breisgau 1980, ISBN 3-88255-828-8 .
  • Kerstin Schäfer: The high-rise buildings of the Upper Franconian branch lines. History, inventory and conversion . Neustadt / Coburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-944237-05-3 .
  • Robert Zintl: Bavarian branch lines. Motorbuch Verlag, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-87943-531-6 .

Web links

Commons : Hof – Bad Steben railway line  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DB Netze - Infrastructure Register
  2. ↑ Railway Atlas Germany . 9th edition. Schweers + Wall, Aachen 2014, ISBN 978-3-89494-145-1 .
  3. ^ A b c Dorfgemeinschaft Bobengrün ev: [Ed.]: Bobengrün: history and stories from 600 years . Müller Fotosatz & Druck GmbH, 2011. pp. 49, 50, 51, 52.
  4. ↑ Franconian Day of August 23, 2012
  5. ↑ Michael Ernstberger: North Bavarian field and mine railways and the history of their operations . 1st edition. 2005, p. 66 ff .