Altmark small train

Route network of Altmärkische Kleinbahn AG

Hohenwulsch – Wittingen

Route number (DB) :

6904 Hohenwulsch – Rohrberg

Course book range :

307 (2000), Hohenwulsch – Kalbe (Milde)
210 f (1944), Bismark Ost – Beetzendorf
210 h (1944), Beetzendorf – Wittingen

Gauge :

1435 mm ( standard gauge )

Legend

		from Stendal
	0.0	Hohenwulsch (formerly Bismark Ost)
		to Salzwedel
		to Peulingen
	2.6	Bismark (Altm) (formerly Bismark City)
	8.1	Berkau (formerly Bf)
	10.8	Neuendorf - Karritz
		Mildness
	15.2	Calf (mildness)
		to Gardelegen
	17.5	Vahrholz
	20.5	Stage - Güssefeld
	24.9	Badel ( wedge station )
		to Salzwedel
	29.8	Winter field
		to Salzwedel ( meter gauge , until 1926)
	33.7	Apenburg
	37.4	Hohentramm (formerly Staapen-Hohentramm)
		from Oebisfelde
	42.3 0.0	Beetzendorf
		to Salzwedel
	3.9	Rohrberg
		to Zasenbeck
	7.1	Stockheim
	11.1	Wüllmersen - Mehmke
	13.9	Thank you - Abbendorf
	17.2	Diesdorf (Altm)
		to Salzwedel
	20.2	Forest Four
	23.0	Waddekath - Rade
		interrupted by the inner German border since 1945
		from Oebisfelde
	26.5	Wittingen city
	28.8	Wittingen

Rohrberg-Zasenbeck

Route number :

6989 Rohrberg – Hanum

Course book range :

210 g (1944)

Gauge :

1435 mm ( standard gauge )

Legend

		from Beetzendorf
	3.9	Rohrberg
		to Wittingen
	6.8	Ahlum
	9.0	Manor Nieps
	11.5	Lüdelsen
	14.5	Jübar
	17.9	Hanum
		interrupted by the inner German border since 1945
		from Wittingen
	20.0	Zasenbeck
		to Oebisfelde

Gardelegen calf (mild)

Route number :

6991

Course book range :

210 e (1944), Gardelegen – Kalbe (Milde)

Gauge :

1435 mm ( standard gauge )

Legend

		from Oebisfelde
	0.0	Gardelegen southeast
		to Stendal
		to Haldensleben
	1.8	Gardelegen Stendaler Tor
	2.6	Gardelegen Salzwedeler Tor
		Mildness
	4.8	Ackendorf
	6.1	mountains
	7.1	Laatzke
	8.6	Estedt
	11.8	Wiepke
	13.8	Groß- Engersen crossing narrow-gauge railway
		from Klötze
	17.4	Wernstedt
		from Beetzendorf
	21.3	Calf (mildness)
		to Hohenwulsch

Klötze – Wernstedt

Route number :

6992

Course book range :

210 k (1944)

Gauge :

1435 mm, 1897-1921: 750 mm

Legend

		from Oebisfelde
	0.0	Blocks
		to Salzwedel
	1.9	Blocks north
	4.0	Hohenhenningen
	6.0	Lockstedt
	7.6	Neuendorf
	9.5	Bruschau
	11.4	Kakerbeck
	14.3	Winkelstedt
	17.1	Faulenhorst
		until 1921 to Groß Engersen
		from Gardelegen
	18.5	Wernstedt
		after Kalbe (Milde)

Groß Engersen – Vinzelberg (1899–1921)

Gauge :

750 mm ( narrow gauge )

Legend

		from Wernstedt
	21.6	Groß- Engersen
		Gardelegen calf (mild)
	25.7	Schenkenhorst
		Mildness
	29.1	Algenstedt
	32.2	Cassieck
	36.0	Lindstedt
	37.9	Seethen
	41.9	pawl
	43.4	Deetzer Warta
	46.5	Vinzelberg
		to Stendal and Oebisfelde

The Altmärkische Kleinbahn AG was created in 1927 by the merger of small Bahn AG Bismark Gardelegen-Wittingen with the track blocks-Wernstedt the Altmark Kleinbahn GmbH . From 1943 the company operated under the name Altmärkische Eisenbahn-AG , before the lines were allocated to the Deutsche Reichsbahn in April 1949 after three years of forced administration by the state . The Altmärkische Kleinbahn AG was with a route length of 127 kilometers the most important company in the landscape rich in small railways in the north of today's state of Saxony-Anhalt . Due to the high volume of goods, all stations initially had at least one loading track and were therefore train stations according to today's definition .

