Klostermansfeld – Wippra railway line

Klostermansfeld – Wippra
Wipperliese in Klostermansfeld train station
Route number :	6850
Course book section (DB) :	337; 159a (1939)
Route length:	19.994 km
Gauge :	1435 mm ( standard gauge )
Route class :	B2
Maximum slope :	16.7  ‰
Minimum radius :	250 m
Top speed:	80 km / h
Legend from Blankenheim 0.000 Klostermansfeld (formerly Mansfeld) (transition to the Mansfeld mine railway ) to Hettstedt Infrastructure border DB Netz - MBB eV L 225 Bridge No. 22 of the MBB, to Hettstedt formerly B 242 2,365 Klostermansfeld Randsiedlung (formerly Klostermansfeld) formerly B 242 Mansfeld Viaduct over the B 86 (L: 245 m) 6.080 Mansfeld (Südharz) (formerly Leimbach-Mansfeld train station) K 2336 7.746 Vatterode 8,954 Vatteröder pond (Transition to the Vatterode Park Railway ) 9.789 Grafenstuhl-Klippmühle Rocker Rocker Rocker 11,319 Biesenrode Rocker Rocker Rammelburger Tunnel (L: 287 m) K 2340 15.938 Friesdorf Ost (formerly Rammelburg ) Rocker Rocker K 2340 17.735 Friesdorf L 230 19,994 Wippra

The Klostermansfeld – Wippra railway is a branch line in the Mansfelder Land in Saxony-Anhalt . The route, also known as the Wipperliese or Wipperliesel, runs in the Wippertal from Klostermansfeld via Mansfeld , Vatterode and Friesdorf to Wippra . Passenger traffic on the route has been carried out in tourism traffic by Kreisbahn Mansfelder Land GmbH (KML) since 2015 .

history

Until 1990

After the opening of the Berlin – Blankenheim line by the Prussian State Railways in 1879, there was a desire for a rail link in the Wippertal as well. For the time being, however, the request was rejected as not being profitable. After the turn of the century, the project of the Eisleben – Wippra – Stolberg railway was born, as the small town of Stolberg in the Thyratal was also aiming for a railway connection. After an agreement was reached on Klostermansfeld as a common connecting station for the route by 1905, the Prussian State Railways had initial preparatory work carried out. These were limited to the Klostermansfeld – Wippra section, the extension to Stolberg was not to be measured until later. Since Klostermansfeld is much higher than the Wippertal, two variants were created. The first was to overcome the descent into the valley with a short cogwheel train , with the second a large viaduct should be built. Although the construction costs of the bridge variant were higher than those of the gear variant, it was decided to lower the operating costs for the bridge. The construction costs of two million marks were approved in 1907, but nothing happened for the time being. The causes were, among other things, problems with the purchase of land. The actual construction work, which was delayed considerably after the outbreak of the First World War , began in 1913. It was not until 1919 that work began again on a larger scale, so that the line was completed in autumn 1920.

DB class 772 and DB class 232 in Klostermansfeld in May 1994

The branch line was to be opened on November 1, 1920 by the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft . However, the commissioning had to be postponed to December 20, 1920, because before that a house with a thatched roof near the route had to be covered with roof tiles due to the risk of fire. The extension to Stolberg was no longer possible, as work was already underway on the extension of the Berga-Kelbra – Rottleberode railway to Stolberg. Even when it was built, the route was primarily used for tourist traffic in the Harz Mountains , but school and commuter traffic were also important sources of income. The travel times were geared to the shifts of miners and ironworkers in Hettstedt. Furthermore, the places on the Wipperliese are mostly far away from the main roads, so that in the valley of the Wipper an efficient infrastructural connection was only possible by train and at no time by bus or private transport. In addition to these geographical conditions, the Wipperliese, also known as the Wippertalbahn, owes its existence to this day, among other things, to the transport policy of the GDR , in which public transport had priority over individual transport. For a long time the trains ran mainly as freight trains with passenger transport; however, since the 1960s, passenger trains were practically exclusively operated by railcars.

