Railway from Könnern to Rothenburg
| Könnern – Rothenburg | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Route number (DB) : | 6909 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Course book range : | 204h (1944) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 5.4 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 200 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Könnern – Rothenburg railway is a railway line in Saxony-Anhalt . The 5.4 km long branch route connects Könnern with Rothenburg . The line, which was opened in 1916, was initially built and operated as a small railway by Kleinbahn-AG Könnern – Rothenburg . Passenger traffic was discontinued in 1963 on the route that was nationalized in 1949; as a route shunting district , the route is still used today for freight traffic.
history
Prehistory and railway construction
Copper has been smelted in Rothenburg since the 15th century. Although the smelter was closed at the beginning of the 19th century, some metalworking companies still remained in Rothenburg. When the Halle – Halberstadt railway line was planned in the 1860s, the small town tried to establish a railway connection. The necessary route through the Saale valley turned out to be too complicated and the Magdeburg-Halberstädter railway company built the route via Könnern.
The construction of a railway from experts via Rothenburg to Wettin , which was required in the 1880s, also failed. Wettin finally got a rail connection in 1903 with the Wallwitz – Wettin railway line. Since the companies in Rothenburg still had to transport the goods by ship and horse-drawn vehicle, a rail connection became more and more urgent.
The first preparatory work for the railway began in 1911, but the financing was not yet secured. With the outbreak of the First World War, construction of the railway seemed impossible, as funds that had already been approved were canceled. However, since several companies were producing armaments in Rothenburg, the railway was still being built as an "important war project".
In 1915 the Kleinbahn AG Könnern – Rothenburg was founded. In addition to the Prussian State and the Province of Saxony, the shareholders were each 33 percent, the Mansfeld'schen copper slate building union Eisleben, the iron foundry and mechanical engineering AG Rothenburg and the sugar factory Könnern . Other shareholders were the community of Rothenburg and the Saalkreis . Freight traffic was opened on November 28th and passenger traffic on December 24th, 1916. In 1918 there were three pairs of trains a day. At the opening, the railway had acquired two used two-axle steam locomotives from Kleinbahn-AG Bismark-Gardelegen-Wittingen , and there was also a passenger and a combined mail / baggage car.
Until nationalization
The global economic crisis led to the closure of affiliated companies. In 1933/1934 only 4102 passengers and 14,411 tons of goods were transported. Mainly due to the resumption of production in the brass factory, the numbers rose sharply again, in 1939/1940 there were 242,851 passengers and 41,481 tons of goods on the train.
From 1943 the company operated as the Eisenbahn-AG.
Development since 1949
The small railway department of the Provincial Association of Saxony in Merseburg ran the business until 1945/46 . Then came the Sächsische Provinzbahnen GmbH and on April 1, 1949, operations were handed over to the Deutsche Reichsbahn .
This stopped the passenger traffic on May 25, 1963. The railway line was converted into a siding for an industrial company.
Lore
The tradition of Kleinbahn AG Könnern - Rothenburg is in the Dessau department of the State Archives Saxony-Anhalt .
literature
- Dirk Endisch: Small and private railways in the lower Saale valley , Verlag Dirk Endisch, Korntal-Münchingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-936893-22-9
- Jörg Petzold, Jochen Fink: Kleinbahn Könnern – Rothenburg . In: The Museum Railway . No. 3 , 2016, ISSN 0936-4609 , p. 19-20 .
- Friedrich Sander, Lothar Kaminski: 80 years of the Könnern – Rothenburg small railway line . In: The Museum Railway . No. 2 , 1993, ISSN 0936-4609 , pp. 13 . online (PDF; 196 kB)
Web links
- Course book from 1944
- Tradition of Kleinbahn AG Könnern - Rothenburg in the holdings of the Reichsbahndirektion Magdeburg in the State Archives Saxony-Anhalt, Dessau department
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dirk Endisch: Small and private railways in the lower Saale valley , p. 131 f.