history

The nucleus of the Altmärkische Eisenbahn-AG was the "AG Kleinbahn Bismark-Calbe-Beetzendorf", which from January 1, 1904 was named "AG Kleinbahn Bismark-Calbe-Beetzendorf-Diesdorf". It merged on November 5, 1904 with the "Kleinbahn-AG Gardelegen-Calbe an der Milde" to form the "Kleinbahn-AG Bismark-Gardelegen-Diesdorf", which became "Kleinbahn-AG Bismark-Gardelegen-Wittingen" from October 30, 1908 called. This resulted in the “Altmärkische Kleinbahn AG” on December 21, 1927 after the merger with the “Altmärkische Kleinbahn-GmbH” in Klötze. It was not until July 30, 1943 that it was called "Altmärkische Eisenbahn-AG". It had its company headquarters in Merseburg , the management was in Calbe an der Milde , as the city was called until it was renamed Kalbe / Milde in 1952.

AG Kleinbahn Bismark – Calbe – Beetzendorf – Diesdorf

On September 7, 1899, the AG Kleinbahn Bismark – Calbe – Beetzendorf was founded with the participation of the Prussian state (25%), the province of Saxony (25.9%), the Salzwedel district (8.8%) and Stendal (4.4%) ), founded by 25 cities and municipalities (20.1%) and the Bahnbau-Gesellschaft Lenz & Co GmbH (15.8%), which took over the management.

The first line was opened on December 18, 1899, leading from the Bismark connecting station on the main Stendal – Salzwedel line (operated since 1870) in a westerly direction via Bismark city station to Calbe an der Milde, the company's headquarters. From here it went on via Badel to Beetzendorf on the Oebisfelde – Salzwedel state railway . The continuation via Rohrberg to Diesdorf , which was reflected in a change in the name of the company, followed on December 24, 1903. The standard-gauge route was 59 km long.

Kleinbahn AG Gardelegen – Calbe

The Kleinbahn-AG Gardelegen –Calbe an der Milde, in which the state and the province each held about a third in addition to other shareholders, took its 21-kilometer route, which was operated by Gardelegen on the main Stendal– Oebisfelde line (operated since 1871) led north to the Calbe junction, in service on March 25, 1904. Their independence only lasted six months until they merged with the older company, which was now called Kleinbahn-AG Bismark-Gardelegen-Diesdorf. The renewed change of the name of the company to Kleinbahn-AG Bismark – Gardelegen– Wittingen on October 30, 1908 was an anticipation of the expansion of the network by the 12 km long section Diesdorf – Wittingen, which from August 1, 1909 also into the province of Hanover led like a junction from Rohrberg to Zasenbeck (16 km), which went into operation on October 1, 1911.

Altmark Kleinbahn GmbH

The appropriate name for the network, which has now grown to a length of 108 km, was only brought about by the merger with Altmärkische Kleinbahn GmbH. This was founded on July 15, 1896 by the city of Klötze with 77% and the district of Gardelegen with 23% of the shares. On August 21, 1897, it opened a small railway line from the district town of Klötze on the Salzwedel – Oebisfelde state railway to Faulenhorst (17 km), the continuation of which was significantly delayed for financial reasons. It reached Wernstedt on November 11, 1897 and Groß Engersen on January 16, 1898 , where the small railway did not cross Gardelegen – Calbe until 1904.

From here it went on September 29, 1899 to Algenstedt , on November 22, 1900 to Lindstedt and finally on July 14, 1901 with goods traffic to Vinzelberg on the main line from Stendal to Oebisfelde; passenger traffic followed on August 25, 1901. The total of 47 km long railway was, however, carried out with a gauge of 750 mm.

From 1907 the Altmärkische Kleinbahn was administered together with numerous other small railways by the newly established Kleinbahnabteilung of the Provincial Association of Saxony in Merseburg .

The economic difficulties after the First World War, which had a particularly negative effect on an inefficient narrow-gauge railway, prompted the management of Altmärkische Kleinbahn GmbH to take effective measures to counteract this development. In two stages, the Klötze – Wernstedt line, where the connection to the Gardelegen – Calbe line now took place, was converted to standard gauge, on March 17, 1921 from Kakerbeck and on June 20, 1922 from Klötze. On the eastern section of Groß Engersen – Vinzelberg, all operations ended at the end of 1921. It had become superfluous due to the connection to the main line at Gardelegen that was built later.

