Central Baden Railways

Kehl Nb – Seelbach b Lahr
Timetable
Course book range :	305p (1944)
Gauge :	1000 mm ( meter gauge )
Legend 0.0 Fillet Nb 0.8 Kehl Town Hall to Bühl 1.6 Kehl vine 2.3 Kehl middle seat 3.0 Sundheim 7.3 Marlen 7.7 Stone storage area 8.9 Goldscheuer - Kittersburg 14.3 Old people's home to Offenburg 15.8 Dundenheim 17.5 Ichenheim 21.8 Meissenheim (Baden) 24.2 Ottenheim Hirsch from Ottenheim Rheinufer 24.7 1.8 Ottenheim 4.5 Allmannsweier 4.8 Allmannsweier place 7.5 Long angle Schutter relief channel 9.5 Lahr ME trolley pit to Lahr (Schwarzw) train station , standard lane Rhine Valley Railway 9.8 Dinglingen flyover Schutter Dinglingen linden tree 10.1 Lahr crown 11.9 Lahr-Rössle 12.4 Lahr-Judgment Square (Rappen) 12.9 Lahr key 15.1 Lahr-Kuhbach 15.6 Reichenbach loading area 16.9 Reichenbach center 19.2 Seelbach b Lahr
Altenheim – Offenburg Nb
Course book range :	305p (1944)
Legend from Kehl 0.0 Old people's home to Seelbach 1.7 Garbage Schutter 5.5 Schutterwald West 5.8 Schutterwald site 9.7 Offenburg Agricultural hall 9.9 Offenburg green tree 10.4 Offenburg market square 11.1 Offenburg train station 11.4 Offenburg secondary station
Rastatt Bf – Schwarzach (Baden)
Course book range :	305k (1944)
Legend 20.4 Rastatt Bf 19.7 Rastatt Rbf trolley pit 19.2 Rastatt sun 18.9 Rastatt bears 18.8 Rastatt ME from 1939 terminus 16.5 Rastatt handover Rastatt – Haguenau 12.9 Iffezheim 9.4 Hügelsheim Ldg 9.0 Hügelsheim place 4.8 Söllingen 4.4 Söllingen pumping station 2.9 Stollhofen after Greffern from Bühl 0.0 Schwarzach (Baden) to Kehl
Bühl – Kehl Nb
Course book range :	305k (1944)
Legend 38.8 Buhl 36.2 Vimbuch 34.9 Balzhofen 33.9 Oberbruch 32.6 moss 30.7 Hildmannsfeld from Rastatt 29.5 Schwarzach (Baden) 26.0 Lichtenau -Ulm 25.3 Lichtenau south 24.1 Scherzheim 23.7 Scherzheim place 21.9 Helmlingen - Muckenschopf 20.1 Memprechtshofen 17.5 Operating office 16.7 Freett 14.5 Rheinbischofsheim 12.0 Diersheim 11.2 Oberdiersheim 9.9 Honau 8.1 Leutesheim 4.8 Auenheim Kehl – ​​Strasbourg 2.0 Kinzig Bridge Tiny 1.3 Kehl gym from Lahr 0.8 Kehl Town Hall Fillet Nb

The Mittelbadische Eisenbahnen AG (MEG) were legally a predecessor of the SWEG-Südwestdeutsche Verkehrs-AG . They originally operated an extensive network of narrow-gauge railways in the Upper Rhine Plain at the foot of the Black Forest in what is now the Rastatt and Ortenau districts . The company was founded in 1923 when the Lahrer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft changed its name to Mittelbadische Eisenbahnen AG on June 30 and took over the stretches on the right bank of the Rhine from the Strasbourg tram company on November 15. In 1953, the MEG was expanded to include two standard-gauge lines and a narrow-gauge line from the former Süddeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (SEG) . In 1955, the MEG briefly operated the Müllheim-Badenweiler Railway .

prehistory

Lahr Tram Company

The Lahr Tram Company was founded on October 31, 1889 with the participation of the City of Lahr (1/3) and the Strasbourg Tram Company (2/3) as well as other interested parties. On November 30, 1894, it opened a meter-gauge steam tram from the banks of the Rhine near Ottenheim to the then district town of Lahr, where the main line of the state railway was crossed in what is now the Dinglingen district, and then through the entire city in an easterly direction through the Schuttertal into the Black Forest. From the provisional end point in Reichenbach , the railway was extended to Seelbach on December 20, 1894 and was now 19 km long.