Since 1990

Wipper bridge in Mansfeld

As on many branch lines in East Germany, the number of passengers on the Wipperliese fell after the fall of the Wall in 1989 (to around 50 passengers a day). With the fall of the Berlin Wall, the previously great attraction of the Eastern Harz for vacationers was lost; the infrastructure fell into disrepair. In the mid-1990s, the line was included in the flat rail concept of the state of Saxony-Anhalt; To make the route more attractive, the Kreisbahn Mansfelder Land GmbH (KML) was founded . This company took over freight transport in 1996 and passenger transport on September 28, 1997 on behalf of Deutsche Bahn AG. Modernized Esslingen railcars of the second series were used. The recently introduced two-hour service on the route was retained. With these measures, KML was able to increase the number of passengers eightfold in its first business year. In order to ensure the continued maintenance of the connection, the track's superstructure was completely renovated between 1998 and 1999, so that the top speed could also be increased to 60 km / h, the travel time on the entire route fell from 46 minutes to 26 minutes. This was followed by the construction of new and modernization of old stops. In the summer months from 1999 to 2012, some pairs of trains were extended by 2.3 kilometers on Sundays to Helbra on the Berlin – Blankenheim line . On December 31, 2001, freight traffic on the route was stopped.

According to the course book, the station name Klostermansfeld was not changed from Mansfeld to Klostermansfeld until 1943. Up to this point in time the names "Mansfeld" existed for the station on the main line Erfurt – Magdeburg and "Mansfeld (Südharz)" for the station in the city of Mansfeld on the branch line to Wippra. The location of the Klostermansfeld train station is also remarkable. It is not in the district of Mansfeld or Klostermansfeld, but on that of Benndorf.

Since 2012, it has been mandatory to equip traction vehicles with PZB when entering Klostermansfeld station . During the necessary retrofitting of the Esslingen railcars , DB Regio class 641 railcars operated from time to time . From September 2013 until the end of October, the Wipperliese received a modern train radio system. For this purpose, 14 meter high steel masts for radio technology were erected at the stops at Mansfeld (Südharz), Biesenrode, Friesdorf Ost and at the level crossing in Wippra. All driver's cabs also had to be retrofitted with the new technology. Before that, the connection between the driver and the dispatcher at Klostermansfeld station was made via mobile phone.

Attitude discussion

Wipperliese on the route

Between 2000 and 2013, passenger demand fell by more than half. In 2013, a total of 42,000 passengers used the local transport connection. This corresponds to an average occupation of 115 passengers per day. Due to the low demand and the necessary renovation of three bridges between Vatterode and Biesenrode, local rail passenger transport on this route was canceled by the local transport authority Saxony-Anhalt on April 13, 2015. On December 18, 2014 , DB Netz took this as an opportunity to tender the route for sale to third parties, after it had previously been planned to rehabilitate the dilapidated bridges during a seven-month route closure.

On April 13, 2015 it was announced that occasional traffic on weekends and public holidays will be resumed - initially until May 31, 2015. On July 1, 2016, the Mansfeld Mining Railway Association took over the route from DB Netz . After the state of Saxony-Anhalt had in the meantime decided to provide a sum of 400,000 euros for further operation, the further tourism operation was secured. The traffic is still carried out by the Kreisbahn Mansfelder Land GmbH. The number of passengers is below those of regular operation due to the lower number of journeys, but is increasing again. The aim is to extend the trains to the Schmid shaft in Helbra. Following a negotiated tender in 2017 , the Mansfelder Land district railway was awarded the contract to continue operating until 2022.