Another step towards consolidation was the merger with the larger company, which from then on comprised a network of 127 km of standard gauge lines and was now able to take on the name Altmärkische Kleinbahn AG. In addition to four connections to the Deutsche Reichsbahn in Beetzendorf, Bismark, Gardelegen and Klötze, there were direct connections to the Stendaler Kleinbahn in Bismark, to the Salzwedeler Kleinbahnen in Badel and Diesdorf, to the Wittingen – Oebisfelde railway in Wittingen and Zasenbeck and to the Gardelegen – Neuhaldensleben railway in Guards. The center of operations was always the Calbe an der Milde train station, from which trains sometimes went in five directions.

The main shareholders with 34.3% each (1940) were the Prussian State and the Province of Saxony. The districts of Salzwedel, Stendal, Gardelegen and Gifhorn as well as numerous municipalities held small blocks of shares . There were only very small shares in private ownership.

Part of the Deutsche Reichsbahn

Series 771 rail bus at Kalbe (Milde) station, 2001

Like all other small and private railways in the Soviet occupation zone , the Altmärkische Kleinbahn was placed under public administration in the summer of 1946 and operations were transferred to the Sächsische Provinzbahnen GmbH from the turn of the year 1946/1947 . Via the Association of Publicly Owned Enterprises (VVB) of Transport in the Province of Saxony-Anhalt , the lines of the Kleinbahn were added to the Deutsche Reichsbahn on April 1, 1949 .

Up to this point in time only the sections Diesdorf – Wittingen and Hanum – Zasenbeck, which crossed the new zone border , had been closed on July 1, 1945. The traffic between Hanum and Zasenbeck had already been stopped in 1943. The further restrictions on the operation then dragged on for decades. Passenger traffic from Rohrberg to the border town of Hanum ended on November 27, 1961; Hanum was served in freight traffic until the end of 1968, then the section to Jübar was in operation until April 27, 1975.

On the Gardelegen – Wernstedt line, passenger traffic was stopped on September 23, 1967 and freight traffic on May 26, 1968. The connection Klötze – Wernstedt – Kalbe (Milde) followed on June 28 and July 31, 1970.

The main line stayed in operation the longest: between Kalbe (Milde) and Beetzendorf, people were transported until March 10, 1991, and goods until the end of 1993. The poor condition of the line had previously prevented an attractive offer, the railcars were en route between Kalbe and Beetzendorf for an hour. A year later, freight traffic also ended on the 15 km long remnant stretch from Bismark Ost (since 1951 Hohenwulsch) to Kalbe (Milde), passenger traffic was offered until June 9, 2001.

vehicles

Locomotives

The Altmärkische Kleinbahn GmbH a set on their narrow gauge track pads-Vinzelberg six locomotives. They could reach a top speed of 25 km / h.

Narrow gauge locomotives of the Altmärkische Kleinbahn GmbH
No.	design type	Manufacturer, year of construction	comment
1 and 2	C n2t	Hanomag 1897
3	C1 'n2t	Krauss 1900	from 1905 on the Köslin-Belgarder Bahnen as No. 5
3 ^II	B n2t	Borsig 1906	already in 1911 no longer in stock
4 and 5	C n2t	Hanomag 1902, 1910	Lenz type o , sold to the Rügen Kleinbahn in 1928 .

The following table shows the regular gauge locomotives of the Altmärkische Kleinbahn AG . The maximum permissible top speed was initially 30 km / h, after installing a continuous air brake , this could be increased to 50 km / h on the Bismark – Beetzendorf route and 40 km / h on the other routes. In 1937 up to nine locomotives were stationed in Kalbe (Milde) and one each in Diesdorf and Zasenbeck.

Standard gauge locomotives of the Altmärkische Kleinbahn AG
No.	DR no.	design type	Construction year	Manufacturer	Remarks
1	98 6202	B n2t	1899	Hohenzollern	1958 sold to the Köthen conveyor system .
2	98 6203	B n2t	1899	Hohenzollern	Retired in 1962.
3	-	B n2t	1899	Hohenzollern
4th	-	B n2t	1899	Hohenzollern
5	-	B n2t	1903	Hagans	delivered for the Kleinbahn-AG Bismark – Diesdorf
6th	98 6102	B n2t	1910	Henschel	1960 sold to Langensalzaer Kleinbahn .
7th	98 6217	B n2t	1910	Henschel	1957 sold to the Aken magnesite plant .
8th	98 6277	C h2t	1914	Henschel	Retired in 1967.
9	89 6278	C h2t	1914	Henschel	Retired in 1967.
10	89 6279	C h2t	1925	Henschel	Retired in 1967.
11	-	B n2t	1903	Hagans	delivered for the Kleinbahn AG Gardelegen – Calbe, 1915/16 sold to Kleinbahn AG Könnern – Rothenburg .
11 ^II	89 6006	C n2t	1897	Hagans	Prussian T 3 , formerly KED Erfurt, retired in 1965.
12	-	B n2t	1903	Hagans	delivered for the Kleinbahn AG Gardelegen – Calbe, 1915/16 sold to Kleinbahn AG Könnern – Rothenburg.
12 ^II	-	C n2t	1897	Hagans	Prussian T 3, formerly KED Erfurt, bought in 1924 by Kleinbahn-AG Bismark-Wittingen.
-	89 6007	C n2t	1898	Young	Prussian T 3, bought from Magdeburg in 1924, retired in 1967.
-	89 6281	C h2t	1929	Henschel	Retired in 1965.
-	89 6376	C h2t	1931	Henschel	Retired in 1965.
-	75 6687	1'C1 'h2t	1942	Henschel	Retired in 1968.