The center of operations was their Dinglingen station, which was connected to the state station by a three-rail track; because in addition to passenger transport, goods transport played a major role, including the transport of stones to ships on the Rhine.

In Ottenheim station, 2 km from the banks of the Rhine, on April 1, 1898, the Strasbourg tram company established the connection from Kehl to its extensive line network on both sides of the river, which lay on the left bank of the Rhine in what was then Alsace-Lorraine and on the right bank of the Grand Duchy of Baden . Since May 1, 1901, both companies have been using common trains that run continuously from Kehl to Seelbach.

After the beginning of the First World War in the summer of 1914, Alsace became an immediate combat zone. The section between the banks of the Rhine and Ottenheim station was closed for passenger traffic, especially since only a ship bridge crossed the Rhine here and there was no rail connection on the left bank.

After the former " Lahrer Eisenbahngesellschaft " was absorbed into the Baden State Railways in 1906, the company of the Lahrer Tram Company was changed to the Lahrer Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft on September 30, 1917. This happened even though it traveled the streets of the city of Lahr like a tram for about five kilometers and served stops in close succession. It is possible that the plans to switch to electrical operation had already been abandoned at that time; because in the meantime the term “tram” has mainly been applied to electrically operated trains.

The Strasbourg tram company

The Strasbourg Tramway Company (SSG), founded in 1877, had established an extensive network of horse-drawn trams in the city of Strasbourg and its suburbs in the years before the First World War. This was followed by secondary railways, which were subject to the railway building and operating regulations and operated with steam locomotives. In the middle of the 1890s, the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft (AEG), as the new main shareholder, operated the electrification of the city lines and the re-gauging of the network, which had previously been in regular gauge, to meter gauge. From 1909 the majority of the shares went to the Allgemeine Lokal- und Straßenbahn-Gesellschaft. After the First World War, the overland railways were largely electrified from 1925 onwards by the company now operating as the “Compagnie des Tramways Strasbourgeois - CTS”.

The network on the right bank of the Rhine

The Strasbourg tram company offered the communities on the right bank of the Rhine to operate a narrow-gauge railway in the "Ried", for which the residents were able to obtain a state subsidy. For reasons of cost, the route in town ran largely on the streets and there were therefore frequent collisions with the poultry that were still free roaming at the time. The vernacular therefore gave the train the name "duck head". Outside of town, most of the route ran on specially built embankments.

On January 11, 1892, the SSG opened a railway line from Kehl secondary station in a north-easterly direction through Hanauerland via Freistett and Schwarzach to Bühl (38 km), which until 1895 only offered a connection to the Alsatian network via a ferry. A continuation from Schwarzach via Hügelsheim - Iffezheim to Rastatt State Railway Station (20 km) was only added on May 2, 1909.

In a southerly direction, from April 1, 1898, the line from Kehl secondary station via Altenheim to Ottenheim station (25 km) established the connection to the Lahr tram. With the connection Altenheim - Offenburg Staatsbahnhof (11 km), the 94 km network was completed on July 15, 1898, and connected to the state railway at four points.

After a permanent bridge over the Rhine had been built, a standard-gauge steam-powered tram ran from Strasbourg to Kehl from January 1, 1898, connecting the network components on both sides of the Rhine. After the gauge change, it operated as an electric tram from March 14, 1898. Compared to this Strasbourg-Lahr connection, the route to Ottenheim lost its already insignificant passenger traffic. The Kehler line was interrupted in November 1918 by the new border and was then only in operation again from May 24, 1942 to November 1944.