Route description

The route starts at Klostermansfeld station, where there is a connection to the regional express trains on the Erfurt - Magdeburg line and the transition to the Mansfeld mine railway . From there, the railway connection initially runs parallel to the main line in the direction of Hettstedt, crosses under the Mansfeld mine railway and then winds its entire length westwards up the Wipper valley. Important engineering structures are the Mansfeld Viaduct - also known as the Hasselbach Viaduct - and the Rammelburger Tunnel.

literature

• Josef Högemann: Eisenbahnchronik Harz - The history of the railways in the Harz , EK-Verlag, Freiburg 2007, ISBN 3-88255-722-2 .
• Sebastian Werner: In the Wipper valley . In: Locomotive Report . No. 571 , April 2020, ISSN  0344-7146 , p. 58-63 .
• Ronald Dähnert: Wipperliese receives new train radio , from Mitteldeutscher Zeitung (MZ) on August 8, 2013.
• Dirk Endisch / Gerhard Zieglgänsberger: Klostermansfeld - Wippra . In: Secondary and narrow-gauge railways in Germany then and now . Editor: Ulrich Rockelmann, GeraMond Verlag, Munich 2004.

Web links

Commons : Wipperliese  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website , Kreisbahn Mansfelder Land
• Pictures of the Wipperliese (2015) ( Memento from August 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
• Course book 1944
• Tradition on the Klostermansfeld-Wippra railway line in the holdings of the Magdeburg Reich Railway Directorate in the Saxony-Anhalt State Archives, Dessau Department

Individual evidence

1. ^ Josef Högemann: Eisenbahnchronik Harz - The history of the railways in the Harz , p. 141
2. ↑ ^{a b} Josef Högemann: Eisenbahnchronik Harz - The history of the railways in the Harz , p. 142
3. ↑ Wolfgang Werthmann, Wolfgang Nowaczyk: Wipperliese before the end . In: railway magazine . No. 4 , 2015, ISSN  0342-1902 , p. 44 .
4. ↑ Dirk Skrzypczak: Local traffic in Saxony-Anhalt: Merseburg-Schafstädt railway line is shut down. In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. August 22, 2014. Retrieved November 29, 2018 . 
5. ^ Hendrik Kranert-Rydzy: SPD wants to get railway lines. In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. October 21, 2014, accessed November 29, 2018 . 
6. ↑ Surrender of railway infrastructure. Route: Klostermansfeld (exclusively) - Wippra (including). Call for applications from December 18, 2014 to March 18, 2015. (PDF) (No longer available online.) DB Netz AG, Southeast Branch, December 18, 2014, formerly in the original ; Retrieved December 18, 2014 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  
7. ↑ Local transport: In the future, buses will run instead of trains on three routes (press release). (No longer available online.) Local transport service Saxony-Anhalt, August 22, 2014, archived from the original on August 26, 2014 ; Retrieved December 18, 2014 . 
8. ↑ Ronald Dähnert: Wipperliese: traditional railway will continue to roll until the end of May. In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. April 13, 2015, accessed November 29, 2018 . 
9. ↑ DVV Media Group GmbH: DB Netz: Wippra route goes to MBB. Retrieved September 30, 2016 . 
10. ↑ wolfram bahn: Rail traffic in Mansfeld-Südharz: “Wipperliese” can run until the end of 2016. In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung. June 5, 2015, accessed November 29, 2018 . 
11. ↑ Wipperliese: Timetable. Mansfelder Land circuit, accessed on May 6, 2017 . 
12. ↑ Final spurt to the successful end of the season of the Wipperliese. In: lok-report.de. October 26, 2018, accessed November 30, 2018 . 
13. ↑ Will the route of the Wipperliese be extended? Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, August 6, 2018, accessed November 30, 2018 . 
14. ↑ C. Müller: Saxony-Anhalt: Operation of the Wipperliese advertised. In: eurailpress.de. DVV Media Group GmbH, July 18, 2017, accessed on August 11, 2017 . 
15. ↑ Overview of the regional rail transport competition of past and coming years. In: wettbewerb.spnv-deutschland.de. Retrieved on February 11, 2020 (entry from December 2, 2017). 

map