From the mid-1930s, multiple units ( T 2 , T 3 ) were also used.

After the lines were taken over by the Deutsche Reichsbahn, locomotives of the DR class 64 and DR class 91 were also used. The Kalbe (Milde) locomotive station was henceforth part of the Salzwedel railway depot . In September 1975, with the retirement of 64 1212, the regular operation of steam locomotives ended .

On the last remaining stretch Beetzendorf-Hohenwulsch the operation was now up to the attitude mainly railcars of DR series 171 - which took place later in the DB as the class 771 - used.

dare

The passenger trains were usually formed from a locomotive, a baggage car and two to four passenger cars.

In 1928, a total of 26 cars were available for freight transport: 14 O-cars , 25 G-cars , three long timber cars and four X-cars . The stock increased at times to over 80 freight cars.

Lore

The tradition of the Altmärkische Kleinbahn is in the Dessau department of the Saxony-Anhalt State Archives .

literature

Wolfgang List: Kleinbahnen der Altmark. Transpress VEB publishing house for traffic, Berlin 1979, without ISBN; Licensed edition: Alba, Düsseldorf 1979, ISBN 3-87094-528-1 .
Wolfgang List, Hans Röper, Gerhard Zieglgänsberger: Archive of German Small and Private Railways / Saxony-Anhalt. Transpress, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-613-71087-0 .
Wolfgang List: Stendal and the railroad. Volume 2: The small railways. Neddermeyer, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-933254-93-1 .
Klaus Kieper, Reiner Preuß: GDR narrow-gauge railway archive. Transpress VEB Verlag für Verkehrwesen, 1982 (reprint, 2nd edition 2011, ISBN 978-3-613-71405-2 ).

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Wolfgang List: Kleinbahnen der Altmark. Transpress VEB Verlag for Transport, Berlin 1979, p. 20.
^ Wolfgang List: Kleinbahnen der Altmark. Transpress VEB Verlag for Transport, Berlin 1979, pp. 56–66: Railway systems.
^ Wolfgang List: Kleinbahnen der Altmark. Transpress VEB publishing house for traffic, Berlin 1979, p. 86/87: Narrow gauge locomotives.
^ Wolfgang List: Kleinbahnen der Altmark. Transpress VEB publishing house for traffic, Berlin 1979, p. 90/91: standard gauge locomotives.
↑ ^a ^b Jörg Petzold, Jochen Fink: Kleinbahn Könnern – Rothenburg . In: The Museum Railway . No. 3 , 2016, ISSN 0936-4609 , p. 19-20 .
^ Wolfgang List: Kleinbahnen der Altmark. Transpress VEB publishing house for traffic, Berlin 1979, p. 94: vehicles.

[Altmärkische_Eisenbahn-1] Wolfgang List: Kleinbahnen der Altmark. Transpress VEB Verlag for Transport, Berlin 1979, p. 20.

[2] Wolfgang List: Kleinbahnen der Altmark. Transpress VEB Verlag for Transport, Berlin 1979, pp. 56–66: Railway systems.

[3] Wolfgang List: Kleinbahnen der Altmark. Transpress VEB publishing house for traffic, Berlin 1979, p. 86/87: Narrow gauge locomotives.

[4] Wolfgang List: Kleinbahnen der Altmark. Transpress VEB publishing house for traffic, Berlin 1979, p. 90/91: standard gauge locomotives.

[Petzold_Fink_2016-5] Jörg Petzold, Jochen Fink: Kleinbahn Könnern – Rothenburg . In: The Museum Railway . No. 3 , 2016, ISSN 0936-4609 , p. 19-20 .

[6] Wolfgang List: Kleinbahnen der Altmark. Transpress VEB publishing house for traffic, Berlin 1979, p. 94: vehicles.