Compared to the stretches on the left bank of the Rhine, there was no modernization in the Ortenau area on the right bank of the Rhine and in the Hanauer Land. This part of the network had a life of its own right from the start and became an independent transport company as a result of the separation of the empire state of Alsace-Lorraine on the left bank of the Rhine.

The foundation of the Mittelbadische Eisenbahnen AG

The territorial reorganization also made it necessary to reorganize the narrow-gauge railways on the right bank of the Rhine, now known as the “Kehler Bahnen”. The previous company in Strasbourg refused to continue operating the lines on the right bank of the Rhine. In comparison, these were owned by the Baden state and, together with the "Lahrer Bahnen" - so-called since 1920 - initially placed under the new Deutsche Reichsbahn. However, just like the Deutsche Eisenbahn-Betriebsgesellschaft AG, it was not interested in a final takeover of the narrow-gauge network.

With the help of the state, the Mittelbadische Eisenbahnen AG, based in Lahr, was founded on June 30, 1923. This was temporarily relocated to the centrally located town of Kehl, where a main workshop had also been built to replace the now inaccessible one in Strasbourg. However, after the end of the war in 1945, new locations had to be found because of the destruction and occupation of the city of Kehl. The administration moved back to Lahr, the main workshop was located in Schwarzach.

During the Second World War, the railway line was a target for air raids. Severe damage was the result, emergency bridges had to be built, so that the railway systems were in a very poor condition after the end of the Second World War.

The narrow-gauge railways, which covered a considerable network of 114 km across Germany, retained their importance for the population and the economy in Ortenau and the neighboring areas in the interwar period (1918–1939), but also after 1945. Only in the urban area of ​​Kehl was operations interrupted; until 1953/55 the northern route ended at the Kinzigbrücke, the southern in the Sundheim district.

Expansion through former SEG routes

After the concessions of the three Baden routes of the Süddeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft (SEG) expired on December 31, 1952, the state of Baden-Württemberg took over all three operations on January 1, 1953 and brought them to the Mittelbadische Eisenbahnen AG as a rescue company on October 1, 1953 a. This included the standard-gauge lines of the Kaiserstuhlbahn Gottenheim-Riegel-Breisach and the Bregtalbahn Donaueschingen-Furtwangen as well as the narrow-gauge Zell-Todtnauer-Eisenbahn . The Zell-Todtnau Railway was shut down for passenger traffic on September 25, 1966 and for goods traffic on September 24, 1967. The Kaiserstuhl and Bregtal Railway remained with MEG until they were taken over by Südwestdeutsche Eisenbahnen AG (SWEG) in 1971.

The Müllheim-Badenweiler Railway

For less than three months, the electrified, narrow-gauge Müllheim-Badenweiler railway also belonged to the MEG. In March 1955, the state of Baden-Württemberg took over the Müllheim-Badenweiler Eisenbahn AG and integrated it into the MEG. Due to the poor condition of the railway and excessive modernization costs, all rail traffic was shut down on May 22, 1955, the tracks were dismantled and the line continued with buses.

The reduction and re-gauging of the trunk network

Exhibition of the former Schwarzach - Kehl railway line (opened in July 2013)

Exhibition of the former Schwarzach - Kehl railway line (opened in July 2013)

But soon after the founding of the Federal Republic and the improvement in economic conditions, the small railways could no longer hold their own against the growing competition from the road. Private motor vehicles, but also the company's own bus service, which the MEG had already set up on May 15, 1929, appeared to the population to be faster and more comfortable than rail vehicles, although railcars were increasingly used here too. In addition, there was a desire of several cities and municipalities, especially Rastatt, Offenburg and Lahr, to keep their roads free of rails and to gain space for the improvement of road construction.

So the shutdown started relatively early. It initially covered the Oberland network around Lahr and Offenburg, south of Kehl. From Lahr Schlüssel to Seelbach, passenger traffic ceased from May 2, 1950 and goods traffic from May 20, 1951. A year later (1952), the city of Lahr was completely freed from internal rail traffic from the MEG station. The connection Kehl – ​​Altenheim – Lahr MEG was shut down after some time in 1959 in two sections. This split the network in two.

