Kamenz – Kamenz Nord railway line
| Awanst Kamenz North – Kamenz North Ldst | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Route number : | 6594; sä. KK | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Route length: | 3.072 km | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Gauge : | 1435 mm ( standard gauge ) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Maximum slope : | 10 ‰ | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minimum radius : | 500 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Kamenz – Kamenz Nord railway was a branch line in Saxony that only served freight traffic and was originally planned as a section of the Saxon Northeast Railway (Löbau – Riesa).
history
Before the First World War, the planning for a Saxon Northeast Railway between Löbau and Riesa parallel to the Saxon-Prussian border was well advanced. In addition to military reasons, the route should also help develop the structurally weak area in northern Upper Lusatia. Before the First World War, however, only the Löbau – Radibor section had been completed. Two variants in particular were discussed for the route between Radibor and Kamenz:
- Route 1 should begin in Kleinwelka on the secondary line Bautzen – Königswartha and lead via Sollschwitz and Räckelwitz to Kamenz. There the line was to merge into the existing line Kamenz – Bischofswerda .
- Route 2 was planned further north. It should begin at the end of the already existing route in Radibor and lead via Crostwitz and Nebelschütz . The integration into the Kamenz train station was planned from the north.
In addition to initial preparatory work, however, construction did not start. The main reason for this was the strong resistance of the population to the project, which was not prepared to provide the required land free of charge.
During the First World War, a military airfield was built north of Kamenz from 1916 . In May 1917, the first preparatory work began for a secondary runway to the airfield that would only be used for freight traffic. A route was planned according to route 2 to a provisional end point near Bernbruch . Initially, only a public loading point was planned there, an extension to a real train station was only planned for a possible further construction towards Radibor.
The line construction was financed with the first installment of 500,000 marks approved in 1912/13 for the construction of the Radibor – Kamenz line. However, because of the war, work stalled several times. In September 1917, for example, there was a lack of urgently needed locomotive coal for construction train operations. The completion of the line was agreed by February 16, 1918; the airfield should start operations on April 1, 1918.
On October 3, 1918, the line was removed. The airfield connection was probably operated from October 1918. The public loading point Kamenz Nord was finally opened on January 2, 1919. Further sidings existed later to the cloth factory in Bernbruch and from 1923 to the grain warehouse of the Vereinigte Mühlenwerke GmbH Königsbrück .
By 1921, the airfield was demolished as a result of the Versailles Treaty - which Germany no longer allowed its own air force. It was not until 1935 that the airfield was used again as part of the armament for the Second World War .
At the end of the Second World War, the route was still partially destroyed. On July 25, 1945, the track was built so that the connection to the cloth factory could be operated again. The airfield continued to be used by the Kasernierte People's Police (KVP) and later by the National People's Army (NVA), which continued to ensure a brisk volume of traffic.
Only after the political turnaround in East Germany in 1989/1990 did the volume of traffic drop drastically. The airfield was converted into a public airfield; a siding was no longer needed.
Freight traffic was completely abandoned in June 1996. On October 2, 1996, the line was declared a siding at Kamenz station. The formal closure of the Kamenz Nord freight station took place a little later, on June 1, 1997. The announced special trips on the occasion of the Kamenz city festival on June 24 and 25, 2000 did not take place.
In 2002, the dismantling of the track system began.