In the city of Offenburg, all traffic to Schutterwald was terminated on June 1, 1957, although the subsequent route to Altenheim was used until the summer of 1961. This resulted in island operation for a few years, as the six-kilometer route no longer had any connection to the rest of the railway network. The reason was the pending completion of a connecting road. With the cessation of island operations in 1961, the southern network had completely disappeared.

After that, the reduction of the Unterland network north of Kehl began. With the exception of the removal of the tracks within Rastatt between Reichsbahnhof and MEG-Bahnhof in October 1939 (freight traffic had already ceased on June 1, 1938), all routes were used until September 24, 1966. At this point in time, passenger transport from Kehl to Freistett came to an end, while freight transport continued in sections until autumn 1968. On June 30, 1967, a 2 km long narrow-gauge siding for freight traffic from Stollhofen to Dow Chemical GmbH in Greffern was put into operation.

In 1970, passenger traffic on the northern network was completely shut down, on April 15 from Schwarzach to Rastatt MEG and on September 27 on the Freistett – Schwarzach – Bühl route.

On October 1, 1971, the state of Baden-Württemberg merged the Mittelbadische Eisenbahnen AG with the Südwestdeutsche Eisenbahn GmbH to form the Südwestdeutsche Eisenbahnen AG . The further history of the new company is presented there. Only the end of the narrow-gauge network should be reported here:

The end of freight traffic on this network followed in small steps between 1971 and 1973; only between Schwarzach and Scherzheim was it maintained until the end of 1980.

The route from Bühl via Schwarzach to Stollhofen, where it branched off to Söllingen and Greffern, was an exception. It was converted to the standard gauge in the summer of 1972 and - partially re-routed - put back into operation for freight traffic. This small network of 15 km in length represents the SWEG operation in Schwarzach to this day. The basis for this was the operation of the NATO airport Söllingen , on whose premises the airport Karlsruhe / Baden-Baden (Baden-Airport) is located today, and the siding of the company Dow Chemical GmbH in Greffern .

Routes of the trunk network

The network essentially consisted of the north-south route from Rastatt via Kehl to Lahr and on to Seelbach. The cross connections Schwarzach-Bühl and Altenheim-Offenburg branched off in a west-east direction.

Course in the district of Kehl

The 24.5 km long Kehl – ​​Altenheim – Ottenheim line was put into operation in 1898. The route began in Kehl secondary station and ran as a tram to Rathausplatz and via Mittelplatz to the Sundheim district, where it left the actual urban area and was continued via the Marlen and Goldscheuer -Kittersburg districts to Neuried-Altenheim.

Course in the district of Neuried

In the Neuried district, the route runs through the districts of Altenheim, Dundenheim and Ichenheim; the former Altenheim train station is now used as a residential building. At the same time as the Kehl – ​​Ottenheim line, a branch to Offenburg was opened in Altenheim in 1894; the Müllen stop was still on this line.

Course in the district of Meißenheim

Coming from Ichenheim, the railway crossed Meißenheim in the direction of Ottenheim, the former train station is still there. The now closed restaurant "Zum Entenköpfer" is not the former train station. This is located approx. 100 meters in front of the inn, also on the left in the direction of Ottenheim and is still original (apart from minor modifications).

Course in the Schwanau district

In the community of Schwanau, the route crossed the districts of Ottenheim and Allmannsweier, and in Ottenheim there was a branch to the banks of the Rhine. The junction with the stop on the banks of the Rhine connected the gravel works and the Rhine port to the route. The 19.4 km long Ottenheim – Lahr – Seelbach line was put into operation as early as 1894.

Course in the district of Seelbach

The Seelbach railway was connected to the rail network until April 1, 1952, and the railway station, which was restored in 2001, still stands today with a piece of track. Today the building is used as a cultural and meeting center for exhibitions, adult education courses and the like.

vehicles

MEG 46 (exhibited in Lahr in 2009)

The Lahr tram company started operating with four two-axle steam locomotives with a disguised engine. Two of them came to the MEG, the other two were replaced by two more powerful locomotives as early as 1900/1901. In 1923, MEG took over eleven locomotives from the Strasbourg tram, which had also previously been used on the Baden network. They were two-axle locomotives with an internal engine and an external frame. The attachment of the water tanks to the side of the smoke chamber, without any connection to the driver's cab, was striking. At the end of the war, a locomotive was added, which was originally intended for the Warsaw supply railways and was passed on to Strasbourg in 1945. In 1949, two new steam locomotives were purchased from Krauss-Maffei , and in 1957 a similar locomotive was added by the Upper Rhine Railway Company . A mallet locomotive of the Süddeutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft from the Zell im Wiesental – Todtnau line also came to MEG in 1955, but was rarely used.

The first diesel locomotive was procured in 1925, but it was shut down in 1950. In 1957 a new two-axle diesel locomotive was procured from Gmeinder , in 1967 the locomotive V 29 952 was bought by the Deutsche Bundesbahn and named V29-01.

Between 1934 and 1941 eight two-axle and three four-axle railcars were procured, including the four-axle T 12 and T 13 , which were built in 1938 and 1941 by the Wismar wagon factory . In 1954 and 1955, two four-axle railcars from the Fuchs wagon factory were added.

Some vehicles are still preserved today, especially those belonging to the Historical Rail Transport Association on the Selfkantbahn , including a former Strasbourg locomotive (46) and the former OEG locomotive (101), a two-axle ( T 7 ) and a four-axle railcar (T 13 ) as well as four passenger cars and a trolley .

The V29-01 locomotive is still operational today at the German Railway Association . Two passenger cars that came to MEG in 1967 from the Zell-Todtnauer Bahn are now privately preserved and are to be refurbished in an operational manner.

literature

• Gerhard Fleig (Ed.): The Enteköpfer . Memory of a small train, GHS Kehl-Goldscheuer, March 1987
• Hans-Dieter Menges, Claude Jeanmaire: Central Baden railways. From the Strasbourg and Lahr trams to the Mittelbadische Eisenbahnen-AG. Vehicles and routes of a narrow-gauge railway . Archive 14, Verlag Eisenbahn, Villigen 1974, ISBN 3-85649-014-0
• Claude Jeanmaire, Hans-Dieter Menges: type sketchbook of the Mittelbadische railways. The MEG vehicles . Archive 13, Verlag Eisenbahn, Villigen 1971, ISBN 3-85649-013-4 .
• Kurt Klein: Land around the Rhine and Black Forest. The Ortenau past and present . Morstadt, Kehl 1980, ISBN 3-88571-011-0
• Gerd Wolff, Hans-Dieter Menges: German small and private railways. Volume 2 - Bathing . Eisenbahn-Kurier-Verlag, Freiburg 1992, ISBN 3-88255-653-6 , pp. 168–223
• Erhard Born among others: Narrow gauge between the Vosges and the Black Forest . Schwäbisch Gmünd 1972, ISBN 3-9800014-0-7
• Peter-Michael Mihailescu, Matthias Michalke: Forgotten railways in Baden-Württemberg . Konrad Theiss Verlag, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-8062-0413-6 , p. 76-85 .

Web links

Commons : Mittelbadische Eisenbahnen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• MEG private photo gallery
• Photos of the routes (Aug. 2012) on vergessene-bahnen.de
• MEG network on openhistoricalmap.org

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hans Wolfgang Rogl: SWEG - Südwestdeutsche Eisenbahnen AG . Alba, Düsseldorf 1981, ISBN 3-87094-532-X , p. 95 .
2. ↑ Wolff / Menges: German small and private railways . Volume 2: Baden edition. EK-Verlag, Freiburg 1992, ISBN 3-88255-653-6 , p. 220-221 f .